The Good, the Bad, the Average and Unique

Happy Birthday Phillip, well for two days ago. Sorry for the delay in presents but in practicality terms it would be been a logistical nightmare to get them on time. For those who don't know my brother is currently at uni and we the rest of the proud went to give him his presents today. Had a Good time and he seemed to like my present which is a relief. But while we were down in Stockton at the Durham Uni campus, my design senses started tingling. 

this is the Average segment of our blog post; very enjoyable but still fairly safe. It definitely improved my opinion of the place knowing that they design was good and that "the Stottie company" was going to have nice coffee because it looked nice to the eyes. designers logic. The colours on the student union are beautiful.

 finally we reach the Bad and Unique segment of our Cater USM themed blog post. The first is from a venue called "Jokers" whick looks like a working mens club and a strip club. It is a poster (as you can see) for an "Excellent Vocaliste" which isn't a word. The Second is for, I think, student reps and features Chiller, Times New Roman and Frozen Themes and pollutes my eyes.

Keep Calm and Carry Wrong

It's over, lets celebrate. I think it's over at least, I haven't seen any imagery of the "keep calm..." variety in a long while so I assume the fad is dead. nothing stinks of lack of creativity then revisiting and old idea and ripping it off shamelessly without a bat of an eyelid or any care for it's history. the original was intended to keep up morale during the blitz during the second world war. It was designed by the ministry for information, and for a public sector body doing a design job they did a smashing job. According to wikipedia "The typeface is often assumed to be Gill Sans, which is very close but not exact (see the terminals of the 'C', for example). The lettering was perhaps hand drawn by a now-unknown designer." Making this ever more tragic that the maker of such an icon is unknown.

One thing I would say is that I would hate the man responsible for this to see what a mess the market make of his piece. He certainly wouldn't of made any money off of the thousand and thousands and thousands of parodies of this. It's on mugs, t-shirts, tea towels, stationary, phone cases and probably underpants. It became widely destroyed icon I started to hate it; I mean what is the link between this;

One is to keep spirits high in the event that you and/or your family home is bombed during the blitz and the other is keeping you calm casting a fictional spell that does nothing outside the lens of the camera in a film studio with a special effects guy making something happen. Having it on a pop compilation album is wrong, having wrapping paper is wrong. making fandom relevant versions of it is wrong. removing carry on and putting love _______ is stupid and wrong.

I am so happy to celebrate the end of a fad that stopped originality and creativity in it's tracks.

Good Days, Bad Design

It is said that bad design costs as much as good design. But when you see bad design it's stands out like a sore thumb on and other wise normal hand. Yesterday was a particularly good day for bad designs. Two examples were spotted on vans; this is the prime place it can be spotted even when you are not looking for it. The examples below were spotted while out with family.

"Air Supply" seems to bare little resemblance to air just pieces of metal. It appears to be a default emboss with a strange font and border for no reason at all. A text warp has also been applied. I don't even understnad the mustard yellow colour of the background. It doesn't contrast the logo enough to work a long side it like it normally would.

 

 This one appears to have no structure or layout and just looks lazy. Comic Sans in varying colours, key lines and shadows. Clip art as far as the eye can see. Then some out of date information to advertise the city and not the actual company.