Prevamp exhibits at ARTCRANK →

Bikes are the world’s most fun, accessible way to get around. Posters are the world’s most fun, accessible art form. ARTCRANK™ brings them together.

ARTCRANK stages live events featuring bicycle-inspired posters created by local artists. Beginning in 2007 with a single show at a bike shop in Minneapolis, they expected 50 people to turn up. They got 500. In 2012, more than 4,000 people attended a Minneapolis Opening Night Party. Last year, more than 30,000 people attended ARTCRANK events in the U.S. and beyond.

Each ARTCRANK show features the work of 30 or more artists who live and work in the host city. Artists create an original poster design about bikes and what cycling means in their lives, and produce a limited edition of signed and numbered copies to show and sell. All posters are made by hand, using printing techniques like screen printing and letterpress. And all posters sell for the same price: $40 in the U.S. and £35 in the UK.

Through a Cause Partner program, they are able to raise thousands of dollars a year for local, national and international charities. Come and support Prevamp and Artcrank

Friday, 19 September | THAT Clifton Popup | 2 Clifton Down Road | Bristol | Admission Free

a man about type

I recently attended a lecture from acclaimed graphic artist Ken Garland. It was interesting to hear from a living, practicing designer who has influenced all of our lives whether we know it or not. Ken is a protester through and through capturing the troubles in Ireland to providing services to the CND movement. Ken inspires many budding typographers. He's a man infatuated with propaganda, message, cause. A 'John Heartfield' of our time. As the trend in design sees a return to block press printing, his work is regurgitated to be admired, recognised and rewarded. You can find more information about Ken here.

let's get together

Initial meetings with new clients can sometimes result in the client taking a creative lead. Driving the creative process, presumably because of cost implications and ensuring value for money or perhaps an unwillingness to let someone else hold the baby for a while, but being creative in business is a very different thing to being creative for a living. I often ask myself why someone is happy to pay a fee and yet not take the advice? Why is it designers are the last to be consulted around a table of sales and finance teams when it comes to creative direction? When it's 'this is what we want' rather than 'here's the challenge, what's the solution'?

There's no doubt that creativity is in us all. We all want our ideas to be realised, to see things from our point of view - and this is generally the mistake. From a designers perspective, we are looking down the lens of a customer, what do they want to see? Good communication is about good presentation and good message. As designers we strive to achieve this through image, layout, content and brand.

So what's the solution? How does it fit together? The relationship between client and designer must be balanced - quality information client-side and arresting creative representation agency-side. Great information, facts and figures are the ingredients for the creative process and when allowed to be boldly communicated, a brand can shine very bright indeed. A concise brief is a great idea. It means facts, figures and outline concepts are documented for everyone in the process, it allows the designer a clearer concept of the end result.

in-house v outsourcing? →

An excellent podcast about the do's and don'ts of hiring a person or an agency to represent your business. Paul Boag is one of the three founders of Headscape. He speaks extensively on web related subjects both on his web design podcast and conferences around the world. He is the author of three web design related books and writes extensively for various online and off-line publications. He has been working on the web since 1994 and loves it as much now as he did then.

Click here for the podcast

the importance of typeface in design

When creating a brand, a key element to consider is typeface & font families. For us, it's important to consider the environments in which typefaces are going to be presented. The elements that go into making a logo, images (that enhance the ethos of brands), illustrations, iconography, materials, paper selection, even the width of a website. All of these things relate to one another & typeface is right there, in the mix.

When we go about choosing a typeface, we're looking for font characteristics, extensions and symbol variation within 'glyphs'. Some letters in some font families can have five or six extensions with differing ligatures, outline, emboldened as well as standard options like italic . Choose a font family with lots of weights & try to stick with one or two master fonts per brand. Sometimes, using the same font as you've used in a logo can work, other times it can weaken a brand, softening the overall impact. It's dependent on font characteristics. See the packaging project here.

stellar performance at spring fair 2014

As part of an extended brief, we were asked to design a 6mx3m exhibition space for January Spring Fair 2014 held each year at Birmingham NEC. From November 2013, we've been working with fellow designer Andy Paterson-Jones, re-branding 'Stellar' Party People. Formerly Posh Party Products, the company wanted to change their approach to the market & offer a wider product base. Having completed the core brand in late 2013, we worked with an exhibition company to develop the space & implement brand guidelines set up by Andy & us.

Part of the requirement was a 60 second looped animation playing on the stand. We incorporated some iconography to align the customer with the brand directives. These icons will represent an easier way of navigating around a growing product list online. We're currently polishing and putting collateral like the website in place. See the branding project here.