Information is beautiful

David McCandless is the mastermind behind the website (and book) "information is beautiful". "I’m an independent data journalist and information designer. A passion of mine is visualizing information – facts, data, ideas, subjects, issues, statistics, questions – all with the minimum of words.I’m interested in how designed information can help us understand the world, cut through BS and reveal the hidden connections, patterns and stories underneath. Or, failing that, it can just look cool!"

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/ http://www.davidmccandless.com/

New Designers

www.newdesigners.com

New Designers is renowned for showcasing the very best in graduate design. This year marks its 25th anniversary, and once again, the July exhibition showcases 3,500 of the brightest and most creative talents from Britain's leading design courses. It is an event for fresh thinking and aspiration.

Part 1 • 01 – 04 July 2010 (Awards Preview 30 June) Textiles, Fashion & Accessories, Contemporary Applied Arts, Ceramics & Glass, Jewellery & Precious Metalwork, One Year On

Part 2 • 08 – 11 July 2010 (Awards Preview 7 July) Product Design, Furniture Design, Visual Communications (including Graphic Design and Illustration), Spatial Design, One Year On

New Designers takes place at the Business Design Centre, London, N1 OQH. Nearest tube Angel.

Creative use of typography

Here's a webpage we came across with examples of creative use of typography in advertisement. Some ads are brilliant, some funny, some confronting, either way: inspiring.

http://creativebits.org/inspiration/creative_use_typography_advertising

Rebranding the Science Museum - Triumph or disaster?

Johnson Banks recently revealed their new identity for London's Science Museum, which so far has been greeted with a mixed response from the design world.

CR will be running a in depth case study in August's edition, but their blog also contains an article with further detail from Michael Johnson regarding the rational behind such a drastic change. Read the comments and add your own...

Exhibitions we would visit

(King Kong made of 3000 coat hangers, by David Mach)

Exhibitions we would visit if we were free all day...

*** The Design Museum has a few exhibitions on but the one that caught my attention is called "Sustainable Futures". It explores a range of products, concepts and projects that address issues of sustainability in their design. Through prototypes, samples, products and film, you can find out more about your impact on the world and how to change it. I'd say: Always worth exploring in times like these. *** On until 05 September 2010

http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2010/sustainable-futures

*** The Royal Academy's annual Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open submission contemporary art exhibition. It showcases work by both emerging and established artists in all media including painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, architecture and film. This year’s co-ordinators, Royal Academicians Stephen Chambers and David Chipperfield, have selected works for the exhibition around the theme of ‘Raw’.

ps: for the real art-lovers: the majority of selected works are on sale, offering visitors an unrivaled

opportunity to purchase original artwork by high profile and up-and-coming artists. *** On until 22 August 2010 (closed on monday 5 July)

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/summer-exhibition/

The Art of Analog Computing

Here's a great short film on analog computing. Imagine if your computer was analog for the day and how different it would be. The best bit for me must be the spam cans in the mailbox.

http://www.elastika.org/2010/06/the-art-of-analog-computing/

Its degree show time! and last night was LCC

Once again June is full of creative degree shows, and last night I decided to check out LCCs offering for this year 'Power Off'. As you'd expect the place was jam packed and but despite the chaos there was some good work on show. Check out their degree show site for some of the best work of this years graduates www.supergraphics2010.co.uk!

Andy returns from Asia!

Andy (our chairman) returned from his 3 week asia trip last friday with much to tell!

The trip included time in Singapore, Hong Kong and China and even though it was primarily business rather than pleasure, there was a little sightseeing made along the way.

Of course the Iphone came in rather handy too - here are a few of his best pictures.

Rebrand BP for Greenpeace

Following the appalling ongoing oil leak in the gulf of mexico, and their continuing drilling of tar sands, the name BP is now connected with the biggest environmental disasters of recent years. In light of this, Greenpeace have set up an open brief - Redesign the BP logo. The best entries will be used in the next advertising campaign.

Some of the best recent entries are shown above, and if you want to see yours added to the selection visit the site:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/tarsands/index.html

The competition is divided into three categories: design professionals & students; the general public; and Under 18s; and it runs until 28 June.

Football fever reaches the studio!

It's that time again! Football has taken over (everywhere).

We have chosen to embrace the madness this year and the Vivid Brand world cup sweepstake is now in full swing! Only time will tell who will be victorious (go Germany! - of course i'm not biased in anyway).

Welcome Dan!

This week we welcome designer Dan Lawrence to our full time creative team. (lovely pic dan btw)

Exposed @ The tate

Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera runs until 3 October 2010 and is well worth a visit even if photography doesn't float your boat. A very different way of viewing the world and its inhabitants, the exhibition is far more about social behavior rather than individual subject matter and was in some ways fascinating.