Evolution not revolution
It’s not uncommon for me to be asked by clients to design a new logo for their business. That probably doesn’t come as a surprise considering I am a graphic designer and specialise in this sort of thing. What may be surprising is that I often ask Why? This is a common question that I ask myself constantly with design; why are you doing it in this particular way, what is it adding and is there a better way? Graphic design is all about solving problems and to do this, a lot of questions inevitably need to be asked and various approaches explored.
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Things you don’t see very often these days #01
Here’s a blog entry that is the first in an occasional series entitled Things you don’t see very often these days.
I always liked brightly coloured plastic things. As a child, in the days before Alessi and other manufacturers produced designer trinkets in lurid hues, I collected bits and pieces of throwaway ephemera like some pre-pubescent Pantone magpie. I was making my toast this morning and opened a loaf of bread where I saw something I’ve not seen in a while.
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Putting the ‘art’ in cartoon
It’s hard to work out why I ended up doing what I do, what leads us to where we end up? People, parents, peer pressure or any other things that perhaps don’t even start with the letter ‘P’? I think I’ve mentioned in a previous blog entry that I was always fascinated by records, the labels, the way they spin around, the sleeve art and even the vinyl itself with those occasional secret messages etched into the run out groove. There was always something alluring and mysterious about records for me and I will admit to occasionally buying things just because I liked the sleeve design. This could be one of the reasons I ended up being a graphic designer, even if I never got to design a record cover 🙁
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Brown paper packages, tied up with string…
Christmas is less than a week away, it’s the season of goodwill to all and the annual peak of epic consumerism. The city centres and suburban shops are filled with desperate shoppers and we must all do our part to keep the economy afloat. Cynicism aside, I do like Christmas, It’s a time to wind down and see friends and family, the giving and receiving of gifts is an extra that I can give or take.
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Bet you didn’t know that…
Today is World Octopus Day, a good reason for a blog entry. Did you know that an octopus has three hearts and can lay up to 100,000 eggs in one go? In English, the plural is octopuses, the greek plural is octopedes. Octopi, whilst commonly used is actually incorrect. These and lots more interesting facts can be found in this lovely information graphic produced by the US National Aquarium www.aqua.org.
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Transfer/Transform
I recently saw a company name I have not seen in a long time – Letraset. Who remembers them? I guess that design students now would have no reason to even know what Letraset once was? For me, as much as I do not miss it one bit, Letraset did help to hone my eye for good typography and is what made me the font pedant I am today.
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Independent Liverpool
Soft Octopus Design Studio is the private design practice of me, Andrew Dineley. I set it up half a decade ago because after many years working as part of a massive organisation I got fed up with the bureaucracy and management bullish*t my creative team increasingly had to endure.
The profit before people thing never sat well with this old(ish) socialist, if people are nice enough and have a good enough case I occasionally even do design work for free. I work with lots of small, local businesses as well as non-profits in the health, charity and social care sectors.
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From club to catwalk
Shoulderpads, hairspray, loadsamoney and yuppies, the 1980s is guilty of some serious cultural and fashion faux pas – but that’s not the way I remember it. Get past the garish brashness and the enduring creativity in the music and fashion is clearly evident. There is an inevitable prejudice for the 1980s – a decade that is within memory and not quite far away enough to be hallowed and respected, yet.
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Art on your sleeve
I’ve always felt a big connection with, and between art, design and music. My day job may well be pushing pixels around a screen, but while I do it there is inevitably music playing. One thing feeds the other.
As a teenager, I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be a pop star or a graphic designer but opted for the latter, I never could sing and my keyboard skills are fairly limited. The connection between music and design was forged very early for me, when I developed a fascination with the design of record labels. My Mother still recounts tales of me as a four year old with my head under the lid of the record player, hypnotised by the colours of the spinning disc label as much as the music coming from the speakers.
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Pop songs and postcards
This was a nice job. Late last year I was asked to come up with a concept for a calendar that would engage with, and inform NHS staff of important health messages. Rather than the usual information based approach, I proposed we use song titles that would hopefully get into people’s heads and possibly even generate discussion. One for each month. These were of course backed up with short pieces of information. I mooted the idea of a competition where staff would be encouraged to name who sang each of the twelve songs to win iTunes vouchers. Just getting people to read this stuff is an achievement, so a competition is always a good way of gauging interest.
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