Lets make 50 Cent retire!

American rapper 50 Cent has threatened to stop releasing solo material if his next album fails to outsell a new CD by rival star Kanye West.

Surely i don’t need to say anything more…
Go buy Kanye’s album!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3983728494&pwstdfy=81dba4a607f072066715b13318fc1f83

Brand confusion

Brands brands brands, they are everywhere, we wear them, read them and all sorts. We undertstand certain brands are luxurious and certain are poor, some people will go to extreme measures to get their hands on the latest product eg. iphone or playstation.

But i wonder…
Have we been spun? Do the rest of world embrace brands like us?

I spent some time on the sub-continent earlier in the year, the mish mash of brands was quite amazing, there were the cutomary brands like coke, pepsi, toyota etc… but then there were some funny things going on with brands!
The car pictured is a Toyota Starlet, i dont remeber Toyota making an R-Type Starlet? Can just hear honda gettin onto their lawyers!

I’m not sure what it is, it is not a blatant rip off, but there is a hell a lot of confusion, so i’m thinking the whole media-branding-machine hasn’t quite inflitrated the whole world just yet. Yet they still clearly have some idea of what is percieved as nice and not-nice. I also think the people i came accross did not have english as their first language, so maybe that is a factor too? There was another popular brand i came accross over there, it was called ‘Prado’- another interesting one, like i said above, they DO understand what is good and not, so it seems to me that they came up with the ULTIMATE luxury brand by chucking 2 international luxury brands together – genius. (Rado and Prada, for those of you who live in a broadband-ready brand-free-cave.)

Well anyways i found the 2 links below, they visualise another world of brands…(from china mostly)
I’m not sure if it’s an attempt to blatantly rip off big name brands, or whether it is a secret homage…either way its fishy and i wouldn’t buy any of it!
Doh! i’ve been spun!

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/technology/4d452e8569544110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
http://www.cartype.com/page.cfm?id=1497

Anyways…discuss…

Trees in the City

I’ve been meaning to put this up for ages.
I designed this book of poetry back in the spring, here’s just a few sample pages.
This was a v simple and elegant typographic solution.

Amar

buy it at amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trees-City-Action-Climate-Change/dp/095561130X

Awesome link

check out the link below, its all about images that lie. or rather photographers/re-touchers who make images lie. there some really good examples on there, some more contreversial than others.

Enjoy

http://news.com.com/2300-1026-6033210.html

The Observer G24 PDF Edition (On-Demand?)

I have written about the future of mags before, but i have only JUST come accross this G24 PDF Edition. i have seen others in the past but i am really impressed by the G24, all the major news from the site is on the PDF and it updates and puts the time of download on as part of the date slug (lack of pics tho).

The design is VERY simple, but still feels crisp and legible. There are no images but i think this may be more to do with the way this edition is produced – there seems to have been an initial design template (by a person) but the rest of it must be automated. i assume there is a link to some sort of news database and the PDF sucks the information and styles it up and VOILA – there you have it, on-demand printing…

but as i said earlier i really like, it means on this lovely/rainy sunday i dont have to spend as much time in front of this screen, i can go sit in the garden and read the G24 in the sun…and if it rains i’ll use my clunky a4 pieces of paper as protection as i make dash for the house!

Rogger Black has an article on Print editions click to read.

Anyways must get back to the garden before the torrential rain…(see below 4 a screen grab)

http://download.guardian.co.uk/g24/Topstories.pdf

Trees in the City

I designed a lil’ poetry book a while back…here is the link to the pres release:
http://www.apa.co.uk/cgi-bin/go.pl/news/article.html?uid=1754

The good ol’days

My home town have recently published a new website: http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/swop
Its a collection of photos from days gone by, I’m intrigued by the way the town looked before my family emmigrated here. And of course i couldn’t help noticing the old cars…seeing classic cars in their REAL environment is kinda special.

Also the picture below shows a crash at a particular junction near to where i grew up, it’s interesting to see way back in 1939, the residents were facing the same dangerous junctions as we did in 1989 – only after a fatal collision did they put traffic lights up.

Anyways ‘nuf of me talking about Happy High Wycombe and town planning!

NEW LOOK

Hi all,

Using a new fresh theme from today, keep it cleaner and i PROMISE to update here more often!

A

Holidays

Hey… excuse the lack of updates, i have been on holiday.
I am working currently at Axon Publishing on a secret project but it is quite cool. As soon i have clearance i shall put samples up!

Axon is in Shorditch and within walking distance of Spitafields Market, this place has changed beyond recognition! It used to be a run down shed of a place to a bustling collection of shops, cafes and stalls. LOTS of budding designers sell their ways there and i couldn’t resist buying the illustrated t shirt. ‘Boys in the Hood’ – brilliant. Anyways i must carry on with work whilst wearing my car-related t shirt, will pop down to Sppitalfields to soak up some creativity during lunch.

This car-related stuff is becomming a bit of a trend… hmm…i wonder…

Thing of beauty

Wow, caught this few months back, looks pretty daym cool.
The simplicity of this machine is quite amazing, in it’s time it was THE car to have for the working man- Ford Cortina, many an ‘uncle’ had one! (Gene Hunt from ‘Life on Mars’ also drove one.) I love the innocence of this car, the headlights don’t swoosh round like modern cars with a big ugly grin, the cortina’s headlights had a stoic pose, a serious face, ‘i am a car- i go from a to b’, no nonsense.

The Cortina can draw parralells to men, i’m sure my 70’s counterpart would not have read or paid any attention to the GQ/FHM/Esquire grooming pages.