Design Debate

Derrick Lin brings his office desk to life everyday as he creates magical moments with his miniatures. Just using his desk lamp and iPhone, and an expansive collection of little people, Lin expertly creates scenes from everyday life. He uses it as a kind of therapy, to vent the frustrations of working at a hectic advertising firm. Each image comes with a little caption and Ling pops them up on his Instagram account. Now there is even a book! Brilliant moments of whimsy to get you through the day. Originally spotted at The Mind Circle .

Vincent van Gogh The Son of Man by Rene Magritte Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci American Gothic by Grant Wood What a great advertising campaign! "Every child is an artist with Lego". These blurs of colour instantly recall the great works of art they represent. It must be testament to the iconic status of these famous works of art that just pixels are enough. (Though I have to confess, "The Son of Man" does resemble Frankenstein's monster a little, just a little!) All credit due to designer Marco Sodano along with agency Geometry Global and creative director Kenny Blumenschein.  I just love Lego, it really is the starting blocks of so much fun and creativity! I found this story on blog Plenty of Colour . 

This is one from the Design Debate archives: a branding project we created for Just Fab, an interior design and fabric showroom based in Launceston, Cornwall. Just Fab first came to us after seeing the hand-drawn bottle illustrations we had created for Wadebridge Wines . They loved their distinctive, illustrative feel and asked us to bring some of that character to their own brand. We worked with Just Fab on a new identity, refining their logo and developing a bold blue colour palette with an abstract, textural image that could be carried across the brand. The identity needed to work particularly hard on the exterior signage. The brief was simply to ‘stop traffic’ – safely, of course! – and the vivid blue certainly gave the showroom plenty of presence on the road through Launceston. We carried the same look through the stationery too, including letterheads, compliment slips and a beautifully bold business card. Next came the w...

First post on my new blog, might as well start with a moan! I have a feeling that most of my thoughts on design will be a rant... Anyone who knows me will probably be aware that I am not a fan of Orange's television advertising campaigns, so this will hardly be a surprise, but I just cannot let my thoughts on their latest be left in my head - I fear for my already feeble grip on reality. The title is so pretentious for a start, " I am who I am because of everyone "? My word, that is so trite. The implications from their latest advert - the one I have included a screen shot from, where a cartoon-ish ball of activity sweeps through an inner city estate tidying things up, and leaving some very media friendly graffiti in its wake - are certainly admirable, giving something back to the environment we live in, but just so far removed from real life it's embarrassing. There does seem to be some effort to move away from the preened models that have been used for the last few ...