happyspot

As evidenced on my visit to Croydon today; Ikea have started to migrate from the beautiful Futura (top) to the downright nasty Verdana (below) for their corporate communications.

This is a shame, for me one of the small (only?) joys in shopping in Ikea has been the elegant signage* and consistent typography that seemed to neatly sum up a paired down Swedish aesthetic.

Not for much longer.

Verdana is an ugly font. It was specifically designed by Microsoft for use on computer displays. It’s wide proportions, loose letter-spacing and large counters may aid legibility on screen, but it looks dreadful in print and signage.

Oh well. Let’s hope they don’t change Billy bookcases.

*They do also use a kind of brush-script font for “special offers” – also horrible.

I have been trawling through job bags to find brand concepts that were not selected by clients during the corporate identity design process. I am selecting and working-up those logos that do not rely on the company name and making them available for a one-time  sale.

This spark plug, for instance would form a great image for a garage or auto repair company.

I have created a special area on the Associate Design website to promote these brands – Instant brands for SME’s!

Concept for the BowieChat podcast t-shirts.

The quotation on the front reads:

‘Sometimes the interpretations I’ve seen on some of the songs that I’ve written are a lotmore interesting than the input that I put in.’

– David Bowie

Captured on the mud flats of Norfolk.

Before and after.

Balanced the colour, corrected minor complexion imperfections, removed the flash shadow from the background and straightened the tie.