Sucker for Soccer

Sucker for Soccer is a very cool and very extensive collection of beautiful retro-style posters of soccer stars past and present by graphic designer Zoran Lucić who is currently based in Bosnia and Herzegvina. Click here to find view more of his collection.

The Waste Land App

 

Touch Press and Faber and Faber have published a new iPad App, The Waste Land by T.S.Eliot, which has fast become App of the week in the US. The App is a 'contemporary re-presentation' of the poem and allows a modern audience to interpret, understand, and engage with the poem through various multimedia experiences such as video and annotated notes. There are even readings from Eliot himself.

Designer Hilary Kenna discusses on her design and collaboration here. She comments: 'For my part, I have tried to present the poem as a beautiful, readable, usable text within an interface that causes minimal interference with the reading experience. Effectively, I wanted the interface and typography to almost go unnoticed - not to compete with the readers' attention for an already demanding text.'

The App is cleverly constructed with various layers making a comprehensive application both easy to use and all-inclusive in terms of content. It's also just £7.99 from the iTunes App store.

BBC reporting app

The BBC is developing an app which will aid reporters when out on the field. The app will combine all the heavy equipment that is usually used into an iPad or iPhone. The tool will allow the reporters to submit their videos, photographs and audio directly from their location.

The BBC said that they are adapting what their journalists already use and have made it sleeker and more reliable. The journalists will be able to use the app wherever there is a 3G network, therefore cutting costs of bulky reporting equipment and improving their mobility. 

This app will be ready for release within a month.

Goodwood Festival of Speed

The Festival of Speed launched in 1993, in the picturesque parkland surrounding Goodwood House and is now a key event for all motor sport enthusiast. A 2.5 kilometer loose-surface rally stage, the infamous hill climb, unrestricted access to paddocks and attendance of the hottest talent in motor sport makes for a truly spectacular event, unrivaled throughout the world. The FoS combines the excitement of Ascot or Wimbledon with the relaxation of your own picnic inside the beautiful Goodwood grounds. 

Every year the Goodwood House is shadowed by a mighty sculpture created by Gerry Judah. Gerry became involved in 1998, and since then the annual sculpture has become as big a talking point as the cars themselves. Already accustomed to wowing audiences with his brilliant theatre, film and television work, Judah mesmerises show goers with his inaugural Festival installation. 

Last year Alfa Romeo celebrated its centenary in Viva veloce style, with a giant 12-tonne steel structure supporting a number of its cars. Judah cleverly incorporated a nod to the car firm's Quadrifoglio badge and the red livery of its racing cars. 

This year, they will celebrate the legendary Jaguar E-type. The sculpture, made out of steel tubes, features the distinctive shape of one of the worlds most loved sports cars. It is almost 92 feet high and weighs 160 tons. 

The Festival takes place from 30th June - 3rd July.

The Sartorialist

The Sartorialist is a fashion blog by New Yorker, Scott Schuman. He started the blog to share photos of people that he saw on the streets of New York. 

"When I worked for the fashion industry, I felt that there was a disconnect between what I was selling in the showroom and what I was seeing real people (really cool people) wearing in real life."

Sartorialist is a made up word by Scott, and it means someone who is interested in expressing their own sense of style. The site has great appeal as the content is original, it is very visual and is a fast read. He provides a fashion insider's view on what is happening on the streets and the runway.

We are always intrigued to see what has caught Scott's eye, so it comes as no surprise that as soon as we came across The Sartorialtwist, we have become obsessed. A random fashion generator, using Scott's acclaimed street style pictures, it mismatches the head, torso and legs of the models. Take a look and see if you can resist clicking refresh just one more time!

design is about decisions you make every day

We've recently come across this article on a blog by Fast Company Design and found it quite inspiring and insightful. 

It is an autobiographical essay on living a designed life, by Stefan Boublil. He writes about his desire to curate and design his life and the experiences he's had along the way. He discovered that stories are told primarily by the things we surround ourselves with, they are the first opportunities to express who we are to the outside world. 

"Designing my life, not just my work, is what I now strive for on a daily basis, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, but always making sure that the decisions at hand are my own. That is worthwhile design."

A Muddy Glastonbury

Festival goers were greeted with heavy rain and deep mud on Wednesday as they arrived at Glastonbury. Although Glastonbury is renowned for it's wet weather conditions with muddy imagery usually filling the news pages for the duration of the festival, recent previous years have been bright, warm and sunny, making ticket sales more popular. Wellies and waterproofs are absolutely essential for anyone arriving since as the muddy fields become messy and more difficult to navigate (particularly after a few!). Weather reporters are forecasting a drier weekend when audiences will see performances from U2 and Beyonce.

Though unwelcome for most, someone who may appreciate the traditional Glastonbury conditions is Spanish artist Alejandro Maestre Gasteazi. The 31 year old photographer has created a photographic series of mud art which were created using mud covered models and photographic effects. Visit Alejandro's site to find out more.

Cadbury's new app gets you grooving

Following the success of their Dancing Clothes ad, Cadbury have launched a brand new app, The Cadbury Dairy Milk Dance Off. Two of the quirky clothes characters are plucked from the ad and bought straight to your palm, giving you control over music and movement. You can make the characters move to your voice over the mic, and set them to different dance moves like the samba and salsa... move aside Anton du Beke! Whether your a fan of the 80s style remixes that the television adverts pulse to or not, you can import your own iTunes music to play with your favourite character.

The App has already had some great reviews on iTunes. We'd love to see some more characters to choose from and a way to share our new moves with friends!

The evolvement of the Cadbury adverts has engaged and entertained audiences who continue to ask 'what does this have to do with chocolate?!'. The Dancing Clothes advert sparked much discussion when debates rose on how the scenes were shot. However, in May, Cadbury put us out of our misery and revealed that, in fact, there was no CGI trickery involved with this advert and that, instead, dancing adults were concealed inside custom made, larger than life outfits.

The campaign has also received much response via YouTube - the Cadbury Dairy Milk Dance Off competition video featuring the Spots Vs Stripes Cuban Brothers has had over 145,000 views.

Can't wait to see what Cadbury have in store for us next!

Rethink the food label

Rethink The Food Label is a crowd sourcing design competition based in America asking some of the best nutritionists and designers to redesign the American nutrition label. There is always controversy about crowd sourcing as it takes work away from professional designers, however Rethink The Food Label's mission is to goad the FDA  and other powers that be into doing something about America's food labeling. 

Obesity and diabetes rates are soaring in the United States, people believe it is time to mount pressure on the FDA to reconsider the the presentation of the nutritional facts by which people plan their food intake. This problem has been hitting the headlines for some time and celebrities such as Jamie Oliver with his Food Revolution and Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign are passionate about making a change to Americans and their children's diets.

The deadline to submit an idea is July 1 and winners will be announced July 15. Find out more about the reasons for running the competition here.

Brand Reversions

Notice something strange?

Brand Reversions by Graham-Smith is a logo project that takes a brand logo and changes it based on the visual style of another brand logo: Brand identities with a split personality.

Some versions focus on two leading competitive brands such as Coca Cola and Pepsi whilst others are based on what he feels work well aesthetically.

Click here to find out more about Graham-Smith and to view more interesting reversions...