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“X” Marks The Spot! #3
By Le Vin Chin
There’s always so much going on in the world of effects and often too little time to check it all out. Here’s your monthly dose of all the items you’re too busy to investigate yourself, but which are themselves too interesting to miss!
Design has featured heavily in the mainstream news this past month, with the recent launch of the official logo of the 2012 London Olympics. The media has portrayed a firestorm of controversy over the design of the logo, with almost 50,000 members of the public signing an online petition rejecting it within 2 days of the launch. Reports have come in that an animation of the logo causes epileptic seizures … and so on. What’s interesting is the way the public has engaged in the discussion about what constitutes “good” design and how it fits the brand (a lot of British commentary focuses on how the logo may or may not adequately represent London). Perhaps this prominence - and the engendered discussion - was a part of the marketing strategy from the beginning? Personally, I like the logo – I find it fresh, brash and original. Do you like it? Let us know your views!
For considered thinking on branding, I always turn to brandchannel.com, a site dedicated to informed discussion and in-depth editorials on brands and branding. It’s always informative and thought-provoking to read an expert’s analysis of a specific brand’s direction and value, and once a year they also do a global run-down of the world’s most valuable brands.
Many of us work with the design of plastic objects, but did you know that 2007 marks the centenary of plastics? Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite - the first truly man-made material - in 1907, and the world hasn't been the same ever since. From credit cards to shopping bags, records to CDs, from Bakelite to nylon to Teflon to Kevlar, styrofoam, PVC, Tupperware, Formica and so on, and so forth, plastics pervade our modern lives. The Science Museum in London is running an exhibition on Plasticity – 100 Years of Making Plastics until 2009.
"X" marks the spot at ...
... the Tacheles area in Berlin
It’s not just wallpaper… Europe has a wide range of design styles and trends going on and it’s hard to keep track of everything. Starting this month, we’ll feature a few of the key design magazines from around Europe. First up is Sweden’s Plaza which highlights the best of Swedish design (and the website’s pretty funky too!). I also like Belgium’s Ad!dict Creative Lab, which although fronted by a physical magazine is actually a virtual brand consulting agency, which brings together the talents of freelance creatives from around the world.
Lego fans already know all about it, but the tiny building blocks have a huge internet presence in the form of the Lego Factory, which offers the visitor tools with which to design and then physically make the Lego model of their dreams, and a community with which to share the resulting pictures!
Special feature for speakers of Swiss German only! Check out the presence of xymara.com at the recent Best of Swiss Web Awards!
Visiting New York in the next while? If you found our feature on street art in INMYX magazine (“Silent Art”) interesting, then you might find Jake Dobkin’s Wayfaring site interesting. Wayfaring provides a map of all the most interesting street art locations in New York. Dobkin’s own photos of street art can be found at Streetsy and his urban landscapes can be found at Bluejake.
Bakelite, Teflon, Kevlar, Tupperware, Formica and Lego are trademarks of their respective owners