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Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, i've been away running a youth camp for my job, and now that i'm back, i'm leaving for America in a few hours! Thought I would share something interesting with you before I left..... IKEA'S NEW TYPEFACE! And believe me I was shocked! After years of using their own style of Futura, Ikea has decided to switch to using Verdana. 
Some have expressed disbelief at Ikea using a typeface which is usually seen as a text face on our computer screen, and declare Verdana too ugly for display use! So why the change? Having found this piece of news on Typophile, who point out that the company's founder is cheap, which probably motivated the switch as Ikea moves into more markets that require better language support from its corporate fonts. Verdana already has extensive multi-lingual support, and it's available on all the computers throughout the company at no additional cost. In my opinion, its a bit of a shame that Ikea have changed their typeface, as their own version of Futura was Ikea, a and they had built up their brand.
Before and After
Today in the corner shop, i found this lovely new Tango product, called "Tango with added Tango." I wondered what this added ingredient could be, so I excitedly purchased this can, which was 59p for 440ml as opposed to the usual 330ml. When I got back to the office, a colleague and I pondered over what this mystery ingredient could be, then realised what morons we were and that the added Tango was actually the added liquid!!I thought it was really cool that they were giving extra product for the same price. The design of the can is also slightly different, for the new product they have added a faux warning label, with a helpline to call, like the old Jaffa Cake packets.
They've also added a couple of touches, for example in the ingredients section, it describes Tango as an "orange soft drink with sugar and sweeteners. contains no artificial colours or flavours (or any of those poncy ingredients like ginseng or elderflower.")They are obviously trying to cater to a specific type of market, like Yorkie bars. I think its a good thing that customers are getting more for their money in these recession-ary times but i'm not sure if more sugary products is such a good thing!
Search engine giants Yahoo have this week launched the new interface of their website. Yahoo first announced that it would be redesigning their layout in May 2006, and slowly started rolling out changes a year later.
Obviously it hit the USA first and it is slowly being integrated into the European and Asian countries. The main difference is that it is a lot more spaced out, there is more information but instead of being crammed into a small window, it is tabbed and split into sections. "We are looking at Yahoo holistically, all centred around the user," said Yahoo's consumer experiences head Tapan Bhat. This means that everything you need is just a click or two away, with links to other sites such as BBC News, or even Twitter and Facebook.
The new layout can also be customised, and tailored to fit the individual and their online needs. Yahoo has described the overhaul as the most "radical" and "fundamental" make-over of the site since it began more than a decade ago, and you can see why. Gone is the jumbled and cramped layout, and instead everything looks busy but in a good way, and at least the user can see what is going on in the world. I have to say I am a fan of the new look of Yahoo, and though I haven't previously used it, I think I might start doing so as everything is all in one place! From this:
To this:
I'm not really a fan of these horror films that cross over into gaming, but I came across this campaign for Resident Evil and actually thought it was quite clever, amusing too.
The only problem is I haven't seen any of these around, but apart from that I think its a great idea, if I was in charge of this campaign I think I would get everyone to do a kind of flash-mob style event, like the recent and effective T-Mobile adverts.
This is so cool, Sara Watson, a drawing and image making student from the University of Central Lancashire turned her old Skoda invisible but painting it just to look like the car park and out side of her drawing studio.
When the car is photographed from one angle it almost look invisible. This takes me back to Prof Hann's lectures on art and perspective. This is a really innovative way of bringing the age-old principles of geometric art and design right into our lives, and it looks incredible!
Nu!... or so?! in Hebrew is a campaign run by Israelis in the town of Sderot, which is bombarded daily with rockets from the Gaza strip. This campaign not only is trying to to raise awareness of the plight of the people in Sderot, but is trying to connect people to the human stories behind the headlines.
To quote Nu; "By using art and creativity through apparel, we hope to foster awareness and activism. Each story will be told through stimulating graphics and text that will appear on the inverse of the shirt—directly in line with the heart, where the NU Campaign stems from."
This is a unique and thoughtful way of bringing something from so far away into our consciousness. The current tshirts have a graphic showing the number 15 on them, because Sderot residents have 15 seconds to run for cover from the time a rocket is launched and the air raid siren sounds, until the rocket hits its target.
It's always nice to see a bit of fun and humour in a design, and here Pete Dungey has done just that. He's only a second year student so I feel humbled that he has done something worthy enough to be posted on a few websites!
So, even though i'm not a big tennis fan, no one can escape the hype of Wimbledon. However, I wasn't focusing on the tennis, instead I couldn't help but notice the big fuss that has been made over Stella McCartney's new season tennis dress.
It really is a gorgeous looking thing, beautifully made, with all the right materials used for the court, including mesh for ventilation, whilst retaining a very pretty and feminine design. No wonder amateurs are clamouring for this dress, it can't help but make you look so professional!
This year I have been on my Year in Industry, the majority of which has been spent working for charity/youth movement BBYO. I came on board and was given the broad title of "Fieldworker" which didn't really have a defined role. I took it upon myself to take on all the marketing/design, as this wasn't something BBYO ever really addressed before.
Something that has been a project of mine for the past couple of months has been the BBYO website. Our website had been taken offline as one of the volunteers wanted to work on it, however, after 6 months of a site with no content, I decided to take matters into my own hands.
I have been working with a professional web designer to create the new BBYO website, and put together most of the content and designed the look of the site. There was much development, but I am very happy with how it has turned out, and although there is still some tweaking to be done, the website now looks really good.
This is what the website looks like now, to check out the whole site, go to www.bbyo.org.uk or just click here. Feedback is definitely welcome!
Some have expressed disbelief at Ikea using a typeface which is usually seen as a text face on our computer screen, and declare Verdana too ugly for display use! So why the change? Having found this piece of news on Typophile, who point out that the company's founder is cheap, which probably motivated the switch as Ikea moves into more markets that require better language support from its corporate fonts. Verdana already has extensive multi-lingual support, and it's available on all the computers throughout the company at no additional cost. In my opinion, its a bit of a shame that Ikea have changed their typeface, as their own version of Futura was Ikea, a and they had built up their brand.
Before and After
