Cultural Connectives: Understanding Arab Culture Through Typography published by Mark Batty Publisher and written by Rana Rjeily looks like such an amazing book in better understanding, and appreciating, Arabic typography.

Increasingly brands are creating uniquely styled Arabic versions of their brand logos. This can show us is how a specific visual brand message originally created in Crylilic will take on quite a different look when translated to Arabic. I briefly touched on the Arabic version of the FedEx logo in a previous post. This is a classic example of where some nifty re-engineering had to be done in order to retain that infamous negative space arrow, as this is a core visual reference from FedEx.

Cultural Connectives has come at such a perfect time for me as one of my next projects is indeed of an Arabic brand where both Cyrillic and Arabic versions of the typography will be required. Just ordered Cultural Connectives from Amazon so will let you know if the book is as good as the photographs make it out to be.

If you want to read more information on Cultural Connectives then Rana Rjeily has an official website for the book over on: http://rana.im/cultural-connectives/

K Found on BrainPickings

I really did resist all weekend, but the pathetic child in me won over. I promise this will be my last post about the Windows 8 logo…

Not being a diamond type of guy the Forevermark logo design has only just recently come my way, and the first moment I saw it I loved it. The diamond mark itself is just perfection whilst I enjoy the reversal of type and mark position so that the type sits on the logo mark.

It’s telling you this is the Forevermark.

Little details like seeing the Forevermark mark in the footer of the website.

Been trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to find out who designed the Forevermark logo, but all I can so far determine is that it’s possibly an internal project by the Forevermark design team based in Milan.

As well as a lovely bit of design the actual story being the Forevermark is equally fascinating, especially if you are only really aware of the negative connotations of the Blood Diamond. There is a insightful piece on the subject of Blood Diamond’s over on Name Wire: Meaning of Blood Diamond Naming About to Change?

The Forevermark is DeBeers way of trying to balance the bad with the good.

 If you have any information on who/whom designed the Forevermark then please do let me know.

Post Update: 19th February 2012

Now that the official statement on the Windows 8 logo published by Pentagram the perspective issue that I pointed out in the post below is now a mute issue.

It also appears that the version of the Windows 8 logo referenced by myself and many other websites is NOT the version designed by Pentagram. You will notice that their design (image above) has the stroke thickness of the vertical and horizontal lines set much much thinner.

Pentagram also cover the reasoning for the equal thickness lines as being based on classical perspective drawing rather than computer perspective. I still think this looks odd, but at least there is an official line for that particular design direction.

“The perspective drawing is based on classical perspective drawing, not computerized perspective. The cross bar stays the same size no matter the height of the logo, which means it has to be redrawn for each time it increases in size, like classic typography.”

This also is a good example of trying to be too clever for your own boots—that is a direct reference back to me—and not waiting for an official description before going off all half-cocked. I personally wouldn’t bother reading anything below mostly because it makes me look like a real dick.

j Read More on the Windows 8 Logo by Pentagram

A lot of press coverage over the announcement of the new Windows 8 logo design, and with that has come a substantial quantity of mixed thoughts. Note: There was a story running last weekend reporting that the Windows 8 logo was a fake design, and I pretty much got sucked up with that, but it now seems to be very much official.

The Official Windows 8 Logo Brief

To get right down to it I’m not overly offended by this new Metro style of design that Windows 8 is based on.

In fairness to the Windows brand, we have a common theme being addressed (the window pane) as well as the rather specific name in Windows which doesn’t leave a whole lot of visual choices for us to base a logo design around. Hard to reinvent a window without resorting to something dramatically stylised which is not really an option given the Windows logo design heritage.

If this has been a logo for something totally different and from a totally different brand than Microsoft then my overall thoughts would likely be quite different, and by different I mean not so, “I’m not overly offended…“.

There is, however, one design detail that does bother me, and I just can’t stop being bothered by it. I have tried to see a plausable reason for it, but I just keep coming back to it being a design flaw rather than a purposeful feature.

Those pesky window frames.

It’s all about the perspective and the simple fact that the white dividing lines would/should/ought to—I like to think this is a reasonable conclusion—increase in width the further left-to-right background/foreground it goes. Instead, the white dividing lines remain constant and seemingly don’t work/run/flow with that quite dramatic off-the-page perspective.

It’s one of those details for me that makes it look like it’s either: trying too hard to not be realistic in any reasonable form, or it was just missed all together. There are no hard/fast right/wrong rules with logo design, but there are some things that just cause murmurings amongst the design fraternity.

So going back to last weekend when I first saw reports that the Windows 8 logo was a fake: it was this feature that led me to assume that it could quite possibly be a fake as  this surely would not have been in an official design? So I was wrong on that front.

I have, so far, not seen design feature this picked up by any other critic so am I am just being particularly particular?

K Read more on Windows 8 logo design over on WindowsTeamBlog.

One of my favourite photographs of my two dear friends, Mr Dylan and Miss Charley. I “scold” them through the use of a slow and deep voice for which is only used in times of canine recklessness. The moment I catch them doing something “naughty” then I say, “Oh Dylan… [pause] what [pause] have [pause] you [pause] done?“, and the moment they hear this particular voice the ears go right back and an instant guilt attack hits me.

It amazes me how in tune they can be with a voice that is barely above a whisper with no need to shout, scream or go crazy.

In this case they conspired to rummage through the trash—my fault for leaving it out I know—and leave a hideous mess in the kitchen. The moment I walked through the front door and saw the mess, and said my “bit” both of them just ran out into the relative safety of the car. Mr Dylan jumped straight into the front whilst Miss Charley scampered into the back.

The boot was open and here I stooped down to tut and shake my head in a disapproving way. They both remained perfectly still whilst I had words with them not moving an inch. The hilarious thing is that Miss Charley kept hold of the damning evidence in her mouth which just made it practically impossible for me to give the impression of being cross.

So I just took out my iPhone and snapped this shot of the guilty duo. We kissed and made up once I had cleared the debris as who in their right mind could even think about being angry with expressions like that.

Making progress with the gradual redesign of my responsive website with the latest round of changes focusing on the display and use of my main logo design portfolio.

Up and till now my portfolio was all hard coded into the theme templates which was a real pain in the ass. I always had it in mind to have my logo designs added as posts, but it was lack of code knowledge that held me back. Thankfully Shane (see note below) has been able to code my ideas into the responsive WordPress theme that I have slowly cobbled together over the last few months. I now have full control over the featured images and order of the logo designs as well as it now being a quick process to add new logo work.

Having a few challenges with the pagination at the time of writing this post. So for the temporary moment all my logo designs display on one page, but the immediate plan is to have a much smaller number of 9-12 logo designs on each page to help with page load times.

I still have some minor aesthetic styling tweaks to make to the actual individual posts, but that is for another day. All logos are super optimised given this is my landing page as well as resizing to various screen sizes, so on the iPhone the actual logo images enlarge to the single column view.

I will also be applying this portfolio to LogoStack.co hence why it has been quiet over there for the last month or so. In fact a number of my earlier side projects: LoveHelvetica & MonoExpressions will come out of hibernation using variations of the imjustcreative WordPress Theme.

imjustcreative Responsive WordPress Theme

I am still planning on releasing the imjustcreative Responsive WordPress Theme to those that want to play/use it, but I just had to get the responsive and user-friendly portfolio bit done before doing so. The theme is now more user friendly, and works as a responsive portfolio should with control over how many columns and rows you have before having to use the pagination.

Expect to see an initial Alpha release of the theme code in the next few weeks.

I say Alpha because I am aware of a number of small glitches that still need to be sorted as well as some basic styling tweaks

A Quick Thank You

All the back end code work is down to a great guy called Shane Hudson (@ShaneHudson). Shane has proven to be an invaluable help in getting the more ambitious parts of my website realised, so feel very fortunate to have him helping me out with the development side.

If you are looking for sound, solid, dependable, and awesomely humoured WordPress developer then I can personally, and highly, recommend Shane.

Quite possibly the most outstanding retro-concept mash-up of the Apple iPhone iOS and vintage Macintosh OS circa 1986 which would put these OS Icons around System Software 3.0-3.2.

Those monochrome icons look particularly at home within on the black iPhone 4 body. I absolutely and positively believe this is a huge improvement over the existing iOS theme and would like to slap anyone in the face if they think otherwise.

Can’t quite determine the designery attributary particulars as it’s all hosted on a LiveJournal blog with absolutely no information save for the username: reopen and I can’t even be sure these are the property of this reopen

Update: This fine fine work belongs to Anton Repponen

K Found on thisisn’thappiness

Hilariously Ferocious Underwater Dogs by photographer Seth Casteel (Facebook) who has captured these very cool canine expressions.

I would love to have some of these done for my own canine companions, Mr Dylan and Miss Charley. Charley being water loving dog who frequently dives under the water to grab stones, or anything else that takes her fancy. It would also be cool to get one of her with a dark background to highlight her startlingly large white teeth against her jet black coat.

K Found on Colossal

Have been fortunate to have had some enjoyable, and meaty, logo design projects over the last few months which has meant a lack of work updates on the blog. To remedy that here is a little peek into a recent logo design (redesign) project.

Unfortunately unable to put a name to this project which means it’s a little difficult to put any of this into context, but I know some people enjoy looking logo design sketch work.

I am able to share that the overall emotion this logo needs to portray is of: strength; offensive as a rule, but showing a confident defensive nature as an underlying message: eye on the objective,  pushing forward against the objective, not conceding any ground; reliability and assurance during times of anxiety.

What you might find interesting is how the angle of the head and position of the shield can make a real difference to how this is interpreted as a whole.

With head looking up there is a real confidence, and an almost distinguished feel, as well as a clear field of view on the objective. With head looking down feels this chap is ready for anything yet still feels confident but has an immediacy to it. I guess the latter is standing to attention whilst the former is preparing for battle.

Loved this project as small details really made a big difference to the message conveyed.

I’m ashamed to say I am quite a fan of the various Derp meme’s so when I saw the Android “Derp” logo from Derper.com I just giggled like a girl—not that there is anything wrong with girls giggling just that for a 40 year old bloke it’s not something to brag about.

Curiously the original Android “Derp” logo didn’t have the Derpy style eyes so I simply had to Derpify it a bit more convincingly. Moving one eye down and in seems to do the trick quite nicely.

Quite often we hear how Apple will make a move against some company for possible infringement against it’s numerous and heavily protected trademarks. Usually I give them a passing look and move on.

I caught another trademark story in TheNextWeb (via Sydney Morning Herald) and this time the story me looking a little deeper. The long and short of it is that a New Zealand company, who have made a range of waterproof iPhone cases called driPhone (their logo on the right), has come under scrutiny by Apple for possible trademark infringement.

I’ll be the very first to state that I am no trademark lawyer, and certainly not a shrewd or calculating businessman, so  whatever drivel you read thus is purely my own opinion based on my experience with logo and brand design rather than some brilliant business style analysis.

What I find astonishing is that Hayden Crowther seems a little miffed, apparently believing that Apple’s complaint holds “little weight“, that Apple has taken this stance and wants to legitimately protect the valuable iPhone brand.

It’s not just the fact that Hayden has actually used the familiar ”i”, but it’s that the whole driPhone logo is practically identical to Apple’s iPhone logo. That sort of logo similarity doesn’t happen, and especially in Apple’s case, by accident. One has to make a choice to ride the success of another brand and make that decision to sail ever so close to the trade winds.

In this case the ultra similar typeface used in the driPhone logo along with the “i” is definitely, in my driveling laymen’s opinion, treading on Apple’s precious, is it not?

On the surface, and taking a simplistic look at logo design similarities and common sense application of the branding of accessories for Apple gear, and assuming that most people are aware of how Apple tends to despatch the trademark lawyers at any whiff of trademark infringement, I find this all a little amusing.

Alternatively, giving the benefit-of-the-doubt: this is one big calculated risk at obtaining some controversial coverage and thus drive some healthy early sales of the driPhone before it all, and expectedly, comes crashing down, then with the money made from the initial sales they can put back into rebranding and remanufacturing the dryPhone minus the “i”.

Win—Lose—Win, or something like that.

It’s just that reference to, “little weight“, that gnaws at my sensitive psychological and emotional being. If you are going to call Apple’s bluff out in public you have better be damn sure you really have something meaty to back it all up with. Or just have shit loads of money to play silly sods with.

I would like to finish by saying I really do like these driPhone waterproof cases as they are simply gorgeous. Just a bloody cheeky, or naivé, move on the accused. I will be interested to see how this one unfolds.

K Found on TheNextWeb

K Logo Design by A. Micah Smith

You’ll need to view the larger size so head over to BayerBerg’s Flickr stream to see sizes of Life & Career of Your Average Designer Infographic up to 2620px in width. Plenty big enough even for you poor designers with poor degraded eye site as a result of too many hours staring at that pixel.

Whilst you’re there add it as a Favourite.

K Found on Thisisn’thappiness

Fascinating look at how some of our beloved cereal brands—mostly references US cereal brands, but many have reached UK shores—have evolved over the last 50 years.

Really astonishing to see how little many of these cereal brands have changed over the decades: consistent use of brand mascots, colours and often times similar typography styles.

Really fascinated by these. You can see many more on Retronaut as well as on the original website The Imaginery World for an exhaustive collection.

K Found on Retronaut

That stunningly gorgeous colour with the pure white label containing that clean—and clean is the first word that came to mind, and being soap bar that’s pretty logical—word mark: I would buy this if I saw it on a shelf.

K Found on Doobybrain