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I’ve been trying for some time to get the video embedded, but the BBC doesn’t allow their iPlayer to be embedded outside of the UK. So alas, here is a link to the article and full video. Go watch.

It’s funny that after speaking with the reporter both on-camera on on-mic for about 30 minutes, they use about 12 seconds of footage. I suppose that’s the new biz. But I don’t mind that the BBC has called me “The new face of the U.S. worker.” That’s a line on the ol’ resume, I suppose.

There’s also a related article on Freelance Switch warning, quite accurately, that Full-Time to Freelancing is Harder Than You Think

Indeed.

PS, if anyone knows how to embed a BBC video, please do share. Or if you can take a screencast of the site and crop it down, I’ll take that too. Not that I wanna start an international incident, but I prefer to embed the videos here.

This edition of WTF Wednesday concerns the ever-popular topic of brands branching out way beyond their core competencies. Case in point, Pierre Cardin, the European luxury goods label, has debuted a tablet PC, presumably to capture the super-niche market of technology adopters who are too posh to be seen with an iPad.

The trouble here is two-fold. First, and most obviously, Pierre Cardin doesn’t have the reputation for electronics or computing. Establishing credibility in those sectors is difficult, and often requires years of steady delivery. Similarly, well-known electronics firms — even the likes of Sony or Panasonic — can fall from grace in no time flat when something goes wrong in their supply chair or management, or when a decision is made to cheap-out on customer service, in the case of, say Dell. In this case, it’s even worse because Cardin doesn’t make the components or the operating system — it’s just the shiny packaging at the very end of the chain. So imagine, if you will, a potentially rotten orange, but in a really nice wrapper. Would you buy that?

Second, the truth about tablet PCs is that no one in the first world really gives a crap. The consumer who can afford Pierre Cardin products, and who are even aware of the brand, can likely afford an iPad and would desire one. It is, after all the true leader in this category. Going one step further, and following the logic of Jeff Jarvis, you could say there is no such category as Tablet PCs; there’s simply iPads and iPad wannabes. So why would a brand jump on the rickety competitor to the iPad band wagon? After all, if they just want to wrap the thing in leather, why not team up with Apple? We’ve seen the solid gold iPhone, remember?

The lesson? Well, you can probably say it with me, brands need to stay within their core competencies and deliver on their expertise. Brand extensions need to happen in very small increments, borrowing skills and experience from what they know and what their customers can trust. Going after the latest hotness can result in damage to the brand, which is much harder to repair than simply listing is loss on an annual report.

via UnBeidge »

It was nearly a year ago that I wrote in few words about the call to design London’s Olympic torch. Well, after so much waiting, we’re ready for the torch to appear in public view.

My first reaction is how austere the torch is. Following the famously bizarre identity for the games, and the abstract mascots that followed, I half-expected a re-think of the whole torch concept in general. I wouldn’t be surprised if they opted for some kind of spherical fire-orb, which one must hold in two hands like a rugby ball. But rest assured, in the end it’s just a torch.

Here’s a video from the AP which shows the London 2012 organisers debuting the torch for press:

download .mp4 / watch on YouTube

And as usual, the official London 2012 blog has way more information than I’d expect or require for this blog.

via Unbeige »

It was late Summer 2009 when a minor scandal hit the Internet. The Mayor of London put out the call that London needs a new logo. Not just a new logo, but one logo to rule them all. A single graphic identity to unify all the official branches of London life, concerning tourism, transport, the arts, sport, government, etc. etc. Following the success of Wolff Olins’s NYC efforts — creating a single identity for all things New York — London sought to take a similar approach and bring order to the chaos. It was a noble plan, because once illustrated, the need was indeed apparent.

The many logos of London. Can we have some unity please? Image via Brand New

The scandal, if we can call it that, was in how the design firms were selected for a chance at the £400,000 fee associated with the project. In short, a huge list of criteria were included in the brief/tender, thus eliminating all those three-person firms that are doing really great work. Requirements concerning fire insurance, community outreach and charity donations, carbon footprints, and even something to do with LGBT policies tainted the whole project with a stink of public-sector red tape and corporate pandering. A deadly combination. A few notable firms were shortlisted, but the project was shelved, and no creative work ever emerged from said agencies.

Examples of NYC’s logo, used throughout the City’s agencies

However, we of the Internet took the project upon ourselves. Accepting that our ideas — no matter their merit — would never be considered, many concepts quickly appeared as to how London might create an identity for itself. Using the traditions of graphic design in Britain, designers showcased their work on the website A Brand for London. This writer even got in on the action creating his own approach to London, the brand.

Concepts for London. Not chosen, of course.

But recently there was some stirring and a logo was unveiled for the newly-created agency called London & Partners to handle all promotional activities, merging the existing Think London and Visit London. From a post on Creative Review:

At a press conference [1 April 2011], London Mayor Boris Johnson announced the launch of London & Partners, a new agency “to showcase London as the best city to visit, invest and study in”.

This was no April Fool’s joke, though. And further details emerged, along with visuals. Apparently the logo was an evolution of a concept submitted by Saffron, one of the shortlisted agencies. Their work was essentially the same, but without the river-in-an-O identifier which now appears.

The ‘River’ symbol of the new London & Partners logo. It’s the Thames, of course.

The identity for London & Partners already seems to be shaping up. They’ve got a modern website, and an intro video.

Johnson Banks blog has an excellent post on the subject, featuring some of the images of previous London design efforts. Follow the blogs, dear friends, there’s plenty to read about.

So what does this all mean? Well, first it illustrates how difficult it can be to create a brand for something as big as a city. Not only must there be the involvement of government(s) local, state, and national, but all the agencies involved are opening themselves up to public scrutiny. Any fees are likely to be public funds, so the work that emerges will be subject to taxpayer approval via opinions or something nearer to a riot. (Ahem, London 2012).

From a creative point of view, it’s no easy task. The team must tie in centuries of history, a multitude of cultural touchpoints, a directed tone and personality, and coordinate this all with stated business objectives. The branding of a city is a challenge indeed. And I would say that with a city as vast and diverse as London, there is no single image to encapsulate everything accurately and appropriately — someone is going to feel left out or misrepresented.

So if you are thinking “we need a brand identity for our city”, maybe you should think twice. Go for the small victory and make sure the trains are running on time.

This post also appears of The Next Big Design, the blog of the FUSE Conference.

I had joked a while back that the upcoming Royal Wedding, where heir to the thrown Prince William will wed long-time girlfriend Kate Middleton, will revive the commemorative plate industry. I’m sure it has. I also posted a series of designer-designed plates done in cheeky rebellious tone.

The Royal Mint has recently unveiled their commemorative coins featuring at Kate and Will. Or at least, weird slivers of their faces. I’m sincerely try not to snipe on other folks’ work, but this is just bad. Bizarre faces, not recognisable, not regal, poor typography. Just a mess. WTF is going on here?

I’m genuinely surprised at the poor image chosen for these coins considering how much the design of British coins has been covered in the media. A few years back, Matt Dent won a D&AD Black Pencil (in the words of Joe Biden, a big fucking deal) for his design of the Britain’s coin suite. More recently, the design community rolled our collective eyes at the student-submitted artwork which ended up being produced in honour of the upcoming 2012 Olympics in London. So what gives?

Dent’s coin designs, which were interesting, and not creepy.

I don’t have too many details on this, aside from the official write-up on the Royal Mint site, but I’m interested to see some alternate concepts as they emerge. Funny thing is, if you dig around the site, you’ll find another design to mark the engagement, which is of better composition, methinks.

The Engagement Coin, with a better design, right?

By the way, if anyone is interesting in making Royal Wedding souvenirs, check out these guidelines on how to use the symbols and marks of the Monarchy. I imagine these are the last people you want calling you at 6 in the morning about your improper use of a logo.

And let’s not forget about those endless supplies of Obama-related crap, including gold-plated quarters with image stickers, and whole coin sets.

via Ellie Rountree »

I had joked about how this wedding will revive the flailing commemorative plate industry in Britain, but this isn’t exactly what I had expected. Great to see some creativity in this rather strange sector of the consumer market.

Crockery rarely makes an appearance on the CR blog. But with a royal wedding set for next year, we’ll make an exception for KK Outlet’s recently unveilved ‘unofficial’ Wills and Kate souvenir plates…

With only four months to go until the big day, royal wedding fever has already gripped parts of the creative community – largely those involved in ceramics, unsurprisingly, as Majesty magazine reveals. (Just the $70 for the 'tankard' then.)

And in an attempt to combat the tidal wave of tack that accompanies any decent royal wedding the Lord Chamberlain, Earl Peel, has already issued a formal memorandum indicating that tea towels, for one, are right out.

So London-based creative agency KK Outlet decided to create some of their own souvenir plates for the more design-conscious fans of British royalty.

Many of the sentiments may not be wholly endorsed by The Palace, but we love the fact that April 29 2011 is already proving to be a special day for millions of fans of that other UK institution: the public holiday.

The plates will be available to purchase from KK Outlet from January 15. See kkoutlet.com.

via Creative Review »

Remember back in August when I wrote about London’s super-cool new buses? Well, they’re here in real life. Not bad, eh?

Is that Boris Johnson looking so disappointed?

Also, New York has shortlisted three new designs for the Taxi of Tomorrow — a custom designed vehicle to serve as New York’s future Yellow Cab. They all suck. Just use Smart Cars and cut down on a bit of the old exhaust in this city.

Taxi of Tomorrow?

via Core 77 »

The Beatles

The Bealtes are now available on iTunes. This is most significant because it resolves one of the 20th Century’s most famous branding battle over the name Apple. The Bealtes’ Apple Corps record label has been in and out of court with Apple Computer since the late 70s, and it seems the two are finally willing to team up swallow a little bit of their pride so they can make sick amounts of money … together.

I’m glad The Beatles are on iTunes. While many in the tech community have yawned at this “announcement”, to me it marks a certain order being restored to the universe. The digital music community can finally exhale a little bit, and hammer that nail into the old music industry’s ever-closing coffin.

The Beatles are still a world-wide brand, even though the band split a solid 40 years ago. Wow. So will we see their names and likenesses mashup with more Apple [computer] gear? A Beatles iPod is a natural fit. A Yellow Submarine iPhone perhaps? I’d like one with the Revolver cover art on the face.

How about a library? With the phone gone, it’s the perfect place for shelves and books. Townsfolk line up and swap in for something else.

via Off Beat Earth »