Frog’s Blog

It seems only yesterday that we were getting annoyed with the vuvuzelas in the opening game as “Bufana, Bufana” announced the first African World Cup, but as we now approach the 2010 World Cup final we have become accustomed to the noise.  Hearing that buzz reach my ears stimulates excitement, the association that two of the best teams in the world are about to play out 90 minutes.

Alas, we are but days away from this event coming to a close, four long years away from the next.  Of course there will be replays and archived footage shown for months to come, the Blackstars’ dancing celebrations, Frank Lampard’s goal that never was, and of course Van Bronckhorst’s screamer against Uruguay.  But if you want a real lasting memory of the 2010 World Cup you should get yourself over to eBay and bid on one of these absolutely incredible pieces.

Oh, and did I mention all the proceeds go the Nelson Mandela’s 46664 Foundation? – a charitable organisation that aims to build a better world for everyone.  This campaign is a series of ‘Live Quest’ paintings.

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It comes as some kind of eco-irony that when Starbucks put out an open brief to “reduce the number of non-recyclable cups that are thrown away every year by creating a more convenient alternative to the reusable coffee cup”, that the winning result is not actually a cup at all, but (essentially) a blackboard. The Karma Cup has arrived.

What is actually most impressive about it is that the designers have considered what most would neglect, and approached the problem from the point of the view of the user, rather than Starbucks’ sole approach of looking to reduce waste. Fortunately by encouraging the user to change their behaviour this solution offers both and will (probably) successfully achieve the latter too.

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A designer friend of mine claims to be a ‘novice’ when it comes to typography, stating there are other much more experienced and knowledgeable typographers out there. We completely disagreed, especially when we discovered …

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The design concepts explained series aims to explain ideas behind design. This week we focus on the concept of affordance and its use in graphic and UI design.

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Finally I unearthed this advertising poster that I saw over a year ago then completely forgot it’s location. I’m sure you’ll agree it’s very clever, very minimal and very memorable. A good example of “Less is more”….

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Full credit and roundup from Underconsideration.com, thanks guys for the fantastic resources!

We follow on the theme of rebranding by major brands by having a quick roundup. Following on from the calamitous Pepsi rebrand here are 20 rebrands that have …

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Several million dollars, and almost half a year later the new Pepsi logo was finished by the …

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My agency 9xb recently moved premises and required a full refit. Part of the existing setup was a rather blank white wall with a red fire alarm top center of it. This area was to be the reception wall …

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Want a powerful font management application that works on both Mac and PC? An app that allows you to manage, store, shop and discover new fonts? A font management app that’s FREE? Then Linotype FontExplorer® X is for you! …

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Following on from the 9xb digital staff portraits, new starter Gyles Seward has had his very own created. After suffering hours of digital torcher in Frog’s special Frankenstein-esk Lab this hideous creation appeared….

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A few months ago I got approached by a contact of mine to see if I was interested in getting involved in a project they were starting. After a very productive meeting, …

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I work in the web design industry and I’m amazed every single day by the lack on knowledge, respect and understanding of the basic design principles that I take for granted. I trained for 4 years …

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This ‘Short History of Graphic Design’ describes individual movements, establishments, events and people who, when all put together, make up the history of graphic design.

Included in this article is:…

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Digital art staff portraits for 9xb, which collectively took circa 60 hours to complete.

View my Flickr 9xb page for full size versions.

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Experiments with light and shade.

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