the graphic design blog that speaks the truth.
I thought I’d share with you a handy little code snippet that enables you to add an “email this page” link to your WordPress posts and pages, without the need for a plugin. It is just one line of code, placed within the loop. <a href="mailto:?subject=<?php the_title(); ?>& body=<?php the_title(); ?> - <?php the_permalink(); ?>">E-Mail This Page</a> As you can see, in the form of a href, we have created a simple mailto, that takes information from the post as...
We are all familiar to new logo hoax stories ever since Gap announced that they had redesigned their logo. It’s still not clear if that was a cover up to try and disguise the fact that the ‘new’ logo was in fact awful. Yesterday morning, the official Facebook page for Domino’s Pizza – New Zealand, posted this status with a photograph of a supposed redesigned logo which led many to believe that they may be trying to pull the same stunt...
It’s now been just over 5 years since the logo for the London 2012 Olympics Games was revealed and so we finally get to see it in action, much like the athletes. Never before has the design of a logo grabbed so many headlines, with not just designer geeks venting their disgust but the general public chiming in with their own opinion on the oddly shaped & coloured icon. In general, the logo received very negative feedback with one of...
Clients, to be fair to them, often don’t receive a fair reputation by us design folk. It’s not their fault that they may ask for some silly requests because, unlike us, they haven’t been educated about the foundations of good and bad design. If they had, they wouldn’t need the help of a designer and so it’s part of our job to help guide them through the process. Admittedly, there will be times during a project that any designer may...
A mascot – which is defined as any person, animal or identifiable object that is visually used to represent something, can help to bring recognition to a brand identity. As they are also able to help distinguish between competitors and strike an emotional connection with consumers, you could argue that a brand mascot is just as powerful as a logo. You will notice that most brands that have a mascot will often include them in the official logo artwork. The...
We are just a few days away from the release of one of the most anticipated movies of all time, The Dark Knight Rises. As with the new Spiderman logo, I thought it would be interesting to compare the new Batman logo to those which had preceded it. As you can see by the great batman logo animation video (via Antupainamku) below, I think you will agree that the recognisable bat shape has gradually got more radical over the years,...
I’ve always been interested in knowing about not just the meaning behind some of the world’s most famous logos but also the history of their design. Processes differ between agencies and amongst designers of all skill levels, which means that most famous logos will have been designed using various methods and during differing timescales. I managed to track down the company responsible for the logo design of one of the most popular social network brands of the 21st Century. That...
As you may be aware, we at down with design recently launched our first ever IOS app. This post will describe the general process of creating the app, rather than from a code specific point of view. Starting from the software download phase right up to submitting the application to the app store, I will aim to shed some light on some of the issues I came across, offering solutions and tips where I can. Setting up the environment The...
We are extremely proud to announce that we have officially launched our first ever IOS app on behalf of Wyrley Juniors Football Club. The app itself comprises of four tabs: History – Giving users an in depth introduction to the club and its achievements. Join – Displays a relevant contact number based on user input. Users can then call the number direct from the app. Contacts – A complete directory of all the useful contacts within the club. As with...
This article is published in the new book by www.logonest.com, Logo Nest: 02, the book by Logo Designers for Logo Designers A like for a like With a title like that it would be understandable to assume that this is going to be another run of the mill article on plagiarism. Instead, I have chosen to tackle a subject, which seems to be downplayed or mostly ignored. At the end of each year many graphic design related publications, both online...
There are many tasks in PHP that seem hard to achieve, but are actually very simple to accomplish using the correct code. There has long been the need to store the current date in a database. Whether it be to show the date a blog post was created, or adding a calendar entry. I have seen some solutions where the user manually enters the current date as part of the input form. There is a much more elegant, and more...
Fans of the Spider-Man franchise will be pleased to know that along with a new movie that is due to be released on 3rd July 2012, comes a new iconic spider logo. The move is possibly due to the new version of the classic comic by Marvel being a reboot of the original film rather than a sequel, so what better way to make a difference that to give it a fresh identity. Below is a comparison of the previous...
