David Airey

Author: David Airey

  • The ubiquity of Helvetica

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    David Airey
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    I wrote a few words for the BBC about the ubiquity of Helvetica.

  • Brand naming resources

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    It’s easy to think anyone can come up with a good name, but it’s more complicated than that. “An idea can come from anywhere, but getting buy in and seeing it through is tough. In fact, naming can be one of the hardest parts of a branding project.” From a naming handbook by Wolff Olins.…

  • Giving better design feedback

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    Sarah in marketing wants to be able to log in directly on the home page, but Tim in engineering would prefer it on its own page. Can we compromise? “No. We cannot compromise. If you tell your barber that you like it short, but your significant other likes it long, you’re gonna get a mullet.”…

  • You (generally) get what you pay for

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    Tabloid stories about new designs tend to focus on two things: the money, and the logo. Here’s an example. Irish Water (who spent €50,000,000 on consultants in 2013, but that’s another story) hires Dublin-based Zero-G to create a new brand identity. The Daily Mail reports the fee as “€20,000 — €5,000 per word.” Credit: Laura…

  • Is it still important to sketch as a designer?

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    Design sketching. Is it still important? That was this week’s Voxpop question on Design Week. I know I could use only a computer and create a workable design, but it’s obviously restricting if too much time is spent looking into a monitor. And there’s something I find relaxing about sketching. Perhaps because I’m more relaxed…

  • No, No, No, No, No, Yes.

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    An interesting excerpt from Gideon Amichay‘s encouraging on Amazon.com.

  • We could really do with £50k

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    Written by John Scarrott of the Design Business Association in London. Photo by worldoflard I was chatting to one of our ‘experts’ at the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards when he recounted the following story to me. I’ll tell it from the expert’s perspective. “One of my clients, a small design agency of five people, was…

  • Graphic Icons: Jan Tschichold

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    Excerpted from Graphic Icons: Visionaries Who Shaped Modern Graphic Design, the new book from John Clifford. Exhibition poster for Der Berufsphotograph (The Professional Photographer), 1938. Just as his design predecessors influenced Jan Tschichold, so he shaped graphic design long after his own death. After growing up in the heart of Germany’s book industry, Tschichold had…

  • The influence of colour in brand identity

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    David Airey
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    Who wants 50 shades of grey when you’ve got the choice of the rainbow? Written by Laura Hussey, partner and creative director at London-based SomeOne. It’s drizzly, it’s grey, everyone is wearing black and I’m a Celebrity is back on the telly tempting me with the lush green Australian rainforest and it’s vast, bright blue…

  • LiveSurface Context

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    David Airey
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    LiveSurface Context is an Adobe Illustrator plugin by Brooklyn-based Josh Distler that renders your flat artwork onto a wide range of contextual photos. I had a go with the free trial. Excellent. And at $9 per month (or $89 for a year) it’s a fair bit cheaper than a stock photography subscription. You can cancel…