I’ve been thinking a lot about QR codes recently, and how ugly they look. So, here’s a project which caught my eye over at Collate this week, from those clever chaps at The Chase. They’ve used QR codes to print Christmas wrapping paper, where each code contains a gift idea too. Blimey.

The sheets look pretty nice as posters too, right up my street.

I’ve been pursuing a little pet project do do with the oft-maligned QR code for a little while now which I hope to be able to reveal in the new year, so watch this space for more QR goodies…

I went along last Friday to the International Society of Typographic Designers bi-annual awards event, as I’d heard my Storm Thorgerson poster had been nominated which was lovely, and totally unexpected. Not as unexpected however as winning a much coveted Premier Award, which was something special.

Congratulations too, to the guys from Purpose who were also winners on the night for The Armoury…

…and The Partners who were recognised for their work for the Injured Jockey Fund.

It was a great evening, wonderful work and nice people, so thanks to all the guys at the iSTD and also those who helped make the poster happen (you know who you are)

Oh, it was held at the Museum of Packaging and Brands in Notting Hill which is well worth a visit.

I haven’t written much here lately, and there are a number of reasons for that which I won’t go into. One of those reasons though, was that I went on a brief holiday to France, land of fashion, food and style. Imagine my horror then, when I chanced upon Comic Sans jewellery.

Mon Dieu!

Saddened to hear the news about Steve Jobs today, but inspired all over again by his wise words. Rather than a load of overblown sentimentality or sub-par FastCompany-esque analysis, here are three of my favourite clips of Steve’s amazing thoughtful clarity.

What an inspiration. Rest in peace Steve…

Title image via Jonathan Mak, clever bugger.

Perhaps you are lacking direction in your design career, perhaps you are searching for a gift for the creative director in your life who has everything, or perhaps you’re an over-zealous finance person who could do without paying that huge creative director salary every month and are looking for a cheaper alternative. Whatever your situation, these stamps from Heather Phillips are for you!

Why not buy the whole set? After dispensing some of this advice amongst your woefully inadequate colleagues, your promotion to CD is sure to be in the post.

Of course kids, don’t forget that creative direction is dangerous and should only be attempted by a skilled and experienced adult. Do not attempt to creatively direct at home or unsupervised.

Found via Angus Whines, who in turn found it via Ben Terrett, and at that point I had to find out where to buy one.

No posts on the blog for a week or so as I was at Glastonbury, so here, by way of an appeasement are some Instagrams I took instead…

This week’s fix comes from Victor Hertz, who has created these honest logos, which balance just the perfect amount of cynicism and levity for a Friday…

…see more in his Flickr set. Found via theinspiration.

Nice idea. Working in branding, I’m constantly reading the mythical ‘brand essence’ of various large corporations, which is always a statement which we are constantly reminded is never to be actually broadcast outside the building. I wonder how this exercise might go if you rendered various brand essence statements in the company’s logotype? Would the two match up or contrast horribly?

So after experiencing a taste of the judging process earlier in the year, I somehow managed to infiltrate the D&AD Awards ceremony last night just up the road from work near Old Street. In actual fact I won a ticket from the kind people at Arjo Wiggins Creative Papers as part of The Blank Sheet project.

So, yesterday saw me don an actual real life shirt and tie and go along to the awards for the first time. And it was a night of firsts, as this year the professional and student awards were handed out together which was a brilliant idea. That, and the decision not to pay Jimmy Carr to do some patter, but to use the money for a free bar and ferris wheel, resulted in many people remarking that it was certainly ‘better than last year’. Well, I wouldn’t know as I have never been along before, but from my point of view it was better than last year, as in 2010 I followed the whole thing on Twitter from my living room.

Anyway, I digress. The evening was very nice indeed, pretty lavishly staged and posh food. The awards bit itself seemed to take an awfully long time, and was a little chaotic, with the different disciplines and the students/professionals all mixed up, but while a little difficult to follow it was continually inspiring. The room was huge, which wasn’t a problem for me as I’d scored a seat right up front, but at the back, the naughty kids were all chatting, doing shots and passing notes as you’d expect. In fact it got properly all Grange Hill when Sanky, D&AD President implored the crowd to ‘take the volume level down from 10 to 3 please’.

Well, as always it was all about the winners, which are well documented on the Creative Review blog this morning, and of course on the D&AD site itself, so you don’t need me to list them, but I thought it might be worth remarking randomly on some which from my perspective as a graphic designer, working with identity especially, I just liked…

The ‘Almost Extinct’ calendar for example, by The Chase sensitively brought home the perilous situation faced by various species whilst still remaining playful.

The V&A ‘Palindrome’ installation by Troika wonderfully played with reflection and symmetry.

Mucho’s Art Out typeface was elegantly beautiful, and reassuringly traditional.

The reality of the filthy rich was graphically illustrated by CHI & Partners for The Times Richlist.

And obviously there were loads more. It was a bit disappointing again though, to see that D&AD don’t appear to be particularly interested in traditional graphic design, and specifically identity. It felt a little bit like if you had done something vaguely digital, especially using an iPad, you stood a greater chance than if you had traditionally wrestled with a complex identity project and seen it through to a brilliant conclusion. There was a lot of moving image, and loads of nebulous brand campaign type stuff, but not nearly enough wonderfully executed and inventive graphic design. And don’t tell me there isn’t any out there, because there is.

Having said that, this year the student awards were given out on the same night, and they definitely did their bit to redress the balance. A lot of the student ideas were impressively imaginative and no less inspiring than the professional stuff. For example…

This brilliant idea from students at Design Factory International would turn a whole city into a sketchpad drawn on via GPS movement. It was in response to a brief set by Arjo Wiggins, who in conversation after the awards, sounded like they were thinking of doing it for real…

This project from students at RMIT University cleverly shows how important copywriting is to advertising.

But the star of the student show was the branding work for Oxfam by students from Miami Ad School, Madrid, which focused on what Oxfam employees wanted to do with their lives once the need for their charitable work was finally fulfilled. Genius, and not done justice by the following JPGs.

The star of the professional show? Well that was Neville Brody who received the President’s Award to rapturous applause.

Oh, and of course this guy…

Overall, after feeling all warm and fuzzy towards the D&AD during judging week, when it was all informal and drenched in sunlight, this felt much more elitist as you might expect. I think because during judging there was a lot of work on show of varying standards it all felt very accessible and democratic, whereas on awards night obviously only the best got through and some of the egos and agendas in the room were tangible. One winner of a black pencil was heard to remark “I’ve waited 25 years for this” which just goes to show how very important it was to almost everyone there. In contrast to some of the po-faced professional recipients, most of the students were elated, and one even danced all the way up the stage and punched the air. After seeing that, you wondered why some of the luminaries of the industry couldn’t crack a smile.

And so that was it, I had a great evening and managed to avoid spending the night wandering around on my own. Big thanks must go to Jonathan and the guys from Arjo Wiggins for making me feel so welcome. It was especially nice to meet a few people who before that night I had only ‘met’ via Twitter too. But of course next time I go to one of these things, it would be nice to be in the running for a pencil.

I can dream can’t I?

This week’s Friday Fix comes courtesy of Idan Friedman who has produced a series of relief portraits in foil pie tins and the like. Lovely. More here…

Just saw it over at The Whistling Duck and liked it, that is all.

In case you ever wondered how it’s done, here’s how the big boys put together an integrated brand experience.