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.

So it’s Wimbledon time again, and as regular readers of the blog will know, as I live just down the road from the epicentre of the madness, so each year I take an extra interest in the promotional activities being undertaken.

No fancy tennis typography at the tube station this year, just a very pedestrian FedEx branding and contrived sentence (‘Live to deliver’ – Really?) accompanies the traditional grass carpet on the platform, but I did come across this from one of my favourite design companies, hat-trick. They’ve only gone and redone the Wimbledon identity…

…what I wouldn’t have given for that job! And as usual they’ve done something lovely with it.

Also Sony have reshot their famous Bravia balls ad in SW19 with, yes, you’ve guessed it – tennis balls. Apparently it’s to do with it all being filmed this year in fancy 3D-o-vision. Anyway, it’s nice, and somewhat weird to see the balls cascading down the streets in my neighbourhood.

So if you follow me on Twitter, prepare for a fortnight of cranky tourist-frustration tweets, and if you’re travelling to the tournament on the tube in rush hour, expect to encounter my tennis elbow.

It’s nice when you get the feeling a company is full of people who really like what they do. In this case it’s those Dyson boffins having fun with their new fan, a balloon and some blu-tack. As you do.

I’ve been saving this for Friday, so apologies of you’ve already seen it. When graphics and retro videogames collide you can be sure I’ll be there to post the video. It’s by Patrick Jean and onemoreproduction.

Amazing. Thanks to Afonso for the link.

I don’t get very excited about the Oscars I’m afraid. It’s all a bit GMTV for me, but this year there’s been an interesting winner in the short films category. Logorama is a 15 minute film by H5 including a mind-boggling array of (mainly American) logos used in some really clever ways. Watch the trailer above to get the idea.

Apparently it took 6 years to create, I wonder how many of the companies they were using rebranded during that time…

There’s been a bit of a row online about it, as the entire film (which I’ve chosen not to show here) was leaked and – wait for it – the film makers did not have legal permission from all the companies whose logos they’ve used, to, er, use them. People hosting the entire film, or uploading it to youTube etc are getting slapped on the wrists as we speak, but that seems a bit hypocritical – If the film makers didn’t respect the rights of the logo owners, then they can hardly complain if people don’t respect their own intellectual property in turn.

Anyway, let’s all just be friends. If you want to watch the whole thing, it’s available on iTunes, or through some tactical Googling.

I was asked to talk about significant brand this week at work. I chose Apple.

Yes, I know, I know, it’s all painfully predictable. But it’s only a predictable choice because it’s an obvious example, and it’s only obvious because it’s true. I showed the above clip which I stumbled across online. It’s Steve Jobs explaining what Apple is about. And in just over one minute, he renders flip charts and cryptic diagrams useless. Get ready to squirm if ‘dynamic’ is one of your brand values.

A little bit of me dies inside every time I see Apple used on a mood board or held up in a branding meeting, not because I don’t love it, but because it’s become a lazy cop out for people who aren’t thinking hard enough. I actually think a lot of people have entirely forgotten what really makes Apple different. It isn’t just because they have sold a lot of iPods, made computers transparent or managed to get people to spend twice as much on a laptop, it’s smaller and more straightforward than that.

Apple isn’t perfect, but a lot of what I admire about them comes down to clarity, and Steve Jobs is clearly behind that. He reinvented the company since rejoining it in 1997. He’s an inspirational guy. If you’re curious about what makes him tick, watch the speech below. He starts talking about 7 and a half minutes in.

Not every brand has a Steve Jobs, but that’s no excuse for not having vision, appetite and clarity.