Designed by Ludvig Bruneau Rossow

Have you ever considered the importance of graphic design in a post apocalyptic scenario?

This reflection seems to be the starting point for Ludvig Bruneau’s graduation exam project of rebranding FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA’s mission is to support citizens on hazardous situations, such as terrorism and natural disasters.
With an open mind about climate change issues, the concept is life in 2030 on the eventuality of an Ice Age.

I love this timeless minimalist approach with emphasis on a very clear pictogram and color system.
It clearly seems designed to make things such as basic provisions unmistakably clear.
And imagining how life in such a situation would be, clarity itself would probably be the most thing for graphic design.

David Mendes
Ideas on Design

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Bureau Bruneau
FEMA

All images are intellectual property of Ludvig Bruneau Rossow | Bureau Bruneau

Designed by Transformer Studio

“Just Moved is one of Canada’s cheapest full service local and national residential moving companies.”

“The goal was to create a brand identity which reflected ease of movement and affordability.”

With this in mind, the inspiring guys at Transformer Studio have designed a smart identity system based on a very simple but memorable concept: From A to B.

The brandmark depicts this very basic idea of moving from one point or place to another, as you would draw on a mind map.
The black color together with the hand drawn feel of the letterforms resemble the markers used to write on those familiar boxes everyone uses when moving.
The identity system, solid in concept but flexible enough to adapt itself to different medium sizes.
Approachable, friendly but straight to the point.

David Mendes
Ideas on Design

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Transformer Studio
Just Moved

All images are intellectual property of Transformer Studio

Designed by Adobe Desktop Brand Team

An avid user. In denial fan.
That’s how I’d describe my relationship with Adobe.
Personal quests aside, finding “Inspire” had a major impact on my consideration of the software giant.

“Inspire” is a publication from the Adobe Experience Design team. Articles range from interesting topics such as ‘Personalization and the Anti-Brand’ to the contemporaneity of ‘The Multiuser era’. Anyway what surprised me the most was an article giving insights on the process of designing Adobe CS5 graphic system.

I always questioned myself about the agency or agencies that were behind the successive rebrands of Adobe’s products.
From splash screens to application icons. The desktop brand team are the guys responsible for all the branding that you see everyday while using Adobe’s products.
From the he beautiful iconic Botticelli’s Venus, the rich nature inspired illustrations on CS2 to the simple and systemic two letter mnemonic on the CS3 (that in someway reflected the need for an extensible system).

On the CS4 there wasn’t much change. With CS5 on the other hand there was the need to move small steps away from the minimalist approach back to a slightly more dynamic and artistic one.
I like the end result. From the lithographic inspiration on the UI to the Aicher inspired grid that defines the splash screen shapes, this new system adds these little sparks that pleasantly revive the old artistic approach of Botticelli’s and rich illustrations, while retaining most of the essence of the CS3 and CS4 system.

David Mendes
Ideas on Design

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Adobe
Adobe Inspire

All images are intellectual property of Adobe

Designed by Airside

In fact it immediately reminds me of Animal Planet logo. But this one on the other hand has a great concept and consists on a perfect example of a well executed non-conventional identity system.

Instantly suggesting the idea of patches of field, this project has to do with Greenpeace opposing the use of fields in the expansion of the Heathrow Airport.

I also love agencies that willingly open up and share public insights on the design processes that got them to the end result. It definitively helps the design community overall, educating designers, students and clients as well.

“BRIEF
In 2008 Greenpeace launched a campaign opposing the construction of a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport. A major element of their protest involved the clandestine purchase of land within the airport’s proposed expansion zone and then inviting Greenpeace supporters to become beneficial owners of this property. The project was named Airplot.
Under strict terms of non-disclosure, Greenpeace approached Airside to develop an identity for Airplot. Once the project went public, Greenpeace would need to attract support for their cause as well as defend itself against detractors. It would unquestionably be a highly controversial and fast moving news story, so instant communication of the principal idea was paramount.”

Air, airplanes and fields. Since it was about the land itself, the abstract representation of the patchwork rural fields as viewed from the sky makes perfect sense.
Sometimes the relation between symbols and type isn’t that harmonious. This is not the case at all.
Hand-printed letters scanned back into the computer lead to an original alphabet of blocks that perfectly blends with the patchwork fields.

This work is brilliant in two different ways:
1 – It delivers a modular and flexible logo whose readability and size isn’t totally constrained by the medium.
2 – It can transform itself into different and more complex forms, incorporating within itself core messages such as “Stop Heathrow Expansion” or “Join the Plot”.

“Fantastic news! Climate-wrecking plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport have been axed. In a huge victory in the fight for genuine action against catastrophic climate change, the new government has recognized the impact aviation is having on our climate and cancelled the project.
Which means that Airplot, the piece of land slap bang in the middle of the proposed third runway site at Heathrow, collectively owned by thousands of people from around the world, probably won’t now be needed.”

What could be better than effective results? An happy client I’d say.

David Mendes
Ideas on Design

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Greenpeace Airplot | Website
Airside

All images are intellectual property of Airside

Designed by Concrete

“Established in 1963, Pizza Nova is a family-owned corporation of over 100 outlets. While the growing chain operates in the highly competitive fast-food sector, they have never compromised the authenticity and quality of their product. As the next generation takes over the stewardship of the company, Pizza Nova felt that their existing brand identity no longer effectively represented the quality of their product.”

Concrete introduced a flexible graphic system that consists on a pattern composed by different ingredient names written on a elegant calligraphic type.
Used not only on the brand-mark itself, but also on the packaging and store’s decoration, this new element adds history, quality and some sort of artistic elegance the old logo didn’t had.

The name set on a all caps sans serif tell you they’re not small.
They’re big and serious on the art of making pizzas.

The main color remains the same.
However it’s been given a new prominence to the color green. Tomatoes, red pepper and of course, the fundamental greens.

David Mendes
Ideas on Design

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Pizzanova | Website
Concrete Design

All images are intellectual property of Pentagram

Designed by Pentagram

Amazing use of a pure grid layout system on the most recent redesign of Cleveland Museum of Art’s website.
Lisa Strausfeld and Takaaki Okada (in collaboration with Michael Bierut) designed an engaging virtual gallery where art takes the spotlight.

“Each object in the museum’s collection appears as a ‘card’ in the site’s relentless grid.”

The grid is rigid but flexible accommodating different sections with variable frame sizes and columns. The very subtle color scheme (dark grey, light blue and white) together with a sublime sense of typographic hierarchy offer a very pleasant contrast that reinforces the focus on the content.
I also love the fresh use of the identity designed by LaPlaca Cohen.

“At its most fundamental, the site functions as a catalogue of the museum’s collection of over 40,000 objects. Pieces from the collection are integrated in all sections and pages of the site, but they are the focus of the Collection section. Here users can create tags for objects, leave comments and share items with their friends via social media. Visitors can become familiar with the collections, view profiles of the curators (surprisingly few museum sites do this), check on recent acquisitions, and view “New Perspectives,” a series of videos on individual works in the museum collection.”

I’m also happy to see the social integration of the website. Twitter, Facebook, a blog, the ability to comment and engage. Great.

David Mendes
Ideas on Design

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Cleveland Museum of Art | Website
Pentagram

All images are intellectual property of Pentagram

Designed by Muggie Ramadani

Although not being totally disruptive, this rebrand marks a considerable evolution.
The old brand mark with its highly geometric lines felt static and somewhat dated for a global leader in software that protects content, digital content.

While maintaining the previous design attributes (color tone, “F” and triangular shape for the focus)
the less geometric stripe spiraling and evolving around itself is definitely more appropriate to the ambition of protecting the irreplaceable, their customers digital life. “Now and in the future”.
Terrific image style with a focus on regular people enjoying the peace of mind that comes from having their valuable information safe and secure.

David Mendes
Ideas on Design

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Muggie Ramadani on Behance
Muggie Ramadani Design Studio

All images are intellectual property of Muggie Ramadani

Designed by Pentagram

A curved line within the geometric letter “S” consists of a nice visual metaphor that clearly reflects what they’re about.
Photographic style with focus on the implants themselves suggesting clarity, confidence and reliability.

Color applied on top of the photos signaling the diversity of the offer.
The editorial style, simple on typography and honest on the message leaving room for the implants.

Simple and straight to the point.

A little background on Stanmore Implants:
“Professor John Scales was the early pioneer of replacement bones and joints affected by malignancy and other destructive diseases. To this day Stanmore Implants endeavors to continue this pioneering work and to deliver innovative prothetic solutions to orthopedic surgeons worldwide”

Pentagram’s on the rebranding:
“At the centre of Pentagram’s solution is a typographic symbol: a solid letter ‘s’ with a single curved white line down its length. This ‘implant’ is simple and unadorned, clinical and flexible. The mark has the substance to be scaled, etched small onto actual implants or applied large at conferences. It can also be used alongside a sans serif logotype, with clean lines that suggest function and reliability.”

David Mendes
Ideas on Design

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Stanmore Implants
Pentagram

All images are intellectual property of Pentagram

Designed by Attik

This slick identity designed by Attik perfectly reflects the high end design feel of the innovative amphibious Icon Aircraft. Beauty, sophistication and safety, core values necessary to appeal to two different targets: seasoned pilots and new pilots.

“The logo adopted a propeller form, symbolizing ‘air, water and sea’ speaking to the amphibious nature of the plane”

The styled propeller logo colored in a vibrant orange build up for a memorable branding of the company that’s redefining what a light sport aircraft really is.

One can see some sort of resemblance with Audi specially on the A5 symbol. However that’s not even a negative factor since Icon’s mission is to deliver an experience as enjoyable as driving a sports car.

The identity system also comes with a more corporate version, the shield version. Well the Icon A5 has a parachute. Both make sense, for safety’s sake.

David Mendes
Ideas on Design

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All images are intellectual property of Attik

Designed by Landor | Sidney

The old brand mark looked dated but wasn’t a bad design at all. Although to represent a modern city it lacked a hugely important thing. The ability to become iconic, something that the rebrand on the other hand delivers flawlessly.

The iconic “M” logo is part of a system with a lot of different versions making it not only recognizablebut malleable enough to absorb cultural, economic and political differences and represent something as rich in differences as Melbourne.

I also love how the triangular grid that is the essence of the “M” becomes a flexible device on the identity system bringing the energy, dynamism, innovation and different contexts to the supportive materials themselves.

Fresh, iconic and full of possibilities!

Now for the cons. Im not such a fan of the primary version of the brand mark, the flat one colour version.
It tremendously lacks the system’s color and sophistication.

David Mendes
Ideas on Design

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melbourne city
landor, sidney

All images are intellectual property of Landor, Sidney