Have a look at our top 10 favourite design books. You’ll find Amazon links below the infographic. Do you have any books to add to the list? 1. Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler 2. Branding: From Brief to Finished Solution by Mono Design 3. Package Design by daab 4. Why Fonts Matter by Sarah Hyndman 5. Detail in Typography by Jost Hochuli 6.…
TEDxLondon “Throw those curtains wide. One day like this a year will See me right,” we sing. Hugh Montgomery The Earth will survive But we, foolish humankind Have hit self-destruct. Emily Milan Rea Iron willed teenager Leaves behind a hundred no’s To find the one yes. Ndidi Okezie Teach First: achieving equality for children in education. Shapla Salique Britain-Bangladesh: Harmonium and guitar, Vocals, folk and…
Square. Slack. Sea. These words could soon mean a lot more to you than their literal meaning. They are all on Interbrand’s 2017 list of Breakthrough Brands, the companies that are rising head and shoulders above their peers and breaking through to the level where they are soon to become household names. The 40 companies that have made it onto the list have some factors…
Mégane Osio is Grain’s intern this summer and is enjoying putting her design skills to use whilst rapidly improving her English. She is a student of graphic design at ECV Creative Schools & Community in Bordeaux, France. She particularly likes all aspects of corporate design and print, including the visual identity of a brand, packaging, typography, page layout and illustration. Mégane loves music, especially singing,…
Changing a well-established and well-known brand with all its existing brand attributes, brand promises and emotional ties can be like the clichéd oil tanker which needs a very long time to change course. There are still people who call a Snickers bar “Marathon”! It can be a challenge to say the least. But to rebrand the biggest brand you’ve never heard of, in essence an invisible brand…
It was ironic to read Cal Newport’s Deep Work on the Kindle app on my iPhone, considering that the device is full of alluring distractions. The first part of the book argues why deep, focused and uninterrupted work is valuable, with section titles including: Deep work helps you quickly learn hard things Deep work helps you produce at an elite level Deep work is rare The typical work environment…
When I’m not in the Grain office, I spend quite a lot of time painting and illustrating as well as working on self-initiated graphic design projects. My illustrations are mainly inspired by nature, people and fantasy fiction. Watercolour and chalk pastels are my favourite mediums to work with, as you’ll see. I find painting and illustrating very relaxing (when it’s going right) and if I don’t produce…
The other evening at RIBA to celebrate the launch of the new book from the Twentieth Century Society, 50 Architects 50 Buildings, four architects spoke about buildings which influenced their career. Sarah Featherstone, Cany Ash, Peter Barber and Niall McLaughlin treated us to insights on the buildings themselves, and details of how these echo in their own work. The book is by architectural journalist Pamela Buxton with photography by Gareth…
Driving Positive Change Sponsoring F1 gives brands huge exposure in Europe, Latin America and Asia combined with important (and relatively unique) access to growth markets in the developing world. The associations with speed, glamour and excitement are tempting for any global company and for FMCG brands these associations can be promoted through branding around the race tracks, TV commercials, social media, live fan experiences and…
This was the thought-provoking invitation the Grain team and I received from our Directors, prior to our summer team day out. As puzzled as I was, I knew it was going to be a lot of fun – it always is! “Meet at the V&A” was a big clue within the riddle, but I managed to refrain from looking into it, wanting to retain the element of surprise. I…
For the past 9 months I have been attempting to juggle a my job as Project & Studio Manager at Grain whilst studying a part-time Graphic Design course at Shillington College in London. It has been intense, hard work and slightly emotional, but having just graduated and still being allowed through the door at Grain, I can proudly say I was successful! Shillington focuses on teaching students how…
A New and Augmented Reality for Location Based Marketing. In its first few weeks, Pokémon Go has taken the world by storm. Tens of millions of users, impressive initial revenues and huge uplifts in share price. Marketers are keen to jump on the bandwagon and the opportunities go well beyond the traditional sponsorship business models. In fact the “cost per visit” and sponsored locations business…
We’re back at the Graduate Fashion Week (GFW) again this year with an invitation from University of East London for their final year fashion show. The collections presented throughout the show consisted of edgy and urban military reworked utility styled garments, with a clear influence from digital print. Antonia Nae’s collection stole my heart. It’s edgy and dark and yet it’s sexy and feminine. Going through…
I was recently interviewed by Managing Intellectual Property magazine, one of the leading sources worldwide of news and analysis of all things relating to IP. The interview covered many of the specialist areas where the expertise of branding agencies are important in helping clients avoid the pitfalls they might experience if they try naming and branding development in-house. It was a good interview and I was…