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.…
Virginia Waters is the location of our first date nearly a year and a half ago. It’s a stunningly beautiful place steeped in history. On our date we walked for hours, laughing, chatting, smiling, and enjoying every second of each other’s company. We went for coffee and sat on a bench looking out across the lake, both quietly hoping we would meet again. Needless to…
Having worked on so many luxury design and branding projects, we’re proud to call ourselves experts in luxury branding. When I was assigned to attend a luxury exhibition, I found myself truly inspired by how differently luxury is perceived now compared to in the past. Luxury undoubtedly has the potential to unlock dreams of being somewhere else or someone else. For hundreds of years, luxury…
Here’s a little something that we came across while we were looking through our bookshelves at Grain HQ: our Cent Magazine design published in Onehundredat360°: Graphic Design’s New Global Generation from Laurence King.
Our daughter Nellie seems to share her dad’s love for signage. I am not sure whether Nellie’s Club was invented to make a sign or whether the sign was the obvious next step to tell the world about her newly formed club. Let’s see who joins and whether they want to make poshen, potions, hunt (I think that is treasure hunt) or play tennis. Oh…
I could safely make a bet on which part of this phone box is used more. I love how this iconic but now outdated object has been given new life and purpose. Many phone boxes now offer free wifi, another way to update the telecoms and communication offering. The phone box is also relevant to a hush-hush naming project we are working on at the…
Maybe I am not up-to-date with urban developments but this is a first for me. I have seen many multi-storey car parks and one looks just as sad as the next one. But this is positive urban sprawl. London has so many cyclists nowadays that they need – multi-storey bike parks. I love it. I am proud of us cycling Londoners. If you want to…
This photo is a visual tidbit from our recent visit to Kensington Palace, current home of Kate and William, to hear about the business case of the recent, uber-impressive renovation. The talk was organised by the Harvard Business School alumni club (no we didn’t go there but a friend did). Historic Royal Palaces, who also manage the Crown Jewels, have truly revealed a gem here.…
We all know that Google pretty much rules the world and that we’re very dependent on it. The very transformation of a noun (‘Google’) into a verb (‘to Google’) means that it’s important – a company is becoming an action, something that we do, and for most of us that’s something we do many times every day. So when this alert came up today, I…
I love what the guys at Animal Systems have done with Chirp by using computer generated sound bites to share information like web links, contacts and photos. Beats pairing your phone with a new acquaintance before sharing your details by Bluetooth. The opportunities for brands seem endless. As nice as the robo bird song though is, it might get a bit rowdy at a speed…
The title might be a bit of an overstatement but I am mightily impressed by the guys from Altaeros from Massachusetts. For the windsurfers and kitesurfers amongst us we all know what a boost you get from flying your sail that much higher in the air. And the way Altaeros has delivered this is nothing short of amazing. What a beautiful and innovative way of…
When websites changed in the late 90s from rigid lists of words and images to jumping balls, morphing globes and spinning logos, animated GIFs were a hot property which with very little memory demands allowed all sorts of moving things. Not always to the better as not everything was meant to be moving. Nowadays Flash has taken over for most animation purposes and soon html5…
Babybel is a long standing love affair for some of the staff at Grain – since their early childhood as a matter of fact. But this now is almost too much of an honor. Approaching swiftly the first anniversary of the new Grain our friends at Babybel have responded with a fantastic limited edition in our honour. They got the Pantone reference spot on but…
… or how the oh-so-advanced automotive design of today requires to have a bumper (of questionable appearance) which protects the bumper from bumps. Is that right? What was that bumper for?