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YES!

There’s something about this design that just makes me feel good. It’s inspiring, bold and seems like it will get you working like a bull in a china shop. It may be simple but that’s exactly why it’s so charming. YES by Build is part of their ‘print on-demand’ collection and was designed by the talented Michael C. Place.

Also, check out the rest of Build’s print on-demand collection as it’s equally as bold, fresh and wonderful!

I can’t wait to order one for my studio and if you’re just as taken aback by this great poster, click here to get one for yourself!

Pinterest

Why I’m in Love with Pinterest

Being in the creative industry, it’s no surprise that I’m an extremely visual person. I love images and am constantly searching for new inspiration. Lately I’ve fallen head over heels in love with Pinterest, but there are a few things that concern me. Like why retailers and brands aren’t embracing this tool by persuading and engaging with consumers?

If you’ve got a product to sell and you’re looking for somewhere fantastic to showcase your creations, I strongly suggest setting up a profile on Pinterest. In my opinion, it’s the most interesting and engaging platform to display products through, as mood boards attach a feeling to your merchandise instead of just plain showing customer what you’ve got to offer. For example, some clothing brands are taking full advantage of this by creating different boards for various occasions such as weddings and holidays, and accompanying different looks with a variety of accessories and locations to inspire customers and lead them to purchasing products.

Personally, I use Pinterest to build my brand identity and my various boards represent my personality and values as an art director and designer working in London. I pin images that inspire me and influence my work. I find tons of images in the things around me, like coffee shops, packagings, graphics and signage. Luckily for me, London is full of inspiration and that’s one of the reasons why I love living and working here.

Pinterest also creates conversations between like-minded individuals and can be used as a powerful word of mouth tool. It can generate interest in your work and get people talking about your brand. Content is shared among friends, networks and clients, making it my favourite social media platform by far.

What do you think of Pinterest? Tweet me at @MarioAntoniou1 and follow me on Pinterest to share in my inspiration at www.pinterest.com/marioantoniou

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Love it: New iOS 7 Design

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for most of this week, you would’ve already heard about yesterday’s Apple announcement at WWDC. This time the geniuses at Apple HQ previewed the new iOS 7; a sleeker, sexier design that I absolutely love.

We all knew Apple would come up with an OS to follow the ‘flat design’ trend, and after spending some time reading reviews and opinions from people in the design community, I’ve noticed that opinions are definitely still mixed! Some are outraged and some of you are utterly in love with the new design. I’m definitely leaning towards the latter side! I love that they’ve moved away from the dated skeuomorphic design and the opening statement at WWDC really made a lot of sense. Too many features can clutter any design, and focusing on distilling and creating a cleaner interface is a trick we can all keep in mind when designing.

I can’t wait to get my hands on this piece of tech when it’s released later this year! Steve Jobs would be proud.

Now that you’ve heard my opinion, what’s yours? Let me know on Twitter.

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Visuelle Paper: Edition One

David Bennett’s Visuelle.co.uk is a great source of design inspiration and features some great examples of creative excellence, but now he’s created a printed booklet to feature some of the fantastic work that’s been showcased on his site over the past year. Edition One features 28 pages of beautiful work from Stockholm Design Lab, Build, Six, Manual, Bibliothéque and more.

Pick up your own copy here and start your collection.

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Fontsmith’s FS Emeric

If you love typography as much as I do you’ll adore the new typeface from Fontsmith, entitled FS Emeric. The campaign for FS Emeric was constructed by design studio Believe in and consisted of a great type specimen booklet and a collection of studio posters from some amazing studios like Pentagram, Build, NB Studio, Hey, Bibliotheque and Non Format. Each poster is an example of design excellence and uses one specific weight of FS Emeric. The hand numbered, screen printed posters have a limited run of 50 and are a must-have for any typo-junkie, like myself.

I love bold lettering and simplistic design, and FS Emeric combines those two aspects into one grand and modern typeface. Well done on your superb creation, Fontsmith!

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I’m Not the Only Creative in The Family

Over the past few months I’ve been sharing, tweeting and commenting on some fantastic work from people in the industry, but embarrassingly enough, I’ve forgotten to mention a creative that’s close to home; my cousin John Yianni.

In 2006 John set up the hugely successful design agency in Amsterdam called YYDesign. YYDesign focus on fashion and sportswear, working on apparel graphics, brand identities and art direction for clients from Nike to Adidas to Asics and Hummel. It goes without saying that I am a massive fan of his creative direction and particularly love the abstract designs and well planned randomness.

Although John’s work is a million miles away from the corporate and regimented style of the work I produce, that is probably why I am so drawn to it.

Take some time to look over his work this week and let me know what you think via Twitter. Check out www.yydesign.nl and get inspired!

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Pick Me Up Exhibition at Somerset House

Last Friday some friends and I decided to pop around to The Pick Me Up exhibition at Somerset House for a glimpse at the work of the design industry’s elite. Colleagues in our industry had tons to say about the exhibition and it definitely was worthwhile seeing. It’s even been dubbed ‘The UK’s original contemporary graphic arts festival’ and judging by the level of design excellence we encountered there, I can see why!

Although we all agreed that this year didn’t quite match up to the extremely high standards of last year’s superb exhibition, it was a great chance to enjoy an exciting and diverse mix of quirky workshops. Plus it’s a great place for an inspired conversation over a pint or two!

Unfortunately, the exhibition ended last week, but you can still pick up some great stuff over at their webstore.

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BVD’s Latest Identity

BVD, a Swedish advertising company, have an innovative identity which they express through a great website using mobile optimization. The change of identity came last year when they appointed a new CEO and installed a new Chairman of the Board. They had this to say about their latest identity: “Our new iden­tity reflects our ambi­tions och rep­re­sents our qual­ity stan­dards in all parts. Now we have a dis­tinct logo with clean, geo­met­ri­cal lines. A logo that stands out, that is use­able in all medias and, of course, eas­ily rec­og­nized. Sim­plify to clarify!”

The above photo is of their simplistic stationary that manages to convey the company’s entire identity in one photo.

I’m definitely a fan of what these guys have done and can’t wait to see what they produce in the future.

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Munich ’72 – Otl Aicher

Over 40 years ago, Atl Aicher and his team brought the 1972 Munich Olympic Games to life with their bold and beautiful designs that became the revolutionary identity system for the Munich games that it is today.

Last year UCA Canterbury in the UK celebrated his iconic work by hosting an exhibition of posters, informative designs, pictograms and a range of print and promotional materials from the 1972 Olympic Games. The exhibition was held at the Herbert Read Gallery and if you were lucky enough to see this great exhibition, comment and tell me all about it.

For more photos from the exhibit, click here.

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Herb Lubalin: American Graphic Designer 1918 – 1981

If you’re a fan of American graphic designer Herb Lubalin, or just a fan of superb graphic design in general, you’ll love this gem from Unit Editions. This limited edition monograph features the works of Lubalin from 1918 to 1981 and covers the beginning of his advertising career, all the way to his status as one of the most influential designers in history.

It’s a great addition to any designer’s book collection and makes a perfect coffee table book for the reception area. You can get your very own copy here, for a cool $140.

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Braun’s TG 60 Tape Recorder

Braun really went above and beyond with this minimal and beautifully designed tape recorder that has even inspired designers at Apple. If this tape recorder looks familiar, it may be because it inspired the design for Apple’s popular podcast app. It definitely is a beautiful piece of hardware that I’m sure every design buff would love to have in their homes.  The TG 60 just proves that all you really need is a sharp, simple design to really wow people.

We can’t wait to see what else Braun has up its sleeve!

 

 

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Zurich’s Armin Hofman – Farbe Exhibition

If you happened to be in Zurich during 2012 and you didn’t check out the Armin Hofmann – Farbe exhibition then I’m sure you’re just about ready to kick yourself. The exhibition ran from August to September 2012 at Galetie Susanna Kulli in Zurich and featured a whole portfolio of silkscreen prints. Hofmann used the prints as a chance to focus and experiment with colour and I love the final results. These might not be what you’re used to seeing from Hofmann, but the prints that were created from 1989 up until 1999 are definitely worth doing some research on, if you’re a fan of his interesting use of colour. You might just find yourself staring at these designs for hours on end!

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Posters within A Poster – Wim Crouwel

I just came across this lovely collection of posters within a poster and couldn’t wait to share it. The poster features designs by the legendary designer  Wim Crouwel and was released to coincide with the Wim Crouwel exhibition entitled ‘Wim Crouwel – A Graphic Odyssey’ that was showcased at The Design Museum in London during 2011.

The poster also includes text by Adrian Shaughnessy, in case you were wondering!

If you love this poster as much as I do, you can purchase a copy over at Print Process.

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Navy Signal Prints

If you’re a fan of geometric design and minimalism like I am, you’ll love these new prints from London designer, Hana Tanimura. The set of prints designed around the international maritime signal flags are available as high-quality Giclée prints on 310gsm Hahnemúhle German Etching paper. Each print is signed and numbered and is part of an edition of 20. They are available in A2, A3 and A4 sizes. These are perfect pieces of artwork to add to a simple décor and will create a bold focus piece for an otherwise bland room.

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Working With DMWorkroom In Marketing To Boutique Hotels

Really excited to be working with Denis Mallet at DMWorkroom. His knowledge for typography, the latest printing methods, quality, functional graphic design is unbeatable! I’m also hoping his knowledge on coffees from around the world will also rub off on me.

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3rd Meet Up For London Graphic Designers At The Kemistry Gallery

Went along to The Kemistry Gallery in Hoxton on Saturday to catch Mr T: The Posters of Jerzy Treutler – a celebration of Treutler’s work from the 60s & 70s, and classic Polish poster design. The exhibition marks his first solo show in the UK and the gallery proudly presented a selection of over forty of his prints, including classic film, sport and event posters. It was so inspiring on so many different levels from grids and structure to colour and typography… and illustration.

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Print Sample Review

There may have been a huge shift towards digital in the last ten years but there’s still a phenomenal amount of graphic talented designers with a real understanding and appreciation for quality design (hopefully that will never diminish). This is a small selection of some of the print samples i have been asked to review recently.

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First Group Meet-Up for ‘London Graphic Designers’

I always love going along to the Design Museum down at Butlers Wharf, and this occasion did not disappoint. The ‘This Is Design’ exhibition was an opportunity to marvel at some of the fantastic iconic designs in interior, product and graphics design. Brilliant!  

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The Art of Looking Sideways

10 years ago, The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher was published, a seminal book contemplating the differences between pictures as words (and vice versa), the pleasing incongruities and “serious science” behind perception, process and the imagination that fills in the gaps. The anniversary is being celebrated in the exhibition Mind Over Matter at the Kemistry Gallery opening this week. Featured here are some of the word spreads from the book.