How to Identify and Work With Graphic Engineers

The following is a guest post I wrote for Jacob Cass' blog, Just Creative Design. Make sure you go back and check out some of JCD's older articles.

It is an unfortunate truth that in our society, engineers are underrated. Compared to the scientists, architects, and …

WTF Wednesday: Olympic Mascots Blamed for Natural Disasters

There's no shortage of superstitions in the world, especially in the world of sports and in the developing world. It's no surprise then that the designer of the Beijing Olympic Mascots is taking heat for his cuddling little characters are being blamed for causing last …

25 Top Advertising Icons

This one's a quick let-it-be-known post:

AOL Money & Finance has compiled a list of the 25 most memorable and icons advertising spokespeople. This list is packed full of nostalgia for a kinder, gentler time, when advertising was a sentimental craft. We welcomed these …

No Posts Today

Some days, in spite of the free time, I simply don't feel like blogging.

(which is a shame because I still owe guest posts to FreelanceSwitch, The Dieline, and Brandcurve.)

Obama Introduces Campaign Seal

In the first graphical step towards asserting his Presidentiality, Barack Obama's campaign has debuted a government-style seal to compliment the existing logos and branded materials.

The New York Times breaks down the seal, including it's Latin motto, Vero Possumus, or …

FedEx to Kill Kinko's

FedEx has announced they are to axe the Kinko's brand name. Those retail copy shops will now operate under the moniker FedEx Office, but retain the same multi-coloured asterisk logo. (which is apparently known as the "beacon") The news comes from a BusinessWeek …

The 'new' London 2012 Logo

I swear, this is not the Olympic Logo Blog, but when I say this morning that the London 2012 Olympics had an updated logo, I had to shout it out.

The new version, updated by original logo creators Wolff Olins, features the Union Jack skinned over the same crazy cubist …

WTF Wednesday: Obama and McCain Condoms

Now you can really show your love for your candidate.

PracticeSafePolicy is selling both Obama Condoms and McCain Condoms, branded with the face of each candidate and appropriate cheeky slogans.

The only question in my mind: why? Normally, I'd approve of expanding any …

Twitter: The Brand

By now, the global tech community is addicted to Twitter. Twitter handles are appearing on business cards and in email signatures, and "what's you Twitter?" is replacing "what's your email?" as the default way to get in touch with someone. It's great for a number of …

2016 Olympic Logos

Readers of this blog will know that I love national branding and Olympic logos. Well, the 2016 finalist cities were announced recently, and so I figure it's my time to critique the logos for each bid.

Let's get right into it:

Chicago's logo, in spite of being their own …

The Lonely World of Advertising

You know those ads in Times Square? Yes, I agree, they're incredibly assenine, but they are actually a marvel of technology. If case you've never given a thought to those mammoth-sized animated screens, have a look at this video.

Can you believe that building is empty? …

Top Ten Luxury Brands

Forbes has a run-down of the ten most powerful luxury brands. The rating system here is based on brand value -- something very hard to quantify. There could be some stock market math, but really no one can say the value (in dollars) of a brand until it's ready to be …

Poorly-placed Ad: Should Obama Quit?

It's an unfortunate side-effect of web advertising: ads sometimes wind up on pages they shouldn't. The results are often hilarious, if not ironic in some other way. Today's robot-created gaffe features an add for SodaHead posing the question "Should Obama Quit?", …

WTF Wednesday: McCain steals Obama's style

Ok, so everyone's talking about Obama and how his campaign has been one of the slickest ever

I Can Haz Alka Seltzer?

It's official, LOLcats have entered the mainstream advertising sphere. This ad for Alka Seltzer turned up on Fredrik Samuel's blog. The caption actually fits in line with the whole LOLcat mode of copywriting (if I may use that term loosely). Here's a link to the …

10 Most Outrageous Airline Fees

The other day I wrote about how American Airlines has begun to charge travelers for their first piece of baggage. Well, The Consumerist went one step further and has put together a run-down of the ten most outrageous airline fees.

Reading between the lines we have to …

Learning Stuff: Dave Cross's Photoshop Seminar

I took a day 'off' to attend a Photoshop Seminar at the Javitz here in New York. Now, clearly I'm quite handy in Photoshop (still training for my ACE, btw), but I knew that with Dave Cross running the show, I was bound to learn a thing or two. And I did.

The seminar …