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Curve brings you the latest international news from the world of industrial design and product development. It is published four times a year in February, April,
July and October.

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1. Commemorative launch materials for the opening of the Calleja stores

It is a source of great pride that our work continues to be validated by industry peers and more importantly, by our clients who consistently refuse to junk exciting ideas to satisfy cautious critics.

The winning work will be published in the Chinese design journal ‘New Graphic’. Edited & planned by Seecoo Culture Communication, since 2004, ‘New Graphic’ has become representative of influential design in China.

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1. Personal work influenced by survivors of the Haiti disaster

I won’t comment on the aesthetics of the new symbol, as I feel this is irrelevant. Logo design is not about ‘sexy graphics’, its purpose is to identify and (to a lesser extent) communicate, rather than decorate. Instead I will focus on the process used to commission the work – which in my opinion was flawed.

Using a ‘creative cattle-call’ to commission an identity for an important institution like the Labour Party signals contempt for the creative industry. Nothing quite demonstrates this as well as luring creative types into donating their work for free, paying what you want to pay for one (as opposed to the designer’s going rate) and keeping the rest of the entries. Furthermore, this does not seem like an efficient way of rewarding a sector that contributes millions to Malta’s economy and is bound to have many worried about the Labour Party’s vision for our industry.

Let’s forget about the rights and wrongs of it for a minute. In order for crowd sourcing to function, one must assume that the crowd contains the necessary talent to get the job done. The reality is that in Malta, even amongst people that are invested in the creative process, the pool of talent successfully creating this kind of work is very small. This is to be expected. How many truly great tenors, stand up comedians, actors and ballet dancers can be found on the island? Expecting Malta to have a surplus of brilliant, charismatic creatives is unrealistic to say the least.

Even if we assume an abundance of amazing talent, the process used would still have been flawed. You see, contrary to popular belief, any successful communications project does not begin with creativity. Creativity is a capacity for coming at problems in new ways and perceiving connections that others might miss. In order to facilitate this process, creativity must be fed by intelligence about existing beliefs and how you would like to alter them.

The submissions document for this exercise did not indicate anywhere near enough information to feed this process. It did specify that the new logo needed to retain the torch (from the old logo) as a key element. Surely this isn’t the best way to communicate change (I’m assuming this is why a new logo was required)?

Without clear messaging objectives, I’m curious about how the final selection was judged. According to the submissions document, the chosen identity had to make it through two different committees.

Ouch!

Think about all the truly great ideas that are generated in the world. Do they come from crowds? No, quite the opposite. Generally, crowds fear new ideas and take a long time to adopt/recognise them. Assuming that any of the submitted solutions were excellent, filtering them through 2 different committees and a round of SMS voting guarantees a superficial result based on personal preferences rather than substance and appropriateness.

The purpose of a committee is to make important decisions by sharing responsibilty between members. Since nobody is soley responsible, the burden of consequence of the work becomes diluted and the result is usually the lowest common denominator, rather than the optimum solution.

Creative professionals take on a responsibility to develop this type of work and must be competent enough to be accountable for it. The success of projects like this require the same responsibility on the client side. When only one side of the client/designer relationship is behaving responsibly, the work will have little chance of success.

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If you have an opinion about this, we’d love to hear from you (please use our comments form). We’re all for subjectivity but not at the expense of courtesy, respect and good manners – please keep this in mind.

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Business veterans, Chris and Aldo Calleja understood that creating an image to communicate with their customers by proxy no longer works in our web enabled, transparent society. Experience has taught them that consumers are more empowered than ever before to probe for their own truth about brands, rather than the one presented to them.

They hired Bulldog to help define relevant meaning for their startup ‘resource optimisation company‘,  to minimise the possibility of contradiction between their image and culture.

This is important because people no longer consume products for purely functional satisfaction but also, to define and maintain their identity. Proof of this meaning-based consumption is all around us. Why else are consumers willing to pay more for skin care products that are not tested on animals, cars that are more environmentally sound and wines that attest to social standing?

However, it’s not just about how the outside world will see this new company. If there isn’t a clearly identified set of core values dictating behaviour, employees tend to feel aimless and lost.

With this in mind, we defined and recorded a Roadmap that will provide the following advantages as the brand develops:

Effective planning and management. The roadmap will allow Sparkbow to chart their progress towards clearly defined business objectives, rather than just concentrating on the task of the day.

Evaluation based on objectives. Review processes for products, communication and actions will all be grounded by the same objectives and criteria – rather than individuals’ subjective tastes and personal preferences.

Communications informed by better insight. All communications to be created by Sparkbow’s advertising/design/communications agencies will be able to leverage a compelling point of difference in the minds of their audience, their unique strengths and the vulnerability of their competitors.

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To learn more about how to introduce long term effects as criteria for evaluating short term decisions, contact Bulldog at info(at)virtualbulldog.com

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The annual showcases 192 winning entries in a substantial, hard bound volume of exceptional quality, printed on Sappi acclaimed papers by Fontegrafica.

Wolda is a high-profile graphic design award scheme that rewards the best logos and trademarks designed throughout the world. The winners are selected by an international three-tier jury consisting of 10 top design professionals, 10 marketing managers from major international clients and finally 10 members of the public (provided respectively by the worldwide organizations Icograda, Aquent and Consumers International).

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Whether in print or online, Communication Arts provides new ideas and information, while promoting the highest professional standards for the field.

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1. Personal work influenced by survivors of the Haiti disaster

Authors – Larry Volk and Danielle Currier demonstrate an understanding of the need for our industry to present both creative and business facets, making it a interesting reference for professionals and students alike. You can get the full details at Amazon.com

Related works:

1. Personal work influenced by survivors of the Haiti disaster
2. New environmental graphics for Calleja’s lighting store entrance
3. Commemorative launch materials for the opening of the Calleja stores

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The first is a monogram for financial consultant, Mark Vella Bonanno. It is formed from his initials – MVB.

Gestalt Psychotherapist – Linda Åklundh approached us to create a new identity that would communicate the benefits of her new ‘business coaching’ venture. Our solution was to develop a composition of stick figures – working in harmony towards a shared goal. At the same time, the new symbol suggests the Swedish letter Å.

Of the 3, my personal favourite is a proposed symbol for the European Bully Kennel Club. It is created from 5 kennel symbols arranged in such a way that they also suggest a 5 pointed star. The identity needed to be versatile and legible, as it would also be used in conjunction with other graphic components – at various sizes.

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