hi interwebs… you’ll find fred’s blog here from now on.
see you there!
love this take on the keep it simple, stupid principle of effective brand management:
Don’t expect your audience to give your product even a moment of thought. We’re all too busy for that. Instead, go the other way. Limit what you say to one spectacular thing about what you offer. (This of course necessitates doing one thing spectacularly.) If you need to write more than a sentence to do this, you might be in trouble. Smart people can make complex things seem simple; it goes the other way, too. When you make things complicated, you scare people away. The best plans and brands can be explained quickly without added verbiage, complexity or defense.
from eric karjaluoto’s new book, speak human. you can see excerpts here (chapter 1) and here (the 10 commandments of branding).
so i asked for a subscription to uppercase journal for christmas and lo and behold, look what showed up in my mailbox today. sorry, mum, i think the surprise is ruined! but thx so much. this publication is delicious. i can’t wait to dig in.
david airey is giving away a chapter of his new book, logo design love, for free! that’s right, PDF download, no strings attached. and aren’t we lucky that it’s the chapter on going from pencil to PDF – lots of helpful tips on the concept stage of identity design. thx david!
read more about the book/order/download the chapter here.
these screen-printed lunch sacs from bee things are just too sweet for words. didn’t stop me from writing about them, clearly. i really like the strong graphic statement. see? there? writing about them again! yeesh.
these pantone flash drives are a beaut. and they warm my “if i can just colour code things i’ll be organized” little heart. let’s see, pink for client A; blue for client B… you get the picture!
stitch your own ugly (or beautiful, if that’s your preference) holiday sweater. from the fine folks at the Kansas City Art Institute.
via pica+pixel.
i think this perpetual calendar from orange beautiful is just stunning! and a good buy at $26 (US)… letterpress quality and perpetual? yep, another gift that keeps on giving.
… lovely little christmas cheery gift wrap extras from etsy seller letter c
my friend B has several wonderful penguin classics mugs from which we drink our tea. (i’m not really a tea drinker, but somehow these mugs make tea rather yummy.) and they are oh-so-covetable.
imagine my delight to find a whole range of penguin classics items… such as espresso cups and saucers
pencils and pencil holders
deck chairs
there’s even a board game!
i found all these items at art meets matter. now i’m off to find a canadian stockist.











