The wonders of design blogs

The design community is a fantastically growing world to be part of, where creative directors, designers, illustrators, programmers and developers are engaged and motivated by a variety of mediums (graphics, print, digital, moving image, film, video, etc). Discovering new trends as part of our daily working hours keeps us on our toes to produce quality work. As a result, we love to share, and all creatives enjoy a debate in or outside the studio! Proud to say, I'm one of those designers who keeps a close eye on design blogs daily to see the latest creative talents, styles, design agencies, festivals, exhibitions, events, collating via bookmarks and recording in note books - never know when you’ll need a creative boost or a reel of inspirations to kick start a new design brief.  Therefore, it’s partly true to say that design recycles new ideas and concepts. It’s the nature of the game!

Engaging moment

Waste & Gringo Records presented 'Floodit', which took place on Saturday 26th September 2009 at The Art Organisation in Nottingham. This screen printing and live music event came about from a lovely find on one design blog. At first, this concept seemed too good to be true. I literally had one of those passing moments, when a comment runs through your mind. It went something like 'ooooooh nice'. With an on-going passion for mixed media arts, traditional print making, quirky illustrations, characters, typography, colours, textures, paper stocks and meeting new creatives, it wasn't to be missed.

It featured work by Partchimp, Souvaris, Bad Guys, Guilty Parents, Julie West, Stu Subism, Waste, N4T4, Philth, Chris Balwin, I Dress Myself. Excellent line up of the juiciest creative talents in and around the East Midlands.

Design is an exciting passion and full of adventures

To be welcomed by a ticket seller who was munching away on a sizable plate of food was interesting to say the least. Stepping into the venue my eyes instantly lit up; the smell of fresh inks, screens lined up in a row, squeegees in full swing, a growing crowd and the start up of various rock/indie bands (rather loud and caused a slight ringing sensation in my ears the next morning – some good tunes in between though. Unfortunately, didn’t catch names as I was too busy exploring the designers’ techniques). Particularly liked how music tracks reinforced the surrounding mood, as it complemented the traditional hands-on nature of screen printing well.

Happily walking around and checking out the screen printing action, I got talking to designers and enjoyed finding out more about their styles and influences. Brilliant! From screen printing on kitchen towels, paper, T-shirts and bags, the possibilities were endless with this bunch.

It was only when I got a bit of fresh air outside, I soon found myself talking to two young graphic design graduates. The conversation flowed nicely between drinks, sharing stories, experiences of new ventures, university and keeping in design mode through the recession. As they were waiting for their screen prints to dry on the floor, my eyes kept peering over as I recognised the illustration style - it was indeed Jon Burgerman (at this point, I didn't get to make the full rounds to see all the designers - volume of people - and unaware of Burgerman's presence). 'Yeah, Jon Burgerman's here, have you seen him?' said one of the graduates. I had to ask again to be totally sure. My expression and response was priceless, so I have been told. Finally plucked up the courage to speak to Burgerman. This was one of my highlights of the night, having followed his work since university. Great, down-to-earth guy, with lots of creative flair. Open to talk to about his new projects. Also, happy to buy one of his screen prints, get a hand-drawn illustration of myself and a friendly message. The smile on my face only got bigger.

Living and breathing visual eye candy everyday

In this case as well as previous experiences, it proves that the nature and functionality of design blogs strike the right chord in creating awareness, advertising and inspiration to all beady-eyed designers. For me, such websites have opened doors, introduced mediums that motivate me to explore different projects and encourage me to move out of comfort zones.

Always keeping eyes and ears open

We at Alight are definitely looking forward to Floodit four. Having heard events one and two were such a success, I am sure we will be in for another dose of quality designers working their magic, in the next couple of months. I will keep you posted.

Kellogg's Vs Post

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago during the depression of America in the late 1920’s there were two main brands of packaged cereal, Post and Kellogg’s.

When the depression hit no one had any idea what would happen, as the concept of ready to eat packaged cereals was still a relatively new market and perhaps more of a luxury item when placed next to the more traditional cereals of the day such as oatmeal and cream of wheat.

Post went ahead and did what most companies tend to do when things get tough and predictably reigned their expenses and slashed their advertising budget.

Interestingly Kellogg’s looked ahead and doubled their advertising spend, they came up with the Snap Crackle and Pop campaign for Rice Krispies and aggressively marketed all their brands across the country, by 1933 Kellogg’s became the industry’s leader, a position they have maintained to this very day.

How to stand out

When everyone is advertising at full throttle it can be very difficult and expensive to stand out from the crowd. When everyone has reigned in their advertising, you can get a huge return on investment, and if done properly with a full service design agency it could be the safest bet you ever made.

So are you a Post or a Kellogg’s?

Are you ready to rush out, start advertising and marketing your way out of the recession, well if not, you should be. A study of advertising during the recession of 1981-1982 revealed those companies who  maintained or increased their advertising budgets grew precipitously over the next 3 years compared to those companies who had slashed budgets and enjoyed only marginal improvements. 

It is true that recessions usually make the strong stronger and the weak weaker. The weak will focus on surviving, and while money in the bank certainly helps in these leaner times, its the bold ones who can establish themselves as market leaders even leap-frogging their way to the top!

So which are you, or should I say which will you be?