THE WEEK IN DESIGN 02

Thank you all for the continued support of the review process.

It is essential to future design generation that we maintain this method of  reviewing all work

so that clear direction can develop.

Please continue to save everything generated

Some excellent work this week which should be celebrated and, as always, areas where subtle changes can bring a world of improvement to our brand consistency.

If you want to know more about the ethos of 'perfecting good design', seek out Raymond Loewy

The designer Raymond Loewy was a great advocate of this approach.  Among other work, he 'perfected the already successful logos of BP, Shell and Coca-Cola.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy

Loved the mobile timeline sequence.  Good motion, good storytelling and clear on the information.

With so many black assets, it could have done with a little more to lift the information from the background

and bring it into the brand arena we're developing.  The blue background treatment in the second frame achieves this.

Please remember the details: this is not the correct iPhone for 2007 (and it wasn't on 4G at the time as the image shows).

The triple-dip roller-coaster was great, both as an opener and as an information sequence.  It's a very clean, deceptively simple, beautiful design.

However, we need to be careful that we do not slip into territory perhaps owned by the BBC – they do a fair amount of B+W 3D, they used a red block for their budget, their colours.

A change in the colour of the block if appropriate, the addition of a blue horizon, or a subtle steel-blue treatment to the model would allow us to own this.

I know this is a concern held by many of you, so let's be careful and work out where we draw the line.

SSE utilities was great, especially for a Live Chyron.  I'd normally steer us away from the old gas ring, but the graphic treatment here is simple and clean.

It helps the brand tremendously and the information is to the fore.

We seem to always do RBS really well!  Maybe it's the colour, or the logo, but we always find a simple, consistent but different treatment to represent their information.

It helps that the logo is a natural focuser of the information, leading your eye in.

Speaking of focus, the HSE graphic was a successful sequence.  Despite still having 'real' textures, they were kept simple and unobtrusive.

It's a debate, but the focus on the information would have been helped if the textures were not so tonally similar; taking down the saturation on the browns

Would have led the eye better to the core information, but small points.  A successful animation and experience.

I like our pin board sequences; they are very usable, motion is strong and information is clear.

However, this being a trial, for this purpose, could we please look for a treatment which is more 'incident room' and less 'teenagers bedroom' 

Please con't compress the Sky News font.  It cost £20k and needs to be used correctly.

Kern, reduce, sub or redesign.

The submarine story brought a stunning sequence.  Well produced and designed, bang on brand and great storytelling.

One of the best designs I've seen this year.

Finally, huge thanks for all efforts on the Philpott trial Doco.  A great opening sequence which translated stylistically to quotes and house reconstruction.

We were clean and reverential, with the prerequisite sinister overtones.  Great connection and collaboration with Penny and her team and much of the credit is to their direction and persistence.

As always, we will debate weekly at the team meeting.

Celebrate design excellence.

Chyaz