THE WEEK IN DESIGN 04

Hi all,

With the Funeral of Baroness Thatcher, The Boston Marathon and the explosion in Texas, it's been a busy week for all.

I could write a whole mail on the design involved in just one of these subjects, but since they have dominated the airwaves of all networks, I'm assuming familiarity

and looking elsewhere.

Concentration this week is on the 'experience graphic'; that which has a core conceit taken through to the treatment.

The Winning Mentality sequence was simple and effective, demonstrating how a core conceit can give instant indication to the subject.  It is uncluttered by erroneous paraphernalia. 

We should discuss how we can own ideas like this (in terms of treatment).

Banned singles utilises a very successful montage treatment.  A simple premise of albums and sleeves, holding imagery and information.  

Gareth has set up a variety of designer templates which can facilitate easy production of this idea.

The School holidays sequence was for me the most successful of all, moving the camera round a virtual playground, with the conceit merging the ideas of education and play.

We should be careful that the idea doesn't impinge on the legibility of information and it's possible this could benefit from a little more focus and brand awareness.

The core message here is to think is there an idea which will help me communicate the subject, story and information.

Think how much better this design could have been if, for example, the logos appeared on the vehicle, or the percentage was a divided area of the field (visualising a proportion is why pie charts work so well),

rather than a background image with text over the top.

In other news:

My favourite piece of design this week (curtesy of Celine) was Privatising Britain

Not only is this bang on brand in terms of colour, it is clean, crisp, utilises a simple subject premise, keeps the core information in clean space.  

Key to me (and lucky with our brand colours), it feels like the essence of 'British'.

Lastly, this week we began selection for Graphic of the Month. It is important that we celebrate excellence in design storytelling and to this end, there will be an award once per month

to reward the best design and production collaboration.

The shortlist this month is:

Philpott 3d House 

Sam Haffar/Fiona Mackie.

Triple dip roller coaster

Gavin Green/ Naomi Kerbel

Disability allowance

Gareth Winter/ Emily Purser

Trident Submarine

Gavin Green/Nina Saada

Budget wallsAaron/Przemek/Ollie Leach.

Voting is underway in design and the results will be announced next week.

Celebrate design excellence

Chyaz