http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php en katie@supercooldesign.co.uk Copyright 2010 2010-03-10T11:33:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/a_new_leaf/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/a_new_leaf/#When:10:33:00Z Our latest work for Mosaic (the Campaign for National Parks project aimed at attracting an ethnically diverse range of people into the countryside) is an illustration for a forthcoming promotional event. The brief was to design something meaningful, appealing and eye-catching. Our solution? A tree, created from a range of different types of leaf, and with the Mosaic logo placed at its root. Simple yet effective. 2010-03-10T10:33:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/glasgow_style/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/glasgow_style/#When:16:53:00Z The annual Summer Eventia is a mix of keynote presentations, discussions, workshop sessions and networking activities for movers and shakers within the events and live marketing industry. We’re designing the promotional materials for this year’s Summer Eventia which is being held in Glasgow – hence the Charles Rennie Mackintosh-influenced graphics and typography. 2010-03-04T16:53:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/another_48_hours/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/another_48_hours/#When:15:44:00Z A couple of years back we put together a quick logo for Film Dash, Birmingham’s 48-hour film-making challenge. This year, organised by the fine folks at Meshed Media, Film Dash is back – bigger and better than ever and with some brand new Supercool design. The theme of the competition is ‘happiness’ so; mark March 5-7th in your diary, start thinking happy thoughts and get ready to use your time wisely; you can get a lot done … in 48 hours. Find out more at www.filmdash.com 2010-02-11T15:44:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/hop_sway_or_boogie/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/hop_sway_or_boogie/#When:11:45:00Z Last year saw the launch of People Dancing; a three-year Cultural Olympiad initiative to encourage people across the West Midlands to get involved in dance and dance-related activity. A number of People Dancing projects have already taken place (including the impressive Bollywood Steps) and we’ve just put together a leaflet which gives folks a taster of what’s been happening so far. There are still opportunities to take part in the programme – to find out how you can get involved, visit the West Midlands for 2012 website. 2010-02-05T11:45:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/imagination_in_education/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/imagination_in_education/#When:10:20:00Z Cre8us, formerly Creative Partnerships Coventry, is part of the government’s creative learning programme; designed to develop the skills of children and young people through – you guessed it – creative learning. Supercool were tasked with designing and building the Cre8us website and developing their identity from an existing logo and set of illustrations. So that’s what we did! www.cre8us.org.uk 2010-02-01T10:20:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/under_cover/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/under_cover/#When:10:16:00Z Twinfix are a leading UK designer, manufacturer and installer of polycarbonate shelters, canopies and covered walkways in places such as schools and railway stations; amongst others. We’ve recently completed a revamp of their visual identity and built a brand new website for them: www.twinfix.co.uk 2010-02-01T10:16:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/happy_half_dozen/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/happy_half_dozen/#When:08:20:00Z Despite what you may be seeing on the supermarket shelves already, this is not about Easter eggs. No – today we’re celebrating Supercool’s sixth year in business! There will be most certainly be cake (Swedish apple cake, to be precise) at Supercool HQ today and there may even be a drink or two – likely a nice, strong cuppa. Happy half dozen; and here’s to the next six years. 2010-01-19T08:20:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/well_well_well/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/well_well_well/#When:14:26:00Z Our latest work for the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) was for the launch of a brand new qualification; aimed at helping to improve health and well-being in the workplace. Softer in tone than NEBOSH’s existing promotional materials, the design style we developed was so well-received it’s now being rolled out across an array of other NEBOSH awards, certificates and diplomas. The well-being qualification was launched in Dubai earlier this month. 2010-01-15T14:26:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/seasons_greetings3/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/seasons_greetings3/#When:10:07:01Z Warmest winter wishes to you, from Supercool! Have a relaxing and revitalising break – and a happy, healthy 2010. 2009-12-20T10:07:01+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/food_for_thought/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/food_for_thought/#When:10:43:00Z Last night was the second Birmingham Chitterlings dinner; an event which is probably most simply described as a supper club for people interested in design-related things. We were thrilled to be asked by the organisers, Type, to design a piece of print for the event. The 6-page, roll-fold, DL leaflet acted as a nameplace, menu-reminder, guestlist, brief biography of our speaker – and also included some pertinent quotations … as a little food for thought! (My write-up of Chitterlings II is over on the blog.) 2009-11-20T10:43:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/university_of_warwick_centre_for_cultural_policy_studies/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/university_of_warwick_centre_for_cultural_policy_studies/#When:13:25:00Z Last week I was at the University of Warwick to talk to a group of MA students at the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies. Focussing on fields including Arts Management, Cultural Policy and the Creative Industries, I was invited in to give some industry perspective on things and talk about my background, Supercool and issues surrounding running a small creative agency. Having been slightly dreading the prospect of having to talk about myself for 45 minutes it actually went really well. Nobody dropped off to sleep and most people responded well by asking some tough questions. In fact having rushed over to Warwick straight from a pitch, I found the students’ questions were far more testing than any potential client. Issues ranged from creative sign-off, budget approval, business planning and cash flow. Hopefully everybody learned as much out of it as I did. Thanks to Dr Jonathan Vickery [Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies] for inviting me in, and everybody who listened to the talk and managed to remain looking interested, I really enjoyed it. 2010-03-01T13:25:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/a_message_from_sophie/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/a_message_from_sophie/#When:13:35:00Z I’ve spent my winter in Birmingham. It was an exciting opportunity for me to go abroad as an intern. Why not? Besides from experiencing being a graphic designer in the real world, I get to discover a whole new country! I just couldn’t let that chance pass me by. James and Katie really made an effort to make me feel welcome. For instance getting my own orange office chair! Sadly I couldn’t fit in in my suitcase! My main project while staying at Supercool was branding the Library of Birmingham.* I was also lucky enough to be invited along for the lovely Chitterlings event with other interesting local creative people and John Berry, who works for Microsoft. That was a really great evening. I also joined in on a couple of the Likemind events, where I met new people from Brum. I have learnt a lot both as a person and as a graphic designer and gained new confidence in myself. Thanks – it’s been supercool. Sophie (Sophie’s internship at Supercool ran from November 2009 until February 2010. She is a final year student at Skolen for Visuel Kommunikation) * A project based on a recently circulated tender brief – KP 2010-02-25T13:35:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/an_olympic_first/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/an_olympic_first/#When:13:10:00Z The logo for the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Russia in 2014 has the first ever Olympic logo to include a web address. 2010-02-19T13:10:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/font_aid_update/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/font_aid_update/#When:11:41:00Z The ampersand font, Coming Together, that we contributed to a few weeks ago is now on sale. Around 400 designers (some listed above!) from around the world took part in producing this cross-platform OpenType glyph font, and all the money raised from the sale of the font is going to help the relief efforts in Haiti. You can buy Coming Together from the following places now – Veer, Ascender Fonts, FontShop – and from MyFonts later this week. (Ours is the zero, by the way!) 2010-02-17T11:41:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/love_letters/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/love_letters/#When:14:15:00Z Did you know there’s more than one Chinese character for ‘love’? The characters for ‘lovey-dovey’ love and ‘friendship’ love have a fairly similar design – but the former includes the representation of a heart within the centre of the character. Lovely! Have a happy Valentine’s and Chinese New Year this Sunday. 2010-02-12T14:15:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/font_aid_iv_coming_together/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/font_aid_iv_coming_together/#When:13:25:00Z I follow Ellen Lupton on Twitter (@ellenLupton) so saw a recent tweet of hers about Font Aid IV: Coming Together. The US-based Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) are putting together a font made entirely of ampersands, designed by loads of different designers from around the world. (Hence it’s name, Coming Together.) They’ll then sell the resulting font via MyFonts, with all proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders who are one of the many organisations helping out in Haiti at the moment. SOTA are on the hunt for submissions at the moment, so I had a go … My contribution is based fairly closely on the ‘et’ from which the ampersand shape derives and is (loosely) made up of a heart shape and a kiss. Ahhhh! I tried to make it simple but with a bit of thought behind it – though only time will tell if it’s good enough to be part of the font or not. If you’ve got the mad Illustrator skillz, why not spare half an hour or so to create an ampersand? Here’s what you need to do to take part: > Submit a black and white “ampersand” icon. > It should be a vector image file, not a bitmap. > Keep it simple, not too crazy. > Send it in EPS format to by 01/29/10. (Remember to check back on MyFonts and buy the font once it’s ready!) 2010-01-23T13:25:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/thinking_backwards_and_upside_down/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/thinking_backwards_and_upside_down/#When:10:03:00Z I’m working on a project related to typography and patterns at the moment and, following a period of “Errr, where am I going to go with this?!”, I decided to link the two subjects by concentrating on palindromes. Incase you’re not sure what palindromes are, they’re words or sentences – sometimes number sequences – in which letters (or numbers) appear in the same order when read forwards and backwards. Generally they ignore any punctuation marks, spaces and/or capitalisation. The palindrome example that immediately jumped into my head (as it’s fairly logical too, making it extra-clever) is: A man, a plan, a canal – Panama. Neat. Further research into wordy patterns also led me to look at ambigrams. The Wikipedia entry on which reads “An ambigram is a typographical design or artform that may be read as one or more words not only in its form as presented, but also from another viewpoint, direction, or orientation.” So, there you go. I like the style of this example; and for some reason it really tickled me that it’s over a century old. Early ambigram by Mitchell T. Lavin, published in The Strand, June 1908 2010-01-19T10:03:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/sounds_of_supercool_5/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/sounds_of_supercool_5/#When:14:45:00Z This afternoon, in tribute, we’re listening to Lhasa de Sela. A talented lady. RIP. 2010-01-15T14:45:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/silver_screen_gold/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/silver_screen_gold/#When:17:27:00Z Earlier this year we did some design work for the premiere of Land Gold Women; a feature film tackling the controversial and emotive subject of honour killings. The premiere was organised by Rewired PR and held at Cineworld in Birmingham – the perfect location as the film was shot here in Brum. We’ve just learned that Land Gold Women has won the FCA (Foreign Correspondents Association) Purple Orchid Award for Best Film, and was a joint winner in the Best Script/Screenplay category at the 2009 Asian Festival of First Films which took place in Singapore at the beginning of December. Fantastic news! It’s heartening that such challenging and, for want of a better word, plucky film-making is going on here in Birmingham; and even better that it’s won such positive international recognition. (Hat-tip Rewired PR) 2009-12-14T17:27:00+00:00 http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/a_local_site_for_local_people/ http://www.supercooldesign.co.uk/index.php/default/blog/a_local_site_for_local_people/#When:14:40:00Z The Created in Birmingham blog has been ‘linking up Birmingham’s artistic and creative communities’ for three years now. Three years exactly, actually – today is the site’s third birthday – and long may it continue, I say. It’s an ace resource for finding out what’s going on in and around Brum and that’s why Supercool have signed-up as a Supporter of CiB. (That, plus the promise of being sent a nice Christmas Card …) Find out how to become a supporter on the ‘Support CiB’ page of their website. 2009-12-01T14:40:00+00:00