PACMAN. Prints available here.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS! Here is my first art print up for sale on Society6. It is a simple tribute to the boxing great Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao and is available as art prints (frame optional), canvas print, iPhone cases and skins, stationary card, hoodies and shirts (you can choose different colours but I strongly suggest you go with white!). Check it out here. Go Manny!!

A small collection of NEW new Brooklyn Nets logos by the very talented design community over on Dribbble. Yo Hov, just buy one of these designs!! I’m sure you can afford it!

The new logo for the Brooklyn Nets had all the right ideas going for it but I felt that the final design really lacked in execution, almost looking as if it were unfinished. I’ve been reading various design blogs and forums and the general response from the design community is underwhelming. Bobby Solomon of The Fox Is Black put it perfectly in this write up earlier this week.

So, along with all the other designers out there having a go (this one from a while back is wicked), here are two ‘tweaked’ versions of the new logo I did just for fun. A little bit of consideration regarding the scale of things and their spacing within the shield gives everything a bit more room to breath. The top arc of the shield has been straightened out producing a stronger shape. ‘Brooklyn’ has been incorporated into the top of the shield above ‘Nets’ so that it now makes sense when you read it. And for the word ‘Nets’ I decided to go with a font reminiscent of an earlier Nets design from the 70s to keep ties with its roots.

As you can see it’s not that much different from the actual design, but a few changes here and there can radically change the look and feel of the final product.

Now that that’s all said and done I wanna wish the new team in Brooklyn all the best and fingers crossed you guys get Dwight Howard!!

Ha!

Going to start covering (or in some cases re-covering) some of the albums in my iTunes library as a form of design exercise. As I’ve mentioned in the past I’m quite partial to a sexy tall and skinny sans serif type. Also, designing for a newsprint music magazine and having spent much time working and studying pre-press I’ve taken a liking to halftone patterns which has led me to experimenting with bitmap images and the nice patterns they make. This cover is just a simple mix of those elements. In future I’ll be aiming to try out some new things I normally wouldn’t do! 

If you’ve got a soft spot for classic pop, rock, disco, dance, funk and soul go ahead and check out this awesome set by french dj Breakbot here. And why is ol’ Rocky Balboa on the cover you ask? Well, just have a listen and find out!

Revised cover design. I think this fits the mood of the album a lot better than my original design. Higher res version for your iTunes libraries available here.

How cool and cute is this Little Printer gizmo from Berg Cloud? I could easily see this on my desk beside the computer or on the kitchen bench next to the coffee machine, ready each morning with a nicely printed news headline, daily reminder and/or puzzle. On the one hand it’s kinda useless with everything migrating to digital media. But on the other it’s still very nice to have things in print. Something tangible that you can scribble on, fold up and put in your pocket or stick on the fridge, and something inexpensive that you can leave behind for a friend or colleague to enjoy. Also, no mobile device will ever give you that same sense of accomplishment you get when you finish that challenging sudoku puzzle, or finally checked everything off that to-do list, and you screw it up into a little ball and throw it across the room and into the bin. Swish!