Who is Banksy?

Banksy is the Ned Kelly of graffiti artists. His work is not simply the 'tagging' style that you'd expect – he creates provacative and inspirational street art – and has done his damnedest to keep his identity a secret (although there's a few unconfirmed shapshots on the net). His infamy is now translating into fame since showcasing his work at the Bristol museum (under a shroud of secrecy) and now releasing his film called 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. You can see his work here. Movie and museum preview below.

The Purring Peugeot

Puegeot has been around for 200 years, dabbling in everything from saw blades, to coffee grinders, to bicycles and automobiles.

Their lion symbolism which stems from the coat of arms of their family birthplace (Franche-Comté), has also been around for 200 years. The execution of their logo has evolved a number of times, whilst the concept has remained the same.

And now we have the latest reincarnation of their beloved lion, designed by BETC Design in Paris. My initial reaction was quite positive, but now it's more of a 'meh' response. The icon is more contemporary, and I think the squinting eyes, angle of the nose and mouth, the chrome-mimicking gradients and the font are all improvements.

What I don't like are the clawless paws, the bear-suit body and the Simpsons style feet. All lacking in aggression and illustrative style. I hate that the lion head reminds me of the Holden logo. They've also adopted the line 'Motion & Emotion' which is reminiscent of the Mercedes E-class ads which were 'E-motion'.

Below is a 'dramatic' video of the evolution of their logo. And also their new (and pretty cool) ad which adopts the same heritage concept.

Behind the scenes

Just a few crew shots from our Mirvac photoshoot in December 09. Campaign will be launching in early Feb 2010.

Head of the Asylum

Chris Lee is my favourite designer at the moment (by far). His work is intelligent, challenging, creative and inspirational. His Singapore based company, Asylum, is a design studio, retail store, workshop and record label. He is a bit of a RockStar apparently, and has mastered the art of creativity, purpose and aesthetic precision across multiple disciplines.

"An art director is an overpaid designer hence a smarter one. A branding agency is a design agency that realizes that they are not very good at creativity so they have to write a lot of justification to make insecure clients feel that their money’s well spent." – Chris Lee

Serious Play

I'm a massive fan of TED. If you ever find yourself eating lunch at your desk, try to forgo the news site or facebook for 20 minutes, and find a presentation on TED, on a topic you're interested in. There are some real gems. I've posted this because I think Stuart Brown has touched on a compelling subject (especially for design and creativity), linking the idea of 'play' to problem solving and human interaction. Considering the content, his delivery is quite bland, but nonetheless interesting.

Typographic Conundrums

A new book by Harry Pearce that looks somewhat entertaining. If only for an hour or so. What I do find interesting is his self regulation on the design of his new book: 1 Box, 2 colours, 1 typeface. That's it. For 176 pages. Hopefully the ideas are strong enough to ensure this book is not just another example of a self indulgent designer amusing himself... ie not like me and this blog :)

True Blood

I'm not particularly a fan of the show, but I do love the opening credits. The imagery, transitions, typography and even the music had me drawn in from the first second.

The MINI Creative Challenge

Not a bad way to win $5000 and get your ad concept into Creative Mag. More details / entry form here.