My NEW Online Shop selling Graphic Designed cards.

http://www.lukewatkinson.co.uk/shop.html

Graphica - Graphic Xmas Cards

Selection of Graphic Xmas Cards, printed onto Various Luxury Card stock 
(Limited Edition)

The latest brand mascots have arrived with Vodafones new bee characters; promoting their new freebees. The computer generated bees are printed as posters and bill boards and also animated and aired on televesion commercials. The bees add a friendly, warm and humourous touch to Vodafone's branding. Once again a 'big' brand has turned towards using characters to promote their brand!

Cool Free Font

http://fontfabric.com/code-free-font-3/

Illustrator or Designer?

 

Noma Bar is a Graphic Designer. His work has appeared in many media outlets including: Time Out Londonhttp://www.timeout.com/, BBC, Random House, The Observer, The Economist and Wallpaper^{http://www.wallpaper.com/}. Bar has illustrated over sixty magazine covers, published over 550 illustrations and released two books of his work through Mark Betty Publisher: 'Guess Who - The Many Faces of Noma Bar', in 2008 and 'Negative Space'. Noma Bar is a Graphic Designer who brings into question where is/is there a dividing line between Illustration and Graphic Design.

Kobe Croquette Rebrand

Kobe Croquette have recently had a refresh with their branding. A brand with heritage, Graphic Designer Taku Satoh has created some eye-catching packaging which embodies the Kobe Croquette's West-meets East style. View the new minimalist contemporary architecture here; 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pan-o/5110844876/in/photostream/

Chocolate Pie Chart

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/11/21/chocolate-pie-chart/

New pie chart chocolate, recently featured in Wallpaper Magazine. The well designed branding and minimalist packaging to a designer would be too good to eat. Swiss influence and modern sans font and good use of white space makes this product a striking product which can be viewed here 

http://www.swiss-miss.com/2008/11/finally-a-way-t.html

http://maryandmatt.net/

The Brands are Back in town!

I have recently noticed that a bunch of brands have introduced/re-introduced characters or to promote their brand. Virgin Media have used cartoon mouse speedy as a fun metaphor to promote their fast service, Tetley's Tea have brought back the 2D animated little men, perhaps tapping into nostalgia in the tea market. And Sky have created iconic blue monsters that are reminiscent of Where The Wild Things Are and Jim Henson's puppets.

Cartoon legend Speedy Gonzales has been signed up by Virgin Media to advertise the firm's super-fast broadband packages. The fastest mouse in Mexico, famous for evading the grasp of his nemesis Sylvester the Cat, has been brought back by the internet service provider (ISP) to promote its up to 50Mb broadband deals. He will feature in a prime time TV ad campaign, and has also been immortalised in a London billboard made entirely of cheese. Ashley Stockwell, Executive Director of Brand and Marketing for Virgin Media, described Speedy as "the perfect celebrity partner" for the firm.

The reawakening of the 2D tea folk. Perhaps shoppers have craved a comeback for Tetley's 'tea folk', weeping milky tears and rocking gently beneath their tribute flat caps. But not many, surely, which makes Tetley's bid to revive the 'iconic' characters so puzzling. The Tetley Tea Folk were a group of little characters who were used for many years to advertise Tetley Tea Bags. The first advert featuring them appeared in 1973, and they were used right up until 2001 when they were finally deemed not modern enough and were dropped.

8ft blue monsters having a bath, a roast dinner and dancing in swimming costumes are the new characters used to promote Media brand Sky. Photographed by Gary Salter for WCRS, The monsters were designed and made by the Millenium team (Harry Potter, Doctor Who) who made the monsters that use animatronics to work.