Nick Meek: Photography

Nick Meek has some really great work. 

I stumbled across one of his pictures on instagram, and was captivated by the colours, composition and stillness of his photos. I only wish that he would provide some more information on himself, and each of his images through his portfolio website, because his photos have left me wanting to know more. 

Coffee Post: Le Carpe Diem

I've had to take a little break in my coffee reviews for a while, simply because I have been somewhat snowed in with assignments, projects and work of late. Also because I made the decision to finally quit soy.

As delicious as Bonsoy is, I have read too many articles stating how bad soy is for us. But of course, for the sake of consistency this project cannot work if I change the coffee midway through. So while I took a few weeks off because of my workload, it was also a great time to switch onto normal milk as my everyday vice, and I will now only be having soy when I do a review. Switching back to cow's milk was hard. Firstly there was the thought of it coming from a cow's utter, and all of the horrible reports of the dairy industry. Secondly it tastes incredibly bland compared to Bonsoy, and it took me a while to get used to coffee without the enhancement of good quality soy milk. But luckily I am no longer feeling ill when I have it so that helped with the transition. Also because in between I tried to swap onto almond milk and holy wow that is not happening.

Anyway I was able to start reviewing again when I had a morning off this past Saturday. It was a cold but sunny morning in Adelaide, and while the city looked rather empty Le Carpe Diem on Grenfell St was buzzing. 

Prior to visiting the store I thought some annoying hipster-type had thought they were being trendy by calling it "Le Carpe Diem". I was pleased to find out that it is actually owned and run by french people, and I no longer felt frustrated by the name. 

This cafe is very cute and entirely different to any of the cafes I have reviewed before. To tell the truth, Adelaide has a really high standard of cafes. When I lived in Brisbane, beautiful cafes that were decorated to a particular style or theme and also managed to produce amazing coffee were hard to come by. Adelaide seems to have really nailed this niche. Each cafe that I have reviewed seems to have picked a theme and then they have ran it the whole way through and to a very high standard from a design point of view. Not to mention the quality of the coffee I have been reviewing has made it tough to differentiate between cafes. In fact, it's sort of getting to the point where I now know of so many good cafes I have no idea which one I want to go to.

Anyway, the cafe was buzzing. The short line took a little while to get through but once we got to the counter we were greeted with a friendly French accent and our order for takeaway coffee was placed. From what I could tell of the menu, a lot of it seems to revolve around being in a strange sort of savoury crepe that looked very enticing and suspiciously delicious. I'm very excited about this because I found out that they are gluten free.

There was a short wait before I received my coffee and we continued on our way. Unfortunately they did not use Bonsoy - it tasted like Vitasoy but I cannot confirm on this occasion. Had they not been so busy I would have asked. Even still the coffee was very well made. It's strange for me to give a high rating to a soy coffee made without Bonsoy, but it was so good that I have given it a 9.

I'm looking forward to returning to Le Carpe Diem for breakfast or dessert some time. 

Design Tool: Type Connection

"A typographic dating game"

Type Connection is what I have always dreamed of. I am inherently bad at recognising type faces. It's very frustrating. It makes me feel limited by my subsequent lack of knowledge about which typefaces I like. 

I see these amazing fonts being used but am left short by my own downfalls. Sometimes, I even try to use What The Font, but mostly I quit because I find it too frustrating or it has no idea what I'm asking for.

But now Type Connection exists, things are going to change. 

What is great about this website is that even though the typographic options may be limited at this present point, it is useful and informative along the way. By using this website you will probably not only find a new font family to rely on, but you will learn about the history of it along the way. 

My only hope is that they expand this website to have more options available soon. 

Aura Seltzer created this for her thesis topic at Mayland College Institute of Art, and it seems to have been a hit on the internet ever since.

A movie for the designer: Her

Recently I picked up the Wallpaper magazine WOWA design awards issue which was actually released in February. So many beautiful things have caught my attention within it, but with so many mentions of the movie Her I had to watch it.

This movie is great. So very, very strange but good. Very different to anything I've seen before. The acting is so convincing, I can't keep my thoughts out of the futuristic world they have created and all of the set, prop and clothing designs are great too. From a design perspective it is beautiful seeing how they have dealt with all of the different pieces - from the extremely high waisted pants to the desktop systems reminiscent of a modern day Mac. They worked on the notion that all design trends rotate, so if we have recently had a love for the retro styling fetish in the 2000s, then by the time the world reaches the era that the movie is set in that would likely be back in fashion again. 

I was interested to read that the original lady voicing Samantha was cut before the final edit and replaced with Scarlett Johansson, though I must admit that this version of Samantha is extremely convincing.

For a slightly depressing but beautiful and engaging film - and most importantly suitable for you and your designer friends - I would tip off Her to be the one to watch. As long as you have 2 hours to spare and a person and/or creature to hug. 

Chain Store Crush #2: Witchery

I had a lot of views on my last post about clothes I liked from Country Road, so today I decided to continue the theme on with my favourite picks from Witchery at the moment. 

Once again with grey being one of my all time favourite colours, this season presents a dangerous temptation at every store front for me. 

See my favourite choices from Witchery this season below. 

Chain store Crush: Country Road

It has taken me a while to get into it. Or perhaps it's more that this season is their time to shine. But for whatever the reason, it is only now as I am almost 21 that I can finally appreciate Country Road. 

No longer do they seem boring and overpriced (ish). No more shall I scoff at their price tags (or at least I will keep the noises internal) and swiftly exit the store. 

At last. 

My love affair with Country Road has arrived.

This season they have so many beautiful things to offer. Check out my favourite picks of the season below. 

Packaging Design Crush: FIVE Organic Olive Oil

So beautiful, elegant and simple - and the bottle itself reflects all of these attributes too. 

In general terms I am not a huge olive oil fan, by which I mean I would never normally appreciate receiving it for a present, or even requesting it. But with a bottle and overall aesthetic style as beautiful as the FIVE packaging, I would seriously consider it. 

Poster Crush: Gravity by Kevin Tong

I had never heard of Kevin Tong before until a university lecturer introduced his work to me. 

Wow.

I think this poster is just beautiful. Created for the Gravity movie that was recently released, it reflects the concept of space by giving it no true orientation, so that it can be read multiple ways. Clever. And beautiful.

Click through here to watch his process video.

Form : Function : Existence?

I was thinking back to that design interview that I bombed out in.

At the time, I was showing the interviewer my albeit rushed portfolio, and was telling the interviewer about my smart phone app that I has designed for a project. I explained that a lot of research had gone into the topic before I decided upon it, and I explained its importance in providing a better alternative to the current for the target audience.

The interviewer asked me, "What was more important? That it looked good, that it existed, or that I worked?"

I explained that the visual form of the app was decided upon after the functions were determined, but it was not possible to separate the importance of the app to exist as well as to function, as these things were intertwined. His question did not make sense to me. There is no use in the app existing if it does not function as it should, and there is similarly no point in the app's ability to function and to improve daily life if it doesn't even exist.

I felt like I was being tricked into the age old form:function argument but this time with an entirely new element.

In any case I do not think he liked my answer, though he is notoriously hard to read.

What are your thoughts on this subject? What is more important to you, that it exists or that it worked? Or do you agree that they are inseparable elements? 

The Stool I Wish I Never Knew Existed

I stumbled across this stool while browsing the internet and now I wish I hadn't because it is so, so beautiful that no stool will ever live up to its' beauty ever again. 

Created for Stockholm Design week (why am I not in Stockholm?), this was a collaboration between Stina Lofgren (Illustrator) and Kristoffer Sundin (Product Designer). 

For your viewing pleasure below.

Show us your city type: showusyourtype.com

This is a really great idea. Designing a typographic response to varying cities in the world based on their context and particular style. Check out some of my favourite below, by varying artists available on the website showusyourtype.com

University Event Branding: Sheffield University

Check this out. Great colours and simple but effective design is used to communicate University events to students.

Makes me feel a little jealous that we don't have anything to this standard at our uni! 

Project by Karl Cox in the UK. 

A small scale city in the palm of your hand

This is the kind of idea I should of thought of. SO simple. So effective. I should start making these as presents for family members they are that easy, but they look so great.

Mini 3D sculptures of buildings. 

Props to ZUPAGRAFIKA in Poland. 

Design portfolios of the future: in the palm of your hand

Here's another app that I wish could come into development. Freelance is in the concept stages of a portfolio app, whereby designers are able to display their portfolios, and others are able to view them. 

Simple, sweet and clean. 

I also love the visual styling of their logo, which works exceedingly well with the other parts of the app.

Check it out below - here's hoping it gets developed!

Pick of the Picture Polish Range: Best nail polish colours

I will be completely upfront: I do photos for the Picture Polish brand. I have nothing to hide there.

But while I have been photographing their various colours for the last few years, there have been some stand out favourites amongst them. 

Today I am sharing a few of my favourites from their entire range, and the colours that I would wear. Although mostly I just tend to wear nude, if any at all, simply because I work in the food industry. Pictures below, all nail polishes are available on their website.

Nude, Camo, Black.

Honey Dew, Mad Magenta, Metallic Mush.

A Peak Inside My First Semester Uni Bag

Along with a much less stressful uni year ahead, below are some pictures of what my uni bag contains this semester.

Bag from Dangerfield, Frankie 2014 Diary, Pencil case, book and pens all from Officeworks.

What is a designer / design theory

This Semester is a welcomed relief. And I am saying that because partly it is the truth, and partly it is what I want to believe.

This is the first semester out of what was meant to be a 3 year design course that I will only be studying theory for. Life chucked me a small curve ball and I realised I couldn't have everything I wanted at the time - and that included studying full time. These things happen. But now I am catching up on all of the subjects that I left behind. So this year I am making up for that hiccup in the timing of my degree by taking on 3 theory subjects and one design elective.

First up I am studying a subject on design and culture, with my other subject regarding the critical practice of design. Yawn. 

But actually I really love reading and I'm slowly taking to writing so it can't be all bad. Except that I am terrified of oral presentations - however successfully I manage to hide that from the crowd - and this kind of reading generally isn't fun.

Tonight I was preparing for my first classes of the year tomorrow by doing the readings that were outlined for the week. This week they were questioning what a designer is, and how that role should be described. There were a few comments within the text that made me actually feel excited to be involved in design again, and for that I am grateful. Last year was not my favourite but I'm determined to make this one better. 

From a collection of short essays I have deducted that design is a process of active reflection and analysis that occurs at many different stages of the solution. Design is a process of problem solving, as well as it is a learning journey. This journey becomes a process of narrowing down the precise problem, and then pairing it with the most ideal partner. But these partners need to satisfy a wide range of people and factors including those of financial, technical, ergonomical, aesthetical and so on. This means that design is a process of negotiation, and this negotiation becomes like a game that you play at and put your ideas into and then gamble your time on: it is addictive. While designers should act responsibly and consider any moral conflicts, it is not necessarily fair for a designer to take the brunt of the responsibility for the overall wider implications of the final design. 

Design is a team effort involving negotiation between a wide range of parties that have been considered after an effort to match the problem with a solution that was arrived at after many evolving stages of critical and active reflection.

And yeah. Welcome to Semester One. 

Gold Letters: Latest Editions