Saturday, 8 February 2014

AIS: $500,000 rebranding

I saw an article about the rebranding of the Australian Institute of Sport logo on the ADGA website. A huge question mark has been placed by commercial media on the price tag of the new corporate identity. A massive $500, 000 fee was charged for the project, seeing a more sleek and professional identity for the company. The AIS and AGDA alike, defended the cost, explaining that it now opens doors to more investments - including internationally, as their previous logo was outdated and the branding did not reflect the excellence for which all of their athletes strive to reach.

The five lines curve like a ribbon into the shape of Australia. The lines are said to represent the core values of the AIS being sport and movement. They are also meant to reflect the lines of a running track, or swimming lanes. The red and blue of the old logo designed by a student in 1981 has been ditched, and they have donned a more fitting gold to represent the victory which they strive to achieve. I tried to find out who designed the new branding system, but unfortunately that is yet to be commented on in any of the articles which I found - for such a large scale rebranding project this itself seems a little strange.

Despite the cost provoking much heated debate and many slandering words, the branding itself has been well received. Though the previous branding - which was chosen from a design competition and showed an athlete holding hands above their head in victory - may have been relevant when it was first created, 33 years is a long time to use the same identity and to expect it to continue to be successful.

The new branding helps to make the AIS seem more prestigious, modern and strong.



Image take from the AGDA website. 
http://www.agda.com.au/news/national/1836/the-ais-rebrand---clinton-duncan





Gold lettering: Play

Next in the series, a timely reminder: Play



Simple, Cool & Crafty: Studio Inherent

It's simple, cool and it's crafty. A set of promotional business cards and postcards for their own business; these sleek little numbers have a polished rawness to them which is refreshingly cool. Studio Inherent are doing it right.






Friday, 7 February 2014

Perfume Crush

I was walking through a department store. It was a dangerous decision. I stopped and smelled the flowers, and now I want to take them home with me. 


Wednesday, 5 February 2014

You Only Live Once

After 12 long hours with the electricity out (little did I know another 26 were to follow...) I decided to preoccupy myself with something a little bit more crafty than staring at the wall. For a while now I've been wanting to play with gold foil paper and cut out letters, so when the opportunity presented itself (and the alternative was not quite as endearing) this time I took it. 

This is the first one I have done so far - a series which I will develop over time of quotes and words or anything that makes sense to me. Each letter has been traced from Helvetica Bold print outs and then painstakingly cut by hand. 

Photo below. 


Monday, 3 February 2014

The Hipster's Choice: Horner & Pratt

HORNER & PRATT
When all of my friends from varied groups begin to tell me about the same café, I know it’s time to go and see what all the fuss is about. I had Saturday off work and decided it was time to venture into the unknown, to a café which I had heard a lot about but had never been to. Horner & Pratt, situated on East Terrace with a surprisingly small street presence is not one to take your grand parents to – nor should you attend in your Lorna Jane or Nike clad workout gear, more specifically post-workout covered in the sweat from your greedy consumerist body.   

What it is though, is a small and under-spoken eatery in a prime location of the city, situated across from the beautiful parklands. Their breakfast menu consists of burritos, burgers and other delicious breakfast-like items. Though their staff appear to be in the elite levels of hipstertown – hipster to the bone and then probably more – they are also efficient and work together to make a great team.

After waiting for the customer before me to finish with their order, I went ahead to order my soy flatwhite. While I awkwardly stood in the albeit small and unreachable corner of the store, waiting for my take-away coffee, I made sure to give my toughest facial expression possible. Lions don’t listen to the opinions of sheep, I muttered to myself over and over, as I wished I had arrived wearing something different – perhaps even, pajamas would have been better. Perhaps even, my dad’s gardening clothes. Lions don’t listen to the opinion of sheep, I continued, trying to stand in the most nonchalant way possible.

The coffee was sweet and delicious, the wait wasn’t too long, and I think I can speak for myself and the staff members in saying that it was a welcome relief when I finally left. While the store was every little bit hipster but in no way a bad place to dine, an outfit change would certainly be required before returning again. I didn’t manage to catch the brand of the beans nor the soy milk (probably due to the repetition of my new mantra), but I can tell you that the coffee was great and I believe the milk to have been Bonsoy – the best soy. The bean had a little bit of tang to it, and although the milk was a smooth consistency and very well frothed, it could have ideally been hotter than what it was. The final score for a soy flat white at Horner & Pratt is a 7.5/10 – perhaps even an 8 if we exclude the lions and the sheep.


Horner & Pratt are located at 31 East Terrace, Adelaide.

Sunday, 2 February 2014

Photos: Milk Dispersing into Coffee

It was pretty hot in Adelaide today. In fact, the last I heard it got to a massive 44.9 degrees (celsius). I work inside of a shopping centre, and due to the heat everyone flocked to the store and I was unexpectedly called into work.

As I stood there, making coffees and watching the coffee shots mix with water, or milk mix with coffee or sometimes even coffee into milk (ala iced coffee way), I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the way that one item disperses into the other. There is something so magical about the way they mix together, that can only be experienced with your own eyes (or in this case, by way of a camera lens).


I decided to take some photos of it, so that I could capture the moment and have it to keep and share with everyone else.