Posted 2 days ago and
filed under Design

After viewing the excessively awesome new trailer for Iron Man, something struck me about the identity being used to advertise the movie.

It’s not a new idea by any stretch, but on most of the marketing you’ll just see the number 2, only the end of the trailer actually states Iron Man 2.

Keeping the same typeface and similar styling (supported by obvious imagery of course!) makes branding Iron Man 2 very easy.

All the hard work was done marketing the first film, setting up consistent imagery. Choosing the type face that would represent the film and the styles applied to it. There are many examples of this, particularly in movie posters.

Spiderman 3 used the same idea, stick with an iconic typeface and style to promote all 3 films, to the point where the name wasn’t necessary.

Now obviously the large iconic imagery on these posters goes a long way to telling the audience what this is about, but there’s lessons to be learned for the common man outside of the multi-million dollar movie scene.

If you pay attention to how consistently you’re applying your brand now, you’re putting yourself in the right place for less headaches later. Every time you use your logo, the same typeface in your documents, the same kinds of imagery in your collateral; you’re helping your brand.

Posted 29 days ago and
filed under Observations

Where does littering end and the unavoidable delivery of Toowoomba’s Mail begin?

Posted 35 days ago and
filed under Design

So this is exciting. As of today I’m embarking on a new project. An iPhone game.

It’s always been a dream to make a game and so I’m going to learn first hand the highs and lows of doing so. The iPhone is the perfect platform right now with low development costs, high returns and a large audience so I can’t wait to see how it goes.

It’s in the very, very early stages right now so I can’t give too much away, but rest assured I won’t release it until it’s six kinds of awesome.

Posted 36 days ago and
filed under The Lulz

Posted 51 days ago and
filed under Tutorials

I had intended to write this up again from my old blog, but recent exposure to screen casts got me interested. I’ve inserted the YouTube video below but you’re best to watch it in HD glory over on the site itself.

This was a 1-take shot at the tutorial as well so forgive the mispronounced words and anti-Adobe ranting! Be sure to leave comments on the video if you like it.

Posted 86 days ago and
filed under Design

So I needed to design a Twitter interface for the first time ever the other day.

After making the outline of a basic Twitter page in Photoshop, I figured I’d share the resource with the internet.

Download here, enjoy in all its glorious layered form!

Posted 87 days ago and
filed under Design

Plenty of times I can design things on screen, only to be disappointed, sometimes even heart broken over the printed result. The transition from screen to paper is sometimes deceptive.

But then there’s times like this. I don’t think it translates well even in this photo, but I’m totally enamoured with the final result of these cards. Something about them is right in my wheel house.

Today is a good day to deal with print.

Posted 97 days ago and
filed under Observations

If you’re looking for us in next years Yellow Pages, we’ll only be there in the phone listings. But we haven’t disappeared completely, just that the cost of advertising was resulting in diminishing returns.

Given how many people find us online through free, generic Google search results that’s where our focus will be for now.

That’s not to say that the Yellow Pages is useless for everyone. Many industries will still benefit from listing there (and we’ll be more than happy to design you the ad).

But for a primarily online-focused business such as ours, it just makes sense for people to find us online and not through the ad-heavy, slow to navigate Yellow Pages website

Posted 100 days ago and
filed under The Lulz

Gotta start it off with a bang, right? Still my favourite video on the tube.