Sommaire pour June 2020 de Computer Arts

creativespark.co.uk Seven years ago, Manchester-based agency Creative Spark designed the branding for local brewing company Seven Bro7hers, a business started by brothers Guy, Keith, Luke, Daniel, Nathan, Kit and Greg who were inspired by their dad’s home-brewing. The agency recently refreshed the look in alignment with the company’s success and ambitions, creating a new logo that replaces the letter ‘T’ with the number ‘7’. This “Lucky 7” rebrand uses a range of vivid pastel colours to differentiate the various flavours in the range. The strong typographic approach, which maintains the yellow and black capitalised logo mark, ensures the identity is consistent across the family of beers. The bright palette aims to increase stand-out in retailers following the brand’s expansion from online-only sales to stores including selected Co-Op outlets, Selfridges, Booths…

placeholder.nyc New York design agency Placeholder launched its Plastic Paper book last year as an homage and farewell to unusual plastic bag graphics. The project has since extended into the creation of the sustainable and renewable Biodegradable Bamboo Bag, tying in with New York State’s ban on single-use plastic in early March 2020. The product aims to fill the loophole in the law that means food vendors can still use plastic bags, using sustainable bamboo fibre instead of plastic. The design takes a single sheet of fibre to “cradle your lunch without any wasted space or material – in fact, over 75 per cent less material than a standard paper bag – and it’s safe to compost or dispose of when you’re done,” says agency founder Sho Shibuya. “Our mission…

studio-output.com Studio Output created a new identity for audio streaming platform Mixcloud to mark its 10th birthday and demonstrate a more “future-focused mission.” The new look shelves the former cloud logo and is based around the character traits brave, empathetic and connector. A new connector form reflects ideas of “unity” and “the fluidity of cultures and countercultures,” says Studio Output creative director Johanna Drewe. Fluidity also inspired the new bespoke, customisable “emotive and practical” typography, which aims to create consistency across Mixcloud’s user-generated imagery. The typeface’s ligatures were designed to be able to join pairs of characters and “become much more playful to show the brand’s exuberance,” the studio adds. The former blue and white colour scheme is replaced by a vibrant, clashing colour palette to reflect the array of…

Co-founded by Philip Koh and Roly Grant in 2005, London-based studio Without specialises in food and drink, luxury, leisure and hospitality. Its aim is to make the world a tastier, healthier, more exciting place by creating brands for modern businesses of all sizes. without.studio 1 CRAFT WORKSHOP We encourage the team to start their projects on paper before jumping on a computer – this leads to better ideas, and helps avoids tired clichés through the limitations of computer tools/effects. And with the talent in the studio, a lot of our projects retain this hand-crafted character. On any day, you’ll see pattern collages being made, portraits being illustrated and scale models of fascias being built. 2 THINKING AREAS We’re atypical in our studio make-up in that many of us come from…

Experimental animation is increasingly popular, and self-initiated work can provide fertile ground for illustrators to explore ideas, push the boundaries and indulge in more expressive narratives, seducing the viewer with a momentary escape from the real world. London-based illustrator Shan Jiang’s artwork is one such example. Strongly influenced by his Chinese roots, his fantastical and detailed illustrations are a burst of colour and energy, packed with bewitching narratives and psychedelic, dream-like environments. Represented by Australian agency Jacky Winter, he was one of 12 artists enlisted to work on the agency’s self-initiated project Flutterscopes. It was inspired by the idea of demystifying the zodiac, and each artist was assigned their own sign to interpret in their own unique way. Shan applied his expressive, contemporary art style to Pisces. The short film…

instagram.com/papayfanny With its unusual colour palettes, cute symbols and a gorgeous logotype that uses conjoining letters, Budapest-based graphic designer and illustrator Fanny Papay’s branding for this year’s Sziget Festival does the perfect job of channelling its ethos to “celebrate freedom and equality,” as well as reflecting its diverse line-up and audience, as Fanny puts it. Briefed to create designs around the concepts of free love, acceptance and freedom, she looked for shapes and tones that “express freedom, happiness, freshness and modernity.” Fanny began by hand-sketching ideas to decide on how to reflect the concepts visually, before pairing them with colours that “reinforced these feelings”. The designs were then worked up in Illustrator, Photoshop and 3D software. Fanny says, “I really love any project that involves music: the most inspirational task…

byfutura.com Mexican studio Futura created the identity and packaging for Belgian nut butter brand Buddy Buddy. The designs aim to be youthful and playful, based around the idea that the “best company you can keep is being with yourself,” says Futura. This notion is expressed through the illustrated Buddy Buddy character: an often nude 3D illustrated man with huge, chunky limbs, a disproportionately tiny head and hands sometimes clutching a nut. The character is always seen in pairs; which despite first appearances aren’t a set of twins, but one man shown alongside his own reflection. The Buddy Buddy character is used across the packaging, stamped on to glass jars or cardboard bottle carriers, as well as applications including brand stationery, business cards, labels and tote bags. The pink and terracotta-like…

resn.co.nz New Zealand-based digital agency Resn approached ocean conservation organisation Sea Shepherd with its concept for Below the Surface AR, an immersive experience that aims to connect with people on an emotional level as a call-to-action to stop the “unintended killing of oceanic wildlife caused by reckless fishing methods.” Using AR, users are placed in the sea amid fishing boats that “mistakenly capture dolphins in their nets and then toss their battered bodies back into the waters,” as Resn puts it. “The effect is raw and visceral, giving everyone an emotional, up-close look at the shocking reality of commercial fishing.” The piece uses a phone’s camera and gyroscope to show viewers a floating sphere of water before them, using information from the camera feed to adjust the lighting conditions and…

FREELANCE PLATFORM MAKES PREMIUM FEATURES FREE A freemium platform for freelancers, UnderPinned is now offering all of its premium services for free until September to help ease financial pressures facing millions of freelancers during the coronavirus crisis. This means both new and existing members can get full access to its Virtual Office platform and every feature in its premium plan, which would previously have costed £89.98 per year. These include a portfolio and proposal builder, a contact portal to help you keep track of past and future clients, an invoice and contacts builder, and a UP Network to help support, collaborate and grow your career. underpinned.co KRISP FREES VIDEO CALLS FROM BACKGROUND NOISE With work-from-home video calls helping companies to continue operations throughout the Coronavirus crisis, one service that’s come…

Animation is having a moment. With brands increasingly favouring the medium to communicate large and complicated subjects in a concise way, there’s never been a better time to master the craft. Animation can express emotions through character animation as well as using more abstract imagery, while text and kinetic typography can express powerful meaning often with a big impact. The market for 2D and 3D animation is growing, and illustrators are also keen to get in on the act. “A growing number of illustrators are now developing skills as animators after experimenting with simple gifs,” explains Sue Loughlin, executive producer at award-winning production company and artist management agency Jelly London. “They want to learn how to take their work into longer sequences that naturally leads into storytelling or communicating a…

A new wave of oddball and slightly strange characters have been unleashed through the medium of animation in recent years, with creatives such as Julian Glander and Kirsten Lepore bringing their own brand of bizarre weirdness into the mainstream. Animator Milo Targett explores off-beat character relations that often lean into the absurd and the surreal. His work focuses on the experimental use of 3D software with a grounding in illustrative 2D design principles. He was recently commissioned by Adult Swim to create a short inspired by the brief Patterns. “It was a challenging project and pushed me to do things I probably should have been doing before, like rigging a full character with a bone structure in Cinema 4D.” After a week spent thinking of different ideas, he came back…

Based on the visual impact we wanted 305 Fitness to have, we were after a script font that looked like a neon sign. We looked everywhere for one that was well executed. Some had great capitals, others had great lower cases, but there were problems with letter junctions and weights. We decided to create our own – one that would be easier to use. The script font is always used tilted on top of visuals to communicate the irreverent tone of the brand. Then came the tall, narrow letters. They communicate the sporty, performance side of the offering. These were inspired by Modula Sans, created by Emigre in 1985. It has a condensed, retro feel that contrasts well with the neon script font. The upper case has simple forms, which…

designbridge.com Design Bridge has worked with organic period product brand Callaly on its new customisable, subscription-based and sustainable offer, creating the strategy and visual identity across products and digital platforms, including a suite of animated icons. The look aims to eschew feminine hygiene stereotypes and uses a discreet, minimal look for external packaging, offset by the brand’s new bright popping colours and contemporary graphic style to align it more with beauty and lifestyle brands. Design Bridge created a typeface that matches the brand’s conversational tone of voice. “We’ve moved away from the traditional girly, pretty pink flower patterns or plain white ‘design’ of the category to something much bolder, more graphical, and that better reflects today’s consumers,” says Design Bridge creative director Chloé Templeman. The structural packaging system reflects the…

For many of us, the first signs of the effects that coronavirus was going to have on the world came near the end of February, as events such as SXSW and GDC (Game Developers Conference) began to be cancelled. From then on, everything accelerated at a bewildering pace. At first, creatives were encouraged to work from home, then forced to. Soon freelancers were having their commissions cancelled, while employees faced being laid off – not to mention magazines, including Computer Arts, being unceremoniously terminated. It’s been a whirlwind, and as we go to press for our final issue, it’s impossible to predict where the creative industries will be by the time this magazine is in your hands. But one thing’s for sure: throughout everything the level of support creatives have…

Brands are using animation as a form of communication, with bright and colourful visuals as a backdrop or environment to showcase products. Capturing the energy and excitement around flavour (for drinks advertising) or experience (in the form of fashion, for example) appeals to brands that want to engage with their audience. Buenos Aires-based multidisciplinary creative studio Not Real focuses on art direction and animation. Represented by Jelly London, it recently produced a series of animations for Nike Air Max React & Air Max Plus entitled Gumball, a candy-coated CG delight for the sneaker brand’s newest collection which was released on National Bubble Gum Day. The studio designed a playful environment of multi-coloured, smooth, “candy-coated” shapes to represent the gumballs – air-filled 3D bubbles of different shapes in foam and rubber…

FOCUS ON THE UNIQUE Find out what’s unique about your client and scream it loud. Don’t stop working until the message seems obvious. DON’T TRY TO PLEASE EVERYONE Focus on your real audience and don’t worry about other people. A good brand should tell your non-audience that this might not be for them. THROW AWAY THE CLASSIC BRAND TOOLBOX We’re all taught that to create a brand you need to create a brand toolbox. However, each project presents you with unique ways to defy that classic structure, which will lead to better creativity.…