We love the work of Saul Bass, especially the poster designs for the movies of Alfred Hitchcock and Otto Preminger. Our personal favourite is ‘Bunny Lake is Missing’, not only does the typography beautifully illustrate the title but the visual is so simple it feels like we all could have thought of it.

We noticed in the last few months there has been a mini surge in movie poster designs that call on the style and designs of Saul. We’re not saying it is a bad thing, infact they all seem to do the style justice, while adding a contemporary edge.

A few of our favourites, ‘Fear[s] of the Dark’, ‘Burn After Reading’, ‘Beyond a Reasonable Doubt’ and ‘12′ are shown below.

There are a collection of 10 poster variations for ‘Burn After Reading’ available to view here.

While we are on the subject of movie posters, below are two that caught our eye. The first is for the upcoming ‘Up’ from Disney Pixar, which looks visually amazing. In addition to the poster we love the film title logo. Another great poster design is for the film, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father.

A great collection of movie posters can be viewed via impawards.com.

Promoting your new or existing website is a complicated process - it also doesn’t happen over night.

There are many different factors to increase a website’s popularity, and a guide to how your website is performing can be found via Alexa - the web information company.

Taking our own website as a guide, we are currently ranked by Alexa as having a traffic ranking of 2,502,689 (dated 17/11/2008). Putting this into perspective, Yahoo & Google are currently ranked 1 and 2 and so we definite have room for improvement. Having said that, there are currently somewhere in the region of approx 108 million websites listed, so we aren’t doing too badly.

Here is more on how Alexa work out the traffic ranking for a website.

Since we began optimizing our own website 6 months ago, our ranking has increased (or de-creased, depending how you look at it) by over 20 million. The image below illustrates how we have improved over the last 3 months (correct 17/11/2008) - movement of almost 4 million places.

There is debate regarding the usefulness of the Alexa ranking and so when optimizing your website, other tools need to be used to measure your websites performance. For example, noting where your website is listed on Google/Yahoo/MSN before you begin your campaign and then monitoring the movement up or down the search engine listing will give a good indication of website popularity.

Our website is currently listed on the first page of Google and Yahoo using the search terms ‘graphic design Wolverhampton’, ‘design wolverhampton’ and ‘wolverhampton graphic design’ which wasn’t the case when we began optimizing and so we now have a measurable outcome and a guide for future optimizing.

If you would like to discuss how we can help with your website seo, please contact our studio.

Pepsi have taken the steps to re-design their single iconic logo to the variations shown above. Unfortunately for them it, it has been about as well received as the London 2012 logo and it is easy to see why. There seems to an attempt to mirror the Coca Cola re-design from last year.

But where Coke have simplified the design by removing the fussy bubbles and swishes, their logo remains intact - Pepsi have opted to re-design the logo. Although at the same time the original ‘Pepsi’ logo shape is present in the ‘e’, which is slightly confusing.  

The price tag for this…. “$1.2 billion over three years to change everything about its brands”

Below are the Pepsi before and after designs.

After months of development we’ve finally launched our new look website.

Fortunately, we’ve been too busy with client’s projects to devote any time to our own website but finally a few days of relative calm appeared and we managed to get this live.

We think you’ll find our website full of useful information as well as some examples of our most recent work, which includes work with the University of Wolverhampton and our ongoing work with Language Networks for Excellence.

Alongside our portfolio sections are case studies, information on branding, graphic design and SEO. We’ve also launched an email info shot - encore which we’ll be mailing out during the next few weeks and will include useful design related information.

We’ve also taken the time to launch Marie’s (our Creative Director) personal portfolio. She’s created so much work that she needed her own space. Visit mariecampbell.com to view her portfolio.

Finally, you can also now purchase a ‘bod’, click here for more information and to view our rapidly expanding gallery.

In 2006 we compiled & published Free?Fonts: Freeware & Shareware Font Directory as “…an introduction to the hundreds of legitimate freeware & shareware fonts available for download, showcasing many of the fonts in context whilst highlighting the importance of Designers’ rights by publishing information on individual licensing agreements alongside each font listing.”

In 2007 we compiled a second publication: 99 Silhouettes. From signage on toilet doors to Japanese shadow puppet theatre, the silhouette can boast both a wonderful and rich history - and contemporary appeal. Historically reinventing itself across cultures and genres it is an artform which has evolved throughout the ages, responding and reflecting technical capabilities and an increasingly demanding visual environment. Advances in design software have reduced the creation of silhouettes to the click of a mouse, yet the key to a strong silhouette is the same today as it always has been, lying in the resourcefulness of the artist.

Both publications are available from a selection of high street and online retailers, as well as via the publications section of our website

As a design company, early on we took the approach that we wouldn’t undertake speculative work. For whatever reason there seems to be a trend when commissioning design services, to ask companies to produce work before a contract has been agreed to. The No!Spec website highlights all the main reasons why, as creatives, we shouldn’t be undertaking speculative work, as well as detailing what we mean my speculative work.

Aside from all of the reasons highlighted on the No!Spec website, we got to thinking, ‘In what other industry does this practice of creating work, in the hope of getting paid for it, take place?’ - Do we need to start taking our car to 3 separate garages to have it repaired and then only pay the one we thought did a good job?

If you’re part of the Wolverhampton Creative Industries, you’ll no doubt be inundated with offers of support, yes, this is the place to be should you wish to paddle in any one of many funding streams.

There’s a plethora of business advice and guidance on offer, countless training opportunities, a wealth of funding (but if you’re talking about real money, most business grants come with critieria that it would take the most supple of contortionists to slot in to) and if you were to attend every training scheme and networking event that was on offer you’d have little or no time to sit down and actually be creative.

For real, practical support which comes in the form of a desk, phone, Mac/PC and a software (which goes a long way towards keeping your overheads low until you’ve found your feet) the incubator scheme at SP/ARK offers invaluable assistance for fledgling businesses. We’re right up there when it comes to singing both their praises… and the fact that we recently worked on their rebrand.

So you’re good at what you do, you’ve tapped into this funding and you’re well established, you’ve taken onboard sound advice, you’ve had your business plan picked over with critical attention, your diary reflects the perfect home/life balance, you’re motivated and know your target audience better than they know themselves. So now what? You need clients.

Wolverhampton’s creative industries scene is clearly overshadowed by those of the larger cities, and there’s an irritating knee-jerk reaction when it comes to some of the larger Wolverhampton-based corporates sourcing or outsourcing creative services. There are talented creatives, with skills and experience that equal those based in the larger cities, right here in Wolverhampton and there’s no reason to believe otherwise. But that’s the thing about a knee jerk reaction it’s unthinking. Habitual.

The irony of it all is that, not to mention any names, many of the corporates with the knee-jerk ‘big city’ bias when it comes to sourcing creative services are the very people who stream all this funding into developing the creative industries right here in Wolverhampton.

They go to great lengths to develop us, and then they take their business elsewhere.

This month we’re working with a broad selection of clients, on a wide range of projects from exhibition promotion, newsletter design, website designs and ongoing marketing.

Clients include the following:

Wolverhampton and Telford Technology Corridor: Quarterly newsletter & e-newsletter
Beacon Centre for the Blind: Quarterly newsletter
The Smile Works: Ongoing marketing, including promotional literature and welcome packs
University of Wolverhampton: Exhibition promotion and website
Language Networks 4 Excellence: Newsletter and book design
Ceildoor products: Website and promotional material design