Inspiration: Fuzzco

Absolutely loving the logo work of Fuzzco! The illustrative style mixed with iconic images is so fun, and clear. It just works.

agIdeas No. 04 | Made Thought

agIdeas is an annual International Design Week.  Each year agIdeas brings 40 internationally acclaimed creative people to Melbourne, those who have pushed the boundaries and excelled in their area of creativity.

To see a full list of the speakers and learn a bit more about agIdeas, head over to their website.

No. 04  | Made Thought [website]

What really impressed me about MadeThought was their use of simple elements carried through a brand to create interesting and exciting design solutions.

We got to see MadeThought's work on Design Miami as well as Established & Sons. Both very inspirational and interesting! We also got a sneak peak at amazing work for paper company GF Smith that hadn't been shared yet.

The work has now been shared on September Industry and you can take a look at more work there.

MadeThought also shared 4 steps to being a better designer:

1. Learn how to balance concept/style/function
2. Be brave & take risks
3. We are not artists - we have to justify our work
4. Have fun

I think one of the most common points that all these speakers made was to be brave, and just go with an idea even if you don't know how it will turn out, or if it will work.  Many of the work that turned out the best and won awards started from a place of uncertainty and sheer bravery to follow through on an idea that was unclear and 'dangerous' (by dangerous I mean that it might have failed).

agIdeas No. 03 | Truly Deeply

agIdeas is an annual International Design Week.  Each year agIdeas brings 40 internationally acclaimed creative people to Melbourne, those who have pushed the boundaries and excelled in their area of creativity.

To see a full list of the speakers and learn a bit more about agIdeas, head over to their website.

No. 3  | Truly Deeply [website]

If you are a recent graduate or student you got to visit a design studio to ask questions and get a feel for the 'real' world of design.  My studio was Truly Deeply.

Their work is amazing and I am super glad I got to visit these guys.  Truly Deeply focuses on branding and strategy, something I haven't really considered before.

They have four key considerations when they get a new project (as paraphrased by me):

1. Insight - Get to know the business: spend time with the client/business and work out exactly who they are and what their brand is. A brand is the essence, what someone remembers about you.
2. Define - A lot of the time a business doesn't know exactly who they are, especially when they are coming to you for a re-brand. Use what you learnt about them and define it for the business in a succinct document that states their brand essence and business purpose - this will be the brand strategy.  
3. Design - Use all this information and design something based on it. When you use the  strategy based on the insight and definition of a business for decision making and inspiration, you can then come up with a really strong solution.
4. Activate - This is about rolling out the design - think about all the different ways you can enhance the brand and portray their essence.

Something I particularly found interesting was this:  The strategy is not the excuse to a design, it's the driving force - the reason you make the decisions you do.  

Having a strategy behind a brand is so important and unfortunately it's not something I was taught to think about at uni.  You can't just come up with a super amazing design and then argue that because it looks amazing, it will work.  You have to design from a logical and informed place. Only then will a design work properly.