This year I have made an advent image calendar of my favourite typefaces. These are coupled with a colour flow, picking the second colour to go into the next frame. I’ve also picked up words beginning ‘Advent’. I love words, especially when you pick at them – there weren’t quite enough for the 24 days, but, despite their same beginnings, they mean so many different things.
Colour predictions are a big event, and Pantone is a major influencer. Fashion brands, makers and interior designers will be gearing up to be on-trend, because colour is such an important part of how we express ourselves. Colour can make us feel more comfortable, more assured, more attuned. And these two colours will be woven into our lives next year, hoping to change the mood of us all.
Being in the business of branding, like most designers – the most difficult brand to create is your own. Even though you know your own clients, and the work you like to do, it’s still difficult to be objective about yourself. When you are working for a client, you are working towards a goal, usually a deadline for a brand, re-brand, or campaign. You’ve worked out and agreed a budget, you’re part of a team. So the only way you can effectively brand for yourself, is to become your own client, or hire another designer… which does work in large agencies, but not for any self-respecting consultant designer I know. Tantamount to cheating in an exam?!
Solving design problems is my thing. I like to research by reading the brief, having a chat, sometimes seeing how others have solved the problem… but the one thing I have to do is… sleep on it. By my bed you will find a sketchbook where I work through ideas before going to sleep, or to capture them as I fall into, or wake from, sleeping. If you can hold onto a question that you want to solve – your lovely brain has a whole night to try and figure out the answer for you.
Commitment, intimacy, dependability – that’s all we want in a relationship with a person, or a brand. Because, we don’t just consume or interact with a brand, we engage in a relationship, because it’s something that can define us, as well as them.