Last year, the English Premier League updated its branding, shaving off a couple of years by switching to more vibrant, younger colors and by proving once again, that ‘flat’ design, when used right, can be a thing of beauty. However, there was one thing that remained intact – the iconic typeface and its lovely numbers. Until now. From the start of next season Premier League clubs will wear shirts adorned with an updated set of names and numbers which align with the Premier League’s visual identity and includes the new logo introduced from this season.
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Branding
14
Apr 17
New Premier League Typeface
18
Jan 17
La Vecchia Signora + Botox
It’s been a long and much needed break, but we’re back and what better way to reconnect than with a rebrand that is buzzing all over the web, specially amongst football/soccer lovers. As you probably heard, Juventus F.C. recently launched their new identity and branding, courtesy of Intebrand and while most people hate it, there are a few that think it is a refreshing approach. Me? I’ve never been against rebrands, but in this case, I think Interbrand might deserve a red card. Get it? :) Let me explain…
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22
Jun 16
Dieter Rams. The Film.
Gary Hustwit, the director of the documentaries Helvetica and Objectified is working on his new documentary: RAMS, and he needs our help – if you are a Designer, or someone who loves Design, you need to pay attention and check out this Kickstarter project. The documentary will include in-depth conversations with Dieter, and detail the process behind some of his most iconic designs. This needs to happen!
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May 16
NikeLab x Olivier Rousteing
If you are into Fashion and know a good collab when you see it, this is for you! Following its first Summer collaboration with renown Fashion designer Riccardo Tisci, NikeLab just announced a new collection called Football Nouveau, in collaboration with Balmain’s Oliver Rousteing. The collection combines Oliver’s signature style and his love of football, with Nike’s iconic designs and models. Check out some of the styles after the jump and set your calendar for this release!
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3
May 16
Manuals 1: Design & Identity Guidelines
If you are a Designer, brand manuals and guidelines are sacred to you. Well, the good ones of course. And if you are into iconic brands and the great minds and principles behind them, you are going to love this Kickstarter campaign. Manuals 1 offers a comprehensive study of corporate identity manuals from the 1960s to early-80s – the golden era of identity design. Published in a limited edition of 2000 copies in 2014, it is a lovingly assembled collection of 20 style guides. Or as Steven Heller calls them – “sacred texts, revered for how they help shift graphic design from simply an intuitive practice to a rigorously strategic one.”
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4
Jan 16
What makes a truly great logo
Happy New Year friends!!! It is the first post of 2016, and to celebrate the new year – and to hopefully start it n the right foot, I wanted to share this video I found during the break. With so many logo controversies last year, and the few that might come this year, Joe Posner created a helpful video in collaboration with Michael Bierut, that reviews what a logo is or isn’t, what it represents, and what it needs in order to be successful. It’s always good to review the basics every now and then, and what better time than the first week of the year. Enjoy!
15
Dec 15
Stance x Star Wars
Collaborations between brands have become a hot trend when it comes to fashion – or any type of goods. The mix of two great companies working together to produce limited edition or rare products is something collectors and fans find extremely hard to ignore or miss. Look at Jordan x Supreme for example! To celebrate the release of Star Wars’ newest film, Stance decided to partner up and create a limited edition set of really cool socks featuring the saga’s iconic characters. Being the sock geek I am, and considering Christmas is approaching, I had to share this as soon as I found it.
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12
Nov 15
Lovely Origamy + Type for KIKK 2015
Branding or designing an art/design conferences is truly a challenging task. I mean, you are designing for designers, so the bar is always set higher, expectations are greater, and you must dig deep to challenge yourself and do something unique. This is exactly what talented London based Designer Dani Wolf did for this year’s KIKK Festival. His combination of lovely paper patterns, origami and type is not only beautiful, it is hypnotizing!
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16
Sep 15
New Work: The Branding of Puerto Rico FC
Whoa! It’s been a long time since my last ‘work’ post (HERE), which luckily is not always a bad thing as it either means it’s been really busy or that my days simply don’t have enough hours. So, to make it up, today I want to share a new project I’ve been working on for a couple of weeks, and that at the risk of sounding like a bad parent choosing between kids, might be my favorite, not only because of its über cool factor, but also because of how it happened, what it represents not only to me as a Designer and soccer/football lover but also to a beautiful island and its energetic, proud and supportive people. Oh, and of course, because I got to meet and work with an amazing client and group of people I can now call friends :) Today I want to share the process behind the design and branding of Carmelo Anthony’s (yup, that NBA Carmelo) Puerto Rico official NASL soccer team, Puerto Rico FC.
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15
Sep 15
MTV Video Music Awards 2015
Let’s face it, MTV Award Shows are not what they used to be. And although the quality of artists or celebrities might be at an all time low thanks to Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian and company, the thing has remained interesting through the years is the quality of branding, animation and design produced for the shows. This year’s eclectic branding was handled again by the awesome guys at Elastic and the results were all over the place, but in a good way. Check out this crazy video and enjoy the controlled chaos.
11
Sep 15
The Sailboat: A Mobile Pop-Up Shop
You know that ol’ saying, “Surround yourself with positive, passionate, creative and inspiring dreamers…” well, it may not be a famous adage, but it is a principle I live my life by. And speaking of dreams and passion, today I want to share a fun project my friends Brendan and Amanda have been working on, and that with your support through Kickstarter, can become a reality. Their dream is to build a landlocked-sailboat that serves as a pop-up shop in order to travel across the US sharing their inspiration through workshops and spreading the word about their lovely brand Ocean&Sea
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9
Jul 15
Meet Atlanta United FC
As you probably already know – unless you are living under a rock – soccer continues to grow in the US, and prove of that is the constant expansion of the MLS. With new teams being added to the league – New York City and Orlando got their teams this year, Atlanta and LA are getting theirs in 2017 and Miami… we’ll, we’re still crossing our fingers :( it is great to see soccer spreading around the country. You may also remember my case study on my version of Miami’s team branding HERE. Well, today I want to share another MLS branding project (this one is not mine) that was announced yesterday. Meet the new Atlanta United FC.
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7
Jul 15
Alphabet of the Countries
When it comes to logos and branding, we all have different ideas, preferences and taste… but I believe that most of us can agree that ‘country logos’ are usually not the best – specially those who still think that a cutesy hand/brush rendered wordmark surrounded by 75 colors works. Russian designer Pavel Zertsikel explored a different approach, designing custom lettering logos for different countries while creating a lovely alphabet series. His project Alphabet of the Countries is not finished yet, but as you’ll see after the jump, it’s off to a GREAT start!
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26
Mar 15
Air Max Day 2015
If you know what this post is about just by looking at the title or the date, you’re cool in my book. If you don’t, you’re still cool – but will be even cooler after reading this :) Today is a great day for sneakerheads around the world as it is the 28th anniversary of the launch of the first shoe ever to showcase visible Air – the NIKE Air Max. If you are not familiar with the history of Nike Air Max shoes, I invite you to check it out, it is a great example of how one good idea can not only change an entire industry, but also inspire a worldwide movement and culture. If you are familiar, well, there’s nothing much I can tell you as you’re probably busy snapping and tagging a photo of your ‘Airs’ to join the online celebration :)
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11
Feb 15
Chinatown
I recently found this great project by Mehmet Gözetlik and liked it so much I had to share it. Chinatown is a Chinese translation of the trademarks in a graphical way. It’s a carefully arranged series of artworks showcasing 20 well-known western brand logos with maintained visual and narrative continuity. ‘Chinatown’ pushes viewers to ask themselves what it means to see, hear, and become fully aware. ‘Chinatown’ also demonstrates our strangeness to 1.35 billion people in the world, when you can’t read Chinese. Can you name all the brands?
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7
Oct 14
Latest Project: Miami MLS Team
It’s been seven months since David Beckham announced his intention to bring an MLS team to Miami, and even though I’ve never trusted Miami politicians, I was excited because I love the game and would love to get my kids involved in it as I was since a very early age. So, I ignored the “Don’t trust Gimenez” banners – which proved to be accurate – and watched the press conference, joined my local official supporters group and shared the news with friends. Fast forward a few months and we are still in limbo. We have no stadium location (mostly because Beckham is funding this project privately, which means no commissions for local politicians and contractors), we don’t have a team name or even an identity. Needless to say, every other MLS team and city in the US is laughing at us. Now, for a couple of months I’ve been thinking about this issue and the possibility of taking action and doing my part to spread the word and at least get the ball rolling on this subject. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able due to my busy schedule, until now. Last week I had to travel to Chicago for a couple of days, so I realized it was the perfect excuse to disconnect from work, and use a couple of free hours to develop my ideas and build a Miami Team (if you check towards the end, you’ll see real photos of work taking place mid-flight). I challenged myself to develop a complete branding case study in less than a week, and here are the results…
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23
Sep 14
Chicago Bound!
As most of you probably know already from my latest interview with Armin Vit (HERE), I am on my way to Chicago for this year’s Brand New Conference (hope to meet some of you there!) , so there won’t be any posts this week :( But it’s not all sad news. Make sure to check Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as I will be sharing photos, behind the scenes, and talks by some amazingly talented speakers I can’t wait to meet. See you on ‘the social media’.
9
Sep 14
A day with Jessica Walsh
Jessica Walsh is a New York City designer, art director and illustrator. She is a partner at design studio Sagmeister & Walsh and her work has won numerous global design awards constantly inspires designers and students around the world – what really matters ;) This lovely documentary features some of Jessica’s work, story, and daily routine, including her latest personal project ‘40 days of dating’.
22
Aug 14
Nike House of Mamba
When it comes to pushing the envelope or constantly delivering great products and experiences, you can always count on NIKE. And when you add brilliant agencies like AKQA to the mix, you’re guaranteed amazing results. During the offseason, and his slow comeback, Kobe Bryant and NIKE released his new shoe, the KOBE 9, and to celebrate and promote basketball around the globe, they partnered with AKQA to create a motion-tracking reactive LED basketball court for NIKE RISE, a basketball tour currently taking place in China and that will end soon in Barcelona.
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19
Aug 14
Nike Genealogy of Innovation
It is no secret that Nike has become way more than a brand. And as new concepts and models continuously emerge, classic ‘retro’ styles keep coming back. The very talented folks Golden Wolf were approached by Nike EHQ to bring their Genealogy of Innovation campaign to life. The films tracks back to Nike’s humble beginnings and takes us on a journey through their key innovative designs across seven, game-changing eras! 7 Films, 43 years of history and 200 shoes, all in under 2 minutes…. Class Dismissed!
18
Aug 14
Brand New Conference 2014 – Armin Vit Q&A
In case you didn’t know yet, the fifth edition of Brand New Conference is going down September 25-26 in lovely Chicago. And as it is now tradition, I invited my bud Armin Vit to answer a couple of questions and give us a little preview of what to expect or what is going behind the scenes as most of us prepare our trips. We talked about why the conference moved to Chicago, the always great speaker roster, and the decision to make it a two-day event. Check it after the jump!
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8
Jul 14
Game of Thrones Soccer Uniforms
Whether you like soccer or not, you can’t escape it this summer. The World Cup has taken over and that’s a good thing – Hey! It’s only every four years so cut us some slack!. What I do know most of you enjoy is good TV series. So, what if we combine one of the most popular and successful series right now and the World Cup? Spanish Designer, Nerea Palacios did, and the result is pretty impressive. Inspired by HBO’s Game of Thrones, Nerea created complete soccer kits for the major houses of Westeros. Check them out after the jump!
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17
Jan 14
Recent Work: EL REY Network
It’s been a while since I share some personal work, and since January is all about resolutions, goals and new starts, I figured it would be a good idea to share a great project I had the pleasure and fortune of working on recently… It all started with a phone call, you know, the ones that simply happen when you least expect it and that in a matter of seconds not only capture your complete attention, but also manage to get your creativity going crazy. Well, I recently received one of those phone calls asking me if I would be interested in working on a secret cool project for a very well known Hollywood client. After a couple of details and without thinking twice, I immediately accepted and began sketching ideas. The challenge: Hollywood Director Robert Rodriguez and his newest and ambitious television project, EL REY Network.
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11
Oct 13
Neuarmy Surplus
I know it’s been a while, but you might remember an interview with my very talented friend Ryan Katrina aka NEUARMY HERE and some of his beautiful work. I’ve known Ryan for a couple of years already and I’ve always been a big fan of his great work. He is one of those great designers who are constantly working, experimenting and inspiring many of us. Today I want to share one of his latest projects, his recently re-launched Neuarmy Surplus site featuring sweet new work and merch you can (and should before it sells out) purchase. Check out the site and grab some goodies!
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