Fanatic.

I've been really impressed with the new outdoor advertising from Confused.com, which employs the simple but unusual tactic of confusing you, to catch your attention.

This one was outside a service station; I walked past, realised that I had subconsciously read it and that it didnt seem to make sense, stopped, walked backwards to read it again, realised that I was confused, smiled, took a picture and wandered off thinking about how clever it was.

I've not been able to find out which agency are behind the creative, but they've done a good job! There are many iterations, including a pair of empty jeans and a chair with a guitar on it.
The combined effect of the recent TV advertising featuring 'real' people using a 'simple' website (annoying, but probably effective for those less cynical!) and their use of a new character called Confucius developed with the agency Farm, which is currently being tested in the North, are helping to the brand to stand out in a typically dry and quiet sector.

For a long time, I'd disliked the Confused.com brand, notably for that logo which looks like someone's son designed in Word. I like to think that their current agencies have encouraged them to keep it, not because a Marketing Executive is attached to the funny little man, but because people have come to recognise and form a bit of a bond with a logo which is more light-hearted and interesting than the usual corporate insurance identity. It's awful, which makes it effective.

Like other brands which shout and appear 'cheap' (Easyjet, Cilit Bang, Sheila's Wheels, etc) we love to hate them, but they do stick.

Excuse the dreadful image!

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Alex has just got his hands on the latest copy of Grafik. Believe me it is worthy of such a close examination!

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If you're an iPhone user and you havent heard of Hipstamatic yet, it's only a matter of time! I wouldnt normally blog about an app, but this is so much fun and really opens up what you can achieve in terms of creative photography.

I downloaded Hipstamatic a few months ago and haven't looked back! I think it was the best 59p I EVER spent!

This little app lets you take beautiful lo-fi pictures that all look as if they've been shot on basic plastic cameras, replicating that sought after Holga/Lomo look that is oh so popular. You can flick between different lenses, coloured gels and even choose different films, each one rendering a different effect.

My favourite combo is the John S lens and '69 INA's film, which works just brilliantly, especially in bright sunshine. So, if you want to inject some creativity into your snaps, spend the 59p NOW!

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As a designer it can be easy to make a toopo typo**, especially when your type is huge, and you've been looking at the same work for the best part of a week, and after that any word will look wrong, so often someone will shout out in our studio... How do you spell ANY? (or other similarly simple word!) as it has become a set of shapes rather than a word by this point! Also designers don't make the best spellers as rather than working in English classes we drew in the back of our books, looking forward to double art after lunch!

I saw this on the window of a phone shop though... A big bold home made sign, each letter on a sheet of A4, looking great, until the final hurdle of sticking up each letter in the correct order.

I do suspect though it is a deliberate to gain more interest... or is that a designers excuse!!! It's a good job we have Laura and Nick who did learn to spell at school!

** This blog post has been spell checked with Microsoft's finest Word

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In the spirit of Christmas, we have a new A1 poster full of colour swatches, all the colours of Christmas. It features 'Granny's jewellery', 'sprouts', 'frostbite', and about 150 others. Its got geeky CMYK values to keep us designers happy, and we have worked as many of these colours into our work this December as possible... We're spreading subconscious Christmas greetings!!

You can see the poster here.

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And lo, the day arrived... The Office Christmas Party!

So, earlier this week, it occurred to us that we hadn't organised the Annual Secret Santa, and with so little time left, we've set ourselves the North Street challenge: £5, spent on North Street, preferably after our first Christmas bevvy! Should be interesting! Photos of gifts will be posted in the New Year!

Although we still have another week or so left here, it feels like today marks the end of the year, and what a year it's been! I'll refrain from doing my queens speech bit, but 2009 has been interesting, fun, challenging, difficult but mostly full of change. People came and went, we've worked with a wide range of new clients and been able to extend our portfolio and our range of services in the directions we wanted to. To keep up to date, you can follow the blog, check out the News section, or follow us on Twitter. 

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2010....  

p.s. We are closed down over the Holidays from 23 December and then back in the saddle from the 4 January 2010. 

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We have won a new project to complete a new brand identity, and full set of marketing collateral for a new estate agent. The start-up is looking to stand out as something fresh in their market for their area, and so would like a brand identity to match. We have completed some early workshopping working on defining the personality of the brand, and are now in the conceptual design phase for the visualising this into an identity. I will look forward to uploading the work to the portfolio!

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I was on my way back from taking pictures for a client in North Somerset when the moon came out low on the horizon at dusk... I stopped and shot these out of the window! Not sure why the moon appeared to be so close tot he earth!

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We like this! We were asked to complete some vehicle graphics for one of our clients new vans. We thought we would give them some more adventurous options than the brief asked for, and they have been chosen and signed off! I’ll look forward to seeing them about.

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The other day we found time for a working lunch at the Tate Modern, all because we recently attended a lecture by Andy Altman of the Why Not Associates, talking through his portfolio at the Watershed in Bristol. His work has been an inspiration to a generation of graphic designers; thinking back I moved to Bristol as a graduate with only what would fit in the boot of a borrowed car, but included were two of Why Not Associates' books!

So in homage to the viewing of their portfolio, and with an hour in between meetings in the city, we headed for the Tate Modern to see their posters... It says something (as an art lover too) that we headed for the Tate to see the marketing material as opposed to the material it is marketing!

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