Philip Regan | the guy with the glasses

Changes, changes

2007-11-11T19:50:00.000Z

You've probably noticed a lack of activity around this blog for the last month. Mainly due to a very busy month at work and at home. However things are getting back on track now but with a few changes. First of all this is my last blogger post and I'm switching allegiance to wordpress instead. I've also given my site a new look and added some fresh work. Just click on the link to see the changes. In the meantime I hope you'll join me at the new blog.

End papers

2007-10-01T20:20:00.000Z

Finally. A website dedicated to the dying art of designing the inside of hard back books. Thanks to Colby at Penguin.

What's with all the toys dude?

2007-09-27T16:50:00.000Z

Lucky for us some people have too much time on their hands. Check out Josh Budich's online Star Wars collection.

Old school, new school, good school

2007-09-18T19:23:00.000Z

Ken Garland could teach us all a trick or two about graphic design. Wonderful stuff.

New Build site

2007-09-17T20:41:00.000Z

At first, I was unsure what to make of the new Build site. I missed the friendly clean white space and simple menu functions of the old one. But there are hidden depths and a wealth of information previously missing about the work. I particularly love the clipping function. Still not sure about the grey background though...

More Build

2007-09-12T19:55:00.001Z

The On/Off exhibition. Yet another reason to regret living on the island of Jersey.

Love Build?

2007-09-12T19:30:00.000Z

I do. A short film from their site.

"This piece was done by Alex Shoukas whilst on a placement here in E17. We think he did a great job :)." quote from Michael on Newstoday. Look our for the new Build site from September 17th.

Beautiful Concert Posters

2007-09-11T18:44:00.000Z

Hatch Show Print has been producing amazing screen print concert posters since 1879.

James Quail

2007-09-11T16:26:00.000Z

Some nice work on James Quail's site.
Via Serif.

Google Sky

2007-09-09T16:38:00.001Z

With the latest release of Google Earth, it's now possible to view the heavens. Hidden within the new download though is a flight sim which, though difficult to manoeuvre, I find much more entertaining...

itouch

2007-09-05T21:14:00.000Z

So Apple finally releases it's ipod touch based on the hugely successful iphone. Looks stunning. Wish I could say the same for the new Nano. So ugly, Microsoft could have designed it.

Rumbero

2007-09-03T21:02:00.000Z

I like Rumbero-Design's work.

Well established

2007-08-28T16:22:00.000Z

Beautiful logo, beautiful site, beautiful furniture. Beautiful work by De-Construct.

Thick Woolly Jumper

2007-08-22T16:17:00.000Z

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. Nice Tee-shirts from BB Saunders. Others in the series include: Bullet Proof Vest, Replica Football Strip, Band Logo Shirt, Little Black Dress, Polka Dot Bikini & Fake Fur Coat. A snip at £20. Contact james(at)bbsaunders.com to purchase.

Craig Atkinson

2007-08-20T20:48:00.000Z

Some great illustration work on his site. Here's some of it...

It's war

2007-08-19T20:43:00.000Z

Australian design. This time it's war.

Guns for hire

2007-08-18T16:40:00.000Z

Ok, it's not the slickest site in the world but Le Gun have a particular way of doing things. Now on it's 3rd issue, Le Gun is a magazine put together by a crack team of artists and illustrators and they're open to submissions. If you have a problem you can hire a gun for yourself.

Surface View

2007-08-09T20:53:00.000Z

Surface View create bespoke wall murals. And they have a nice site to demonstrate it. Nice logo too.

Spin

2007-08-09T20:42:00.000Z

Some nice new work up on Spin.

Checkland Kindleysides

2007-07-29T20:54:00.000Z

Check out the flash animation paper art in Checkland Kindleysides site. Nice work too.

Sao Paulo

2007-07-24T19:58:00.000Z

The Brazilian city of Sao Paulo has put a complete ban on public advertising. You can see a terrific Flickr set here and read about it here.

Photo courtesy of Tony De Marco's Flickrstream.

Made thought

2007-07-18T20:42:00.000Z

Made Thought's site is pretty slick. Particularly the way they present their work.

Video games ruined my life

2007-07-17T19:35:00.000Z

Nice new tee from threadless.

Favourite fonts of 2006

2007-07-13T21:17:00.000Z

Typographica has his choice of fonts from 06 up. My favourite is top of the list too. The Guardian's font family, introduced as part of a major redesign of the paper.

Shooshbang

2007-07-13T20:50:00.000Z

Spass hat Zukunft. Shooshbang. No I don't what it means either. But I know good original work when I see it.

UPDATE: Ivor Williams (aka Shooshbang) has been in touch to tell me the following; "spass hat zukunft" is a close translation from german, signifying "the future of fun" a phrase I came up with whilst trying to combine alliteration across languages. "shooshbang", however, is a far more personal term. My best friend used to describe some people as "shooshbang's", often they would be naughty dirty dirty shooshbangs. Basically meant anyone who was either mischievous and demanded a subtle respect or conversely someone who was to be mocked for not being mischievous enough - authority figures etc. I suppose I function under the pseudonym as a tribute to our friendship as reckless teenagers who often sunk into murmurs of complete nonsense."

Have you done yours?

2007-07-13T20:37:00.001Z

Nice work and site from Homework.

Problems, problems.

2007-07-13T20:29:00.000Z

I've had some problems with my web host in the last week (not blogger) which is why blog has been looking, well, a little lacking for the last few days and my portfolio site has disappeared. Fortunately, after switching hosts I seem to be back on track so let the posting begin again...

Am I leaning over or is it...

2007-07-02T18:52:00.000Z

...the italic poster. From Artschoolreject.com.

Books, books, books

2007-06-21T20:18:00.000Z

I'm off to Canada for a week so I'll leave you with this. David Pearson is responsible for some great Penguin book jacket designs. I own the Penguin by Design book and it's a beautiful comprehensive study of their designs since Penguin's inception.
Thanks to Phatlee for this one.

Holga in China

2007-06-20T18:49:00.000Z

An outstanding Flickr set from Chris Mousdale. Chris recently travelled to China on a 3 week vacation and took along an old Holga camera and a new Canon SLR. Apparently we'll have to wait a while before the nearly 500 digital shots he took surface. In the meantime the Holga set is inspiring and eerily reminiscent of holiday snaps from a bygone age.

Farrow

2007-06-18T21:36:00.000Z

Farrow's site is finally up and it really is a case of less is more. With the exception of the annoying pop up window, the site is sublime. Though not as outstanding as the work (where is the call to action guys?). Keep watching. I sat mesmerised for several minutes and didn't see the same piece twice.

New Apple site

2007-06-16T21:41:00.000Z

I'm a bit late posting this, but then Apple are a bit late updating it as well. So late, they haven't even bothered updating the UK site. The Keynote speech is well worth watching as well, as Leopard does look like being worth the wait.

Ghostschool

2007-06-13T20:54:00.000Z

Ghostschool is the online portfolio of Wil Freeborn.
Wil puts his moleskins to proper use. Now, where did I put mine...?

Harsh Patel

2007-06-13T20:39:00.000Z

Harsh Patel's work caused huge debate on Newstoday last week. His work certainly falls in the love it or hate category. Personally I find it refreshing. Old school? Yes. But it all works and you can't fault his typography.

Grafik 150 book

2007-06-09T20:43:00.000Z

On order. 150 contributions from respected designers on their favourite influences.
300 pages. Gold foil cover and designed by SEA. Get yours here.

Kai and Sunny

2007-06-07T18:55:00.000Z

Kai and Sunny are a design duo who specialise in illustration. Their work has been featured in campaigns for Toyota, Honda, Ford, Vodafone, BT, BA, The Observer, Playstation and many more. They first caught my eye however with their stunning book jacket designs for David Mitchell's novels for Hodder & Stoughton. The books are a pleasure to look at as well as read.

Istock saves the day.

2007-06-07T16:52:00.000Z

Sometimes, when you have a client who wants to spend next to nothing at all, it's possible to find something adaptable on istockphoto that just fits the bill. After a hefty amount of photoshop work of course.

Got Form

2007-06-06T14:38:00.001Z

Nice new site from London agency Form.

London 2012 logo. UPDATE

2007-06-04T20:16:00.000Z

Not sure that this has had enough coverage today so thought I would post it. We've got 5 years to get used to it. Do you think that will be enough?

The predictable media frenzy seems to show no side of abating but I just read a spirited defense of the logo by Coudal Partners. I tend to agree with a lot of what they say. It has certainly invoked a fervent love/hate response (with the majority tending to hate), but this logo is being talked about like no other logo I've heard. Interestingly here on Jersey there is a lot of negative media debate about a new 'island' identity. If I can find a copy of it anywhere I will post it and try and elicit some comment.

Freaky Feek

2007-06-03T20:34:00.000Z

Feek make minimal furniture with serious design flair. I particularly like the Q-couch below. An expanded poly propylene chair that slots together endlessly. Nice award winning FWA site too. Courtesy of Belgian agency Syntetik.

Man and machine in perfect harmony?

2007-06-01T22:33:00.000Z

The new Audi TT micro-site.

Photographing old work pt 2

2007-05-31T21:12:00.000Z

Grosvenor Apartments brochure.

Shameless plugging

2007-05-29T21:40:00.000Z

Andy Walmsley from Wash Design is also a budding portrait artist. On a visit to his homestead last year I briefly sat for him. Catching up this last week I got to see the finished result. Well, it would be the finished result if he had painted my Helvetica Film tee properly...

Here's his portrait of Mike Skinner from the Streets.

Andy is available for commissions, street parties, propping up the bar in his local inn and generally having a good whinge about summat and nothing.

Proof corrections - a flickr set

2007-05-16T20:53:00.000Z

I'm on holiday for a couple of weeks so this is my last post till my return. As a parting gift I leave you a recently posted Flickr Set. A lovely 1950's type specimen book which also contains a description of printers proof and authors correction symbols. I've got more pages to upload which contain superb demonstration pages of Baskerville, Bodoni, Garamond, Gill Sans, Perpetua, Plantin, Rockwell & Times. But the proof correction pages are my favourites...

Mr Bingo

2007-05-14T16:55:00.000Z

Man, this guy is good.

Our footprints

2007-05-11T21:09:00.000Z

Chris Jordan uses imagery in a very powerful way to depict various statistics. For example, the image below shows 11,000 jet trails, equal to the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours. The second image is a partial zoom and the final one is a detail at actual size.

New labs

2007-05-11T05:36:00.000Z

Some lovely film and music promo packaging work by Neue Laboratories. Including some classics from the nineties that I'm sure you'll recognise.

Photographing old work pt1

2007-05-09T20:57:00.000Z

The Halloween invite.

Varoom Varoom

2007-05-03T18:59:00.000Z

It's taken me this long to get hold of a copy of one of these Adrian Shaugnessy (How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul) edited magazines but it's been worth the wait. Described as the journal of illustration and made images, Varoom is beautifully designed by highly-regarded design duo Non-Format, until recently designers of The Wire magazine. Issue 3 is available to purchase onlin now. Of the two back issues that I ordered 2 is the more interesting read which suggests it has a bright future ahead of it. Issue 3 is available to purchase online now.

Less is more

2007-05-03T18:18:00.000Z

Concept cover design for a new lifestyle publication. The client didn't quite go for the bravest option ( a blank cover with a small list of contents) but they did choose one of the more original covers. This one is my favourite which didn't make the cut unfortunately.

Yet another poster...

2007-05-01T11:07:00.000Z

Courtesy of Tom Kidd from Wash Design.

Badges, buttons and pins

2007-04-28T21:17:00.000Z

Cheap to produce and easy to make at home, the humble badge is the new T-shirt. Badges, Buttons and Pins is a new book (available June) by Gavin Lucas about, well, badges, buttons and pins. It will appeal to graphic designers, illustrators, fashion designers, artists, music lovers and badge enthusiasts of all ages. I think I fit in some of those categories (particularly of all ages) so will be purchasing it once it's published. Available in both hardback and paperback from Laurence King, that stalwart of design books.

Ready to take on the world

2007-04-25T16:45:00.000Z

Robert Holmkvist is a Swedish graphic designer with a passion for typography and minimalism. And itI think it shows in his simple elegant online portfolio. He's currently studying at Cumbria Institute of the Arts, Carlisle, UK, graduating this year. I wish him well but I don't think he'll have too much difficulty finding a job. My favourite piece? His retro book jacket sleeve for a book called the Space Race. Note the neat US and USSR icons in the typography. Clever stuff indeed.

No one belongs here more than you.

2007-04-21T22:02:00.000Z

Now I can't vouch for the writing, not having read any of Miranda July's books, but this website rocks. In a real lo-fi, lo-budget way. No one belongs here more than you uses black marker pens, refrigerators, cookers and a recreation of the signing of the constitution. If the writing is as imgainative as the site design I might be tempted to buy the book.

Matt Michaluk

2007-04-18T20:29:00.000Z

Matt Michaluk's work possesses a breadth of wit, ingenuity and sheer talent that is refreshing. Particularly for someone who is still only a student at Bath Spa Uni. I hope he holds out for the job he wants. He should get it on the strength of ideas alone. Like this heat sensitive map of Britain designed to raise awareness of climate change and rising sea levels (click on the image above to see what happens when the map warms up).

Flickr updates

2007-04-16T21:02:00.000Z

Recent uploads to Flickr. These are all relatively old and have been scanned and then uploaded. All part of a never ending quest to rid myself of clutter. Click the image to see more.

Wash updates, by eck.

2007-04-16T20:25:00.000Z

I used to work with the Wa of Wash Design. He's the dictionary definition of a reet dour Northerner. Personally I think their website (despite being nearly 3 years old) still remains one of the cleanest, simplest flash sites out there. If only they weren't based in Preston...

A crap week

2007-04-13T15:59:00.000Z

It's been a crap week in more ways than one. With one exception. With work piling on and the studio straining at the seams it was requested of me to put together a hard hitting recruitment ad that would stand out from the crowd. This is one of those ads I'm particularly proud I got through (image from istock).

Now, don't forget to wash your hands.

The 365 journal

2007-04-12T20:44:00.000Z

This BB/Saunders designed journal is available to buy from Blanka for only £19 inc postage and packing. It's printed on Cyclus 100% re-cycled paper, with a 250gsm outer cover and 80gsm inner pages. Pantone PMS 812 abounds throughout. A clear pvc dimpled outer dust jacket seals the deal. Mine should be shipping any day now...

Site updates

2007-04-11T19:41:00.000Z

2 cracking site updates. Stylo have some gorgeous work...

and Concrete, those lovely folks in Toronto have dropped their new site. Nerdy fact: look at the Sguig section of their portfolio. Those photos were taken in their own studio. I know, I've seen it.

Ipod saves Soldier's Life

2007-04-06T12:57:00.000Z

Much more impressive than my own ipod post this week, according to this picture posted on Flickr, one lucky U.S. Army soldier was saved by his iPod after the music player took a bullet from an AK-47. Kevin Garrad with the 3rd Infantry Division was patrolling the streets of Iraq when he rounded a corner and went face to face with a gun-toting insurgent. Gun fire was exchanged and Garrad was hit in the chest. The insurgent was killed.

See the original post by tikigod at Flickr.

Supermundane loves you

2007-04-04T20:48:00.000Z

Happened across this portfolio today. One of those wonderful crazy inventive designers that makes you consider giving up...

The universe according to Jonathan Harris

2007-04-04T20:26:00.000Z

In Universe, as in reality, everything is connected. No event happens in isolation. No company exists in a vacuum. No person lives alone. Whereas news is often presented as a series of unrelated static events, Universe strives to show the broader narrative that contains those events. The only way to begin to see the mythic nature of today's world is to surface its connections, patterns, and themes. When this happens, we begin to see common threads — myths, really — twisting through the stream of information.

So says Jonathan Harris, an artist and storyteller who primarily uses the web as his medium. He was also responsible for the sublime wefeelfine website I posted last month. Universe is his latest project.

"It's divided into nine "Stages", titled: Stars, Shapes, Secrets, Stories, Statements, Snapshots, Superstars, Settings, and Time. Stars presents a cryptic star field; Shapes causes constellation outlines to emerge; Secrets extracts the most salient single words and presents them to scale; Stories extracts the sagas and events; Statements extracts the things people said; Snapshots extracts images; Superstars extracts the people, places, companies, teams, and organizations; Settings shows geographical distribution; Time shows how the universe has evolved over hours, days, months, and years. In the top left corner is a search box, which can be used to specify the scope of the current universe. The scope can be as broad as "2007", as recent as "Today", as precise as "Vermont on August 27, 2006", or as open-ended as "War", "Climate Change" or "Happiness". The exact parameters of each universe are entirely up to the viewer, and unexpected paths unfold with exploration."

Explore Jonathan's universe for yourself.

A decade of design...

2007-04-02T20:02:00.000Z

...by Daniel Ethan Benderly. 10 years of nice work.

The ipod portfolio

2007-04-01T18:53:00.000Z

Having invested in a new ipod recently (my third, but first video one) I've been investigating some of the non-musical features. In particular, I've discovered I can put my entire portfolio on it. Seeing as my portfolio is currently a hi-res pdf I simply saved the pages out as hires jpgs and imported them into my iphoto, dropping them into my ipod.

Although the slide show option is perfectly fine for display purposes I'm experimenting with putting together a quicktime movie as well just to see how many other ways it's possible to display work. I'll post the results 'if' I'm successful!

Cool for no reason

2007-03-28T20:41:00.000Z

Made of Japan collates images from Japanese blog posts to produce a 3D representation of various trainers.*
*thanks to my wife for the post title.

Jen Stark

2007-03-26T17:07:00.000Z

Jen Stark makes sculptures out of paper. Can you imagine how long this piece, entitled; "A Piece of an Infinite Whole" took top construct?

See more at Jenstark.com. Quite breathtaking. Images © Jen Stark.

How the world feels

2007-03-25T21:25:00.000Z

We feel fine is a wonderful website dedicated to logging the current feelings of the posters of the 55 million blogs worldwide. Don't ask me how it works as it uses complex phrases such as algorithms and java applets etc. All I know is it looks gorgeous and is wonderful demonstration of what can be achieved online.

Search for individual feelings or just randomly click on the colourful discs to see how someone is feeling. Try it for yourself.

QBN

2007-03-24T23:09:00.000Z

The QBN sticker. Worn with pride.

Tres logos

2007-03-19T22:13:00.000Z

After deliberating for a while about purchasing this book, today I took the plunge. And boy, am I glad I did. A beautifully put together reference of hundreds of contemporary logos in various styles and categories. It's the third in a series and now I'm going to have to start saving the pennies for the other two. All 3, Dos Logos, Los Logos and Tres Logos are available from amazon. Now get branding...

New graphic design - a flickr photoset

2007-03-16T23:02:00.000Z

Alki1 has collected together some terrific images of graphic design through the ages. Enjoy them at Flickr.

A week in the life of...

2007-03-14T17:40:00.000Z

So you want to be a designer? Think we just sit around and draw pretty
pictures on a computer all day? Think again. What follows is a typical
breakdown of an average week...

SUNDAY

3 hours doing client amends and image sourcing for a corporate brochure design.

MONDAY

10 minutes printing and reading a brief for a new job.
5 minutes finishing off minor amends to Sunday's job.
20 minutes working on a brand guidelines document.
30 minutes setting an urgent client advert.
15 minutes working on the same brand guidelines document.
15 minutes on a conference call being briefed by an account handler on a new job.
1 hour and 35 minutes back on the brand guidelines document.
45 minute lunch break - go for a walk - get away from the monitor.
30 minutes back on the brand guidelines document.
10 minutes setting up a client signed off print job.
15 minutes setting up and sending a signed off advert to publication.
45 minutes back on the brand guidelines document.
15 minutes setting up and sending another signed off advert to publication.
2 hours and 45 minutes back on the brand guidelines document.

Call it a day.

TUESDAY

15 minutes working out prices of royalty free images for quoting.
25 minutes administrational work - time sheets etc.
30 minutes finishing off the first proof of a client's brand guidelines document.
Sent to associate agency and colleagues for comments.
2 hours and 15 minutes concepting for an advertising campaign for a financial investment company.
1 hour break (I often take hour long hours as I find it necessary to get away from the working environment and switch off, particularly if concepting).
1 hour and 30 minutes back on the campaign. Manage to crack the all important 'idea' and then spend 40 minutes putting together some rough visuals for the account handler to pass on to the client.
15 minutes putting together a small press ad for another client.
2 hours and 45 minutes working on changing the layout of a double sided A3 tourism map.

Call it a day.

WEDNESDAY

20 minute production meeting.
15 minutes work on the tourism map.
15 minutes work making minor amends for a client brochure. Resend proof.
30 minutes back on the tourism map.
15 minutes doing photoshop work for an image for a client newsletter.
15 minutes back on the tourism map.
1 hour starting work on the latest edition of a 16pp monthly publication I put together.
15 minutes reading notes on a new website I have to design.
1 hour putting down some initial scamps for the website.
3 hours on revamping the map layout after various discussions on the content.
PDF and send to account handler to check.

Call it a day.

THURSDAY

10 mins administration/paperwork etc.
1 hours work on the 16pp monthly publication.
25 minutes amending the tourism map.
15 minutes discussing impending office move with landlords.
15 minute briefing on a new exhibition pop-up stand.
45 minutes working on the 16pp monthly publication.
45 minutes working on the new exhibition pop-up stand.
1 hour working on the 16pp monthly publication.
3 hours 45 minutes designing a new website for an estate agent.

FRIDAY

30 minutes talking a client through a design (to mixed reaction).
45 minutes catching up with paperwork/ timesheets/briefs etc.
15 minutes with some software glitches - RESTART.
1 hour putting together a new urgent advert for a client.
30 minutes working on the brand guidelines document.
Break for lunch.
30 minutes putting together a new print job for a quick client proof.
15 minutes doing amends to that urgent client advert.
Another 15 minutes of mac problems.
1.5 hour back on the brand guidelines document.
1 hour of mac probs - lots of downtime with network problems today.
2 hours working on another urgent job - this time 2 charity jobs for a major client. As they're a major client it gets pushed up the list even though its a non-payer. And even though there's more urgent work in the pipeline.

So there you have it. A typical week. Fortunately, even though there's a lot of swapping between jobs and crisis that 'pop up' (down to poor planning usually) I do actually love my job. But designers definitely don't sit around all day thinking of 'crazy ideas' or just drawing pretty pictures. It is actually a proper job. You have been warned...

Group94

2007-03-12T17:31:00.000Z

The Belgium interactive agency Group 94 has a terrific site. And, for an interactive agency is refreshingly free of gimmicks, countless links and pretty but ineffectual graphics. A screen of elegant dots displays a shaky video of Project Manager Tamara Schauvliege who lists current updates by Group 94. She also introduces new staff members and amusingly shoves a 'soon to be former designer' in a chair to announce a new vacancy. Brief, elegant, amusing, it's a interesting way of solving that most difficult of tasks: promoting yourself. Visit the videocast archive for more wry insights into this talented agency.

Size isn't everything

2007-03-09T08:56:00.000Z

Love him or hate him, you can't ignore Michael C Place of Build fame. His latest project Scale is now available to purchase from Blanka. Each poster contains a screen printed circle representing the scale of a particular object. Whether it be a one penny coin or the sun. The only one which doesn't seem to quite fit is the Death Star, the others actually being objects that exist as opposed to a celluloid fantasy. Still, I think they're beautiful and my wife is looking for birthday present ideas. Shame she doesn't read my blog.

Helvetica the movie, not coming to a theatre near me anytime soon.

2007-03-08T19:47:00.000Z

Being based on Jersey means I'm often stuck for watching a decent movie at either of the two local flicks. But once Helvetica the film appears on DVD I'll be shopping around for the right Deal.
In the meantime, here's the official poster. Was there ever a thing of more beauty? Available to buy now from the Helvetica the film shop.

Badges, buttons, whatever you wanna call them...

2007-03-06T22:21:00.001Z

Self promo badges. Now shipping.