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Back to Neon. One of the big brand trends of 2022.

Flash, boom! Neon takes us back to the era many of us now yearn for. Neon has been a strong trend this year with so many influences from the 80s and early 90s. Nostalgic branding is very powerful, especially as millennials (my generation) are most…

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How Now brand chasing the ethical dairy dream through crowdfunding

Fund the How Now Milk Brand Our friends Cathy and Les from the Ethical Dairy Company owner of the magnificent How Now Milk Brand are chasing funding for the next stage of the ethical milk journey. It’s a great opportunity to put some money behind…

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10 annoying things designers do

Designers can’t help it. It’s not our fault. We like to judge. We are picky. We like to openly criticise design, even if no one asked us our opinion. It’s in our DNA. We seriously can’t help it, fact. We are a collective who are…

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4 website inspiration galleries – Part 2

So the brand is done, the visual language nutted out and press applications approved. The one thing left to finish is the website, a beast, a force to be reckon with and will take no prisoners. Sometimes you find yourself stuck at where to begin,…

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Mailchimp goes bananas with its rebrand

The iconic Mailchimp brand was already lovely with its scripted font evolved from the original design by the talented lettering artist Jessica Hische. You can see the logo revision process here, jessicahische.is/monkeyingaround. The new rebrand created by Collins, evolves Mailchimp yet again to be a…

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The Silo Art Trail : Australia’s largest outdoor gallery

Patchewollock, Fintan Magee Considered one of the world’s top places to road trip due to the never-ending open stretches of road, outback Australia is a dream come true for those wanting to venture off the beaten track. Now there is another reason which combines both…

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A place brand in the making.

  Maker Park is a proposed adaptive reuse park that will revitalize an unused industrial site on the waterfront in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Conceived by a group of community activists, the initiative will transform the seven-acre site formerly known as the Bayside Fuel Terminal into a hub for…

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Jack Howl’s illustrations create a world of eccentric and curious characters.

  Jack Howl’s illustrations suggest he’s visited a futuristic world fraught with semi-surrealist demons and characters inspired by Japanese folklore and pop culture. The longer you look at the meticulously hand drawn artworks, the more quirky details you find, adding to the narrative of each…

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6 Inspiring Hand Lettering Artists

Beautiful lettering created by Pellisco An art form that was heavily used during the early centuries in illuminated manuscripts, hand lettering is still strong on the design scene and hopefully here to stay. You probably walk past hand lettering on a daily basis, from artisan chalkboards…

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Ruby Red chocolate hits town: KitKat leads the frenzy

I’m a self-confessed chocoholic. Like most sane people I love chocolate. In Melbourne, we are spoilt with chocolate shops, chocolatiers and chocolate cafés just as common as bakeries. Even the shopping strip near my home in the suburbs contains a chocolate café amongst only a…

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4 website inspiration galleries to drool over

As a designer, I’m constantly on the lookout for websites that don’t fit the mould of a stock standard template design. If a site is intriguing, invites me to explore various elements on the page, and looks unique, it goes straight to my bookmarks bar.…

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Colourful creations for Pride month

As June comes to an end, we thought we would showcase 7 colourful designs celebrating Pride month this year. Each year, the LGBTQ community use the 30 days of June to commemorate the Stonewall riots which occurred in June 1969. This particular month reminds everyone…

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No Stranger than the past: Behind the brand titles of Stranger Things.

  I remember sitting on the brown leather couch in my parents ‘den’ watching Goonies on our Rankarena television. It was the 80s and we had a shag pile rug on the floor, mission brown with green striped curtains and circular patterned orange cushions. The…

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Some words of wisdom from designer and illustrator, Zach Hobbs.

  As well as working as a communication designer at IDEO, Zach Hobbs creates experimental, abstract, and satirical artworks that resemble the sharpie rendition of a bad acid trip. I was lucky enough to interview Zach recently and wanted to share with you his insights…

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Short film; a brilliant brand storytelling asset

The Power of Brand Storytelling on Film. Goodwin & Goodwin are a creative sign company based in North London. They recently worked with film makers; Reuben Armstrong and Jamie Neale to create a short promotional film about their business. In this short film we get…

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The woman behind the mac icons

Starting at Apple in 1982, Susan Kare’s first job was to design a Mac System Font. Something bold in order to stand out and take over from the thin jaggedy placeholder font being used. At the end of that first day Kare had worked on…

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Magnum campaign achieves the sophistication the brand yearns for

Just as summer here finally ends Magnum has revealed a European wide campaign for the Summer that achieves a kind of sophistication the brand has always reached for but never quite got. Mainly due to the simplicity and style of the illustrations of Thomas Danthony, which…

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Augmented reality brings light to the dark future of print

It was a rather dark and gloomy Monday inside and outside of the studio. Our spirits were weathered from the weekend and we nursed a grievance against the sudden wintry weather. It was around noon that we received a little brightness in the form of…

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Innovative new typeface opens doors for information-equality

It is always amazing coming across ideas which make you wonder ‘how has this never existed before?’, take for example this new braille typeface created by the clever Japanese designer Kosuke Takahashi. The typeface, aptly named Braille Neue, is a collection of both English and…

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Brand leadership for Australia

Brand leaders Every great brand we’ve created or worked with over the years has had one thing in common: great brand leadership. That is the individual or individuals who have the vision for what they want that organisation to be and use brand to tell…

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Level Crossings: The Easter Strategy

You might be wondering why I have chosen to write this blog, on Easter Monday of all days, about level crossings. Bear with me, there’s a point, I promise. As you can imagine the removal of level crossings is a big operation. I may be…

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When it’s time to flip life the bird

A perfect example of our brand culture at work: 1. start with an engaging experience – our weekly mindfulness session 2. throw in a bit of our brand personality – colourful: playful, spirited and lively 3. mix in one of our brand values – the…

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‘Ultra Violet’ named Pantone Colour of the Year for 2018

The colour experts have spoken, introducing ‘Ultra Violet’ as the 2018 Colour of the Year. The experts from the Pantone Colour Institute work hard every year in analysing global trends through design and market research, to find one colour to represent where we currently stand…

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Truly Deeply named best Branding Blog in Australia and the fourth best Agency Branding Blog in the world.

A little recognition It’s always nice to get some external recognition of the something we are so passionate about. We’ve been channeling our insights, interest and love for all things brand design into our blog since 2009. We have built a community of almost 200,000…

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Vero – True Social. Just another social app?

First of all, lets start with this disclaimer. If you can’t be bothered to keep up with yet another social media app then there’s no need to find out more about Vero. Because that’s exactly what it is, but apparently ‘with a twist’. Vero is the…

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5 Inspiring Sans-serif Typefaces

Fonts are the ruler of the design world. With so many to choose from, it is sometimes hard to break away from your go-to favourite, especially when you know it’s going to work a dream on your current project. Sans-serif fonts have always been at…

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Department store Myer shows their branding game can still hit a winner

Anyone who’s ever worn heels for a day at the races, the idea of taking them off before you start the long trip home has enormous appeal. At this year’s carnival, Myer were giving away comfortable, practical, and not completely unstylish, branded slides – manna…

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Music on the Brain – Grolsch turns Listeners Emotions into Psychedelic Art

  People are living more hectic lives, where being busy is now a competitive sport. This can cause stress, and stress boosts cortisol, turning us to fight or flight mode. So, to create some peace in the daily grind, Grolsch decided to do a music-fuelled…

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Brands lead from the top

  With every organisation there are actions that have a disproportional effect on a brand. As you go up the tree in any company it’s the people at the top, the exec level that have this the opportunity to have such an effect on their…

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Green Day Tops the Charts with Audience Engagement

Hyde Park July 1st, 2017 Green Day are the headline act to a sold out concert. Over 65,000 fans wait in anticipation… Queen’s 1975 hit, Bohemian Rhapsody, starts to play, and the audience creates the most spine tingling sing-a-long… an iconic song, over 40 years…

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Creative Industry Collaborates in #DesignToUnite Campaign

Last Thursday evening the finalists of the DesignToUnite campaign were announced at Eureka Tower to a crowd of over 100 guests. #DesignToUnite is a campaign that challenged creatives to design a poster calling for solidarity with Australia’s First Peoples. Next month marks the 50-year anniversary…

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ALDI rebrands to differentiate

Reading through the articles about the upcoming ALDI rebrand I’m struck by what seems to be an inability for people to grasp some of the strategic rational behind this rebrand and rebranding in general. Everywhere ALDI has opened, they taken on established supermarket brands and…

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Big brand Marvel releases their 2017 Superhero NRL Jerseys!

  The NRL’s ongoing collaborative superhero campaign with comic brand Marvel continues with their new jerseys for 2017! Wether your a fanatic fan of Marvel AND/OR the NRL sport, you can’t deny it is a compelling campaign and shows the power of collaboration between two forceful brands…

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Fashion brand Calvin Klein launches their new logo.

Calvin Klein’s Instagram account announced over the weekend that the brand has decided to “return to the spirit of the original” and acknowledge “the founder and foundations of the fashion house” by launching their new logo to mixed reviews. With the new appointment of creative…

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How do I apply for a design job…? Tips from a designer, part 3.

When you apply for a job there are many things that lead to a strong application. We have put together some tips to help students, grads or anyone trying to get themselves out there in the design industry. This is the final installment of my 3-part…

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Optus differentiates from the market with a flexible rebrand

Optus is the second largest telecommunications provider in Australia offering mobile, fixed, and broadband services to consumer and business customers. It has repositioned itself in the market with a flexible rebrand. You may remember their recent rebrand back in 2013 that received many mixed reviews and…

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Is your brand a market leading story teller?

When was the lat time you heard a really good story… from a brand? It’s part of the way we’re wired that we relate to stories with a level of engagement and emotion that is simply not attainable for functional messaging. And whilst all brands…

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99 designs rebrands and leaves us wondering if quality over quantity is a thing of the past?

99 designs‘ business model puts emphasis on quantity over quality with their multiple designers and claims of “incredible results”, as designers compete to give you a “great custom design solution”.  Yes, I said COMPETE. With 4 offices in Australia, USA, Germany and Brazil, 99 designs…

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Walsh has used her personal brand to start the conversation about women in design

Like many others, I have eagerly been following Jessica Walsh and Timothy Goodman’s most recent side project: 12 Kinds of Kindness. (…yes #squadgoals!) Now aside from wishing I had come up with such an intelligent project myself, I do believe it has the power to create some…

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What’s in a (brand) name (or brand identity)

  (Brand) names have baggage When creating a new name or identity for something there’s always the challenge of seconding guessing due to current associations. But by knowing you’re following a plan, backing yourself and a little patience it can all work out. Names are an…

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Bland Identity – Microsoft Launches their New Brand Identity Design

A Branding Challenge for market Leaders Microsoft has launched the latest evolution of their brand mark at the opening of its new store in Boston. The task of keeping a brand’s visual language fresh and relevant to the market is critical (we recently wrote a…

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Nike Masters the 80:20 Rule of Branding

Not all brand activities are born equal. This is a brand principle that Nike know better than most brands as the recent release of the ‘Nike sole’. The Nike sole has been developed to fit onto the ‘flex-run’ prosthetic running blade, designed for by Nike…

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25 Killer Custom Typefaces – A Brand Design Asset

Building Your Brand’s Visual Properties When creating a corporate image for our clients brands, we focus on building unique brand properties that can be leveraged to become brand assets. A brand’s typeface is one of the visual properties we incorporate into the brand design process,…

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