The studio is very excited to announce its inclusion in the English broadsheet publication — The Drawbridge, Issue 5, Summer 2007: Freedom. “Forget the shibboleths of absolute liberty. We are free only in chains and shackles, governed by the limits of true desire.“

In response to the Freedom theme, we developed a satirical drawing in a book, in a paper, titled Acts of Freedom, part II. It’s a familiar diagram. The idea of freedom has many interpretations in human culture. On one side of the planet you have people fighting for freedom. Whilst on another quiet side of the planet; you have a band of commuters fighting their boredom — scrubbing through their Ipod menu, engrossed in a book, or zoned out in a passing urbanscape.

The Drawbridge is an exciting read with, or without, our contribution. Get your hands on a copy, it will change your expectations and perceptions of a broadsheet publication. Thanks again to Paul Davis at The Drawbridge for throwing the brief our way.

Visit and subscribe to The Drawbridge here

While most newspapers have become more compact in recent years, The Drawbridge bucks the trend. A quarterly printed on a parchment whose girth commuters haven’t encountered since Pooter was sauntering down the Holloway Road, it’s a journal that thinks bigger than most, and in more ways than one… Travis Elborough, 10 March 2007 The Guardian

The studio has developed a series of three postcard invitations for the next AGDA Victoria event facilitated by Andrew on 28 May 2007. Jenine at AGDA reports that the event is booking up fast, so don’t hesitate, book your seat now!

Following are some type related insights that were developed for one of the invitations:

• Use Times Roman Bold on absolutely everything including Federal government department brands
• Use Bodoni on designer projects that need the designer look
• Use Dom Casual if you want a layout that looks like it is talking
• Use Berling because you think no one else will
• Use one of those custom thick and thin san serif fonts with rounded end bits, because somehow it will bring your client into the future
• Use Trebuchet because a really famous rock star designer used it in their PowerPoint presentations
• Use Univers with that edgy yet stiff corporate client
• Use Helvetica because it is so familiar with marketing people
• Use any Dutch font; these guys need support for their obsession
• Use Robert Slimbach‘s version of Minion Pro because he has thought of every ligature you could want
• Use Optima. Colgate doesn‘t have exclusive rights to its use
• Use University Roman for cigarette packaging or your next wizards and goblins project
• Use Memphis because you want to appear to be a risk taker
• Use The Sans because it made sense at the time
• Use Chicago. It‘s a font that is also one of the world‘s greatest rock bands
• Use Antique Olive and give the project to a colleague to finish off, because you know they will hate using it
• Tahoma is a small Pacific island
• Use one of those crappy 1980s rub down fonts to give your work a street edge
• Use a font with a name that has a vowel as a last letter to show the design world you are on fire
• Use Frutiger, it is a damn good type face and you can take the criticism
• Buy massive letters that used to be on the side of buildings and stick them in you[r] work space. Clients will think it is a real design studio
• Use Bembo because it doesn‘t have those notches like Garamond does
• Use Avenir because you are tired of using Frutiger‘s other faces
• Make a font from torn rice paper
• Immortalise yourself and use your handwriting on an organic brand
• Use Georgia because it is free to all and one of Boz Scaggs best songs
• Use a black condensed san serif typeface for you latest hippy client
• Typeset your next brand project in Avant Garde as the second option and see if your client picks it
• Destroy a professional friendship over a type and cropping choice
• Is Poppl-Laudatio for real?
• He kissed me and I finally knew that I was in heaven as we lay down for…
• Make a big deal; only use four fonts
• Textile for the next Telstra logo
• Use a stenciled font; every designer has to do it in their lifetime
• Set you[r] next job in Gill Sans and see how you feel about it afterwards
• Avant Garde Light is in fashion (like the Suede song)
• Use Swiss Thin for a day spa
• Find friends outside of design
• Wear grey tracksuit pants
• Try not to assign a mood to a font
• Get furious when your client refines your logo with a new designer
• Make that logo 50% bigger
• Read that book on Renner and Futura, it‘s a page turner
• Hand rendered type is so cool
• Never talk socially about type in a non-design context
• Use Mistral to get your design mates to double take, and don‘t tell deep down you would marry this font if it were a person.

See you at Forty-eight!

Saxton Paper writing kits, May 2007.

Saxton Paper’s brief to the studio is to develop promotional work that inspires the end user to explore the potential of paper, by communicating with paper in a meaningful and memorable fashion. The 2007 Saxton writing kits is the result.

There are two kits. Each kit has three designs, expressed as six greeting cards and matching writing paper, twelve envelopes with Saxton propaganda as a security pattern, and a writing guide all in a neat shipping envelope.

The designs take on a decorative and ambiguous look, allowing the end user to caste whatever meaning they deem appropriate to each design and occasion. Some of the designs are abstract, some are literal, some use raw pixels, others use flat colour, there are gradated and continuous tones, there is rustic collage and hard line work.

The project was in the studio and in production for six months. The concept, imagery, writing and products was developed by Andrew and Shelley, the project was printed and finished by Gunn & Taylor. We hope that the customers of Spicers Paper and Australian Paper enjoy using the kit, as much as we enjoyed bringing the idea to life.

Our client Australia Paper is very special. Their collaborative approach to developing the brief and work allowed us to do what we do best. Thank you again for this opportunity AP.

Chamber Music Australia organise various events to raise monies for their activities. The studio donates it’s time to develop the collateral for such events.

In light of China’s rise to prominence on the world stage, Robert Buckingham along with the organising committee themed this event with notion of the romantic Far East. We sourced this example of Chinese Art — Parallel-Inverse Decoration and isolated it on a luminescent stock — Curious by Spicers Paper.

This pattern was selected because it has many layers of meaning. The colours are celebratory, the complete motif appears to be dragon like, and yet the isolated elements seem to be flower abstracts. The overall presentation was intended to be more decorative than symbolic, suggesting a mood of the night. We opted for an ambiguous layout so that the image and type elements speak for themselves.

Troedel & Company, CMA’s long standing printer, produced the event collateral. We have provided PaperPoint with finished print samples for designers to access. We felt the work effectively demonstrates the unique outcome that occurs when 4 colour printing is applied to this stock.

Woof woof!

At the last minute Jardan asked the studio to look at the graphic component for their stand at the Design Ex in Melbourne this year. It is hard to look past a cute dog when time is limited.

Jardan is an Australian furniture manufacturer based in Melbourne visit jardan.com.au for details