Peter Kelly

Ess-a-Bagel Re-Branded

2010-01-22T15:18:00.000-05:00

Old

New

Sad to see the old sign go. I would've grabbed the "Appetizing Cheeses" bit before they tossed it. Gold on white doesn't read all that well either.

"Ess-a-Bagel" means "Eat a Bagel" in Yiddish.

Walt Disney Family Museum

2009-12-22T11:31:00.016-05:00

After some years in the making, the Walt Disney Family Museum is finally complete and the sign program that I'd worked on is 100% done and installed. There was a lot of complex building code regarding signage so it's great to see it finally materialise.

Images of the complete program can be viewed here. Thanks to Kate Newsom at Rockwell Group Architects for the photos.

More about The Walt Disney Family Museum can be viewed at Disney.com

Worst. Typography. Ever.

2009-12-15T12:49:00.000-05:00

Exactly who at the MTA approved this? Even if I tried, I don't think I come up with something so typographically wrong. What makes this all the more perplexing is that this only seems to exist on the new Alstom-made R160 trains running on the N, R, Q and W lines and on none of the other lines.

A few of my favourite logos

2009-11-19T17:05:00.000-05:00

Recently, a new client asked me to identify my favourite corporate marks and describe what I thought made them successful. Some of these are pretty obvious choices but I forced me to consider exactly why I like them beyond purely aesthetic reasons.

Federal Express Landor Associates, 1994

Mark conveys a sense of trust, dependability, speed and precision. Packages and letters with this mark on their outer packaging always get opened first. The logo viewed by itself conveys absolutely everything about the experience of the brand.

Sun Microsystems Vaughan Pratt, 1984

I love that the man who first penned this logo was not a graphic designer but a mathematician and early pioneer in the field of computer science. The way that the interleaved “U” and “N” also form an “S” no matter which way the mark is rotated is brilliant. Really a beautiful example of symmetry and order.

USA Network Peloton Design, 2005

Beautiful use of negative space. Mark reads perfectly across broadcast, electronic and printed media at any scale.

Unilever Miles Newlyn + Wolff Olins, 2005

Great use of icons that convey a sense of energy and freshness woven into the “U” eg: shirt=clean laundry, heart=health, sun=vitality, bird=freedom. Something very friendly and approachable is immediately apparent.

Apple Computer Rob Janoff, 1977

The simplicity of the mark here is key–two forms capture the personality of the corporation completely and authentically. Even without including the name “Apple Computer”, very few people in the world would have any trouble recognising what the silhouette of an apple with a “byte” taken out of it represents. Interesting when compared to the original logo. Apparently Steve Jobs had been working in a friend's apple orchard when he came up with the name. Or it was a tribute to the Beatles. Or him and Steve Wozniak just wanted to be listed ahead of Atari in the Palo Alto phone book.

Skilled Resumes

2009-11-13T15:21:00.000-05:00

Just re-launched this: http://skilledresumes.com

Hopefully the site's owners will do an AdWords campaign in the next couple of weeks. Excited to see how the new site layout will increase their conversion ratio. Hoping to get between 1.5-2%.

Font Bureau sues NBC

2009-10-13T16:35:00.000-04:00

Font Bureau's Antenna used for SNL

Font Bureau sues NBC for $2M for not licensing Bureau Grotesque, Interstate or Antenna for broadcast use on The Jay Leno Show, Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. You'd think someone at NBC would be on top of this stuff.
http://cityfile.com/dailyfile/7508

Another Paul Rand Logo Bites the Dust

2009-10-05T11:08:00.000-04:00

Yale Press to drop Paul Rand's logo originally launched in 1985. If anyone working in corporate identity at Westinghouse, ABC or IBM are reading this, please call me. The re-work of the UPS one was depressing enough.

Via Yale Daily News.

Melborne Metro Re-brand

2009-10-02T17:07:00.000-04:00

Metro Trains Melborne (formerly Connex) has launched a new identity. I quite like it, feels like a blend of the Yokohama and Brussels marks. New signage and livery graphics to follow soon. Time for Metro Bits to add it to their excellent collection of transit logos.

See more at the Metro Trains website: http://www.metrotrains.com.au

Vintage Navy Yard

2009-10-01T17:32:00.000-04:00

Some amazing vintage images of the Brooklyn Navy Yard when ships were still built there http://www.flickr.com/photos/brooklynnavyyard