Michael Bierut

Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, graduating summa cum laude in 1980. Prior to joining Pentagram in 1990 as a partner in the firm’s New York office, he worked for ten years at Vignelli Associates, ultimately as vice president of graphic design.

These are here pretty much as a reminder to myself and to others who know me. Gambalunga (Long Legs – geddit?). The one below is a to-do reminder and the logo is probably the simplest of all Guzzi logos.

Anyway, a tad busy just now, not as much blogging as I would like, but still here…
…and also easily distracted by Guzzis.

Exeter based Design Credo have created a new mini website to promote the superb office space available for rent at Renslade House, Exe Bridges in central Exeter.

Renslade House has recently benefitted from a refurbishment which is echoed by the new “Podium” brand design by Design Credo. This brand has already been applied to the recent brochure that we have designed for Renslade House. DesignCredo have also undertaken the location photography for this project.

Companies involved in the overall project include Urbina, Turner Locker and Alder King.

The website is a quick loading liquid design based on a Matthew James Taylor layout. This fluid structure is quick to load and is tried and tested on the troublesome IE6 browser. In addition code is structured to allow content important for SEO to appear towards the top of the page.

Search Engine Optimisation is of vital importance to any site. In a competitive market a site that can be found by search engines will ultimately reap dividends.

The Tour is On and I’m Not There

The other day my after a trip to the beach where my daughter insisted on swimming fully clothed she borrowed an old T-shirt of mine bought at the final stage of the 1991 Tour de France. This was the stage where Djamolidine Abdujaparov famously crashed out. Every year since I have wanted to return to Le Tour, next year I will.

For now then a bit of a mish-mash which at some point I will re-visit this post.

First off a reminder of the end of the 1991 race.

The Colour of Cycling

The cycling World Champion colours are not ones that any designer would generally place together, all a bit Play-School. That said in the world of cycling it works, don’t know why, it just does. These basic primary(ish) colours are repeated throughout the cycling world, and why not?

For the uninitiated cycle shirts aren’t just about carrying a brand. Some specific shirts have colours to denote the position of the rider within the race (or World). Whether it is the leader in the sprint race, the best climber or the overall leader there are shirts to be worn.

There seems to be some dispute over the origins of Le maillot jaune in the Tour de France. I certainly like the second suggestion.

The colour was chosen either to reflect the yellow newsprint of the organising newspaper, L’Auto, or because yellow was an unpopular colour and therefore the only one available with which a manufacturer could create jerseys at late notice. (Wiki)

Cycle Logo Design

As a youth, the Campagnolo Super Record Mech (shown) was about as good as it got, but I always preferred the look of the Record (below), which was much more ornate. However the Super Record did allow the Campagnolo logo to be seen in all its glory.

People argue about the relative merits of the Japanese and European technology but for me it is European, in particular Italian all the way, and it’s about look and history. I ride a Dutch Gazelle with a strange mix of Campag, Sachs and 3ttt. Yes there are bits of Jap stuff in there but had I the money it would be Italian all the way, and probably steel too.

There is a certain purity to any of these logos. Some such as the Cinelli logo are a world apart from their predecessors, have a look here.

My friend Msr Moutard was having a bit of a whinge about the loose bottom bracket on his (Taiwanese built) Colnago earlier this week but I don’t think I would tire of seeing this logo on t’ push-iron.

(Told you it was a mish-mash).

Working on behalf of Yorkshire’s Techserv Cutting Systems, Exeter based Design Credo have created a brand for a range of newly developed machines.

More Than a Logo

The scope of the project extended beyond simple graphic design and logo design. Design Credo initially advised on product names creating a ‘brand-family’. Part of this advice extended to researching suitable domain names.

The rationale behind the logo design was to create a simple clear design that would communicate the accuracy and quality of the Techserv products. The logos were designed using simple geometric shapes with reference to the letters a&j, p&j, r&j.

Techserv have already commissioned Design Credo to photograph the first of these machines.

Exeter design company Design Credo is extremely pleased with the initial performance of the WordPress website that they have created on behalf of Topsham’s Nest interiors. The site has well and truly hit the ground running with large numbers of visitors already viewing the site on a daily basis.

The built-in capabilities of this WordPress site enable us to see that within days of going live the site is getting extremely good viewing figures. This is like having hundreds of extra people looking around the shop on a daily basis.

The website is based on the WordPress platform but has been designed to give a strong visual appeal. DesignCredo have undertaken photography for Nest Interiors to strengthen their existing stock of images. The site aims to capture and convey the rich visual appeal of the Nest Interiors shop.

Great SEO results

A great website is of little value unless it can be found. Of course searching on the company’s name puts it top but more relevant search strings such as ‘new + england + style + furniture + devon’ perform extremely well, less than a week from the site being live. Further to this simple search strings such as “Lexington + Devon” provide first page Google results with more detailed searches such as “Lexington + Chesapeake + Cushion” giving a position 1 on a worldwide Google search.

This is extremely important for a company selling quality brand items such as those from Lexington. Putting it simply Nest interiors although based in Topsham near Exeter in the South-West of England are able to create national and international interest.

Add to this the inclusion of PubSubHubbub technology to ensure almost immediate submission of website developments to Google and we have a very search engine friendly site.

However, this is just the start. Design Credo will use various collectable data to monitor where site-traffic comes from and will continue to develop content that will create a good hit with Google searches.

Exeter graphic design company Design Credo have produced new signage to advertise commercial office space in Marsh Barton, Exeter.

Working on behalf of Turner-Locker the Exeter based commercial property agency, Design Credo have used a strong visual impact to promote the office space at Merriot House in Hennock Road Central.

The sign was created using both digital output and vinyl graphics allowing it to be re-purposed at a later date.

Exeter graphic design company Design Credo have created a simple clean and minimal design for Sarah Treble the bespoke and couture wedding dress company now located in Devon.

Sarah was looking for a development of her existing look and wanted to avoid the overly ornate ‘Nuptial Script’ look. The brand needs to be applied in a number of ways ranging from small dress labels to websites, and Design Credo are already involved in the creation of the latter due to ‘go live’ in the coming weeks.

The new brand uses different weights of Helvetica Extended. However the simplicity of a look like this can hide the depth of the process. Many other typefaces were considered before Helvetica was selected. Once the typeface was chosen considered thought was given to he weights, spacing of letters, words and objects within the group as well as the colour.

Ultimately though this look can be considered as ‘less is more’, the brand should in no way interfere with the beautiful design of Sarah Treble’s wedding dresses.

Exeter graphic design company Design Credo have produced a new brochure for the Podium @ Renslade House, the commercial office facility near Exe Bridges at the heart of Exeter.

Working on behalf of Turner-Locker the Exeter based commercial property agency, Alder King and Urbina the project has so far included photography, branding and graphic design.

Renslade House offers a prime office location with excellent location and varied transport options. the building has benefitted from recent refurbishments and offers great possibilities for a wide range of organisations. Renslade House already has a number of high profile occupants.
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Design Credo have recently developed a new logo for PDM Design, the Topsham (Exeter) based architects. Phil Domville-Musters asked us to develop his brand identity further as part of the preparation for his new blog website also currently being developed by us.

Often when asked to ‘breathe on’ an existing idea we find that there are frequently good elements in the customers’ ideas. Phil was keen to keep the existing colours, being a fan of things Italian such as his Ducati and his Colnago. The first task is to unite the existing elements of the idea, the parts all need to be ‘friends’ with each other.

Phil’s original idea used Baskerville and Verdana. We felt that Baskerville designed in 1757 would be better complimented by Helvetica, introduced a further two centuries later and, having just watched Helvetica (the film) at the DID event in Exeter I am more than happy that we are in good company. As with architecture there is a case for mixing the old and the new. In this case we have used the extended form of Helvetica to achieve a suitable balance. The word architecture serves to unite the two dominant forms without detracting from the overall shape or ‘bounding box’ of the device.

As with all logo-forms it is essential that they will can be used in a variety of applications. On paper, where white is the dominant colour PDM will use the version with the grey ‘design’ whereas for the website the word ‘design’ appears as white.

Keeping it simple with respect for typographical heritage makes all the difference.