As you may know the past couple of years have been quite a challenge here at Interstate. But, as we go into 2013 we look forward to welcoming you to our new studio at 13 Bramley Road, London and continuing to create innovative creative solutions for clients both old and new.      

Congratulations to Jamie Oliver for securing the festive top spot in the book charts with his latest book ‘Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals’, designed by Interstate.  That is Jamie’s third year in a row at Christmas number one, and we are honoured that the last two were designed by us. ’15-Minute Meals’ sold a whopping 117,911 copies [...]

A lovely alternative Olympic logo idea. Sarah Hyndman of With Relish, a London based design agency, started a project called  Olympic Logo a Day. The idea was to take a photo of random objects arranged to resemble the Olympic Rings each day for a whole year. Not only Sarah was involved, the project was open to contributions from [...]

A lovely infographic taking a look at how London as an Olympic host city has changed, developed and grown from our first games in 1908 to the ‘austerity games’ in 1948  and the current 2012 Olympic Games. Designed by Design by Soup and found on visual.ly

This weekend I was lucky enough to have a look around the New Designers Show held at the Business Design Centre in Islington, where graduate designers are given a national platform to show off their portfolios, network and share ideas with designers from other disciplines. Taking place over two weeks, with nine distinct design zones [...]

The start of a new year and Selfridges kicks off 2012 with a brand new store-wide initiative: Words Words Words. Celebrating the beauty of words, the joy of writing and the art of conversation. Appearing in all parts of Selfridges from the much-anticipated window displays to the exciting program of in-store events, the concept celebrates [...]

Here’s the first glimpse of Interstate’s new identity for boutique legal recruitment and resourcing consultancy founded by Siobhan Kinsella and Richard Ziegler.

UPDATE: Take a look at the Case Study.

An irony-free slice of personal tagging sitting happily next to the beautiful squiggle-mark of the Mind charity.

Saturday afternoon Alex and I ventured down to the rainy streets of Shoreditch to check out a little gallery called Kemistry, on Charlotte Road. Exhibiting ‘Bass Notes: The Film Posters of Saul Bass’, the collection brings together some of Bass’ classic film posters, film titles and film festival posters from the Lloyd Northover donation to the [...]

Our friends at Visual Editions have just launched their first book: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman; Introduced by Will Self

In their own words:
We publish books that use visual writing: writing that uses visual elements as an integral part of the writing itself.

Coming soon:

VE2: Tree of Codes
Jonathan Safran Foer
An experiment in printer’s patience

See visual writing in action on Visual Edition’s website

On more than one occasion recently I have noticed some quite prominent exposure of the font we used for the Play F.C. branding project. I suspect this is just coincidence and down to the fact that since using it I have become visually aware of its characteristics. Interestingly though, albeit for one example, the context in which it is used is far removed from the motive behind using it for Play F.C.

London artist Stephen Walter has hand-drawn a map of all 32 London boroughs to create a fictitious island of London, simply titled ‘The Island’. Taking a year and a half to create, the map accurately details all of London’s hamlets through geographic locations, descriptions of their surroundings, and tells of events that have happened from years gone by as well as his own experiences in each place. On display at the British Library, the map can be viewed in the current exhibition Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art until 19th September 2010 (and also in great detail on their website).

Nigel and I recently attended an Arabic typography workshop at the TDC (Type Directors Club) in New York. Also in attendance was James Montalbano, a New York based typographer who designed the Clearview Highway font used on road signs throughout the US. It was great to meet James and hear his views on typography, as well as his advice on using Fontlab Studio.

For many years, this letterpress block was hung in my grandfathers office above his bureau. As a boy, I would always look up and admire the beauty and allure of this wonderful piece of art – once functional, now inspirational. Thus my passion for typography was born.

Nigel and myself attended the Arabic Typography workshop at the TDC (Type Directors Club) in New York last weekend. The event was hosted by Nadine Chahine, Linotype’s branding manager and Arabic Type expert.

In my opinion the words ‘global brand’ are overused in modern day football and are often taken out of context of what the ‘beautiful game’ stands for. However, as a designer with a growing interest in Arabic typography it was refreshing to see Real Madrid’s recent issue of language specific player shirts.