Spotted #12

It's time for this week's round-up of our shots of typography, branding and logos spotted around our home city of London. The story behind our shot of Paul Smith's shop in Borough takes us back to the 1960s, when Smith was a budding professional racing cyclist. He had his career all mapped out and then he unexpectedly crashed into a car one day. It was during his time recovering that he fell in with the art school crowd in his home town and soon developed a passion for fashion that would see him showing his clothes in Paris only a few years later. Paul Smith's brand is now one of the most successful British fashion labels and his quintessentially British designs have fans all over the world. But his love of cycling lives on. 

What else we've spotted this week....

Spotted #11

The week has flown by again and it's time for our weekly catch-up of the shots that we've shared across our social media of logos, branding, typography and graphic design on the streets of our home town of London. 

This week, we focus on a shot of the now classic V&A logo. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London's Kensington was looking for a new identity in 1989 and turned to renowned British designer Alan Fletcher. Fletcher is considered by many to be one of the most highly regarded designers of his generation and he was incredibly prolific, designing identities for the likes of ABB, Lloyd's of London and Arthur Andersen. Most notably, he was one of the founding partners of the famous design agency Pentagram, which is still going strong today. 

Significantly, many of his identities are also still going strong, including the distinctive one for the V&A. 

Other things we've spotted this week...

Spotted #10

It's time for our weekly round-up of the branding, logo, typography and graphic design shots that have caught our eyes on the streets of our home city of London. 

The first image we feature this week is one of a logo that we see on an almost daily basis, that of Crossrail, the ambitious railway project that will see east and west London connected by a new line. It's an identity that most Londoners are familiar with. Recently however, it was announced that the Crossrail name would disappear after construction, to be replaced by something a little more regal. From its opening in 2018, the railway will be called the Elizabeth Line, in honour of the UK's reigning monarch. 

It continues a tradition of giving Underground lines a royal connection through their names but we can only hope that the service on the line will be suitably top class to reflect its grand moniker. 

Spotted #9

It's time for our weekly round-up of the branding, logo, typography and graphic design shots that have caught our eyes on the streets of London this week. 

Our story this week focuses on  a riverside landmark, whose story many Londoners do not know. 

In 1929, Liebig Meat Company, manufacturer of the famous Oxo beef stock cubes, decided to convert an old power station on the banks of the Thames into a cold store. 

The design called for a tower to be added to the building, upon which illuminated signs would proudly display the Oxo brand. When this idea was put in front of the planning authorities it was rejected, as skyline advertising along the river bank was banned at the time. 

Construction work continued on the tower and, upon completion, it was revealed to contain fours sets of three vertically-aligned windows, each of which "coincidentally" happened to be in the shape of a circle, a cross and another circle, thereby spelling the word Oxo. Ingenious. 

Identity for London's coolest souvenir shop, We Built This City

Logo for Borough Market restaurant Roast

Branding and packaging for Mast Brothers chocolate

Identity for King's Cross Central, the property developer transforming London's King's Cross