Very simple and funny – for free!

Who’d like to see the same principle working for Boots or Virgin Megastore perhaps?

I was watching the excellent series “Art Deco Icons” at the weekend. This week they followed the history of Transport for London. Visiting the wonderful 1930s headquaters at 55 Broadway – now the underground station for St.James Park. (You can catch it again on iPlayer before 18th Nov)

David Heathcote tours us around the above building and briefly pauses under a framed Underground map which was drawn before the rebrand of Transport for London. Its a sprawling mess of a poster but certainly depicts how London was rapidly increasing in size, with the center of London still being within easy commuting distance from outer London suburbs.

This poster (below) prompted me to do some digging and write this post.

The re-brand of Transport for London and the ‘tube’ logo is one of the finest examples of graphic communication ever produced. In fact I never even thought about the “rectangular carriage” going down the “circle of the tube” until watching the above show.

I’m sure most people reading this blog will know the famous re-draw of the London Underground map was produced by a 29-year old draughtsmans by the name of Harry Beck. There’s been a few reiterations over the last 75+ years but in essence it’s still as clear and concise to this day as it was when first introduced. Now being used by millions of underground travellers every day – at least once the traveller realizes the Thames does not in fact flow at right angles, sometimes walking is actually quicker than going underground and the map is purely a graphic representation and not geographically accurate!

From a designers point of view, the other great thing about the rebrand of Transport for London was the typeface used. “Johnston” created in 1916 by Edward Johnston was the typeface of choice for Mr Beck and to this day is still being used for all signage, livery and marketing communications.

You’d be forgiven if you mistook it for Eric Gill’s typeface “Gill Sans” which was designed between 1927-1930, roughly ten years after Johnston was publicly released. Edward Johnston, a teacher at Central School of Arts and Crafts at the time, remarked on seeing Gill’s work “I was caught unprepared. I did not know such beauties could exist”. A super quote for one of the most influential type designers/sculptors/stone cutters/print designers of the 20th Century.

It’s an iconic tale and a perfect example of a company rebrand that has stood the test of time and been adored by millions.

Excitement doesn’t get better than this! Introducing Space CAM! , nothing to do with the sky at night but a simple camera to keep an eagle eye on the parking space outside our flat. When the motion sensor detects more than 10% of change, an image is taken, it’s uploaded to the site and the Volvo is moved. Impressed?

For the moment I use the excellent EvoCam software.

Live Space CAM here.

Local neighbour and self-proclaimed grumpy git hosts a bash in his flat a few yards from ours. Arthur is a great advocate for Balham’s Du Cane Court, he was interviewed briefly in Steve Punt’s PI here. The bash looked like good fun, I’m guessing my invite got lost in the internal post.

Have Arthur give you a tour of his flat here.

Get your creative minds down to Shad Thames and visit an excellent exhibition on till the 4th October. The Design Museum are showcasing the best British creative projects and people over the past 30 years. It was fascinating looking at all the 90s work and remembering that this was the very stuff that inspired me to work in design.

There’s also a fantastic exhibition by  the talented Javier Mariscal. All of this mans best work spanning 30 years is on display till the 1st November. Really great stuff.

Punt, Steve Punt, turns private investigator, examining persistent rumours that Hitler was intending to set up his command headquarters in the most unlikely of places – the south London suburb of Balham! In fact my very home of Du Cane Court. Listen to what punt pi discovers about Hitler and his plans for my house…

Listen to the MP3 here