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BFdesign is a branding, website and design company in Toronto, Canada. And this is the BFdesign Blog.

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2011 (20)

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Blair Francey
 

TTC Concept hits the blogosphere

Train-1

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to write a post - things have been a bit busy with work. But! Today I received word that an article about my thoughts on the TTC brand had been posted on the Torontoist! Very exciting indeed. It's also had a lively discussion over at the Urban Toronto forums.

I’m curious to see what others think. Check out the article here.
Posted by Blair Francey
 

Further thoughts on TTC branding

Train-1

Back in March I wrote a post about the London transit branding and how much I was in love with it. There was a lot of talk about the differences between the TFL and the TTC. One is slick and informative. The other is just ... bad. Guess which one is which. The majority of Torontonians I’ve spoken to on the subject feel the TTC needs to clean up its branding act.

This prompted me to work on a project I’ve been meaning to do for a very long time - my own branding of the TTC. The combination of branding and transit made my inner geek squeal with delight (yes, it squealed).

So I present to you, my vision for a rebranded Toronto Transit Commission.

Read the rest of this post »

Posted by Blair Francey
 

An excellent upgrade strategy

Train-1

As a fan of transit systems around the world (thanks to growing up in Toronto with its streetcars, subways and buses), I have been very interested in how Transport for London operates its vast network of transit lines throughout London - specifically the Underground.

The Underground is going through a massive upgrade, mainly to get things running smoothly for the 2012 Olympics, but it is also a system that needs to be improved - everything from its signalling to new trains with air condition (a luxury the TTC Subways have enjoyed for years).

As this is a design blog, I won’t bore you all with my love of all things transit, but what I will bore you (or excite you, hopefully!) with is the way in which the TFL is communicating its upgrade plans with the Tube riding public.

Tube_poster

Recently these posters have been popping up in the Tube along with a few others. What I love about TFL is their consistency in design (check out the link for the amazing array of design standard manuals they have - swoon!). No matter what the signage is for, be it a poster, a bus stop, or their maps, all the signage is branded equally. It gives a sense of professionalism and unity lacking in a lot of TTC signage. Why wasn’t there more signage like this for the Transit City plan? They even have an online store where you can buy TFL Merchandise! Lightyears beyond the TTC Transit Stuff store (don’t even get me started on the name).

Even the TFL website on the upgrades is incredibly well put together and informative. There’s a great video by Mike Brown, the Managing Director of the London Underground explaining the situation and letting Londoners know that they understand the delays are frustrating but at least give them a sense that this is a worthwhile investment in the future of transit in London. Emails are sent out each weekend for those who want to know which lines will be affected and exactly what is being done on the lines.

This is an example of typical TTC signage one might see at a station (as seen on Joe Clark’s website):
Ttc_sign_farebooth_proliferati

And here’s a sample of London Underground signage (thanks to Annie Mole on Flickr):
2688627068_3de2cb1fa6

Do you see the difference?

There are many other examples of TFL branding consistencies that I could mention, but I really wanted to use the Upgrade Plan as a jumping off point as I enjoy the signage whenever I see it. I say kudos to the TFL for having such a strong brand presence across its network of tube stations, trains, buses, boats, Oyster cards and bikes.

Posted by Blair Francey
 

Transmedia presentation

If you, like me, are interested in telling stories, this is a great primer presentation about Transmedia - or how to tell stories across multiple platforms. Thanks to CrapHammer for the tip off.

Posted by Blair Francey
 

Moving Photography

Camera

Film, right? No. Not exactly. The infamous dance photographer Cylla Von Tiedemann has launched a brand new website called photographyMoves. The site is a new venture for her combining travel, dance, photography and workshops in Europe and North America. She’s offering classes for anyone who wants to learn how to take photos using dancers and the city around you. What a brilliant idea! I’m actually tempted to do it myself.

From a design perspective, I really like the way you are introduced to the site with a full screen video introduction from Cylla. Once inside, the site is nicely laid out with vibrant colours and clean text / navigation. Personally I’m not too keen on the logo - the typography is nice and works well, just not a huge fan of the graphic element to it.

But other than that, this looks like a fantastic opportunity for anyone who wants to learn more about photography using dancers and the cityscape as your muse.
Posted by Blair Francey
 

Post once, notify everyone and their dog

Share
As I was setting up this blog, I was trying to figure out a way to get the posts delivered to both my Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn profile - and potentially other social networking sites that I might come across and fancy signing up for.

Unfortunately I’ve found most of the apps available on Facebook to import RSS feeds to be really confusing and not terribly user friendly. So while looking around, I stumbled up on Dlvr.it - their motto, “You Publish. We Deliver.” And do they deliver.

If you’re looking for a simple, easy, effective way to distribute your information across a network of sites, this is definitely something to check out. And it’s free. Can’t go wrong with that. You can set up multiple accounts so for someone like myself who has various clients who could benefit from this, it’s great to be able to manage a bunch of different “routes” as they call them (content from one blog sent to multiple sites).

This service definitely gets my thumbs up - as it cross-pollinates this post for me. Shazam!
Posted by Blair Francey
 

Who doesn't like a photo collage?

Camera

iPhoto is my photo manager of choice. I have over 20,000 photos from about 2001 in my library. That’s a lot. Needless to say I like to take photos.

One thing I don’t do anymore though is print off my photos. They’re either on Flickr or my MobileMe gallery or Facebook. But then I saw this app, Posterino, and I thought, “Hey! That’s a cool idea ...”

While I haven’t tried it out myself yet, the screenshots and video make it look rather appealing to someone like myself. I have tons of photos that don’t necessarily need to be printed out individually, but would do nicely in a collage of sorts. This take the effort out of creating your own if you don’t have the patience for it. There are tons of options and it integrates with iPhoto and Aperture like a good Mac app should. You can even save it to various social sites (like Flickr) or to your hard drive to print out at a later date.

If you’ve tried Posterino, let me know how it is. Might have to pick this up at some point and sort through those thousands of images on my hard drive!
Posted by Blair Francey
 

Who is Gloria?

Beer

This isn’t like Who is Keyser Soze, but whoever Gloria is, she’s got some great developers at her place.

I came across the Made@Gloria website while looking at my absolutely favourite RSS reader for the iPad, iPhone and now Mac, Reeder (I will probably write something about this app at some point as I drool over the design of it).

But Reeder, developed by Silvio Rizzi, is one of many apps in development at Made@Gloria. There’s something very fun in the design of this site. I love the idea that we are looking at a giant pint of beer on screen. Not sure if it means the developers in this group are drunk all the time, but hey, if alcohol is going to help develop some fantastic apps, the next round is on me!

One of the other amazing apps listed here is called Alarms - this is a stunning piece of work and design that fits in so well with the Mac OS, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple bought it and incorporated it into the OS at some point in the development of Lion.

Check out some of the other fantastic pieces in development.

--
Blair Francey, Creative Director
bfdesign inc.

skype | twitter | linkedin | facebook bgfrancey

Please think before you print!


Posted by Blair Francey
 

Letters from the Swiss

Thumbs-up

The Swiss do a lot of things right. Chocolate springs to mind right away. But they’re also well known for their design sensibility. Anyone heard of Helvetica?

I’ve always been a fan of clean, simple, well laid out design work and I have the Swiss designers to thank for that. Smashing Magazine has a fantastic article on Swiss design over the years. There are some really beautiful pieces featured in the article - big bold type, design with the grid system, simple but effective colour choices, white space galore ... le sigh! I definitely was in design heaven reading the article.

This design aesthetic and ideology is definitely something I aspire to and look forward to continually honing as I grow as a designer.

Some of my favourite pieces are:

Swiss-graphic-design-101

Swiss-graphic-design-113

Swiss-graphic-design-177

What are your favourites featured in the article?

--
Blair Francey, Creative Director
bfdesign inc.

skype | twitter | linkedin | facebook bgfrancey

Please think before you print!


Posted by Blair Francey
 

The Noun Project

User
If you haven’t discovered The Noun Project yet, you’ve been missing out.

I came across the site thanks to Brian Hoff, a fantastic designer with an excellent blog full of tips and tricks for designers, and I’ve been slightly obsessed with it ever since.

The aim of the site is quite simple; "The Noun Project collects, organizes and adds to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world's visual language, so we may share them in a fun and meaningful way.”

I’m just itching to find a project that I can download a gazillion icons for from this site. Instead, I’m using them to grab icons for each blog post here. That’ll satisfy my itch for now.

--
Blair Francey, Creative Director
bfdesign inc.

skype | twitter | linkedin | facebook bgfrancey

Please think before you print!


Posted by Blair Francey
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo.
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