Last week saw the successful launch of Freggo, a chic and funky ice cream bar owned by Gaucho. Inspired by the prolific and celebrated Buenos Aires ice cream parlours, genuine Argentine ice cream and other treats have been brought over the ocean for London to enjoy.

The new bar is on Swallow Street in classy Piccadilly, and Dusted was involved every step of the way to maintain brand integrity and quality across all items, ensure every element was ready on time, and, of course, to be first in the line when the doors opened for business. We were very pleased about the large 1 kilo take-away containers which keep the ice cream frozen for up to an hour – just enough time to dash back to the office and wolf the whole lot down between us.

We are particularly proud or our cute, round juice bottle labels, easy-to-read magnetic menu boards and perfectly sized, branded ice cream tubs.  Alongside the signage, printing and item sourcing, we have created an early-stage website for the company. Check back soon for updates and new flavours on the menu.

Aekt3 is the brainchild of Spanish artist Ángel Fernández Sánchez de la Morena, born in Madrid and currently living/working on London, and art cognoscenti Dagmar Valcarcel. Both had an idea to create an online platform that could enable artists working with different medias to display their work outside the conventional gallery circuit. This way artists keep control of how their work should be presented and how it should be traded, eventually.

The name Aekt3 is the phonetic translation, as found in dictionaries, of the word “act”, which demonstrates the intention of its creators to breakthrough conventions in the art world, almost in a punk, DIY style. Aekt3 is the third of a sequence of actions, or art objects, which aims at engaging audiences and promote debate through the artifacts which audiences are exposed to.

As a response to the client’s brief Dusted created a bold, assertive brand, visually emulating the phonetic symbol as found in the dictionary. Based on Helvetica typeface, the logo detaches itself from any possible bias, remaining a neutral element. One which emphasizes the strength of the work presented, and reinforces the ethos of the organisers as facilitators.

One of our largest projects to date was launched last week – a new website and customer portal for Howard Smith Paper Group (HSPG) – one of the UK’s leading paper merchants and despite any preconceptions (fuelled largely by David Brent and the fictional paper company, Wernham Hogg) the business of paper is a serious one.

With a need now more than ever for continual corporate responsibility and environmental openness, HSPG’s new web presence adds a further dimension to their value proposition as well as significantly enhancing their e-commerce offering to the market. Via a bespoke search tool we developed, the company’s entire range of products and services is made available online providing a resource of valuable information for all target markets – printers, publishers, print management and of course designers.

Our good friends at Browns devised the original branding while we developed the on-line experience with a fully CMS-powered solution that reflects the Group’s structure as five independent operating companies:

1. HSP Commercial Print
2. Contract Paper
3. Savory Paper
4. Precision Publishing Paper
5. HSP Retail

The website also contains access to a customer extranet – the ‘1-1 Service’ – their newest e-commerce offering.  This unique service offers selected target customers a secure area to work online with HSPG, providing tailored, personalised information that will benefit customer’s businesses directly.

Work on the main group website for HSPG, follows the success of the microsite we developed last year for the HSP Awards – a graphic design and print award scheme with “No prizes for ambient advertising or viral marketing campaigns. No mortifying awards bash. Just jaw-droppingly good design, and print that smells and feels as good as it looks.”

Earlier this week, I was invited along to my local Jelly session show as their special podcast guest to chat about Dusted’s plans to branch out into the United States. For the past few years, ‘local’ for me has been Charlotte, North Carolina where Dusted is soon to open its first overseas office.

Recorded live from Mez at the Epicentre in uptown, I spoke with Josh McGlinn and Nathan Longbrook at CLTJelly about everything from English accents, European tastes, Atlantic exchange programmes and of course, how Dusted is looking to expand to Charlotte, why we chose the city, and our plans for the future.

Listen to the podcast here: JellyCast 5: British Invasion!

CLTJelly was started as a way to bring freelancers together in a casual setting to share ideas, collaborate, and co-work. Jelly sessions have been hosted all over the country and though originally intended for freelancers, CLTJelly is open to anyone who wants to participate. JellyCast is a recorded segment (think podcast) that takes place on location during CLTJelly.

Photo credit: Flickr user spyndle

Captain Darren of the Enterprise
Conqueror of the Evil Armies of Khan, Founder of the Sacred Scrolls and Master of the Universe.

David-1-Canobie
Powerful Jedi Knight of Alderon who ended the tyranny and evil regime of Darth Moore himself, Guardian for the Princess from the Never-ending Story.

Queen Sarah-idala of Nabu
Head of the Democratic Republic, Commander of the Great Fleet of The Realm who defends the lands of Middle Earth.

King Stuart IV
Son of Thrain, son of Drain, Leader of the Blackbeard Dwarves who mine the Misty Mountains, beyond the Swamps of Peril and beyond the Valleys of Doom.

Matt-2D2
Engineer of the Third Reich, High Counsellor of the Jedi Order and Diplomatic Representative of Yoda himself.

Lord Vilmar of Rivendell
Most powerful of all the Elves in the ancient world, Conqueror of the Evil Goblins to the South who lye past the 7 Temples of Sins and beyond the Dark Spirits of Cortez himself.

Ryan of Rohan
The Great Sorcerer from the East, Brother to the Baby Eating Bishop of Bath and wells, Cousin to Drakemore, The Dark Wizard of Moria who roams the Northern Hemisphere killing all that linger in his path.

Eva, Maggora and Sarah
The Three Sisters of Satan, gifted with the Powers of Foresight, Guardians of the Cities of Gold which hold the Mighty Magics of Old.

Princess Sam of Nazrith
The beautiful Lady of the Lake, Heir to the Throne of Gondor and bearer of the Ancient Knife of Zamorok; who has the power to summon the Great Eagles from the North.

Jack MacLeod of the Clan MacCleod
Born in 1518 in the village of Glennfinnan on the Shores of GlockSheil – he is immortal.

Achieving a continuous, long-standing relationship with clients has always been one Dusted’s strong points and this is no better demonstrated by the work we have done with the Industrial & Logistics division of CB Richard Ellis.

For the latest incarnation – our fourth consecutive update for CBRE – Dusted were instructed to design and develop a new site for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) ‘supershed’ specialist that demonstrated the sector expertise, geographic spread, research capability and alliance partnership of the pan-European property advisor.

Since our first involvement, CBRE have continually led the field, being voted European Industrial Agency Team of the Year in 2006, 2007, 2008 and now 2009. The new site not only needed to portray this award-winning status but also addresses a prodigious portfolio of international properties and consultancy.

Our approach also centered around user-needs and the streamlined presentation of ever-increasing information on the website, with a seamless and intuitive method for navigating through the website.

After winning a creative pitch late last year against other leading London agencies, Dusted have successfully delivered an entirely new web presence for award-winning European private equity and venture capital investment firm, NBGI – an operationally independent member of the National Bank of Greece.

Founded in 2000, NBGI currently manage approximately €800 million across a number of different funds focusing on many different sectors and geographies across Europe. To cater for these local markets, Dusted created individual, CMS-driven, websites for each NBGI region that saw the launch of 5 sites last week:

• NBGI Private Equity UK
• NBGI Private Equity France
• NBGI Private Equity South East Europe
• NBGI Private Equity Turkey
• NBGI Ventures

The project involved a re-alignment of the NBGI brand, resulting in strong, fresh concepts for each territory and an identity flexible enough to work across each division. Foreign language versions are planned now with work already underway on stakeholder communications for off-line channels.

As a recent employee at Dusted, I thought I’d make my first blog post about my current MA Group Exhibition at 65-67 Broadwick Street. I’m currently studying part-time at the London College of Fashion for an MA in Fashion Curation and wanted to help spread the word. Hopefully bringing a new dimension to the Dusted blog.

We’ve had great press coverage so far (Dazed & Confused, The Times, The London Paper, Running in Heels, Style Canteen, etc.) and as a result we have put together a blog (people kept asking us if we had a website/blog so that they could look online) and here is the link. Go and check it out for further details.

The exhibition is on 3 April – 24th April 2009 at 65-67 Broadwick Street.

CEME – the Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence – have appointed Dusted following a competitive pitch for the design and redevelopment of their web presence. The new website is due to launch in early summer and will focus primarily on the Centre’s key role as an education and specialist skills centre, a business growth and innovation facility and world-class conference centre.

CEME is a key part of the Thames Gateway regeneration project – it is a thriving park passionate about the manufacturing, engineering and technology sector. It is a not-for-profit organisation that operates for the public and region’s benefit. One of the most unique aspects of the Centre is an event space called the Pod – a self-contained 120-seat auditorium, as functional as it is spectacular.

I was gobsmacked when reading about the [real] possibility of Comic Sans being chosen as the official typeface for the 2012 London Olympics.

Following the controversy surrounding the Olympics logo, 2 years ago, the idea of using a typeface with such an unsophisticated aesthetics comes as another blow to the design community. The Olympic Delivery Authority has considered other options: Gill Sans, Times and, ultimately, a bespoke type family, but on the contrary of what common sense would suggest, the later was sadly ruled out on grounds of costs.

The ODA also argues that Comis Sans had a friendly, universal appeal and that it encourages access and participation with a particular appeal to the young audiences. Surely, there are many other options of typefaces that manage to bring together all the requirements imposed by the organizers, including technical aspects such as being an existing system font, already installed in most computers. Nevertheless, the stakeholders involved in the process look rather inclined to go down the mediocrity path over intelligence, risking to alienate the general public, let alone the visually literate one.

It is becoming clear that, unfortunately, the decisions made by the ODA concerning the Olympics’ design strategy, have been poorly advised in many instances, leading to the display of an inconsistent approach to this discipline in which, paradoxically, the UK is well known for its excellence.

I only hope the Comic Sans affair is a April 1st hoax. Otherwise, it is not funny.