In evaluating the project I decided on two messages I wanted to convey within the identity for CodeCamp. The first being programing and development and the second focusing on the camp association. Waterloo, being about as nondescript as you can get for an urban center, led me to the decision to avoid the common practice in BarCamp identities to include imagery or allusions to the host city.

With these elements in mind I began sketching out some ideas, focusing primarily on a literal camping theme (BarCamp originating from actually camping at the event overnight). I also used this theme as an opportunity to allude to the BarCamp branding use of fire. The code and programing aspect was focused initially as a texture within the mark, that however changed in latter versions to be a more central component of the mark.

Once I had a path in mind I was able to take these ideas into the digital world and flesh them out a bit. With a bit of refinement I was able to narrow it down to one or two styles. The raging fire became a single flame, a nod to that idea igniting in your head like a match being lit in a dark space, and the code texture came into it’s own, using binary to hide a message in the mark. The placement of the code was a bit tricky to place, forcing it out of the background and into the spotlight, but I think the final solution works out really well.

The final bit of work was on the type, using the usual BarCamp style lockup and typeface (Century Gothic), and borrowing the maple leaf element from PodCamp London to emphasize the country of origin. In the end I delivered a versatile and unique identity to Will and CodeCamp Waterloo that has the potential to be a jumping point for other CodeCamp’s to model themselves after.

CodeCamp takes place January 30 & 31, 2010. CodeCamp is completely free to attend.

Today you can see the remnants of Arthur’s system at St. George station decaying and mostly forgotten.

Recently, I’ve wondered what could have been of this system and what each stations pictograph would be. As I understand it only St. George, Spadina, and Bay were designed. Bay being waves, Spadina an Indian Chief, and St. George a dragon. But what would have been used to represent Union Station or Wilson station?

So I thought I’d put it to you, I’ve created a template which you can download and design your own interpretation of each station. Then, upload it to Flickr tag it with “TTCSignage” and post a link to it in the comments here.

The pictographs can be derived from a number of avenues. Arthur suggested using rhyme (Chester = Jester), geographical or nearby attraction (High Park = Tree), historical references (Kipling = Quill), or the origin of the word (Spadina = Aboriginal).

It should be interesting to see what stations conjure the same ideas, and which ones differ wildly.

In April, I being swamped with work and Titus needing a new card for an upcoming event, he began exploring designs himself. One of the designs he posted to twitter managed to catch my eye and became the launching point for my “suggestions”.

As I mentioned I’m a bit of a sucker when it comes to providing suggestions. Often handing finished designs rather then advice on what to improve. Such is the case here as well.

The blue Titus used immediately stuck me as a visual element that would look great in large amounts. I also decided that setting everything in white Helvetica would really pop off the blue. The use of the single typeface also cleaned up a lot of the visual clutter and accented the new arrangement of the information into a grid layout.

The final piece of the puzzle was the tag line. Ideally there would be variations of the “…is” theme, or a blank space to write it in, Titus chose “…is still alive” in the end however.

And he is still alive as of this post, so make sure to check out his blog at TitusFerguson.com.

Being a visual person, I sometimes find it easier to convey the idea graphically rather then spelling it out in words. As they say, a picture is worth 1,000. Once I get started however, my perfectionist streak tends to come out and I often wind up completing the design. That’s not to say I do this for everyone, so I hope I don’t get a ton of tweets and emails asking for my opinion in the hopes of free work.

Ben was one of the lucky few. Looking at his initial logo (below-right) I found it to be very rough. The typeface used looked unfinished, the colour combination was a bit too basic, and the composition left the elements competing for the same mind space.

To begin this project, as someone not entirely familiar with the genre, I began researching punk album covers to find commonalities among them and the overall style of design within the genre. The two that influenced this logo the most were the typography and colour pallets.

The type on most albums was either distressed and misaligned, or very sketchy almost scribbled; the latter obviously was the influence for the project, and I hand drew the type with various references from my research. The result is very evocative and distinctly punk in style and arrangement.

For the colour pallet I chose to go with bright, almost neon, pastels common in the genre. Here it’s “electric blue” but it could be swapped out with a hot pink, vibrant chartreuse or a punchy yellow. The blue however is the most neutral of the choices and highlights the type nicely against the black.

One final element I decided to include, and retain from Ben’s original attempt, was the star motif. I hand drew a few stars which make up the background pattern of the album art, and included one in the singular letter A. It also makes a great graphic element for use in wallpapers and elements of a website.

My last note on this project is about the composition of the type is more personal preference, but I decided it looked better as two lines instead of three as in Ben’s, and was a more accurate representation of how the title would be spoken.

I’m not sure if Ben intends to use it, but I figured I’d talk about it none the less. And if you’re into punk music make sure to subscribe to Ben’s podcast Punk A Day.

It was almost surprising to see how little care is put into them. That journalists are granted access to sensitive areas, from crime scenes to government facilities, on a daily basis all across the country, with little more then a ball of paper with a glamour shot and the word PRESS.

You would think there would be some sort of standardization for such a document. That maybe the media or the government would have developed a standard in the days since Police Chief’s signed each pass and a slip of paper in a fedora went out of style. Especially in an age where these passes could easily be replicated by any 15 year old with a decent printer.

Anyone could throw one together and have a good chance of it going unnoticed; I’ve even created one. In 2006 I put together a series of passes for an online media company and it’s staff. Admittedly it was a bit over-designed, more so in comparison to other companies, but it was in the right direction of what standardized passes should resemble.

I think there needs to be a set of fundamental features when putting together a standard ID card like this. Much of the features are standard on licenses and passports now, and the same level of gravity should be given to media identification. So I propose the following features.

First, a standard size and paper weight, plastic even. The bigger the better but not so big it becomes cumbersome. It’s such an easy thing to do to ensure a quality document and a familiar format.

Bright Colour, the Toronto Sun has bright red, making the document visible from a distance. I chose green for my client at the time because it was their corporate colours. But a standard colour should be agreed on and possibly even changed each year, like licence plate validation stickers. Easy to see and verify if the pass is current.

Barcodes. A super easy way of verifying the information matches what’s written on the pass. Hard to duplicate unless you know exactly what is contained in the barcodes and how the information is formatted.

Lose the glamour shots. It’s not really necessary to have a head shot that looks like you had it taken by a high school photographer. Passport style photos work well for a number of reasons, and tones down how awesome you think yourself to be.

Four relatively easy steps to having a more secure ID and on the way to becoming a standard if everyone could agree on how these features would be laid out. It wouldn’t necessarily have to cost much more then it does now to produce either.

Of course I’m told by Dan Brown of the London Free Press that these flimsy credentials are often seen as a means to an end, sometimes a hindrance, or unnecessary all together. So I’m probably backing up the wrong tree. But it does seem like an area that’s habitually neglected and should be remedied.

I’d love to hear from journalists about their thoughts on this and what they think about the ID issued by their company.

Make sure to check out her Esty store, Odd-ish Creations, and if you ever need a stamp made up I fully recommend going to Odd-ish Creations for them.

The site, designed by Leschinski Design, gives you the latest and greatest in reviews on the hottest plays of the festival and the hot spots to enjoy a meal after the show. You can also share and discover thoughts about plays, restaurants and hotels on the sites message board, and get all the info you need from locals and tourists.

http://stratfordfestivalreviews.com/

The design updates the previous static and dated version of the companies online presence, and brings a fantastic fresh design inspired by water and light.

Along with the new look, the back-end has undergone some radical changes. A new content management system was implemented, bringing with it a blog, an improved pattern showroom, and an easy to maintain site.

Check out http://www.deysfab.com.

Over the last few months I’ve been helping make PodCamp London the best looking PodCamp ever. Everything from signage, stickers, name badges, to hats, shirts, and more I had my fingerprint on and it was fun to see it all come together. I even had a limited set of posters printed out that I had everyone sign. Bill and Titus, the main organizers, got two, and Duane Brown won the other. I hope they enjoy them as much as I enjoyed putting them together.

And speaking of sessions. Mathew Hoy and I spoke about brand guidelines. You can watch part of our presentation here. Unfortunately the live streaming/recording didn’t work 100% of the time and only caught a portion of our awesome session.

I’ve also uploaded the slides to slideshare.

I attended several sessions that broke down into one of two categories; metrics and technical. I enjoyed the technical sessions a bit more, as the metrics sessions often felt like a sales pitch.

My favorite was Government 2.0 by Mike Kujawski. It helps that I’ve had some experience in this realm as well, before the term government 2.0 was even a gleam in someones eye I was pushing municipal governments to jump into the web and to use it to connect with citizens more directly and efficiently. The Mayor of Fort Frances got the message in early 2005 and despite being unfamiliar with new media he was willing to jump in feet first. So it’s always interesting to see where government is changing in response to shifting trends with citizens.

All in all it was a very enjoyable experience; I’ve already expressed my interest in helping organize next years PodCamp Toronto, and I got to meet a number of great people who I hope to stay in contact with. If you have the chance next year you should definitely come out, and in the mean time see if there is a PodCamp near you!