Sonofthepear

The official creative blog of graphic designer Luke Pearson.

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Women's Super League

Last month we saw the launch of the rebrand of the Women's Super League (WSL). Announced with a video highlighting the women's game as a movement, it's clear that the next step for women's football is all about growth. There's been a rapid rise over the last few years of women's football and the Euros in 2022 helped with a huge part of that.

The concept behind the rebrand revolves around the motion of players on the pitch, and the introduction of bright and vibrant colours is a sign of modern times within the design industry. I look at this and can see the inspiration for the whole of football. The colours are similar to the ones used by the men's Premier League, where they use a bright and vibrant colour palette as well with oranges, pinks and purples, but also greens and yellows. The typography of bold and italic is reminiscent of Tottenham Hotspur's recent rebrand as well.

However, whilst using some of these 'in" trends within football, the WSL have used them to make their own identity. Compared to their previous branding, it was very similar to the Premier League for the men but a toned-down version. This shows a slight nod to the top flight of the men's but works differently. The family-friendly atmosphere of the women's game compared to the rough and ready of the mens, needs to be marketed differently and I believe this works well to show girls this is the pinnacle of the women's games and is it's own movement with it's own style of passion and excitement.

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London's Air Ambulance

Sometimes design just needs to be simple and easy to understand. This rebrand by FORM Brands for London's Air Ambulance does just that. When it comes to emergencies everything needs to be noticeable and easily understandable, and the way FORM have produced this rebrand is brilliant. Using the common grid system design, the layout of graphics makes all the information stand out without looking too cluttered. The additional bright colour palette brings everything into focus just what any emergency service needs. The supporting photography captures the story of the people who help save the lives of people in the community, text reading facts reinforce the importance of the service.

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The Making of Harry Potter

Had a visit to Warner Bros studios a few weeks ago for my sister's birthday as she's a huge Harry Potter fan. As for myself, I'm not a big fan but I do like the films, I haven't had the patience to read the books.

One thing you have to say is that the Making of Harry Potter is something special. You do not realise the fine details that went into practically everything to make the films. From everything big such as the Hogwarts Express down to the tiniest detail of sweet packaging. I particularly enjoyed the graphic packaging and printed media of the Daily Prophet and the creative style of these. Each bit of graphic is different in its own way but all so very unique to the wizarding world. The seriousness of the newspapers, Hogwarts letters to the craziness and fun of the Weasley's & Weasley's shop and, the in-between of the Quibbler.

A great day out for any Harry Potter fan but anyone who isn't would most definitely appreciate the details and clever thinking behind it all.

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Football Fixture Release

Over the past two weeks, we have seen the fixture announcement for the upcoming football season. This is an interesting time for me as it's a chance to see what creative routes football clubs have chosen to use for the next season.

Looking through all 92 clubs, the majority have opted for a very similar look and feel at the heart of their creative. Photography. Letting the photography do the work and the graphics being added to the negative space. With it being fixtures it's all about the club as a whole so we're seeing a lot of stadium photography. For the full list of schedules, teams have gone for showing stands from the pitch as if you're sitting in your seat. Others have teased by showing one stand or like Watford FC just the top of their main stand. Exeter City have gone for a hybrid of photography and a gradient blur behind their fixtures which blends with the grass.

As well as showing the full schedule teams have opted for key dates supporting graphics to show off the first five games, last 5 games or even derby matches. AFC Wimbledon and Plymouth Argyle have chosen to use different stadium shots throughout, whereas Bolton Wanderers have gone with a continuous image of their stadium which works well. Liverpool however, have chosen to show key features of their opponent's stadiums in the corner.

Looking forward to seeing how these styles develop over the season as there is some great-looking work out there. I particularly like Plymouth's creative style so far and their use of one-colour badges seems to be a running theme across football this year.

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A big thank you to everyone at Wilko, Homebase and The Range. It's been a pleasure working with you all for the past 7/8 months.

Supporting the creative team by creating promotional materials for new campaigns, social media assets and customer emails, whilst maintaining each brands values and creative style.

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Liverpool FC

The 24/25 football season has been a special one for Liverpool FC, who have become English champions. As most of their supporters have enjoyed watching their team, I, as a neutral, have enjoyed what their creative department has produced.

Liverpool have got their whole club identity spot on this season. Using their own custom typeface, which is complemented by bold and vibrant imagery. Their whole visual identity this year has evolved around using photography in the best way possible. To celebrate a player's stats, they make the player the focal point and the text is secondary, no need for cutouts or lighting treatments or any other brand assets.

Their contract renewal graphics for Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk were exquisite. A simple line of text sealing the deal. The hints of Liverpool red for the carpet for Salah and the throne for the "Egyptian King" add a subtle nod to his chant. For van Dijk, the sense of royalty with gold-framed pictures of the captain in action, with the consistency of players sitting down, or should we say taking their seats ready for the show. This has been a regular appearance throughout the season for matchday graphics as well. A really well-thought-out campaign by the creative team at the club and all involved.

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Anthony Burrill

Going back to talk about one of my favourite pieces of work, which even inspired a university project of mine. Anthony Burrill's 'Work Hard & Be Nice To People'. A piece that has stood the test of time and is some simple but effective advice.

It's funny to think that this piece of work was the first Burrill produced from a letterpress print works he stumbled across in East Sussex. The same workshop that he used to produce so many of his works. For me, I loved the print side of working, making something using screen printing or a letterpress has a different feeling compared to creating using a computer. A physical piece always gives you that feeling of "I've made this" and a sense of pride over it.

Burrill's work inspired my final project, where I recorded random conversations on public transport and created typographical posters from them. Using screen printing rather than letterpress and experimenting with photography over the top, as well as bright colours similar to Burrill. I've always loved clean typographic work, and this is where it started.

Source: anthonyburrill.com, Instagram: @anthonyburrill

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Guinness

A couple of weeks ago I got to visit Dublin and the Guinness Storehouse. An absolute must in my opinion for anyone visiting Dublin.

Whilst I was there, I was in my element checking out all of the old advertisements and marketing material used. The way they have used the iconic white and black look of the drink has produced some of their best campaigns. However, one campaign I loved seeing was something very different, the work of John Gilroy.

Gilroy's first campaign showed people completing impressive accomplishments, such as carrying a girder and was complemented by text saying "Guinness for strength". The inspiration for Gilroy's designs was that he understood the audience. An audience that was in a rush and didn't have time to stop and take in a lot of visual information. Getting to the point with bright and bold colours was the way forward for Gilroy, and it worked.

The next big campaign was "My Goodness, My Guinness", where Gilroy depicted exotic zoo animals in unusual situations. A sea lion with a Guinness on the end of its nose, a group of toucans flying through the air with pints on their beaks. Again, bright colours and unusual to grab the audience and tell them, "It's a lovely day for a Guinness" or "Guinness for strength". Sometimes it really is as simple as what it says, and planting that idea in the audience's mind so they agree it is a lovely day for a Guinness, so they'll get one. A great campaign that still stands the test of time.

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Milton Keynes Dons FC

MK Dons are one of the most controversial football clubs in the world. The club was "formed" in 2004 after Wimbledon FC was relocated to the town, despite widespread criticism from the football world. Since then, the club has used a variation of the same logo until now.

After undergoing new ownership, the club decided to refresh their club identity. As an identity, I think it fits into the new norm of football design. With the rise of circular logos, it's not a surprise they have gone down this route. The reasoning, however, being down to Milton Keynes' "iconic roundabouts" seems a little tongue in cheek though. I like the way this has been put together, a very clean design and including the red dot and MK chalice is a good nod to their old logo, and can work well as good assets throughout the branding.

A good design but I think it would've been nice to have seen something different and break the mould of continuous circular logos. For a club that has been heavily accused of stealing an entire clubs identity and history, it feels like they could've done more to show they are their own club. Instead it feels very copycat but change the colours when you look at other clubs badges such as; Stevenage, Harrogate Town, Brentford and Bristol City.

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Robin Yayla

Incredible work from Illustrator Robin Yayla. I've seen a lot of work before using buildings and real-life scenes mixed with other bits of media to create something vastly unique. However, Robin's illustrations add a new dynamic to the mixed-media world. Bringing humour to the unlikely of places such as, the Burj Khalifa acting as Sylvester Stallone's machine gun.

A personal favourite of mine is the surfer on the side of a building curved in the shape of a wave. I guess it's more like surfs up thank stocks up. I love the creativity around these and the illustration aspect of comic books, cartoon animation style works for these as well to hit home the comedic style and mixed media avenue.

Instagram: robinyayla

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Heinz

I've spoken about Heinz before and here I am talking about them again. They have one of my favourite marketing departments, and they just make their advertising work.

Their appeal to the masses through relatability to everyday life is just great to see and helps create that customer connection. Being the go-to brand for many food products, through the years they've worked hard to perfect their "It has to be Heinz" slogan. In the past when someone wanted tomato ketchup or one of their ranges of soup, they would say "It has to be Heinz." which has been a great advertisement for the company.

Meanwhile, with their new campaign, Heinz has taken a bold step to not even say their name anymore. Instead using the same logic but replace Heinz with foods that go perfectly well with their products. Using fries, toast and bread to partner close-up photography of ketchup, beans and soup. Turning the tables to the opposite and it still has the strong impact it's having. Relating popular food pairings together and connecting once again with their core audience. I love this so much, it's clean and straight to the point as well as being instantly recognisable with the brand. Wieden+Kennedy London have really smashed this brief with their collaboration with Heinz and it works a treat. It's making me hungry now, so I'm off to make some beans on toast!

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British Airways

We've all been on a plane and taken a photo of the clouds or our destination from above. Well, British Airways with their latest OOH campaign has flipped the perspective. Using photography from the outside looking in at the reactions of passengers. Capturing the emotion on the faces of people relates to everyone and is a reminder of the feeling you get when you travel. A great piece of marketing using photography to tell the story and tug on the emotions of people who can relate.

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Adidas by Ad Professor

I came across this advertisement created for Adidas on LinkedIn by Ad Professor. This was a quick coffee break project but the way it has been made is great for a brand like Adidas. The famous logo of the 3 stripes as obstacles alongside the most common excuses made by people when it comes to exercising. The tagline heading brings the whole thing together, "Climb over any obstacle" emphasising excuses as obstacles. I love how creativity comes from anywhere even a coffee break can spur the creative juices.

Sources: LinkedIn

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Mert Cobanov

I've managed to resist the hypnotic nature of these pieces by Mert to be able to appreciate how wonderful this work is. Being able to create a piece of work that looks like a checkerboard or spiral using elements part of the image is something next level. Satisfying to look at and with the clean edges whilst nothing being out of place as well. Some great work from Mert who was inspired by work created by MrUgleh.

Sources: @mertcobanov @MrUgleh

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Amazon Prime

Interesting pun-related out-of-home adverts from Amazon Prime. Informing that Amazon has a vast range of products available to choose from. Using the link to their logo where the arrow smile goes from A to Z, they have expanded this to actual products. Splitting postcard and popstar up and using imagery to relate to the split words. Post Malone for post, and playing cards for card, whilst popcorn is used to reference pop and Dua Lipa for star. All of this with an accompanying tagline reiterating the difference in products they offer.

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Hyundai Motorsport

Stunning work from the Hyundai Motorsport media team with this one, with their recreation of the anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer. Matching the trailer in a very similar way using footage of their factory, drivers, crews and live rally action. A great idea to jump on the back of something as big as the long-awaited video game. Including cameos from their team principal, Cyril Abiteboul and drivers headed by Ott Tänak. Such a great concept and a great execution. I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of this from others.

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The North Face

This is a great bit of marketing from The North Face in China. Creating a pop-up store in the shape of an explorer dressed in products from The North Face. This is not only disruptive to the public which makes it more intriguing for customers to explore inside, where they would be met by The North Face products. Statements like these often cause curiosity and can lead to potential new customers after seeing what the brand can offer.