Oxfam Christmas

Should New Years have had an apostrophe? Does the day belong to the year? If in doubt, leave it out! Merry Christmas from Oxfam Stony Stratford.

Halloween

I designed a poster for my Oxfam shop. Well, I say designed but really Oxfam and their new branding materials did all the work. Aside from the pumpkin face, I drew that. I shall be making some more posters for the shop soon, but for now…

Oxfam re-brand

I probably ought to have blogged about this already, it seems Design Week did so at the beginning of September. I was aware of the Oxfam re-brand through the Oxfam newsletter a little while ago but failed to see any mention of it on design blogs when it was first unveiled.

However, I have now actually looked into it and am aware of which design agency actually did it – Wolff Olins. Yep, they were also responsible for the controversial London 2012 Olympics logo/brand.

Overall, I like it. It seems more current and appropriate, and it certainly makes sense for the charity to have one global identity. Although I could certainly point out a few good and bad things – my personal opinion of course.

I don't have a problem with the capitalisation of “Oxfam” in the logo, nor in the campaign materials – it seems like a fairly friendly font, as far as uppercase letters go (again, just what I think). Although I'm not entirely sure why Wolff Olins decided to remove the counters from some of the letters and not others. I guess the “O” could be seen to represent Oxfam but why take it out of an A and R but not P or D? But anyway, it's better than the Cooper Black they had before.

I like the colours, although some combinations work better than others. It’s good that not everything is Oxfam’s green but that it is still their colour. I also think the logo works particularly well when in white on the plain bold colours.

But really what’s important is that Oxfam’s purpose and message remains the same and that it doesn’t get clouded by bright colours and letters without counters.

“Wolff Olins helped Oxfam to define its role – what it offers to people around the world, as a global movement for change – and to talk about what it does in an optimistic yet uncompromising way, setting a vision for the future. We also brought to the surface its underlying character – being both practical and visionary.” – Wolff Olins

EDIT: Wait, why did they stick the word “NOW” over someone’s face?

So, Tooze and I could probably have done it for a hell of a lot less than what Wolff Olins charged but then could we have done as good a job? No.

Cat Art

This week's amazing Oxfam book purchase, The Cats History of Western Art. I was very surprised that nobody had already bought it – so I bought it myself. In fact first I was wondering why it was under humour and not art… until I picked it up. Who doesn't love cats in famous paintings? I can't find too many of the paintings that are in the book online but here are some other gems.

I found these and many more: here.

“Most of us love trees.”

Lauren Tooze knows me so well. This lovely How to Draw Trees book arrived in the post today accompanied by a lengthy letter including a recipe for banana and lime cake (which I will be making tomorrow) which instantly brightened my day.

The book looks amazing, although I haven't had a proper read of it yet. Not only is it a neat size and nicely laid out inside, but it is also what I would consider as antiquarian/collectable at Oxfam and worth looking up. Incidentally, that's what I've been doing this afternoon at Oxfam – including photographing said books like I've done here. Only my photographs for Oxfam are better!

“Most of us love trees. They are our friends in many ways.”

BOOKS

I like books.

I am currently volunteering at Oxfam where I get to look at books, price books, organise books and today I even purchased a book. A book I probably should have bought about three years ago when we were first told about it in HACCS (basically art/design history – because I can't remember what it stands for) at university.