Relaunched: OMFGco.com

One of my favorite small branding/design firms, Official Mfg Co. (or OMFG), has redesigned and relaunched their website complete with some new features, an updated shop and new projects. The Portland, OR based firm has created or been instrumental in branding, identity, and design for such great clients as Ace Hotel, Property Of apparel, Clyde Common and many more. I love the professional yet still personal touches the small group of designers bring to the site, especially the home page Instagram feed, which sometimes chronicles projects as they work on them, giving a great peek-behind-the-curtain into their process.

Be sure to also check out their great new work for Scandinavian clothiers Dunderdon, the Spirit of ’77 bar, and their in-store graphics for GAP. Well worth a click.

Visit OMFGco.’s new website here.

Fauxgo (faux-logo) tumbler

The Fauxgo tumbler, curated and run by the very talented designer and illustrator Tymn Armstrong, focuses solely on “symbols or other small design created to represent a fictional company that exists only on film.” Pop culture nerds (me included) will definitely recognize Monsters Inc., Buy N Large from Wall-E, and other great celluloid corporate design. And best of all, Tymn assures me via Twitter, that one of my favorite faux-corporations, the evil quasi governing empire, Weyland-Yutani from the Alien films, will be added very soon!

Visit Fauxgo here.

Studio: Fuzzco

Charleston, South Carolina based design and branding firm Fuzzco has been quietly producing expertly crafted branding and design projects for a couple of years now and with a recent rave review by Brand New for the rebranding of restaurant chain Kickin’ Chicken, their status is sure to rise. Their work is consistently smart and clean with wonderful little details & clever copywriting, and many of their projects often include great illustrations and icon sets.

Visit Fuzzco’s website here.

Studio: A Friend of Mine

Gotta be honest, it was hard to whittle down the fantastic work of Melbourne, Australia’s A Friend of Mine to three post images. With smart, incredibly intricate work like the VCE Season of Excellence branding (a series of paper cutouts for a university exhibition) to great, clever logos (like Kitsch & Tea on their website) and a breadth of knowledge on appropriate and eye-catching design techniques (like the church opening seen above), their portfolio is treasure trove of inspirational ideas, all expertly executed.

Visit A Friend of Mine’s website here.

Personal work: The Honigman Group identity

New logo and identity for The Honigman Group, a public relations, media and events firm based in Philadelphia, PA.

See full logo and concept explanation after the jump.

Studio: Love & War

New York City’s Love & War recently received a huge accolade in the form of the 2011 James Beard Award for Outstanding Graphics for their identity work for The National restaurant. With a minimal wordmark (and a lovely abbreviated alternate), excellent typography and wonderful illustrations, it’s a classy and elegant identity that also doesn’t take itself too seriously, much like the majority of Love & War’s portfolio of work.

Partnering and creating distinct projects for such high profile clients as Sony, Martha Stewart and NBC, there’s a distinct air of restraint and thoughtfulness in both the copywriting and design that is rarely found when working with such large corporations. Be sure to also check out their work on social media campaigns for both Malibu Rum and for the movie Despicable Me. Adorable and clever.

Visit Love & War’s site here.

Relaunched: Lippincott.com

Legendary branding and consulting agency Lippincott has recently redesigned and relaunched their website and it’s jam packed with not only their newest campaigns but also some of their classic work, many of which have become mainstays of American culture. The website design is clean and brisk, I especially love the “quick view” feature to swiftly access portfolio imagery and case studies.

Visit Lippincott’s website here.

Studio: Neue

With a trailblazing identity for the Nordkyn region under their belts, I figured I would take a closer look at Norway’s Neue design studio. With simple but elegant executions their book does not disappoint.

Branding enthusiasts and designers are hopefully aware of their logo for Nordkyn, a reactive geodesic form whose form alters based on temperature and wind speeds in the Norwegian locality. They are clearly a patriotic bunch with other projects for the Norwegian Post and a fantastically minimal and metaphoric approach to branding the Norwegian Boatowners Association. Be sure to also check out their superb work branding and packaging designs for the Artic Berry line of candies, the energetic palette and subtle touches like watercolor brushed leaves are sweet and refreshing.

Visit Neue’s website here.

Studio: Hyperakt

Brooklyn based Hyperakt recently unveiled their fantastic UNICEF’s Voices of Youth identity, a smart and vibrant mark that should garner well deserved attention for the organization. Voices of Youth is not alone in Hyperakt’s portfolio as a thoughtful and modern approach to a good cause. While perusing their website I was especially drawn to their continued work for the grassroots organization, the North Star Fund, and their ability to build upon and expand from the identity design through event branding and collateral over several years. Inspirational work for sure.

Visit Hyperakt here.

Pentagram – United brand retrospective

Many, many designers in the branding community (myself included) cringed at the recent makeover the United-Continental merger has wrought upon the newly formed airline. Yesterday Pentagram showcased the better designed days gone by on their blog by giving a retrospective of their 15 years of work with the iconic airliner. From their decision to not only keep, but celebrate Saul Bass’ now legendary mark to their excellent attention to detail (even creating custom coffee cups that mimic the angles of the logo) the article is a wonderful and crucial read into a great branding campaign that has now departed.

Visit Pentagram’s United retrospective here.