I like Ryan Reynolds and I like hugo boss, but nothing seems right on this particular campaign.

First impression, standard sort of photography for a perfume ad, good looking man selling a posh brand. Then you take a closer look and see that very political quote “I don’t expect success, I prepare for it”. Everything start falling apart. You first wonder if Ryan actually said that, then you look at his picture wonder if he will make a successful politician.

Don’t get me wrong because the reason I choose to blog this is because I love the quote. Noone can expect success to happen but everyone can prepare for it, and I believe everyone can be successful if they want themselves to be. This might sound a little controversial but it’s true. Success is a combination of hard work and luck. I believe luck will eventually comes to you when you work hard enough, yet a “do not give up” attitude is required.

Although I believe Ryan Reynolds actually said the quote yet I think he still have some distance to the true success.

The best design is always the simplest, looking the most effortless, and makes you say, “why did I not think of that?”

The truth is, every designer can come up with a brilliant idea. However in most cases, we don’t believe in our gut instinct. Isn’t it? So you have designed something and present it to your art director, he/ she rejected it because it is cluttered, not polished or could have been better.

After the presentation you pinch yourself because what your art director said was so obvious! And you know what he/ she said came across in your mind some point in the design process when you choose to ignore them. That is your gut instinct.

Above situation often happens when you are inexperienced or not confident with your creativity. As a junior designer I experience these situation everyday, and the fact that I pinch yourself means that I care. I can’t believe I made such a careless mistakes and looks like an idiot most of the time.
I ask myself what can I do to design something flawless? I don’t know how to answer it. The only thing I know is that I know I need more practice, more research and aim for the highest.

This poster sets the bar high and I will design something as good, eventually.

After 2 weeks of planning, and two weekends hiding in my creative lab. I have submitted my entry to Redbull Canimation, can’t get any more excited lol And I now need your votes, here is the link, click on the Facebook like button and you have voted! Easy huh? :p The animation is about how Redbull can get you through the day from waking up to having  a good night out. It has been such a great challenge and opportunity to do this exciting competition, as the planning has been a disaster to start with. What did I learn from it? ALWAYS draw a story board even when you have no time to waste, it just helps you all the way. Having the idea is not enough!

Winning or not. I am happy for it becoming an addition to my portfolio

P.S. don’t forget to vote :p

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

My art director says “You either got it or you ain’t”, he also says, “you can make a designer better, but you can’t make a fool a designer”. It sounds harsh but it’s all true.

Having been a design student. I notice a common mistakes most students make, they choose the course because they believe it’s an easy industry. They can’t be more wrong. Good taste is crucial as Ira Glass mention in the video, but you can never succeed in the creative industry without commitment and enthusiasm.

As a starting-out creative I have a lot to prove. My taste, skills, creativity, and ambition are being test on a daily basis. And it shows! You can’t sit back and relax on your chair and call yourself a creative. This is a ever-changing industry and if you don’t try something different regularly, you will soon be behind everyone else.

I recently argued with other designers over trend on web design. They say they want to keep it simple and create what people have been seeing since 1999. I say we should follow the trend and be creative about it (which of course involves a lot more hard work). I failed the argument. What a shame as it could be a great opportunity to test out the new technologies.

However, It takes time to be good (sponging the time takes courage) and being good is not enough. You have to fight your way though! Research more to improve your taste, draw more to improve your skills, read more to learn recent trends, and as I always says, “NEVER STOP BEING A STUDENT”

I rarely post about web design. First of all, I am not a web designer; Second of all, coding does my heading. I always find it extremely frustrating when I can’t “code” what I want visually and I know for sure it is achievable (coding to me is like reading the bible). Therefore I much rather taking the back seat with web design and let other people design what I want :p What can I say huh? I tried.

Okay. Came across this holding page this evening and I found it rather clever, well, at least it doesn’t look like a standard page with a message “come back later”. “come back later” means “see you later”. A month later you completely the site even existed.

This, however is clever in a number of ways. One, It shows a status bar. I am a “huge fan” of status bar, watching that bar moving bit by bit is rather exciting. It’s because you know it will reach 100% eventually. Two, it has interactivity. Okay okay, it’s only a few tabs with twitter and emails (what’s the big deal?). The big deal is, interactivity drives people to click on the page more… as soon as I reach this page, I have tried to click the tabs a number of times already (don’t tell me you wouldn’t do that). Three, it has a count down. Maybe Christmas is coming, but I love counting down to anything, beside deadlines :p It gives you the excitement and the urge to come back time to time just to check it.

I know the stylisation is not wowing anybody but the interactivity is definitely worth coping… wait … did I say copy? I mean “borrowing” the idea of course :p

Source: Creative Review

British Gas gets a fresh new identity designed by an advertising agency: CHI & Partners. The new logo has a different typeface, a new icon, and comes with a new slogan “looking after your world”. The colour blue and green shows a new statement such as introducing green energy and also shows friendliness as a service provider. The font has given the company a lift up to the 21st century with clean edges, curves and rounded corners. At the end, a slogan to sum it all up.

However, it is not just a promising identity customers are looking for, while recent news shows energy companies are struggling to offer us best deals. Not to mention the never ending wrong calculation of the electricity bill. Can British Gas really “look after” our world? or maybe even make it better? It is still too early to make a judgement, although we can look forward to a brighter beginning for the company if they keep up their promise with their new identity.

In the graphic point of view, this is a great logo. So what can we expect from the energy giant from here?

Woke up this morning by iPhone, turn on the news with my mac and heard a revolutionary icon is dead.

Steve Jobs has inspired me in many ways, his risk taking strategy, creativity, ability to hold and manage a remarkable company… and of course the amazing products he launched during his presence as a CEO in Apple.

Hong Kong designer Jonathan Mark has designed this icon as a tribute to Steve and I would like to share this with you.

This remarkable man will truly be missed…

Find it really funny when someone can think of using a road sign to advertise coffee. “hey, you have been warned! We sell coffee!” lol maybe if you dunk the mini Halloween gingerbread into that cup of coffee it will grow beard :p

A habit many graphic designers share is that they are fascinated by their surroundings, like a kid first see a butterfly, attracted by a black box that has moving pictures and walls where they can see their own faces. You know what I am talking about? We have all been there. The question is: How do you keep yourself fascinated by what many people call crap or junk?

I see it this way, creativity is everywhere when you start to appreciate the ideas or effort behind it. It might be a very silly little idea but which ideas doesn’t start small? Who knows maybe that one silly idea can inspire you to think of a bigger idea, then an amazing idea… then a super amazing idea!

I guess what I am trying to say is, don’t stop looking for inspiration if you want to be good. look at it, think about it, then apply it elsewhere.