Metalama picks up five awards
This project with Postsharp Technologies is one of the proudest logos I’ve completed.
My project with Postsharp Technologies has picked up a number of awards, including a coveted AGDA Merit recognition, which is the Australian Graphic Design Association.
AGDA Awards 2024 - Merit Award, Logos, Trademarks & Symbols
ODA Awards 2024 - Winner in Brand Strategy
ODA Awards 2024 - Gold in Brand Identity
Indigo Awards 2024 - Gold in Branding for Technology
Titan Brand Awards 2024 - Gold for Best Logo Design / Best Brand Identity
PostSharp and Metalama are two frameworks that help software developers improve their code quality and productivity through meta-programming. President & Principal Engineer Gael Fraiteur needed help branding the new product, Metalama, in a way that harmonised with the current branding for PostSharp, which already had a lot of traction in the market. So I’d need to stick to the current colours and fonts, but introduce a new icon for Metalama, which would be the flagship product moving forward.
One of the requirements from Gael’s brief was that the logo shouldn’t be too playful. It was very tempting to come up with illustrated concepts that depicted a llama, but in the end I would need to find a solution that reflected the industry, but would be taken seriously.
The ‘sharp’ # symbol in the parent company name represented the C# programming language that the framework is used for. And I managed to find an abstract llama shape inside a stylised version of a # symbol. By introducing small separations in the design, we could keep the overall shape of the symbol, while revealing the llama icon in a subtle way.
Adobe MAX Miami 2024
Three speeches, an 18,000 mile round trip and a T-Pain concert thrown in to boot. What a whirlwind.
I was lucky enough to be invited back to the world’s biggest design conference as a headline speaker this year, and boy… what a whirlwind.
After a brutal jet-lag experience last year, I learned from my lesson and set off early for Miami, sleeping pills at hand and made the 9000 mile trip from Australia ahead of the conference.
This year Adobe hosted 10,000 attendees at the Miami Beach Convention Centre for three days of keynotes, speaker sessions, labs and a chance to hang out with everyone on the Creative Park Floor.
After the success of my 15-minute slot at the end of the Graphic Design Super Session last year, I was given my own room in 2024 and a full hour to entertain an audience of ~500 people! My speech was titled, ‘See One, Do One, Teach One’ and it was based around the ‘learn by teaching’ theme, and sharing what you know to build up our industry. You can watch the session in full here.
Once I was done I ran over to the Creative Theatre to sit with Kristy Campbell for our Q&A on ‘Harnessing the Power of Social Media’.
I’ll never get over what a spectacle this event is. From the sheer number of attendees, to the fantastic connections you build, to the inevitable sticker haul (stickers are currency), Adobe MAX never fails to impress me. And as someone who spends their time in a tiny home studio on the other side of the world, this event is the one time of the year that I feel like somewhat of a celebrity. It’s a strange experience (there was a line to meet me at the end of my speech) and something I’ll never quite get over.
Here’s a wrap up video, including getting to hang out with all of the keynote speakers, bumping into the likes of Aaron Draplin, Clark Orr, Colin and Samir, Chris Do and many more absolute legends from our creative world —>
My biggest interview yet!
Boy I was nervous for this one…
Boy I was nervous for this one…
Once again, I was privileged enough to get to sit down and chat with one of my heroes in the field. If you don’t know Chris Do, he’s a former agency owner and the founder of a group called The Futur; an enterprise that strives to educate designers and creatives on how to make the most out of their careers.
As a designer and a freelancer, I was never taught the business side of the creative industry. So in the infancy of my small business, I looked to Chris for the answers. His content was one of the main reasons I decided to niche down into logo design.
This was a full circle moment for me. I’ve been lucky enough to meet Chris in person a couple of times, and let’s be honest, he’s an intimidating guy. And his podcast is one of the most listened-to titles in the marketing space. So I was extremely nervous during this interview. And you can tell because Chris was able to convince me to share some specifics around the financials of my business.
Check out the interview in full on Youtube here…
Adobe MAX London 2024
I was lucky enough to be invited to Adobe MAX London 2024, and while I was there I ran a 30-minute live session with Michael Fugoso.
I was lucky enough to be invited back to my old stomping ground for Adobe MAX London, where I ran a live stream with the Adobe Live team.
Fresh off the stage from the keynote, Michael Fugoso hosted our session, titled Speed Up Your Editing with AI in Premiere Pro.
In this session we focussed on the brand new editing features inside the Beta release of Premiere Pro, including working with some of the AI editing capabilities (not generative AI, that hadn’t been released yet!).
Here we looked at the new enhance speech feature, the remix tool, editing your video via the automatically generated transcript and more!
I was also invited to a pre-event summit where I was lucky enough to try out an advanced copy of the new Photoshop! Here’s a recap of this whirlwind trip…
Branders Magazine: Cover Star!
My interview with Branders Magazine, plus read my article about why I think logo design is the purest form of design.
[Mike Wazowski voice] “I’m on the cover of a magazine!”
I was lucky enough to be featured on the cover of the December 2023 issue of Branders Magazine, an online and printed publication focussing on branding, design, strategy and innovation. Former cover stars include Chris Do and Debbie Millman, so yes, my imposter syndrome is definitely kicking in!
Inside the mag is a 10-page spread with an interview from yours truly, plus an article I wrote for the publication titled; Logo Design is the Purest Form of Design. Change My Mind.
My interview with Design Cuts
The lovely Tom Ross from Design Cuts interviewed me live on his channel. If you’re into logo design, case studies and how to win clients, then this interview is for you.
The lovely Tom Ross from Design Cuts interviewed me this week live on his channel. If you’re into logo design, case studies on logo design, how to win clients as a logo designer, then this interview is for you.
Check out the video in full here, but watch it quick because the replay for this session will be available until November 20th 2023.
