Department of Opinions - Simon Inc

Standing with Ukraine

March 3, 2022 by simon

As Putin's war against Ukraine continues, the world is looking on at the remarkable courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people and army. Designers in Ukraine have also been rising to the cause and producing powerful imagery to support the resistance. (more…)

Launderette of dreams

November 2, 2021 by simon

Artist/designer Yinka Ilori is firing on all cylinders right now. Not content with pedestrian crossings in Tottenham Court Road and basketball courts in Canary Wharf, he has created this fabulous Launderette of Dreams in Bethnal Green. Got to be worth a visit!

Funny what you forget about…

October 26, 2021 by simon

Doing some filing this morning, I came upon some branding work that we created earlier this year and thought it deserved to be published here. (more…)

Another on my “places I must visit” list

August 10, 2021 by simon

These vibrant murals transform Aberfeldy Street from a rather ordinary looking East London street into somewhere I can't wait to visit. Must visit SOON! Full story on Look Up London blog

WOW…stunning calligraphic mural

August 4, 2021 by simon

A wonderful piece of film here showing calligrapher Seb Lester painting a mural on the side of a house in London E17 (more…)

London’s West End Art Takeover

August 2, 2021 by simon

Back in 2016 I proposed the creation of a hybrid mural/art gallery project on a wall running along the Thames path in Brentford. The project was to consist of 30 physical mural panels along the wall, each of which contained an AR ‘marker’. Visitors to the wall could scan the markers with their phone (like…

Inclusive wayfinding idea from Kavya Jain

by simon

I love this simple and practical approach to inclusive wayfinding by product design graduate Kavya Jain - tactile wayfinding tape to help visually impaired people navigate through their homes and through public buildings. (more…)

Ska’d For Life Mosaic

July 27, 2021 by simon

As promised, here are some shots of the amazing Ska'd For Life mosaic by Carrie Reichardt at Pool Meadow bus station in Coventry. (more…)

Destination Coventry

by simon

I have to admit that I have never really been particularly drawn towards visiting Coventry...but all that has changed. Massively! (more…)

Howl Quartet – Life as we see it

March 8, 2021 by simon

One of my favourite side-projects over the past few months was to design the packaging for Howl Quartet's new album: Life as we see it, featuring original artwork from Hannah May Smith (more…)

Hand-painted table by Billie Fawcett

February 10, 2021 by simon

Well...I love the snow as much as the next guy, but I can't wait until the sun comes out again and we can sit on the back deck at our beautiful outdoor table, transformed from weatherworn beech into a work of art by the super-talented illustrator Billie Fawcett (more…)

Teeter-Totter Wall…great name, great idea

January 27, 2021 by simon

The Beazley Designs of the Year celebrate the best examples of designs in six categories: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Graphics, Product and Transport. The overall winner was the Teeter-Totter Wall by by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello with Colectivo Chopeke (more…)

Signage challenging ageism

January 26, 2021 by simon

Loved reading this story: how the centre for ageing better are using signage to challenge ageist stereotypes. (more…)

Design Week Award Winners 2020 – Part 4

January 8, 2021 by simon

The 4th and final selection of my personal fave projects from the Design Week Awards 202...in no particular order: (more…)

Design Week Award Winners 2020 – Part 3

by simon

More fabulous creative work from the 2020 Design Week awards finalists...

Design Week Award Winners 2020 – Part 2

by simon

A couple more of my favourite finalists from the Design Week Awards, from the Identity rebrand and Environmental graphics categories (more…)

Design Week Award Winners 2020 – Part 1

by simon

2020 was a grim year in so many ways, but it also saw some awesome creative work, much of which was recognised in the Design Week Awards 2020. So I though I would kick Department of Opinions back into life with a few posts showing some of my favourites from their finalists...

Best Awards winners 2018

September 27, 2018 by simon

One of the most eagerly anticipated bookmarks in my design events calendar is the announcement of the winners of the Best Awards - the New Zealand design industry oscars. (more…)

The curse of “Design Bullshit”

September 19, 2018 by simon

I read a great article in Design Week this week, bemoaning the fact that jargon and bullshit are getting in the way of people understanding and valuing design. It reminded me of our own mantra, on the homepage of our website...We don't hide behind industry jargon... we create design. That works. (more…)

HighTide Walthamstow

September 18, 2018 by simon

Yep...it's that time again...the HighTide festival is returning to Walthamstow and we have created a new series of promotional banners for the perimeter fence (more…)

Looking to the future…

July 31, 2018 by simon

The Mall Walthamstow are in the process of planning some very exciting developments for the future - for the shopping centre itself and the surrounding area and local community. To celebrate that fact, they commissioned us to create a timeline installation for a wall just inside the main entrance. (more…)

Is the High Street really dead…or just dead boring?

July 30, 2018 by simon

A couple of weeks ago I found myself reading yet another article (this time in the New Statesman) bemoaning the death of the high street. Once again, the finger of blame was pointed at competition from the online superretailers, the challenge from budget firms such as Aldi, Lidl and Primark, economic uncertainty brought about by…

A touch of nostalgia…

July 26, 2018 by simon

One of the first jobs that I worked on after moving from Auckland to London in 2010 was to design the identity, signage and environmental graphics for the now defunct Kentish Canteen. (more…)

Bo66y beer…

by simon

OK...so England didn't make the finals, and football didn't come home after all, but one consolation for us at Simon Inc was finally seeing our designs for Bobby beer on the shelves and on the bar during the World Cup. (more…)

Making a dramatic entrance

by simon

Although this was created way back in 2006 I couldn't resist reposting this gorgeous installation at Warsaw’s National Gallery of Art. Painted by Leon Tarasewicz. Found on the always fascinating and inspiring Colossal blog (more…)

Happy Cities and Evil Suburbs

by simon

I recently came across this book – Happy City – by Charles Montgomery, which is a really insightful look at how to turn our cities into vibrant, exciting, enjoyable, rewarding places to live (more…)

The Mall – wayfinding and statutory icons

by simon

Although a full new wayfinding system was not included in our brief, as part of the Mall environmental branding project (piloting in The Mall Luton) that we mentioned in a previous post, we had to design a new range of statutory symbols and directional icons for use on signage at entrances, escalators and toilet facilities. (more…)

People: Auckland’s Capital – connecting with the city’s homeless and vulnerable

November 20, 2017 by simon

Capital Foundation is an organisation set up to raise corporate funding for Auckland City Mission - a charity working with homeless people in Auckland NZ. The typical donation that they handle starts at $150,000 upwards. They approached Simon Inc with a brief to design a gift for their donors. The gift was to say “thank…

Supporting the bid for borough of culture

September 27, 2017 by simon

Following a really positive public response to our construction hoarding designs for The Mall Walthamstow, they asked us to extend that graphic treatment to help them in their campaign to support Waltham Forest's bid for "Borough of Culture" (more…)

The Accessible Icon – designing a more positive perception

August 31, 2017 by simon

As a realtively recent fifty-something, I am old enough to remember the bad old days of the UK in the late 70s and early 80s, a time of football hooliganism, race riots and bin-collection strikes. (more…)

Poster-pickin’ good…

by simon

Here's something a bit different...a quirky little identity and poster project. (more…)

Bogs, rhinos, flamingos… what the…?

March 15, 2017 by simon

Pleased to see our latest environmental branding project for The Mall in Luton was launched. The brand new toilet and baby changing and feeding area was opened by Reality TV star Billy Faiers, featuring environmental graphics by Simon Inc Ltd. (more…)

Sometimes Monday mornings ain’t so bad.

March 13, 2017 by simon

I couldn’t resist taking some shots from the Simon Inc floating studios this morning, of the early sunshine burning through the mist looking across at Kew Gardens. (more…)

Can branding help to make better places (and places better)

March 9, 2017 by simon

Here’s an article I wrote for the September issue of London Business Matters magazine about the role that environmental branding can play in turning new developments into communities rather than soulless groups of disconnected buildings. It is an undeniable truth that the current development boom in London is changing, not only the visual cityscape…