Interesting article by John Crace in The Guardian this morning which detailed a rebrand by Russian chocolate makers Krupskaya. The people at Krupskaya felt it was time for a rebrand to fend off competition from local and western competitors like Kraft, Mars and Nestlé.

Krupskaya chocolate was named after Lenin’s widow after her death in 1939 and for the past 70 years it has been a national favourite, mainly due to the fact during the 900 day siege of Leningrad it never seized production. The rebrand by Coley Porter Bell although very modern – it still has a very strong and unique Soviet iconic look, which successfully maintains the strong link Krupskaya has to the Soviet era.

Monogram design is not that evident in Ireland which is a pity because we feel it can create striking results that are timeless. A monogram is two or more letters that overlap to form a symbol. The end design depends on the letters available and the creativity of the designer but a monogram can lead to some really interesting results, especially for logos. Probably the most famous monogram is the New York Yankees symbol. Below are some examples of monograms we photographed as part of our research for a recent job.

As I unsuccessfully attempted to do my Christmas shopping at the weekend – I was confronted by a vast array of colourful packaging and it got me wondering what it must of been like to go Christmas shopping for my parents or grandparents years ago. So I dug out Label Design by Claude Humbert I bought a few years ago in a second hand book shop which has a diverse range of labels and packaging from the 19th century and the 20th century. As we were reading through the book in the office we thought it would be fun to put together a Christmas shopping list from the book. After work we got busy choosing and scanning the labels we thought we might find in a 19th century home during the festive season. Unfortunately all the labels are in black and white but the rich detail in the designs are still visible to be appreciated. Its amazing how detailed these labels are, the strength of the typography and how incredibly well they have aged. We are currently working on a brand for a food company that is inspired by these type of labels but with a modern twist. Later in the week we might do a 20th century collection of labels that you might find in a home during Christmas in the early 1900’s.

Label designs for British Columbian Salmon, Gingerbread and Damson Jam by Lawrence Joyce Liverpool

Beauty products and bathroom items label design Epsom Salts and Beauty Cream products label design that could of been found in the 1800's bathroom

Label design for knife polish and camping furniture that could been on Santa's List! Far right a disinfectant label probably used to clean up after the Christmas party

Labels for soap from Lautz Bro's and Soapine that could of been a socking filler over the fireplace in the 1800's. Textile labels of clothing from F.S.Cleaver and Nilsson Skirt that could of been under the Christmas tree in the 19th century

What someone would need to buy in the 19th Century to send Christmas cards, pencils, paper, envelopes and postcards

Detailed labels designed in the 19th century for Royal biscuits, Sweet Chocolate, Dunn & Hewett Cocoa and Walter Williams Mountain Coffee designed in the 19th Century

Labels of liqueur for Elixir De Garus and mineral water designed in the 19th century

Alcohol labels from Guinness, C.F. Berger Acouvet, Malaga wine and wine from A. Siegfried Merian in Basel designed in the 19th century that might of been in the Christmas shopping trolley to celebrate the festive season

Unfortunately handwritten and typed letter writing has become a dying art. Email allows for instant responses, resulting in the structure of formalities of letter writing being somewhat sidelined. The Letters of Note website offers some fantastic letters from the letter writing era. It is a website that you could spend hours browsing through. When reading through these old letters, you get a unique sense of the need to fit in all the information in one swoop whilst being very charming. The simple personal touch of the signatures on the end of each letter really makes each individual letter that more impressive. We’ve picked out our favourite letters on the website from David Bowie, Cary Grant and Mick Jagger below.

This letter by David Bowie displays a wonderful interest in his first American fan who had written a letter to his London fan club offering to set up an American fan club. It was a lovely reply by Bowie, text version here.

A complete gem of a letter here by Cary Grant thanking Levi Strauss for shirts delievered to his house while suggesting perhaps they should introduce a plain coloured clothing range.

Here is another great letter from a musician, which has a particular interest to us graphic designers because the letter is a brief from Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol inviting him to design an album cover for The Rolling Stones. See the text version of the letter here.

All images sourced from the great Letters of Note website.

Recently I’ve started to really appreciate the old signage around Cork City and county. Much of the signage is made of stone which is why it has lasted so many generations. Old signage gives us the chance to look into the past and see how generations of Irish before us have read and communicated to one another. The photos below were captured during a walk through Sunday’s Well, Cork.

This ESB (Electricity Supply Board) limestone craved sign was bolted onto an old stone wall. Despite its small size it is a very impressive sign in its simplicity. The font has an industrial feel to it and reminded me of the Port Authority Bus Terminal signage in New York which inspired Hoefler & Frere-Jones to design the Gotham font famous for the Barack Obama Presidential election campaign. It got me thinking how similar the font craved out on the limestone ESB sign was to the font on the Port Authority Bus Terminal sign that inspired the Gotham font itself, (as seen in the Helvetica documentary). The geometric and clear lines of the ESB font show a type of font an engineer would design rather than a designer due to its pure functionality and simplicity. In the past engineers tended to design things to be produced easily which would explain the clean geometric lines of both fonts. Perhaps Obama saw the Gotham font as a typeface the working class could relate to. Judging by his unrivaled popularity and election win, it seems he may of been right.

This rendered sign for billboard and poster printers is really cool. It is partially damaged after someone plastered over it. Thankfully the most of the plaster has fallen off the sign. The font itself is similar enough to the ESB sign above but the “T’s” are slightly less uniform as are the “E’s & L’s”. The large 14 above in the serif font contrasts nicely with the sign. Despite the sign being virtually redundant in use, as the company has long since gone out of business, it is a fantastic visual link to the past.

The Waterworks building on the banks of the Lee is another nice sign. It has an interesting rendered border around the sign, the typography is once again very geometric and clear. The stone work of the of the building is fantastic, especially the borders around the windows and the roof edges.

This final stone sign I noticed is from 1644! Its a very simple font with thin lines and serifs to define the letters. The signage is obviously a religious sign craved into marble stone which was possibly the foundation stone of Sundays Well in Cork, which I think is pretty cool.