It was only last year that Apple and Samsung had a heated row over one of Samsung’s latest tablets. The two companies argued over a patent infringement and Apple lost the case. Ever more companies are producing tablets, the two most hotly anticipated being from Blackberry and Microsoft. They are both powered by Google’s Android [...]

As a creative lead, it is very tempting to pitch a winning idea to a client and then let a junior designer or intern execute the project. People deny this practice, but I’ve seen enough of it over the past 10 years to know that it’s a common bad habit that results in disappointing work. [...]

 2011 was the year that vintage reached its splendid apogee. It was nostalgic, hip and brightly hued, but this year is set to look a little more subtle. Prepare to see stylists, art directors and photographers reaching for their pastel palettes and setting aside the obvious, digital dark-room effect that has characterised recent imagery. It [...]

This is the first post from one of our new contributors, The Paper Boat Creative, which is one of the agencies at blur Designs. It is a young design company based in Hackney, London and is managed by Creative Director, Rebecca van Ommen.  The aesthetic vision of the company is to continually apply illustration and paper [...]

This guest post is by Ruth Palmer. A Creative on the Exchange, Ruth was VP Brand and Marketing for d3o and now runs a branding consultancy for entrepreneurial businesses.   What could be more apt to the topic of this blog than the fact that Jonathan Ive was recently knighted for his services to design. Design [...]

Merry Christmas from blur! Welcome to the 25th and final instalment of the Alternative Advent Calendar. We’re concluding with a traditionally Christmassy painting: Guido Reni’s The Adoration of the Shepherds c.1640. Reni paints light beautifully, baby Jesus illuminates the whole scene because he’s the holiest figure in it. This Nativity is touchingly human, a world [...]

This Christmas Eve we’re giving you an early present – Varieties of the Balloon Hat Experience. For years, balloon artist Addi Somekh travelled the world making elaborate balloon headdresses for people he met. In Somekh’s words, “no matter how different from one another people are, they all have the same basic reaction to wearing a [...]

These are just two of the twelve road safety designs produced by John Morse for the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT). ‘Curbside Haiku’ aims to increase co-operation between pedestrians, drivers and cyclists in New York’s crowded streets. Each image is accompanied by an obliquely explanatory haiku and placed in a high-crash location. They’re [...]

Allow us to present the Solar Handbag from Danish design studio Diffus. It’s not the first bag with solar panels that we’ve seen, but it’s certainly the most beautiful. Other solar bags place function over form, and you wouldn’t want to carry them around. Diffus teamed up with a Swiss embroidery specialist to create solar [...]

This new Banksy sculpture was unveiled just yesterday in Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery. The artist is best known for his graffiti images and socio-political critiques. This piece is jestingly titled Cardinal Sin, and it’s been widely interpreted as a comment on the Catholic Church abuse scandal. The Church is alleged to have covered up abuse [...]