Design Classic No.145 - The London Underground Map

It takes a brave designer to completely change the recognised and conventional way of producing something, but that’s exactly what Harry Beck did with the London Underground Map in 1931.

Original syle maps:

Beck was an employee of London Underground who had the brilliant realisation that because the railway ran mostly underground, the physical locations of the stations were irrelevant to the passenger wanting to know how to get to one station from another — only the topology of the railway mattered.

Thus he devised a simplified diagrammatical map, consisting of stations with straight line segments connecting them, where the lines ran only vertically, horizontally, or on 45 degree diagonals. It immediately became popular, and the Underground, as well as many other city travel maps, have used this style to illustrate their networks ever since.

Beck's Map:

Today's map:

Design at SoVibrant www.sovibrant.co.uk

Related Links:

Design Classic No.007: Aston Martin DB5 
Design Classic No.28: The Triumph Bonneville

Design Classic no.30: British Road Signs

Design Classic No.38: AEC Routemaster Bus
Design Classic No.43 - Concorde
Design Classic No. 65: Penguin Book Covers
Design classic No. 74: The Telephone Box
Design Classic No.88 - The Egg Chair
Design Classic No. 111: The PH Artichoke pendant lightfitting
Design Classic No.122: The Sony Walkman
Design Classic No.145 - The London Underground Map
Design Classic No. 166: The Supermarine Spitfire 1936
Design Classic No.234: Sinclair C5
Design Classic No.243: The Anglepoise Lamp
Design Classic No.246: Ferrari Dino
Design Classic No.300: Mercedes 300SL Coupe
Design Classic No.325: Ferrari 512 S Modulo
Design Classic No.412: BMC Mini
British Design Classic Stamp collection...
Modern Design Classic No. 71: The Balzac Chair

Get Creative - AnySkate Project

As an ex-skateboarder of many many years, I was really excited by the Anyskate project. Forgetting convention and being innovative is an aspiration for all designers and creative types.  Anyskate is a colaboration of boarders who are breaking the mould in the slightly staid world of skating and doing so in style.

Skate videos are notoriously samey and it is awesome to see a piece of work that is so fresh and forward looking. 

There is some absolutely phenomenal work on here and should be checked out by everyone who loves to see real creativity... let alone skateboarding. 

Enjoy.

Red Bull Flug Tag comes to Leeds

Don your pilot goggles, mount your wacky flying machine and prepare to get wet… Red Bull Flugtag is back in the UK for the first time since 2008 and looking for budding pilots.


The world's craziest festival of flight will be taking-off at Roundhay Park, Leeds on 17th July 2011. Once again, Red Bull is seeking to find the best in amateur aviation from all corners of the UK; outrageous innovators willing to design, construct and fly their very own man-powered aircraft!

From the most advanced record-breaking flying machines to those that have no hope whatsoever, all designs are welcome as entrants are judged on distance, creativity and performance. The teams will not only need the most inventive and harebrained designers but also the most fearless pilots prepared to fly their zany creations across the Yorkshire sky.

As one of our staff members (Adam Lay) has a bit of a history in the transport sector we will be expecting to see the sovibrant "blue arrows"  in action.  : p

Tickets are free and available in June from the following link:

http://www.redbull.co.uk/cs/Satellite/en_UK/Red-Bull-Flugtag-2011/001242980500328

Up, up and away!!!

What is Workplace Strategy?

Our consulting services focus on the development of strategic platforms and processes, enabling clients to make highly informed real estate decisions, reduce costs, create value and improve performance. Our goal is to ensure that real estate strategies are fully aligned with an organisation's overall objectives.


The aim of any strategic workplace analysis is to gain an unbiased understanding of your business  or organisation from the inside out, through extensive research and investigation, evaluate strategic end user requirements, ascertain feasibility and make recommendations. There are many features within a workplace analysis but these can also be geared towards a specific strategic brief, and will vary from client to client.

Research

• Pre and post occupancy surveys
• Interviews, audits and observation
• Space utilisation studies
• Space / building performance studies


Strategy

• Real estate assessment
• Benchmarking
• Spatial modelling
• Planning
• Building surveys
• Building appraisals
• Design development and guidelines
• Change management and communication strategies  
 

 

 
Workplace Consultancy
http://www.sovibrant.co.uk/

Design Classic No.007 - The Aston Martin DB5

First produced in 1963, the Aston Martin DB5 was an instant design classic. With its 4 litre, straight-six, triple-carburetted engine producing 282bhp, this gorgeous car could hit 145mph. Enough to ruffle the trousers of Sir Sean Connery himself.

SoVibrant design www.sovibrant.co.uk 

Related Links:


Design Classic No.007: Aston Martin DB5 
Design Classic No.28: The Triumph Bonneville

Design Classic no.30: British Road Signs

Design Classic No.38: AEC Routemaster Bus
Design Classic No.43 - Concorde
Design Classic No. 65: Penguin Book Covers
Design classic No. 74: The Telephone Box
Design Classic No.88 - The Egg Chair
Design Classic No. 111: The PH Artichoke pendant lightfitting
Design Classic No.122: The Sony Walkman
Design Classic No.145 - The London Underground Map
Design Classic No. 166: The Supermarine Spitfire 1936
Design Classic No.234: Sinclair C5
Design Classic No.243: The Anglepoise Lamp
Design Classic No.246: Ferrari Dino
Design Classic No.300: Mercedes 300SL Coupe
Design Classic No.325: Ferrari 512 S Modulo
Design Classic No.412: BMC Mini
British Design Classic Stamp collection...
Modern Design Classic No. 71: The Balzac Chair

Fords on Film/TV

50 years of Ford Cortinas

Classic car of the week - Mark 1 Lotus Cortina

Raiffeisen Bank, Zurich - Banking in the future...

 Bucking the trend in banking  Raiffeisen bank in Zurich has recently completed  its new offices, by consultancy NAU. A svelte, modern and overtly minimalist aesthetic, you could be forgiven for wondering where the cash machines are as you are blinded by the table top touchscreens, sinous sculpted forms and deocrative graphical portraiture.

Retail banking is a sector plagued with mediocre design solutions as anyone who has wandered down their local high street can tell you. The mismatch of influences usually thrown together in attempt to create exciting customer journeys can end up feeling like walking through a scrapyard of broken automotive classics. At their peak - amazing, in the context found, it can feel slightly sad.    Although potentially a scheme that might looked cluttered by the addition of people,  it is refreshing to see such a bold concept realised and to see emphasis attempted to be put back on the customer through forward looking, intelligent design.

Very pleasing on the eye..

A normal day - not likely!

An awesome collection of everyday "tricks" devised by  Thomas Becker and Sebastian Stahlhofen. J

Just watch it.. It is tricky. Literally.

please go see www.a-normal-day.com for more info.

MG - The rebirth

"The first new MG for 16 years will roll off the production line in Longbridge later on today

The MG6 is the first large scale production at the Birmingham plant since the demise of Rover in 2005 with the loss of 6,000 jobs.

A five-seater model will be available to buy from May and is expected to sell for between £15,495 and £18,995

MG is owned by the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, which is the largest car maker in China.
The MG6 has been designed in the UK but the parts are made in China ready for assembly in Longbridge."

(text from BBC news)

 It is great to see a British insitution revived with the help of our friends in China.

The car itself looks like a mix of Honda Civic, Lexus and Astra styling.....from the front.

I can't help but think the bottom image makes it look like a Citroen Xsara. ; )

Rubiks cubes for nerds

Gotta love this.. Spotted on Boing Boing... (Gadget website)   The "Rubitone" concept (Rubik +Pantone)

Adds a whole level of complexity to the traditional rubiks cube by introducing shades to each face. Not really useful for colour matching due to the limited palette but still a cool concept and a nice idea.

Interior Design: SoVibrant
www.sovibrant.co.uk

Artist of the week - Vitaly Bulgarov

Vitaly Bulgarov a young 3D artist from Moldova  Russia, has been on our artist of the week before. But after viewing his latest handy work, we thought we should place him back up on our artist of the week.

To view more of Vitaly Bulgarov's work visit his website at: http://bulgarov.com/

Enjoy

Sovibrant / Artist of the week

Best Ever Goal Celebrations!

The video is a collection of goal celebrations by Stjarnan FC. Their creative style on the pitch is complimented by their even more creative goal celebrations!

Interior Design

http://www.sovibrant.co.uk/

A new breed of gym !! A Free-Running Academy!

Hi everyone,

I came across this video online and thought it was amazing! 

To most people Free-Running is simply something that has been seen in various movies and is just something done to look cool. As the video below demonstrates, it is taken a little more serious by some, with the opening of a complete academy devoted to the teaching and practicing of Free-Running.

Check it the link below..

Free-Running Academy Video

- 3D visualisation

www.sovibrant.co.uk