I don’t know about you, but when I text, I use a lot of emojis to express myself.

Maybe too many.

And there were so many times where there just wasn’t an emoji I needed to express myself, or something to describe what I was doing.

That’s why I’m so incredibly excited to announce that Apple will be adding an additional 217 emojis to the pack.

This year, they already added over 100 new emojis, including one of my personal favorites, the otter.

And now, we wait for 217 more in 2021.

If you’re a big dreamer, you’ll finally have an emoji to describe your head being in the clouds.

There’s also a mending heart, which I love, an exhaling face, and a few others!

One important thing that you should know is that 200 of 210 of these emojis are skin tone variants, which is incredibly exciting!

It’ll be amazing now that we can all find the perfect relationship emoji to describe our lives.

The update is expected to take place in January and will gradually roll out new emojis until October of next year.

And although we haven’t gotten an exact image of the new emojis from Apple, the talented designer Joshua Jones from emojipedia has made some mock-ups of what we can expect to see soon!

What are you most excited for in the upcoming emoji release?

What other emojis would you like for Apple to release?

Let us know in the comments below.

Maybe we can come together and make some emoji mock-ups and send a request to Apple to implement them.

Who knows what we could accomplish if we all come together.

Anyways,

Instagram is getting ready for National Voter Registration Day and so are we.

Tomorrow is September 22nd, which means that it’ll be National Voter Registration Day and Instagram has been coming out with some amazing stickers in celebration of that.

One thing that I love about Instagram is that they’ve been encouraging people to get out there to vote, and they even have an election info and voting resource center.

During this time, they’ve teamed up with six different amazing designers and artists who have been creating amazing voting registration stickers that users can add to their stories.

D’Ara Nazaryan, Reyna Noriega, Hank Washington, Jing Wei, Barry Lee, and Iliana Galvez all brought something a little different to the table and creating some amazing stickers. Some in English, some in Spanish, and all unique and vibrant in their own way.

Of course, everyone is encouraged to use these stickers on their stories, no matter the size of their platform, to remind everyone to get out their and vote this year!

If you go on your Instagram story, slide up on your screen and click on the sticker icons, you’ll see all these different voting registration stickers and you can choose the one that best fits your style.

Voting is super important, and if you have time to scroll on Instagram, then you definitely have the time to register to vote!

Make it a priority, go register to vote, and then share on your story some of these cool stickers to encourage your friends and family to get out there and do the same!

Let us know what you guys think about the stickers in the comments below and which one you’ll be using in your upcoming stories.

And of course, until next time,

Stay creative, folks!

Fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen, because Rolls-Royce just went full-rebrand on us and I’m about to present to you their new and improved brand identity.

Ah, Rolls-Royce. The British luxury car brand that we all know and adore.

They have done a complete 180 and changed literally everything about their brand to please and draw in a younger generation.

Between a new typeface, color palette, new icon, and everything in between, we’re going to be covering it all today.

A Short History of Rolls-Royce

“Rolls-Royce is a pioneer in cutting-edge technologies that deliver the cleanest, safest, and most competitive solutions to meet the planet’s vital power needs.

The company was formed by Charles Rolls and Henry Royce in 1906, following a successful partnership in which the pair developed and sold cars.

While the motor car business subsequently separated in 1973, Rolls-Royce remains one of the world’s leading names in engineering, innovating in civil and defence aerospace, power systems and nuclear technology.”

[source]

When Rolls-Royce decided that it was time to rebrand, they reached out to none other than Pentagram.

Although lots of things have changed regarding the Rolls-Royce rebranding, it is still immediately recognizable, which was important to leadership at RR.

The goal of this rebrand was “to bring coherence, clarity and flexibility to Rolls-Royce and its full suite of products and services”.

Not only does Rolls-Royce create stunning automobiles, but they create a number of things, such as amazing, high-end car accessories, luggage and bags.

So this new logo needed to be flexible and work for multiple platforms.

The New Rolls-Royce Symbol

As you can see, the new Rolls-Royce symbol has been flipped so that it is now facing the right, and has been incredibly simplified, which as we have seen with many other brands, this has been the theme of 2020.

New Rolls-Royce Identity

Now for the big-kicker.

From 1911 until now, the symbol of Rolls-Royce was on the bonnet of every Rolls-Royce.

But 2020 is the year of change, am I right?

From now on, things have been simplified at Rolls-Royce and the identity of RR will now be symbolized as showed in the picture above.

A bold move, but I think it’s great that they are going for more of a minimalist approach.

Rolls-Royce New Color Pallette

New new color pallete for Rolls-Royce consists of purple as the dominant color, with hints of pink and fluoro orange.

According to Willer, purple has always been associated with luxury, and it looks “softer, less masculine and harsh” than black. “It still has authority and elegance, but yet it’s broader not just to gender but culture”.

Rolls-Royce New Typeface

Final Thoughts

I really like this new look that Rolls-Royce adopted and I think it’s great in all aspects, but I do want to know what you guys think of it.

In your personal, professional opinion, what do you think of this rebrand?

Let us know in the comments below and of course…

Until next time,

Stay creative!

Like many other incredible events this year, due to Corona, this year’s Adobe MAX event will be held online.

This may seem like bad news, but there is a good side to it.

This year’s Adobe MAX event will be free for everyone to attend!

If you’re unaware of what an Adobe MAX event is, let me explain.

What is Adobe MAX?

Adobe MAX is a creativity conference where they tease their state-of-the-art experimental technologies for the creative world.

It includes three full days of luminary speakers, celebrity appearances, musical performances, a global collaborative art project, and 350+ sessions — and all at no cost.

That’s 56 hours worth of non-stop inspiration and learning.

Typically, Adobe hosts their events at a single venue, which means that there are limited spots and also, many of us can’t travel to the event.

So, what I’m about to tell you is actually great news.

This year the event will be held virtually for the first time in their event’s history, and most importantly, it’ll be free. But that doesn’t mean that it’ll be lacking in any way, shape, or form.

Who will be speaking at the Adobe MAX 2020 Conference?

If you attend this year’s virtual conference, you will have the amazing opportunity to hear from incredible people like Ava DuVernay, an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, the creative Annie Leibovitz, the amazing Keanu Reeves, The Futur’s founder, Chris Do, recording artist Tyler the Creator, and so many other creative luminaries and celebrity speakers.

When will the Adobe MAX conference take place this year?

Adobe MAX 2020 will be held online on October 20-22, so you better get your tickets now!

How do I sign up for the Adobe MAX 2020 Conference?

The answer to that question is simple.

All you have to do is sign-up is go on this website and register to participate.

That’s literally it. Go ahead and sign-up now before it’s too late!

Are you guys pumped to attend this year’s Adobe Max event?

Have you ever been to one in the past?

Let us know your experiences in the comments below and see you there!

Yes, the rumors are true and we couldn’t be any more excited.

Michelle Obama has just released a podcast and we’re absolutely obsessed with it.

So basically, if you haven’t heard already, one of Spotify’s biggest original podcast bets, The Michelle Obama Podcast, premiered on July 29th, 2020.

And who, you might ask yourself, had the amazing opportunity and honor to design for Mrs. Obama’s Podcast?

Well, it was none other than the Brooklyn-based creative production studio, And/Or.

According to an interview with And/Or, they stated that there were some difficulties in designing the branding and visuals for this podcast.

The reason being that they couldn’t listen to any of the episodes before the release, so they had to blindly design all of the visuals, and try to match the vibe they were looking for, just right.

And thankfully, they were able to capture Michelle’s personality and professionalism, while also having a bit of fun with the design process to bring some life and color to the visuals.

As And/Or said in their interview with It’s Nice That, “We started with concepts that drew Michelle’s life and history—illustrating important moments from her life over time in a more stoic tone because we didn’t have access to the podcast episodes yet. We developed those directions using context from the First Lady’s book, Becoming.”

The stoic tone that was presented to us in Michelle’s book, Becoming, was replaced with a more colorful, youthful, and fun look to it.

Because this podcast’s aim is to be light-hearted yet helpful and educational, Spotify was open to bright and happy designs, which And/Or was happy to create.

And what’s another one of the many amazing parts of this podcast, you might ask?

Well, let me tell you.

It comes with a new product feature: shareable quote cards.

When you begin to listen to the podcast, which is exclusively available to Spotify users(thank goodness, because that’s the only music streaming platform I use), you’ll be immediately presented with colorful cards with quotes on them that you will be able to share with others.

Of course, you’ll be able to share these quotes on any social media platform that you want, and not only will you be sharing powerful knowledge to all your followers and friends, but you’ll also be sharing beautifully designed quotes shared from Mrs. Obama herself.

“The headline here is Michelle Obama, and our mission was to help that come through, so we were conscious that the graphic should be a support, something that would immediately get to the point and get people excited, and not be too complicated, distracting or overwrought,” Creative director Kendra Eash from And/Or explained.

The overall goal was to amplify Obama’s personality in the podcast while [communicating] the intention of the podcast. Having an elegant typographic solution with a geometric typeface keeps the focus on those ideas. The colorful underline gives a “pop of color and energy to the animation.”

[source]

Overall, we are just obsessed with the new podcast and design that we were recently graced with.

What do you guys think of the new podcast that Michelle Obama released and all of the visuals?

Let us know in the comment section below!

And as always, until next time,

Stay creative, folks!

On July 30th, 2020 at 7.50am EDT (4.50am PDT), NASA intends to embark on its Mars 2020 mission with Perseverance, its fifth Mars rover, via the Atlas V rocket to look for evidence of ancient life.

To keep up with where Perseverance is at this very moment, you can check out Nasa’s website with live information.

And along with this new experience, comes a new visual identity and logo.

And who was considered worthy enough to create this once in a lifetime chance to design the logo?

The extraordinary task was assigned to none other than the multidisciplinary designer Tobias van Schneider’s studio House of van Schneider.

According to The House of Van Schneider, NASA emphasized that the new logo needed to encompass “the energy and legacy of space travel”, while simultaneously being able to bring immense amounts of honor to the engineers who worked day and night to make this historical moment possible.

Here’s what the team had to say about this momentous opportunity.

From the moment we first set eyes on our sparkling sky, there was no going back.

“We had to know what lay beyond our planet and when we found out, we had to know more.

Our curiosity and perseverance have put us into space, on the moon and now: to Mars.

For the 2020 launch of the Mars Rover, NASA asked House of van Schneider to design a symbol capturing the energy and legacy of space travel, while celebrating the engineers who worked tirelessly on this mission.

At once an abstract representation of the iconic rover and blocks reaching up to the sky, the logomark works as beautifully on the rover as it does on a 191-foot tall rocket ship.”

This new, abstract symbol is amazingly intricate, yet simple.

The 2D design symbolizes the iconic rover, whose structure is recognizable from any distance, that is going towards the Red Planet. You can even see planet earth in the distance of this design.

There’s nothing quite like this logo.

It perfectly encompasses what humanity once saw as only a dream, now made a reality.

This truly must’ve been a bucket-list moment, just like Van Schneider said.

I can’t imagine having the immense honor of creating something so historical for Nasa.

Truly, amazing.

Wow, has 2020 been a rollercoaster.

For many, many reasons, but one in particular is that it seems to me that every single big player in the car industry game is redesigning their logo.

And they’re all revamping and going for a flat logo design.

First it was BMW, then VW, then just last week it was Nissan and I really thought we weren’t going to be hit with anymore major changes.

But now, we see Toyota coming in hot with a brand new logo design specifically for Europe.

And the people are torn.

Toyota’s New Logo Design

This is Toyota’s first redesign since 2009, and I’m personally happy to say that not only did they decide to drop the incredibly bright red color in the logo, they also decided to drop their famous wordmark.

And also, did you happen to notice how the top of the smaller, center ellipsis doesn’t connect to the top of the logo anymore?

Yes, it irks us as much as I’m sure it irks you too.

I have no idea why they chose to do that, and the internet is not very happy about it.

But I must say, I am in favor of the flat design and the monochrome color scheme they chose to go with in this new Toyota logo.

The red is not completely gone tho, as they use it in different parts of the marketing.

Which I’m honestly not opposed to. A little bit of color in a monochrome scheme can be an amazing idea.

Another selling point that we love is the new sans serif that they came out with and they said that their aim is to be “approachable, human and highly technical, and it has been conscientiously engineered.”

This Sans Serif comes in four preferred and two optional weights, with each weight coming in upright and italics. 

The Drop of The Wordmark

One of the most noticeable feature of all, besides the fact that they embraced a flat design and changed their color design, is that they dropped their iconic wordmark.

But, because Toyota’s logo is such a strong one, it can 100% stand alone and be recognized just as easily with or without the wordmark.

Personally, the more minimal, the better.

So, yes, dropping the wordmark was definitely a bold move, but a smart one.

In Conclusion

Here’s what Toyota had to say about their new logo and design.

“The aim of the redesign was to build Toyota’s image as a more progressive brand, while guaranteeing longevity in a digital world and ensuring that the brand continues to appeal to a modern and expanding customer base.

The direction for the new VI is shaped by four key goals: Forward-Thinking, More Premium feel, Consistent and Mobile-First.

The&Partnership’s design approach employed simplification, distilling Toyota’s key visual properties into a clean, considered system that better unifies the brand.

At its core is the new logo, which distils the brand’s emblem to a simplified 2-D design, losing the ‘Toyota’ wordmark; an acknowledgement of its status as one of the most recognisable brands in the world.

The new bespoke typography is Toyota Type, a sans serif font which enhances clarity and consistency across Toyota’s different business units.

Emphasising this is the primary colour palette, a clean, premium monochrome, with a red accent that provides a distinctive nod to Toyota.

The brand architecture has been streamlined and simplified through name changes, consistent typesetting and logo lock-ups.”

All in all, I think that the update was desperately needed and it looks much, much cleaner and modern.

The only thing is that little elipisis that doesn’t touch the top of the logo.

Honestly, it bothers me more than I thought it would.

But other than that, a great update.

What do you guys think of this new logo and all of these new car logos in general?

Let us know in the comment section below!

Until next time,

Stay creative, folks!