MY LIFE IN IMAGES

Now I’ll be the first to admit I’m a complete design geek, I notice when a company changes its logo or typeface, I notice when packages change design or when a business is rebranded. What interests me most is the thought process which goes behind such changes. Unfortunately the general public aren’t generally party to those processes. So here’s the first in what may become an occasional look at the world of package design.

Starting with Milo (above), an Australian icon first created in 1934. So what are the major changes between the old (left) and new package designs? Well surprisingly the logo is slightly smaller, cricket boy has been reduced and flipped, ‘Low GI’ appears to have dropped out of favour in packaging buzzwords, however promoting natural ingredients such as ‘Malted Barley’ with the addition of a description and image is in. ‘Vitamins and Minerals’ are still important but it seems pushing protein benefits is now up there too. The Milo now splashes into the glass of milk rather than just floating on top, the shade of green has darkened slightly and the subtle cricket game background has been dropped.

Now to Sprite Zero, conveniently I found these two bottles side-by-side on the shelf at a supermarket (old design on the left). Again logo size has been reduced and had a slight overhaul with a font change, the lemon & lime motif is now more prominent and a background splash has been added. The designers seem to have decided that no one cares whether Sprite Zero is ‘caffeine free’ as it’s been dropped, ‘No artificial colours or flavours’ is still important though. Background colour has also changed from a blue/green gradient to a blue/grey gradient.

Coca-Cola Company package design seems to differ all around the world and the Aussie version above still differs from the current US packaging. It also has a couple of other brand names, known as ‘Diet Sprite‘,  ‘Diet Sprite Zero‘ or ‘Sprite Light’ in some other countries.

So this story will have made it’s way round the web pretty quickly as Sydney woke up to what looked like life on Mars on Weds 23rd Sep. It was actually the wind that woke me at 6am but as I glanced out of the window I saw this bizarre orange glow. At first glance I thought it was fog, but with the wind there was no way it could be, so after switching on the radio I discovered I was experiencing one of Sydney’s worst dust storms in 70 years.

It looked like the end of the world, a nuclear winter, the orange glow being caused by the low angle of the sun at that time of the morning. As the sun rose the sky took on a less dramatic light beige hue. Stories about the storm are on news sites the world over and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter were flooded with images from camera phones. This multimedia gallery from the Sydney Morning Herald pretty much sums up the day.

I got the chance to take some photos of a friend of mine the other weekend. Marc has a great body and is confident enough to get naked in front of the camera. The photos were taken with natural light, a spot lamp and another, secret weapon which produced some great colour images.

It’s the first time I’ve done a photoshoot like this in years and hope to do more in the future, check out the full set at Flickr. If you’re in the Sydney area and are interested in me taking images of you just contact me.

A couple of weeks ago I headed up to Airlie Beach with my friend Zdenek as a little post birthday treat. Airlie Beach is known as the gateway to the Whitsundays, a group of islands just off the coast of Queensland which feature spectacular scenery, clear blue sea and white sandy beaches.

We stayed at the Summit Apartments in a fantastic 2 bed place overlooking Airlie, however the view meant it was on a hill which was a bitch to walk up, even going down wasn’t that easy, still worth it though. The weather for the week was fantastic, blue skies and sunny every day. We did a bit of cycling, hiked up small moutain, went out on a boat trip round the islands with a bit of snorkelling and lunch on Whitehaven Beach, and went Sea Kayaking.

The area is such a great place for photography and I made the most of the new Sigma 10-20mm Ultra Wide Angle lens I bought for my birthday. The last time I visited it was a little cloudy and dull so this time is was great to see the islands, beaches and water bathed in sunshine, a very nice, relaxing 5 day break.