JKR

Do you pride yourself on your distinctive style or prefer to follow the herd where fashion is concerned? Well, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that Facebook can now help you choose your wardrobe. In Brazil, C&A has rolled out a programme called Fashion Like were people can ‘like’ items of clothing on the brand’s Facebook page, then the like counts are updated in real time on hangers in the store.

In itself, the physical reflection of a digital status is an interesting twist on Facebook norm. Although the real question is will it affect behaviour? Social proof is recognised as one of six principles of social influence i.e. we look to what others do to guide our behaviour. So, in theory, people will seek safety in numbers and the best sellers in a range will be self-fulfilling.

But is your wardrobe different? Does the knowledge that a thousand other people in your town will be wearing the same top put you off or give you the extra encouragement you need?

The Levi’s Friends Store has added a qualitative dimension to the information provided. So beyond numbers, you can see who likes what – find out what your friends like, exchange ideas etc.

Somehow to me, a little extra depth gives a lot more value to the use of the technology. Whereas, the counting coat hangers feel like a bit of a fad – just because you can, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should. What do you think – does it get your thumbs up?

“Too late” blared the headline announcing the death of General Gordon at the end of a spear in 1885. Set in groundbreaking 24-point on the cover of the Pall Mall Gazette and the invention of maverick journalist W.T. Stead, it arguably launched the design language by which tabloids grab our attention.

I think Friday’s edition of The Guardian also felt like a small breakthrough in the layout of newspapers. As you can see, above the fold (e.g. the bit one can see when the paper is being sold) is pretty much all picture. It breaks with two current conventions: the masthead is below the lead story and the top of the paper is not the generic set of three or four little pictures illustrating the juicier contents or special offers. It’s a neat trick because it gives this grown up broadsheet design the visual punch of the tabloids it is sold alongside. Beneath the fold all is words, as ever. It also plays to the paper’s reputation for excellent reportage photography.

Is it original? It seems like such an obvious idea that I can’t believe it hasn’t been done before. But I struggle to call to mind other examples of such a layout. Moving boxes around a page to practise dramatic composition is one of the first things we were taught at art college. It was an exercise which showed the infinite variety possible from a few set elements and the different dramatic effects that could be achieved by pushing them around. The Guardian cover shows that even basic tricks like this can be re-thought and evolved to offer striking and effective design for familiar formats.

“I give classics just a little kick,” says the great man, and that pretty much sums it up, but Paul Smith is being rather modest. The kick only works because of the quality of the design and manufacture, and the kick only resonates because it has a genuine sense of spirit, rather than being something ‘bolted on’.

Paul Smith’s work feels like the output of an enthusiast – from the playful windows to the curating of various art books and objects at the back of the shops. One gets a sense of genuine pleasure being taken. You can’t fake this stuff, but when it’s real you can almost smell it. My art teacher in the brand’s Nottingham hometown was flown to Tokyo in the 80s to paint a trompe l’oeil five pound note on the floor of the brand’s flagship store. That’s pretty bonkers in purely business terms, but success can fall out of such a spirit.

The brand’s design is also about the judicious use of contrasts – those lairy, stripy colours are set off by the dark wood floors, and the flash of colour on a buttonhole is set against a basically dark grey suit. For we repressed chaps stuck with sludgy or monochrome wardrobes, all those bright stripy accessories deliver the equivalent of a pick-n-mix sugar rush to a five-year-old.

Some brands have consumers; Paul Smith tends to have fans. A case of getting back what you give perhaps? Now, if he could only give an occasional ‘little kick’ to his occasionally snooty staff, life would be sublime.

By Silas Amos, Creative Director, jkr

Once in a while The Royal Mail reminds us why it bothers with all those special editions. This series celebrates the best of British post-war fashion design. Shot by Sølve Sundsbø, the models strike characteristic and dramatic poses. But removing the models achieves several results: it makes the images more striking (especially against their white background), it focuses the eye on the subject, it looks wonderfully graphic even close up and it gets around that hardy perennial: “No living person on the stamp but the queen.”

All in all a very neat piece of design which acts as a brilliant example of how negative space and taking things away can really make a design pop.

They remind me of the wonderful work Nick Knight did with Peter Saville and Yohji Yamamoto back in the Eighties – which I mention simply to say that one might imagine images of clothes, where thousands of quality ones are produced each month, might easily fade in the memory. But the really original ones will stick with you. You can see Knight and Saville discuss the work here.

The passing of Beastie Boys’ MCA last week has seen plenty of creative tributes circulating. In the poster above, each dot represents a word from (You Gotta) Fight for your Right (To Party), and each dot is colour coded to represent who’s singing each word. The designer, Craig Robinson, is letting you download and print it in exchange for a donation to cancer charities. Click here.

I think the poster is ‘very Beasties’. That is to say it’s playful, knowing and as graphic as the band themselves – who, from their early ‘living Budweiser’ red and white get up to the later ‘Japanese sanitation worker fights big robot’ look, always had a particular visual sensibility.

I guess all the really smart bands do – they have a genuine perspective and personality, look like a gang as much as a group and are canny enough to hire the right talent to bottle their spirit. The Beatles must be the ultimate example, but their image, as much the product of graphic designers, stylists, film-makers and others as it was themselves, always looked effortless. I suppose there was enough natural material to work with in the first place. So while their image constantly morphed and evolved, the underlying sensibility seemed coherent all along, much like the Beasties. Spike Jonze and The Fool played their parts, but they would have got nowhere if the bands themselves didn’t know who and what they were.

This sense of having a certain spirit to express isn’t always reliant on the band’s actual image. The new Saint Etienne album (as is typical of the group) features no picture of the band. But it’s as London, ‘muso’ and charming as one would expect from them. If you like your music and your parlour games, check out the detailing in the cover design. It’s a testament to any image or persona that it can be as abstracted as this or the MCA poster, and yet still have that ‘certain something’ that adds to the groups broader ‘design world’.