Behind the scenes at award-winning branding experts, Rose

We pay a visit to Rose – a Best of Show winner at the Brand Impact Awards – and tour its hugely characterful studio.

When Simon Elliot and Garry Blackburn founded Rose in 1999, each had already built up a strong design reputation. The studio has gone on to work with a huge range of iconic cultural institutions - including BAFTA, D&AD, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate and the V&A - as well as the likes of Virgin, Unilever and the BBC.

Was it a deliberate move for the studio to specialise in the cultural sector?

Simon Elliott: It's partly born out of my background at places like Pentagram. We had a great heritage of working with people like the English National Opera, so I had a good knowledge of how that sector works.

As co-founders, how do your design skills complement each other?

Garry Blackburn: Ideas are important, but it really matters to us to craft them beautifully. Simon has an ability to make everything look beautiful. The cultural clients we work with are interested in that, but also recognise the logic behind the decisions and the practicality of solving commercial problems.
SE: The fact that Gary comes from a corporate identity background really helps institutions use whatever money they have to maximum effect.

Rose is increasingly working with global clients – how did this come about?

GB: We've always worked on two platforms, one corporate and the other arts-based. This works really well internationally. Essentially we're exporting the best of British. Look at China, where Aston Martin sales are going through the roof. There's a real interest in British design at the moment.
SE: I'm going out to St Petersburg and Moscow soon as part of an envoy, and that's down to our cultural specialism: I'm deliberately going out and talking to museums and galleries. We were also fortunate enough to get a call from an Indian client two years ago. Gary and I went out to Delhi, and we've been working with them ever since.

Case study: Bletchley Park rebrand

Rose recently developed a new identity system for Bletchley Park museum - where the Enigma code was famously broken in World War Two. Fittingly, the branding is based around finding patterns in seemingly random jumbles of letters and numbers.

"The way they originally recruited the staff in the 1940s was to put crosswords and puzzles in the Telegraph and the like, and make a competition of it," explains co-founder Garry Blackburn. "People would send off their names and addresses and get contacted mysteriously. Those people had brilliant brains."

Junior designer Maja Håkenstad helped craft the pattern element of the brand, translating the concept across everything from posters and business cards to signage and staff uniforms.

Case study: Mark Wallinger: Labyrinth

One of our Best of Show winners at the inaugural Brand Impact Awards, Mark Wallinger: Labyrinth is a fascinating project from Art on the Underground that saw 270 unique pieces of artwork installed in every single Tube station on the network.

Senior designer Rupert Gowar-Cliffe helped make the project happen: "We knew the artwork would remain on the underground for ever; it would have a legacy," he explains. "Each piece was unique, and Mark had done lots of research to identify designers to create them. Our involvement was to make sure all the different elements came together."

And finally…

Garry Blackburn and Simon Elliott conclude by exploring how Rose's portfolio of work for iconic British institutions is expanding with more international clients.

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33 exclusive free wallpapers for phone, tablet and desktop

Treat your screen to a new look with these exclusive wallpapers created by top designers especially for you.

Here at Creative Bloq, we've teamed up with a host of leading designers to bring you a bunch of free wallpapers for your iPhone, iPad and desktop. Good to you aren't we? So, just incase you missed them first time round, here's a selection of the brilliant designs we've featured. Enjoy!

01. Holly Sims

Holly took inspiration from decorating her new flat

Based in London, Holly Sims is an illustrator and full time greeting card designer, with just over four years experience in the industry, balancing working in-house with her own illustration work. She enjoys using bold colour palettes and simple shapes, collating everything into the final image along with other hand-drawn textures and patterns.
Sims on her artwork: "The idea for this piece came from the colour palette first - I’ve just moved in to a new house and I’m getting excited about decorating my new home studio in greys and yellows, so those colours are on my mind at the moment.

02. Robyn Mitchell

Robyn is inspired by the architecture around her home town

Robyn Mitchell is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer living and working in the vibrant city of Cape Town. With four years' experience in the industry, she has worked across a wide range of fields, including packaging design, corporate identity and illustration.
"There are so many amazingly beautiful buildings with so much character and history in my home town Cape Town, South Africa," she explains. "I was especially inspired to create an illustration of our City Hall, with Table Mountain in the distance."

03. Duncan Wilson

Duncan aimed to draw and write about a new character every week during this series

Duncan Wilson is a creative director and illustrator based in the south of England. "This is a piece from the Pixie Tuesday project that ran on my blog every week (without fail) for eighteen months," he explains. "The aim of the project was to draw and write about a new character every week in order to develop my illustrative style and build a portfolio showcasing my personal work."

04. Ben the Illustrator

Click image to download this wallpaper

Ben the Illustrator kicked off our free wallpaper giveaway back in July with this beautiful tiger illustration. Going through a phase of sketching simple images of birds and animals, this particular design took him just 20 minutes!

05. Chris Malbon

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Next up was this gorgeous abstract illustration titled 'Eight' by designer and illustrator Chris Malbon. The concept for this piece came about after Malbon caught a big spider in his studio. This kick-started a whole series atmospheric black and white images by the designer.

06. Henry Hargreaves

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When we approached photographer Henry Hargreaves to design a wallpaper for us, we were very excited to see what he came up with. This being the guy who's made a book about boobs and likes to deep fry gadgets. And he didn't disappoint us with this brilliant, yet disturbing image, which, when downloaded, makes it look like he's stuck in your device. Awesome.

07. Mike Stone

Click image to download this wallpaper

This vibrant, psycedellic-style wallpaper was created by illustrator and copywriter Mike Stone. Stone, who designed this image in 2009, commented, "When it comes to illustration I like blending together certain themes, objects and imagery until they naturally co-exist in one image."

08. Stanley Chow

Click image to download this wallpaper

If you're from, or love the city of Manchester, then you'll certainly appreciate this beautiful design by talented illustrator Stanley Chow. This particular wallpaper was initially intended for Chow's daughter's bedroom, which is why he illustrated it with simple geometric shapes.

09. Jon Burgerman

Click image to download this wallpaper

Back in August, we collaborated with colourful artist Jon Burgerman to bring you guys this cool wallpaper design. Burgerman created three seperate images - No-one Knows The Way, Hopscotch and The Hustle the Dance - all of which are acrylic paintings on watercolour.

10. Amy Holliday

Click image to download this wallpaper

Young professional illustrator and hand-drawn typographer Amy Holliday is the lady behind this detailed wallpaper. With an affinity for animals she finds herself inspired by nature, conservation and by things she finds fascinating: exotic places, colourful cultures, and the novelty of exciting objects found in everyday life.

11. Steven Bonner

Click image to download this wallpaper

Steven Bonner is a designer and illustrator widely known for his experimental take on typography. Creating this piece as the 2012 London Olympics approached, he commented, "The idea of never finishing something until you've achieved your goal appeals to me, and I think it's as relevant in work and it is in sport."

12. Justin Maller

Click image to download this wallpaper

Justin Maller is a freelance illustrator and art director. He is also founder and creative director of international modern art collective Depthcore, which he created this striking piece for initially. The generous designer then donated it to us for our weekly wallpaper spot.

13. Uglylogo

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We love this playful wallpaper, created for us by Frode Skaren aka Uglylogo. The concept for this design came about when Skaren was collecting leaves with his three-year-old daughter. He comments, "I imagined them as characters. I love how the leaves make like open arms, almost like they spread their wings when falling. Wonderful."

14. Becha

Click image to download this wallpaper

Vesna Pesic aka Becha is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator based in Serbia. She created this piece in order to brighten up the start of the week. "The thing I like about being a freelance artist is adaptability and a week without strict work-hours. So, Monday is like Saturday. This deer wallpaper is a present for everyone who love Mondays!" she says.

15. Neil McFarland

Click image to download this wallpaper

Neil McFarland is lead visual designer at digital design studio ustwo. His image of Willow the Whale, the hero of the ustwo game 'Whale Trail' featured as our wallpaper in October. "It's taken from our forthcoming e-book with Penguin based on the game and is called the Adventures of Willow the Whale – ‘The Curse of Baron Von Barry' " he says.

16. Jamie Smart

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Jamie Smart is a British comic artist and writer. Over the past ten years, he's worked for clients including The Dandy, The Sunday Times, The DFC, The Cartoon Network and the BBC, and character-designed for Disney. This was one of the early concept pieces for his sometimes rude but enjoyable webcomic Corporate Skull

17. James O'Connell

Click the image to download this wallpaper

James Oconnell is a Manchester-based doodler, illustrator and all round image maker with an international reach. He has a passion for tone, form and texture and generally tries to create work that makes people think, but mostly, which makes them smile. He created this one back in November.

18. Dan Moat

Click the image to download this wallpaper

Dan Moat is a graphic designer based in the UK. He says of his illustration..."The monkey himself was a product of playing about with manipulating circles in Illustrator a while ago. I love doodling with pens and paper and sketching out ideas first but sometimes it's really fun to just sit straight at my computer and see what I can come up with using only basic vectors.

19. Alun Edwards

Click the image to download this wallpaper

Alun Edwards is a versatile and experienced design director at UK-based creative agency Studio Output and has been helping to build forward-thinking brands for fourteen years. He loves that everyday objects (and some pretty cheap finds) can be bought alive by their juxtaposition, which is showcased in this wallpaper.

20. Gareth Axford

Click the image to download this wallpaper

Gareth Axford is an animator and illustrator based in a beautiful small town in the Brecon Beacons, South Wales. He thought it might be fun to revisit an old style of his in order to hone his vectoring and colour skills on a series of illustration of characters from his favourite films.

21. Vault49

Click the image to download this wallpaper

A multi-talented creative, Luke Choice is a senior designer at award-winning design studio Vault49. The artwork was an conceptual soundscape environment, taking inspiration from coral reefs and combining them with the bass-lines from some of the favorite studio soundtracks.

22. Ben Steers

Click the image to download this wallpaper

Ben Steers is a freelance illustrator and designer working out of the beautiful city of Bristol. His work is a mix and match of different graphic styles with influences ranging from '80s animation to early graffiti.The illustration 'Woodland Adventures' was originally conceived for an exhibition at the Kidrobot store in London

23. Craig Minchington

Click the image to download this wallpaper

Craig Minchington is a Welsh digital artist, living in Bristol, creating under the alias Adora. This illustration is an adaptation of an older piece of work called 'The Beginning'. As there's no real central focus, he simply concentrated on composition, colour and form.

24. Ollie Hoff

Click the image to download this wallpaper

Ollie Hoff is a graphic designer living and working in Norwich, UK. Hoff on his illustration... "'We're Coming Home' was a recent personal piece I worked on. It was an idea I came up with while doodling on a notepad at work.

25. Rob Green

Click the image to download the wallpaper

Rob Green is an award-winning art director from Birmingham, UK. He works broadly, covering everything from concept right through to design for print, TV and radio. Green on his illustration: "Towards the end of April 2013, I came across an article that posed the question 'What is the future of type?'. What interested me most was how to answer such a question.

26. Tim Easley

Click the image to download the wallpaper

Tim Easley is a self taught designer and illustrator from London, who likes to work with hand-drawn lettering, bright colours and bold lines. Easley on his illustration... "I did this hand lettered piece to remind myself that it’s important to keep doing work, even if you have absolutely nothing to use it for."

27. Tom Redfern

Click the image to download the wallpaper

Tom Redfern is a freelance illustrator and image maker who lives and works in the creative city of Bristol. Redfern on his illustration... "With this image, which was created especially for Creative Bloq, I wanted to give everyone something that would inspire them to focus on the playful nature of the creative process, and if nothing else, make them smile a bit."

28. João Oliveira

Click the image to download the wallpaper

João Oliveira is a freelance art director, designer and illustrator from Porto, Portugal. Oliveira is also the founder of multidisciplinary studio Onrepeat. He says of his artwork..."This illustration was originally created for the Depthcore's 'Echoes' exhibition and it's about jazz. My objective with this piece, just like many others of mine, was to blend typography with illustration."

29. Joe Stone

Click the image to download the wallpaper

Joe Stone is a freelance designer and illustrator based in the UK. During his creative career, Stone has worked with clients ranging from international exhibition organisers to local start-ups on brand, print and digital design."Having had a lifelong obsession with comic books, Superman is a hugely important character to me," says Stone.

30. Jenny Lloyd

Click the image to download the wallpaper

Jenny Lloyd has been working as a freelance illustrator since graduating from Falmouth College of Arts in 2004. During this time she has worked for a wide range of international clients.
"This piece was originally created as an editorial illustration for an article about the rise in popularity of Japanese visual culture. I was inspired by the delicacy and soft colour palette often present in vintage Japanese prints," she explains.

31. Lesley Barnes

Click the image to download the wallpaper

Lesley Barnes is an animator and illustrator who lives and works in Glasgow. She uses a graphic and colourful style to tell stories with both her illustration and moving image work. Barnes on her illustration... "Inspired by their amazing tails, I created this pattern called Peacocks for Wrap Magazine's wrapping paper range."

32. Andrew Groves

Click the image to download the wallpaper

Andrew Groves is an illustrator and image maker, currently based in the woods of Sussex, UK. Natural phenomenon, wilderness exploration, and adventures are common themes in his work. "Like most of my work, this piece is inspired by the great outdoors and things I've seen on various trips and quests, which are then reinterpreted using simple shapes and limited colours," he says.

33. Helvetica

Click the image to download the free wallpaper

I Love Typography is one of the leading blogs for typography nerds, and it also offers some great typographical wallpapers. This brilliant homage to Helvetica was designed by Hamish Macpherson, a Canadian creative and web producer.
Would you like to submit a wallpaper for free download? Let us know in the comments box below!

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Why Oculus Rift is the next big thing in interactive design

AKQA's executive creative development director Andy Hood considers why the Oculus Rift VR headset could revolutionise how agencies approach experience-based design.

Everyone knows what a VR headset is - we've seen them in movies since the '70s and witnessed the attempts at launching products in the '80s and '90s. So is there anything amazing in the Oculus Rift? Our familiarity with the concept tends to lead to people approaching their first Rift experience in a nonchalant manner. At the end of their journey through some Oculus Rift demos, however, the wide eyes and open mouths reveal that a completely new view of the future has just made itself known.
That's how good the experience of using Oculus Rift is. Even after testing the first developer prototype Oculus released as a result of the hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, it is hard to prepare yourself for the sheer physicality of the experience.
So, it's good. Find one and see for yourself. But so what? When augmented reality first appeared to consumers a few years back, it was a revelation. Suddenly we could see animated characters through our webcams, courtesy of a QR code we might have found on a box of cereal, and we were awed. The wonders would never cease, we thought. But the novelty wore off, and it's taken years for smartphone technology to enable useful real-world applications of augmented reality (AR) to become popular. So what of virtual reality (VR), and what of Oculus Rift ? How can this tech succeed where its predecessors have failed?

In 2012, Oculus Rift offered a Development Kit to those pledging $300 or more on Kickstarter, and later made them available for pre-order. The kits started shipping at the end of March 2013

The answer is content. The concept of VR has been around for so long that many have been waiting for its arrival to implement their ideas. There is a huge array of developers creating all kinds of content for the Rift , which means that the device will be well served aft er it launches. Lack of content can be the death of any platform, but Oculus Rift will not be found wanting here.
The Trojan Horse, naturally, is gaming. A popular thought upon experiencing immersive VR for the first time is, "What would Call of Duty be like with this?" and clearly there will be many Rift-enabled games around. The Rift will become the Christmas gift of choice for a vast number of game-crazed people. And don't assume it will be expensive - mass adoption will surely be more important than anything else in the early stages.
With any number of Rift s finding their way into households through gaming, the path will be set for many other applications of immersive VR to follow. For example, education - why teach children about the Battle of Hastings when we can put them right in the middle of it? Perhaps they will be able to experience the processes of biology, chemistry and physics from the inside. And of course engineering and design - VR is the ultimate simulator. We can explore places we could never go from the comfort of the living room. Once you start coming up with applications it's hard to stop. Productised immersive VR is a game-changer for everyone. There are few walks of life where it will not have an impact.

AKQA partnered with Nissan in 2013 to develop an immersive virtual world, powered by the Oculus Rift

This all comes with plenty of questions. When the technology goes mainstream, will there be any form of governance or will the world be deluged with the VR-equivalent of 'fart apps'? Will the morass of applications with more bugs than features that currently permeates app stores be replicated here? Will developers pay as much attention to navigation and control as they will to stunning environments and 3D models?
Navigation is a vital tool in maintaining the totally immersive nature of the VR experience - being tied to external controllers is a limiting factor here. It is also very difficult to predict how long the VR revolution will take. It's possible that once the immediate rush of gamers buying the Rift is over, we may see a plateau in the adoption of VR.
Things may go a little quiet while a broader and more utility-focused range of applications are worked out, tested and developed. Or it could be that many of them are ready from day one. What I think is abundantly clear is that whether it takes five weeks or five years, immersive VR is very much here to stay, and its impact will be felt far and wide.
For those of us who seek to apply new technologies to solve the problems of businesses and consumers, Oculus Rift is the kind of thing we live for, an exciting new medium with a whole realm of possibilities. The risk, however, is seeing the technology first and making our application of it entirely arbitrary.
It is pretty easy for most people to spot when technology has been crowbarred into a solution because it's 'cool'. The consumer experience is pivotal, and whether or not it is truly served by the technology, whether the solution genuinely fits the problem, is key.

Visitors to the Tokyo Motor Show could create their own concept cars in Nissan's virtual world

We are almost certain to have to put up with a lot of pointless or substandard content. This is true of every medium, be it books, films, music or iPhone apps, so nothing to unduly worry about. We must concern ourselves with delivering the content, applications and solutions that can truly make this medium indispensable, and solve problems in a uniquely seamless and sophisticated way, as though only VR could ever really have been the natural solution to the problem.
That last point is true of all technologies. Oculus Rift is the current hot topic, but there will be others. We find them everywhere. Startups are creating new technologies and techniques all the time. You better believe that the tech giants are hard at work on their next offerings. Kickstarter is a brilliant place to keep track of anything at grassroots level. It enables you to place a pretty small bet on a technology or product, get the very first belt-and-braces prototype off the assembly line, and then realise major opportunities if you can find the relevance and deliver genuinely valuable solutions using it. And if you don't think that's worth getting out of bed for, then you're in the wrong industry.

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What's your designer star sign?

As creatives, we all think we're unique – but in truth there are only 12 types of designer. Creative director Liza Enebeis consults her inner Zodiac to bring you your stars.

Designers born under  

Aries are fearless. They aren't afraid to tell the client what they really think. Their passion lies in branding - they want to put their mark on everything. And if the chance arises, they'll make a logo design 10 times bigger just so they can admire it from afar.

Taurus designers are the most reliable; they never leave a client disappointed. They also own the most lucrative design studio in the city. You can feel it from the moment you walk in, from the designer floors, walls and lights, right down to the designer toilet seat.
They're the complete opposite to

Cancerian designers, who tend to set up their design studio at home and like to keep client contact to a minimum. Their sensitivity is reflected in their work - they shy away from bold typography and bright colours.
By contrast,

Leo designers are brashly confident. They make great keynote speakers because they're guaranteed to give the best show. Their designs reflect their personality - their type is all-caps, preferably centred, as if everything revolves around them.
They work especially well with

Gemini designers, who can sweet-talk clients and have them agree to anything. They can sketch almost any scenario, although they can go from loving their own proposal to completely hating it in a matter of minutes.

Virgo designers, on the other hand, are the most precise. While the rest of us are busy looking at the bigger picture, the Virgo designer is busy checking all the kerning for the third or fourth time. They strive for perfection.
They're similar to  

Libras - when a Libra designer designs, expect them to take a while. All potential outcomes are weighed. Should the logo be left-aligned or right-aligned? Should it be bright red or slightly darker? This can go on for weeks, and no one will see the difference except for the Libra designer.
That's too laborious for the

Scorpio designer. They rely on charm and sexiness. The way they build up a presentation, smoothly revealing one concept after another, often turns on even the coldest client.

Sagittarius designers tend to be playful, on the other hand. They're simply willing to try things out.

Capricorn designers sympathise with that approach. They just can't stop designing. Every design proposal has to be bigger than the last, with more Pantones, more 3D gradients, more layers, more filters and so on.

Pisces designers would pique at that. They're sensitive types. Does a proposal have the right energy? Does it provoke an emotional reaction? These questions run through the Pisces designer's mind.

Aquarius designers, though, have a different goal: they're idealists at heart. They want to make the world a better place with their design. Apart from their humanitarianism they're also ridiculously sporty. They're the kind of designers who, after a late night in the studio, would rather go for a 10-mile jog than a well-deserved drink. Definitely strange.

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Discover the story behind this band poster's enchanting illustration

For his band poster, designer and illustrator Adam Hill sought inspiration in dark nights and mystic rituals.

When he was invited to contribute to an unusual exhibition that combined his two passions, illustrator and musician Adam Hill found himself conjuring up strange lights and mysterious rituals to capture the mood of psych rock band The Very Wicked.

Tell us a little bit about this project…

It's for a band called The Very Wicked, created for a special exhibition. The organisers paired a band with an artist who would use the music as a brief to create a poster. Every poster purchased came with a download key enabling the buyer to obtain one song from each of the bands exhibited. It was a great way of giving bands more exposure as well as creating a richer experience for the person buying the poster.

What was your inspiration?

The music is always an initial inspiration for me. After that, it's about finding a story to tell. I wanted it to feel like you were being summoned towards the poster, with the figures being drawn to this otherworldly light. It was coming to the end of winter and I was working at night which I guess is reflected in the work.

How did you go about capturing the vibe of the band?

The Very Wicked have a psychedelic, garage sound with darker undertones which I personally enjoy and relate to. The performance of music is almost ritualistic, and I wanted to depict these characters as if they were playing to summon all the creatures of the forest, and as if they were fuelling this mysterious light.

How did you create it?

I started with a pencil sketch to decide on the general composition, I then worked over that in Illustrator and then finished the texturing and lighting in Photoshop.

What's the most unusual thing ever to have inspired a piece of work?

We come up with a lot of bad puns in the studio, they tend to lead to some pretty interesting ideas. I was once inspired by doing a crossword puzzle. That idea came out of nowhere.

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