Classic Football Shirts make us Smile!

We just wanted to take a moment to bask in the glory of our all time favourite football strips. A classic shirt is a true thing of beauty, who can forget the England 66' red kit, or the 86' Argentina shirt.

We've complied just a snippet of our favourites below. Most utilise simple and clean design which aids to their timeless properties. Some are so over designed its ridiculous and some just stick in the mind for the memories associated with them.

Take Schmeichel's goalkeeper shirt from the 92 - 93' Premiership season. The colours clash, the pattern is hideous, yet we can't help remembering it! A classic kit which evokes so many memories (mostly bad as none of us support United!). How about the Norwich City shirt from the stella 92 - 93' Uefa Cup season. Any shirt that sees an East Anglian team beat European giants Bayern Munich is surely ear marked to be a vintage!

On to the minimalist classics… the 95' AC Milan shirt goes down in history for two reasons. Firstly for its great design, completely stripped back with only the essential sponsor and badge being present. Secondly, because it was the shirt George Weah wore when he scored one of the best goals of all time, running around 80 yards from area to area, beating around 8 players on his own and coolly slotting it home! The 88' Liverpool shirt must also be heralded as a classic. Probably our favourite sponsor from over the years, the 'Candy' shirt as we like to call it was donned but such players as John Barnes, Ian Rush and Peter Beardlsey.

Honorary mentions also go to the 83' West Ham shirt, 90' Italy World Cup winning shirt, the 88' Arsenal shirt and last but by no means least, the 93' Man United away shirt.



What are your favourites?


Until next time followers...

HGC XX


PS. We're off down the shops to pay £400 for a signed 88 - 89' Tottenham shirt!

Oyster oyster read all about it!

If you creative’s out there think like we do here at HGC, and have a passion for all things arty and crafty, we stumbled upon these new ‘oyster card’ holders. If you’re going to travel on the tube you may as well look stylish when doing so with this hand crafted card holder! Travelling on the tube is a necessity for most and this product has been created to make you smile each time you use it!


Set yourself apart from the millions of other oyster cards in circulation out there with one of these unique, engraved or even a custom bespoke designed holder. Weighing less than a £1 coin they are light and full of character. Look out for them on your travels on the underground!
http://www.alternativeoyster.com/#/selected-work

Why not get in touch with us at HGC http://www.highergroundcreative.co.uk/ and we'll design you a bespoke oyster card holder for you or your business...

Until next time followers...

HGC XX

The Ultimate Olympic Posters

As the 2012 London Olympics are fast approaching, it got us thinking about Olympic graphical identities. Not only do the games represent the coming together of the best athletes in the World, they also represent a an opportunity to create an iconic visual brand which, in the best cases, can become a symbol of the games for decades to come.

We've had a dig in the archives to come up with our definitive favourite Olympic posters. They all vastly range in styling but each has a unique beauty, which have become timeless pieces of design.

These posters are created to represent a feeling of unity, community and above all, an opportunity for the World to come together. Visually they represent more than just athletics, they embody the ideals of ancient Greece, where warring states would perform in the games putting all conflicts aside for the duration. The Olympics have long since been seen as way to bring conflicting countries together peacefully.

We wonder whether the current London 2012 identity will pass into the pantheons of Olympic greats? Or whether it is destined to be remembered as just a blip on the design landscape?

Either way, it can only hope to come close to the examples below, each poster being a stand out piece of design, which would rival any contemporary graphical work.

Perhaps in fifty years you'll see the Olympiad 80 poster sat next to London 2012??

The jury is out….

Until next time followers...

HGC XX

Happy January!

We all know how depressing the month of January can be, bills to pay, heaps of work to be done and of course the New Year’s resolutions you made a promise to keep this time, (which we tend to stick to on New Year’s Day and the week following it, but that’s the extent of it.) The weather can be such a mood kill at the start of what might be a good day, rain, wet feet, umbrellas poking your eyes out, and let’s not forget ‘the commute’ to work! The endless adverts trying to sell you things you never wanted and dating websites trying to hook you up with the love of your life, apparently!

Well this may put a smile on your face in the mornings for the remainder of January on your commute to work. Smile for London is live and started on Monday and continues until 28th January. For the lucky ones who pass through these tube stations during rush hour, you will be greeted with some creative and inspiring short films from art to animation, no selling involved just a little tablet of creativeness.

Smile for London from Smile for London on Vimeo.

This has certainly made the journey to work a little more exciting, look out for these short films on digital platforms around central London! I know I will be... just don’t make yourself late for work!

Until next time followers...

HGC XX

(If you need some more creative medicine in the meantime, take a look at some of our exciting work on our portfolio http://www.highergroundcreative.co.uk/our-work/...)

Soviet Maverick - El Lissitzky

We thought we'd take time out to celebrate one of our favourite historical periods of graphic design, the Soviet constructivists. In particular, one if it’s leading stars, El Lissitzky.

Born in 1890 to a small Jewish family in the far out reaches of the then Russian empire, El Lissitzky was destined to dedicate his life to design and its principles.
In 1909 he moved to study architectural engineering in Germany. But it wouldn't be until 1917 that he would start to employ the graphical and typographic devices that would make him hugely influential.

What followed was 24 years of inspired, precise and effective design across typography, photomontage, book design and propaganda.
His use of block like shapes, constrained colours and photography, came together to create dynamic, multi-layered works that served to excite and inform.

His work was hugely influential and spurred on the likes of the De Stijl and Bauhaus movements which would go on to be prominent until this day.

We've collated some of our favourite El Lissitzky pieces below for your viewing pleasure. All of them fantastic in design, all of them hugely original, all of them hugely inspiring.

London living.... we love it!

We at HGC thought this was well worthy of a blog post...'

‘21 things that remind you, you're a Londoner...’
Waiting more than three minutes for a tube is absolutely preposterous
Everyone walks too damn slow
The Underground is a battleground
You think anywhere outside Zone 2 is too far to travel
It surprises you to meet people who have English as a first language
You feel superior to non Londoners
You find the sound of sirens comforting
Fresh air smells funny
You haven’t cooked a meal since helping mum last Christmas with the turkey
You’re suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you
You have a minimum of five “worst cab ride ever” stories
Being truly alone makes you nervous
Your closet is filled with black clothes
You consider Essex the “countryside”
You think Hyde Park is “nature”
You call an 8″ x 10″ plot of patchy grass a garden
Hookers and the homeless are invisible
You have 27 different menus next to your telephone.
You pay £3 without blinking for a beer that cost the bar 28p
You say “the city” and expect everyone to know which one
You wouldn’t want to live anywhere else… until you get married and have kids!

Predominately we are a bunch of country folk that now reside in ‘the city’, many of us have been thinking similar thoughts to these at times, even though we are not born and bred Londoner’s at heart... Quite entertaining/pessimistic at the same time, but you have to admit London is fab, which is why over 7.5 million people including myself choose to live in this crazy city!


(Look familiar....?)
If you are looking for a bit of a creative burst on your lunch break or you have 5 minutes spare, we have recently updated our website with some great and exciting new work! Check out the latest portfolio goings on at www.highergroundcreative.co.uk/our-work/
Until next time followers

HGC XX

Happy new year from HGC!!

All of us here at Higher Ground Creative would like to wish all you HGC followers a Happy New Year! Whether you were at home tucked up in bed or out in the heart of London watching the fireworks on New Year’s eve, we hope you all saw in the New Year with a bang! Let’s hope 2011 is as good as 2010 and brings you all good health and happiness!!

Until next time followers

HGC XXX