This months Superlogo is one of my personal top 5 favourite logos of all time. It was the marque that epitomised the crème de la crème of superclub branding in the 90's, the world famous spinning propeller — The Cream nightclub logo.

It may not have the historical baggage of some of the logo superheavy weights, but when it comes to elegance and form it is up there with the best of them.

20 years after it's inception the logo itself still looks as fresh and ultra modern as ever. In fact I would go as far as to say that I can't see this marque dating any time soon. The typeface maybe — but not a beautifully simple shape such as this. This is another example that simplicity tends to equal longevity when it comes to logo design.

If you don't already know, "Cream was the club that turned a dusty warehouse into the country's most popular dance-floor, that got people to queue through Liverpool's streets hour after hour and inspired students to apply to the city's universities in their droves. Cream then staged its first event in Ibiza in 1994 and continues to host one of the biggest club nights on the island at Amnesia, and has become the longest running UK Club night to stage events on the party isle. With Ibiza's cosmopolitan crowd the Cream story soon began to spread around the world and the company was soon organising events in places as varied as Buenos Aires to Moscow. The company now stages over 100 events annually and its international activity has gone on to become one of the company’s greatest achievements." Emma Johnson

It has booked stars like Kylie Minogue, made household names out of men who played other people's records and the lovely logo is recognised the world over.

The creative genius behind the Cream logo and branding was Rob Petrie. Here is a fascinating quote from the man himself:

"In 1993 I was a designer at Farrow when we were commissioned by Darren Hughes and James Barton the founders of Cream to design a logo for them. The brief was pretty loose but I remember Darren saying something like making it look ' classic like the Nike logo'. The early logo ideas were very much coming from the influence of Japanese car manufacturers logos - Toyota and Mitsubishi, where the logo is constructed of three interlocking elements that create the unified whole. As I then started using drop shapes referencing the actual name I was also trying to create something that was more organic yet had a subtle timeless strength to it, the Yin Yang symbol being an unlikely inspiration. When the final logo design revealed itself it was pretty obvious it was going to be the one that was chosen.

After featuring it on full page ads in pages of The Face, Ministry and Mixmag magazines it then featured on it's first CD sleeve 'Cream Live' - which was produced in five different colours of rubber. At this point I saw what was for me the most memorable incarnation of it as a 10cm high tattoo on a sweaty clubber on the dancefloor at Cream. Not sure how he'll explain that one to the grand kids.

In 1995 myself and fellow designer Phil Sims set up Dolphin Design as Mark (Farrow) left to form Farrow Design as we now know it. We continued with the Cream ads giving life to the logo and showing it's versatility by having it photographed made out of chrome, made into a snow dome, made of flowers, made into a leather chair etc. Around about this time we were quite often approached with the brief of 'can you give us something like the Cream logo you did?'

We also started creating the ads and sleeves for Renaissance nightclub, a competitor to Cream, featuring a whole range of natural objects - eggs, butterflies, flowers and leaves. Probably the most memorable campaign was the sleeves and posters was for The Mix Collection 4 which featured 3 different coloured leaves." Rob Petrie

The beauty of such a simple but distinctive marque is that it is extremely versatile. So versatile in fact, Cream have used the logo in one form or another in most of their marketing materials for the last 20 years. The logo has metamorphosed from leather chairs, to futuristic 3D graphics. From tattoos to teeth braces. In whatever guise it appears the marque is always instantly recognisable.

As you may have gathered I was bang into dance music and often frequented Cream back in its hey day in the mid 90's. So for a design student into the scene, the Cream branding and in particular the legendary Cream and Renaissance flyers were a huge inspiration for me and helped to mould my own design style.

Robin Arnold — Creative director

Over the next few months we are going to be listing our top 10 favourite logos of all time.

We are starting with an absolute corker, the one and only British Rail logo. OK, this maybe not be the sexiest marque you have ever seen but it has the stats of an absolute Top Trump.

When it comes to longevity it gives Cliff Richard a run for his money. It just keeps on going and going...in fact the logo, first commissioned in 1965, is still being used in 2013! Long after the demise of British Rail the marque is now used on traffic signs throughout the United Kingdom.

"In 1964 the Design Research Unit—Britain's first multi-disciplinary design agency founded in 1943 by Misha Black, Milner Gray and Herbert Read—was commissioned to breathe new life into the nation's neglected railway industry, the corporate image of which had remained largely unchanged after its nationalisation in 1948, a reflection of a largely disjointed and out-of-date transport system. The company name was shortened to British Rail and Gerry Barney of the Design Rearch Unit conceived the famous 'double-arrow which represents two tracks, heading in different directions, and crossed by stylised points." - Nick Jobs

There certainly aren't many logos out there that have lasted longer than the company they were originally created for! Here are some great articles about the history and application of this branding gemstone.

http://www.doublearrow.co.uk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/artblog/2006/dec/12/everydesignthebritishrail

As some of you may or may not already know we have a bit of penchant for retro design. The standard of typography, and photography on some of our favourite 60's / 70's poster designs is in a class of its own. Their purest simplicity makes them timeless masterpieces that look contemporary 40 years after they were crafted.

Whether or not you are fan of Swiss typography and well structured grids, you can't deny this is why the posters look so fresh and modern in 2012.

Some of our favourites include Ivan Chermayeff’s beautiful but uncompromising, Modernist Pan Am Airlines adverts. Here is a great article about the story behind them. http://bit.ly/Tyk5tt

And the incredible design legacy left behind by Otl Aicher's identity system, iconic posters and highly influential imagery for the 1972 Munich Olympics. http://bit.ly/U8fr6w  http://bit.ly/Tyk5tt

I only wish the legacy had reached a little further and touched the orchestrators of the London 2012 Olympic identity. But don't get me started me started on that! That's another story... if only Otl had been on the case in 2012!

And last but certainly not least, the master of all grids, Josef Müller-Brockmann http://bit.ly/V6v4ML

He is perhaps the most well-known Swiss designer and his name is probably the most easily recognized when talking about the period. His incredible obsession with grid systems goes to the point where he includes in his book aptly named the 'Grid System' a grid layout for arranging furniture within a room. http://bit.ly/Tyq4OU

Mr Muller, we will definitely keep this grid in mind for the new 22HQ layout!

22 have been working with healthy drinks brand Mangajo on the packaging for their new 330ml range of drinks. We have designed the labels for the Lemon and Green Tea, Red Grape & Rooibos, and Pomegranate & Green Tea bottles.

Using the lovely brand petal as a device to contain the details and introducing a fresh new colour scheme, we have created a look and feel that is as fresh fruity as the drinks – and the Mangajo brand for that matter.

Mangajo have many UK independent stockists and are sold in well known stores such as
www.waitrose.co.uk
www.wholefoods.com
www.yosushi.com
www.flatplanet.co.uk
www.Harrods.com
www.selfridges.co.uk
www.budgens.co.uk
as well as over 20 countries around the world. Whether you are in Manchester or Malta, Greece or Guadeloupe look out for this bevvy of natural beauties on a shelf near you!

We are proud to announce the official launch of The The Reward Practice brand identity.

The Reward Practice are a totally independent source of advice on how to reward, incentivise and motivate staff as efficiently as possible. They asked us to make their brand appeal to their customer base (FTSE 100 organisations), feel professional, corporate and stand out from their competitors.

With a substantial proportion company revenues being spent on paying and motivating employees, organisations need to ensure that every single payroll Dollar, Euro or Pound is wisely spent.

The experience of our friends at The Reward Practice shows that it is entirely possible to reduce overall payroll spend and improve the pay and incentives available to high performers in mission-critical jobs.

The saying ‘Earning the Fruits of your labour’ inspired the branding concept. The feel we got from this was Rewarding, Hard work and Organic. With these words in mind we created eye-catching graphics – inspired by fruit, contemporary typography and a brand that looked confident, corporate but fresh and different enough to stand out of the crowd.