News in brief round-up

Jon Daniel has created the branding for the Bikes 4 School initiative- a new charity and not-for-profit organisation helping children in rural Cambodia get an education. The logo uses a cycling symbol to display the charity’s name, using ‘Cambodia-specific’ colours. The mark also ‘reflects both the classic icons for male and female’, according to Daniel.

HMKM has created a new website for Firmdale Hotels. The new fully-responsive site aims to ‘encapsulate the unique spirit of the Firmdale brand’, according to HMKM. The new designs are carried through to other digital components including e-Newsletters, online Restaurant & Bar menus and the Weekend Film Club emailers.

Consultancy Superfried has released its complete collection of  typefaces through Hype for Type. The typefaces are ‘predominantly experimental and for display purposes’, according to Superfried. The collection comprises 11 families featuring 14 fonts, two of which are free. You can view and buy them here.

Springetts has designed an internal identity and communication campaign for Akzo Nobel. The designs are based around the ‘Bringing colour to people’s lives’ proposition, and will be used on permanent communications collateral to be featured across the newly refitted head office buildings throughout the various workspaces including receptions and canteens.

Barber Design has created the interiors concept for online clothing brand Simply Be’s first physical stores, selling women’s clothes in sizes 12-32. The first to open is based in Belfast, with an Oxford Street flagship to open later this month.

Sheffield Print Fair, which launched last year is making a final call for printmakers and artists to take part in this year’s edition, taking place in November. For more information click here. The deadline for applications is 14 September.

Bird Studio has created a bespoke metronome for Jimmy Lovine. The piece acts as ‘alternative to a gold disc’ for Lovine – a record and film producer and  co-founder of Interscope Records and Beats headphones brand, ‘to give thanks for his many years of service and record sales of 92,000,000’,  says Bird Studio. The piece uses a customised wooden Pyramid Metronome, with outer cardboard packaging bearing the Beats logo in a chrome finish.

Mark Wilkinson Furniture has launched its new Portobello kitchen, inspired by the vibrant and cosmopolitan communities around Portobello Road’, according to the brand. Features include Compac worktops and a marble island.

The call for entries for the 2015 RSA Student Design Awards (The SDAs) has been announced. The awards ask students to answer one of eight briefs based on ‘real world business issues affecting major brands and design organisations’, including Unilever brief to help lighten the burden of water collection for women in the developing world. The briefs can be viewed  here.

Design duo Study O Portable (Bernadette Deddens and Tetsuo Mukai) has been awarded a £25,000 commission to create the trophies and medals for the 2014 Wildlife Photographer of the Year prize- winners. The awards, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, will be awarded at the Natural History Museum on 21 October before an exhibition of the 100 chosen images opens at the museum on 24 October 2014.

Consultancy Sunshine has designed the cover for new Penguin books release Inside Charlie’s Chocolate Factory: The Complete Story of Willy Wonka, the Golden Ticket and Roald Dahl’s Most Famous Creation. The release celebrates Charlie and The Chocolate Factory’s 50^th birthday.

AKA has designed the campaign for Breeders, a play starring Angela Griffin and Tamzin Outhwaite as a lesbian couple wanting a baby.

IC Design has created a new website and updated brand platform for the Swedish Chamber of Commerce for the UK (SCC) The new look uses illustrations, created in-house, of key architectural icons from cities that have leading roles in the Chamber – London, Stockholm and Gothenburg – to represent the idea of the Chamber ‘bridging the two countries together and creating its own community for members’, says IC Design.

The Alpha Zoo app, designed by Gareth Hopkins and Stuart Jackson, has launched following a successful Kickstarter campaign. The app uses typography formed from various animals to help children aged three to six years old learn the alphabet through.

Consultancy Wilson Fletcher has worked with start-up crowd funding service VentureFounders to create its new  responsive online platform. The site works with entrepreneurs to fundraise their ideas, selecting only those ‘with highly credible business ideas’ from face-to-face business meetings.

Photographer Jay McLaughlin has been commissioned to show his fashion photographs at Feathers on Hans Crescent as part of the boutique’s 40^th anniversary celebrations. The exhibition runs until the end of the month.