KING OF SHAVES DESIGN BLOG

Yesterday I was in our new 'Brand Centre' office just off Regent Street in London. We were doing a photo shoot with Basement of Will King for one of our PR agencies. One of the shots required the entire office to help out...

I'll post up some of the final images once we have selected them. Only 496 to wade through!

Following on from the new Azor S Sensitive System Razor packaging which features a new background 'S' design (based on an interlocking version of the original Azor packs' arch 'swoosh'), we have revised the design of the Azor Shaving Gel tubes to match the new razor packaging.

The Innocent Scholarship gives staff the chance to win £1,000 to do something they've always wanted to do. So one chap made a 'Chiller' video... as you do...

Behind the scenes back story can be found on the Innocent blog.

Having been forced to use Adobe Illustrator for a couple of projects I have just had a taste of the 'other side'. To paraphrase Michael Johnson (of London design consultancy Johnson Banks), "My name is Simon Watson and I have a confession, I still use Macromedia Freehand".

In the beginning, when I first used a vector based illustration package on my Apple Macintosh SE, there was quite a wide choice. But the two main packages were Adobe Illustrator 88 and Aldus Freehand 2. I chose Freehand because it allowed you to work in preview mode so you could see exactly what you were doing. In Illustrator 88 you had to work in outline mode (where everything was shown as 'wireframes') and then switch to preview to see what the heck you had done, then switch back to outline to continue working. Madness.

So I stuck with Freehand. Freehand was purchased by Macromedia but they still developed some really cool features like multiple pages of different sizes in one document, simple colour management and replacement, it was a program that 'just worked' and allowed you to 'think on-screen', not worry about your tools, you could just get on with designing and artworking.

Then Adobe, maker of Freehand's only real competition, Illustrator purchased Macromedia. And I knew that was it. Why bother developing Freehand? And they didn't. The last version was 'MX' (essentially version 11), and that was built in 2003. It still works though, even under Snow Leopard, there are a couple of font quirks, but I can work around that. However I live in dread of a system update breaking Freehand for good. It's not that Illustrator is a bad program, but IMHO it lacks the ease of use, and several features (still!) of Freehand. And in the spirit of competition I think Adobe should sell the code to Freehand, or make it open source so that Freehand could be developed. Remember we are supposed to be living in the free world, where competition is good. So how about it Adobe?

You can read an excellent article on Freehand here on the Creative Review website. And on Johnson Banks brilliant blog here.

And if you are a designer still working with (or yearning to go back to) Freehand, then join the "Free Freehand Organisation" at www.freefreehand.org

Why Freehand can still teach Illustrator a few things:

And for 'anoraks', below are some splash screens from Freehand through the ages.

Launched to the press back in August, the Azor S Sensitive System Razor is now starting to appear in-store in the UK.

Designed especially for sensitive, problem or dry skin, the unique flexible hinge has been re-engineered so that it utilises a softer Elastomer. This "Bendology Technology" allows the incredibly flexible hinge to gently, yet progressively, hold the four long-lasting Endurium coated blades against the skin without any undue pressure, giving a very comfortable and smooth shave thus making it the ideal razor choice for men with skin prone to razor burn, breakouts and skin irritations.

The Azor S also features a larger skin pre-tensioner that sweeps across the skin's surface lifting hairs for a better shave whilst reducing the risk of unwanted nicks and cuts. The handle has been re-designed with the addition of side creases for improved grip and there is now a new soft-touch cartridge ejector release making it even easier to change blades - not that you will be doing that very often as our Endurium coated blades last longer!

The pack has been widened slightly so as to fit in the spring-loaded displays that some retailers have. The design features a new subtle background 'S' which is based on the original 'swoosh' used on the original slimmer Azor packs. The board has an in-line matt seal whilst the 'S' and the logos are picked out with a spot gloss UV varnish.

Will King started King of Shaves during the middle of the last recession back in 1993. He hand-filled the first 10,000 bottles of his original King of Shaves Shaving Oil at his kitchen sink, even getting his girlfriend, parents and just about anyone he could to pitch in! From such humble beginnings, King of Shaves has grown to become a brand loved by men alike across the entire the globe.

Will's new book shows budding entrepreneurs the way to realise their business dreams even in times of economic hardship. It's the inspiring entrepreneurial from-the-kitchen-table-to-supermarket-shelf story. Will explains how to keep the faith and follow your business dream even when the odds are heavily stacked against you.

Buy the book now from amazon.co.uk, click here.

Or from WH Smith, Waterstones and play.com.

Seen on the Creative Review Blog:

Our new TV advert for the King of Shaves Azor System Razor was shown tonight. Created by top London agency Hooper Galton it can be viewed on youtube.com or below:

Designed by top London digital agency, Anorak, today saw the launch of the brand new King of Shaves consumer website www.shave.com.

Over a year in the making the site features a sleek new design, informative Flash animation, interactive product selectors as well as the usual mix of informative shaving and skincare tips, top viral games and, of course, Will King's famous blog.

A chapter closes
With the new site going live it brings to close a chapter in King of Shaves history. Our first website went live back in 1998 when Will Carling was endorsing King of Shaves and the internet browser wars were first hotting up, the site was optimised for Internet Explorer 3 or Netscape Navigator 3 (anything else just wouldn't cut-it)!

How it started
I got involved in 1999 when I still worked at Ambleglow, a small Berkshire based design and advertising agency. I basically told a white lie to Will King and said I could build a much better website so I sat down with my copy of GoLive's CyberStudio 3, and armed with dangerously little knowledge of HTML, every evening after work for about three months I proceeded to bodge together a new website and an online store design.

An amazing programmer, Olly Stephens, marshalled by his wife Anneke (who was heavily involved with customer care and webby 'stuff' back then and for many years after) took my HTML and turned it into a fully functioning website and online store which in those days was no mean feat. Especially as Will and me kept changing everything. Every five minutes.

That design and Olly's amazing "ahead of its generation" code stood the test of time. The store was eventually replaced in 2008 (though Olly made many under-the-hood changes to keep it hack-proof and reliable), I only really changed the graphics once. You can read more about the store here.

Although it has taken until August 2009 to finally replace my (frankly dated) design with something that is much more modern, stylish and reflects the performance of our products, here at King of Shaves we are all really excited by our new revamped site. We look forward to your comments.

We couldn't have done it without you
Olly and Anneke are still involved in running one of our servers, maintaining the blogs, forum, corporate sites, other miscellaneous sites including the upcoming shavingbondclub.com (as well as some KMI Brands sites), but it's the end of a (small) era with the launch of the new shave.com. However we would not have been there back in 1999, well ahead of the game, without Anneke and Olly. Thanks guys.

Oh, and if you are interested in seeing more of what our site(and others) have looked like through the ages, then visit http://www.archive.org/

The new Azor S Sensitive, our first razor designed for sensitive, dry or problem skin, was launched to the press at a special event held at the Lawn Bowling Green in Hyde Park. For the event we designed a logo, the invites, supporting posters and had some photography commissioned to demonstrate the Azor S Sensitive's more flexible hinge.

You can read more about the event on The King of Shaves Corporate website:
www.thekingofshavescompany.com