One brief. One constraint.
Short, deliberate exercises. Pick the level of effort you have in you today.
- 01Illustration / Branding · 13 SEPT
Draw a piece of toast as a brand mascot
Give it a posture, a personality and a name. It should look like it belongs on packaging, not on a napkin.
WARM UP30 minOne shape language. No faces with eyebrows.Begin → - 02Composition · 12 SEPT
Create an album cover using exactly three circles
Three circles, any size, any colour from a two-colour palette. Add the artist name and album title. Nothing else may appear on the sleeve.
SWEAT30 minExactly three circles.Begin → - 03Editorial · 11 SEPT
Design a book cover using typography only
No image, no texture, no illustration. The title, the author and the publisher's mark must do all the work of genre, tone and period.
STRETCH45 minType only. Two colours maximum.Begin → - 04Typography / Composition · 10 SEPT
Make Helvetica feel rebellious
Take the most neutral typeface ever drawn and give it an attitude. No new typefaces, no illustration, no photography. You may crop, scale, repeat, rotate and overlap — nothing else. One composition, one message, five words maximum.
STRETCH35 minOne typeface. One colour. No imagery.Begin → - 05Branding / Logo · 09 SEPT
Create a logo using Cooper Black
Take a typeface with a strong personality and make it serve a brand that would never normally choose it. A law firm, a laboratory, a bank.
STRETCH40 minCooper Black only. No custom drawing.Begin → - 06Typography · 08 SEPT
Design a poster with one word
Choose a single word and build an entire A2 poster around it. The word must be legible from across a room and interesting from arm's length.
WARM UP25 minOne word. One typeface.Begin → - 07Typography · 07 SEPT
Set a poster in one weight
Design an A3 event poster using a single typeface at a single weight. All hierarchy must come from size, position and space — nothing else.
WARM UP20 minOne typeface, one weight, black on whiteBegin → - 08Branding · 06 SEPT
Rebuild a logo from memory
Pick a logo you see every day. Without looking at it, redraw it. Then compare and note every difference.
WARM UP15 minNo reference until you are finishedBegin → - 09Colour · 05 SEPT
Three greys and a signal
Compose a magazine spread using three greys and exactly one accent colour, used on less than a tenth of the page.
STRETCH30 minAccent may appear only onceBegin → - 10Composition · 04 SEPT
Grid of nine
Build a 3x3 grid and place a single photograph so it reads differently in three separate crops of the same frame.
STRETCH35 minSame image, three crops, one gridBegin → - 11Motion · 03 SEPT
Type that moves once
Animate a wordmark with a single movement. One idea, no easing tricks stacked on top of each other.
SWEAT45 minOne movement, under two secondsBegin → - 12Layout · 02 SEPT
A layout with no rectangles
Design an editorial layout where no element sits in a rectangular container. Rules, alignment and space carry the structure.
SWEAT50 minNo boxes, no fillsBegin → - 13History · 01 SEPT
Swiss brief, wrong century
Take a 1960s Swiss poster and redesign it as if it were made for a 1890s letterpress shop. Keep the message identical.
SWEAT60 minTwo periods, one messageBegin → - 14Visual Communication · 31 AUG
Explain a rule without words
Communicate a public safety instruction using only shape, colour and arrangement. No text, no recognisable icons.
CHAOS60 minNo type, no standard pictogramsBegin → - 15Composition · 30 AUG
Design with a coin toss
Make every layout decision by coin toss: left or right, big or small, black or accent. Then make the result work.
CHAOS45 minChance decides, you resolveBegin → - 16Branding · 29 AUG
One hour, one identity
Build a full miniature identity — mark, type, colour, one application — in sixty minutes flat. Stop when the hour ends.
CHAOS60 minHard stop at sixty minutesBegin →