Welcome to the Liv Design blog, an eclectic mix of great design and quirky finds

It's not often that a new font comes along that we love. Fonts are created, amended, tweaked and launched all the time but they usually either turn out to be so specific that they're unusable, or they're so similar to existing fonts that they're not worth purchasing. However, we like this one from Doubletwo Studios. It's a new serif version called XXII BLACK-BLOCK-SERIFA, based on last years XXII BLACK-BLOCK With a current trend for the 70s and 80s, and distressed/grunge styles still prevalent, we can't wait to use it.

It seems that Vauxhall are about to relaunch their brand identity. The traditional red badge that adorned their cars and vans since the '70s went disappeared a few years ago, with it's current incarnation arriving circa '93. The new look Griffin will make its first appearance at the British International Motor Show in July. It will appear on the new Insignia and then appear on every "all-new" Vauxhall launched in the future. Bill Parfitt, Vauxhall's Managing Director, said the new logo "...pays homage to our 100 year-plus manufacturing heritage in the UK, it also encapsulates Vauxhall's fresh design philosophy, first showcased in the current Astra, and set to continue with Insignia. This recent evolution of the brand has resulted in Vauxhall's incredible sales success over the last three years. Its retail share in the UK has increased significantly, while the manufacturing plants in Luton and Ellesmere Port produced in excess of 220,000 vehicles,

According to the US investment and analyst company Piper Jaffray, Apple are currently testing full multi-touch systems that will expanded on the new trackpads in the MacBooks Air and MacBookPro. Maybe this will follow on from the current iphone technology? The touchscreen technology, known as multitouch, will vary from simple trackpad features to a complete MacBook touch with touchscreen keypad features. Will this be the end of designers shouting "Don't touch my screen!" to the account managers? Imagine the grubby fingerprints... Apple are also expected to release new Mac minis and Macs within the next three months with upgraded MacBooks and MacBook Pros due in the summer.

The Royal Mint has revealed its first coinage redesigns in 40 years. A national competition was launched in 2005 attracting over 4,000 entries. The winning design was by Matthew Dent, a 26 year old London based graphic designer. He was reportedly paid £35,000 for his designs - not a bad prize, but he won't receive any royalties. Matthew developed the heraldic theme from the most used coinage graphic – the Royal Arms. Six of the coins (1p-50p) contains a section of the Shield of the Royal Arms and only show the whole image when placed together. The £1 coin however does feature whole image on. There's no mention of the £2 coin... This is the first time UK coins have used the same design across and will come into circulation this summer. Change is a scary thing for some in the UK however with a recent campaign to keep Britannia on the 50p, with a petition sent to the Royal Mint signed by over 30,000 people. Get ready to see a '2012 Olympic logo' style love-it-or-hate-it pr