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

We thought it would be nice to showcase some great examples of advertising in the forthcoming weeks. We might make it a regular feature if we get a good response. In the current 'credit crunch' (as it's been neatly labelled), many companies are looking at ways of cutting costs. We've spoken to many companies, and heard about many more, about the level of cost-cutting exercises that are being implemented. These include everything from investments, software and hardware upgrades, scrapping the christmas party, redundancies, holds on recruitment, and the cutting of advertising and marketing budgets. All to be expected I guess. But what about the last one – advertising? With the market shrinking, it's getting even more competitive with companies vying for every scrap of market share that they can get. Now is the time to spend money on advertising, not cut back. It's even more important to be noticed, to get your message across, to reassure your customers and market ...

Ducati has taken the opportunity to rebrand just in time for the lauch of the new 2009 motorcycle range. According to their website "The new logo celebrates the unique thrill of the corner, where a Ducati bike really packs a punch like no other. A curve is framed within a red shield, symbolising victory and the Italian racing colour, with the classic Ducati script emblazoned above it." It's an evolution of the current logo, taking the word 'Ducati' and merely adding it to a 3D shield shape similar to the Ducati Corse team logo. It follows in the footsteps of many other new automotive logo redesigns that have gone all silky and three dimensional recently including Vauxhall and Fiat. A 'mood' video is also available to watch, but to be honest I don't think it captures the 'passion' or 'heart' of the Ducati brand quite well enough but it does feature some of their beautiful classic logos. Check it out at www.ducati.com/news/08/news023/new...

Not content with the range of mugs, cups, messenger bags, and more mugs, the people at Pantone have expanded their funky branded 'designer' lifestyle products to include... glasses! Their branding philosophy seems to be 'If it's a product with colour on it, stick our Pantone Swatch reference numbers on it'. Looks like the offspring of a Smart car and some Lego. With click and detach arms and nose pieces it seems you can personalise your look, presumably to match your shoes (or your Pantone mug). Whatever next?... Available in the US (and UK?). Great packaging though, and a nice website, check out www.pantoneeyewear.com