I’m kind of snowed under with work right now, both in terms of the PhD and my professional practice, so this post is heavy on images and light on text (it’ll probably stay that way for the next couple of months, though if everything goes to plan I should have a lot to write about when this period is over). On a trip to London just after Christmas I visited my favourite design bookshop, Magma, and picked up Customise This, an edition of Graphic magazine. It’s basically a showcase of designers whose method of working involves customisation, and whilst some of the examples are stretching the meaning to its limits, there are others which very nicely illustrate the quirky, personal results that customisation provides. These are some of my favourites:

Customised fruit © Sarah King

Sarah King is a graphic designer living in London and a member of the graphic design collective Evening Tweed. I can’t really explain why I like these so much, it’s partly to do with the graphic style but also I think it’s to do with the incongruity – why bother customising something that’s cheap and will naturally degrade in a short space of time? Actually I could imagine a commercial version of this in the future: logos of suppliers laser marked on the fruit instead of those stupid little stickers they use today. But I’m sure the result won’t be something as beautiful as these.

Customised Nitto and Campagnolo bike components © Kosuke Masuda

I suspect these will divide the opinions of cycling enthusiasts, there’ll be some purists who hate the idea of messing with high quality components, while others will appreciate the time and skill involved. They’re not to my taste, but I like the way these intricate and decorative patterns mess with the ‘normal’ paradigm of sleek, serious engineering.

Customised shirt © Jody Barton

I can remember customising schoolbags by writing the names of favourite bands on them, and I can remember friends signing their names over each other shirts when we left school. Neither looked as accomplished as this though.

Customised Adidas tracksuit © Kasper Strömman

Kasper Strömman created this tracksuit for an exhibition, and draws on the colours and patterns of traditional Sami costume. It was hand-coloured using felt-tip pens and took a week to complete. My first reaction to this was that it’s somewhat insulting of a minority culture’s traditions, but as I considered it more I started to think that actually this is far better than non-Sami people dressing up for tourists, for example. Sami culture doesn’t exist only in a museum, it’s people are part of the modern world and maybe there are some who would think an artistic collaboration with Adidas would be kind of cool. But it’s difficult for me to know, I wonder what others think?

Customised Vans © Yuko Kondo

Customised Adidas © Atypyk

Sports shoes are maybe the one product which offers consumers more customisation possibilities than any other. Yuko Kondo’s customised trainers wouldn’t look out of place on sale by Ryz, but Atypyk’s customised sports shoes would be certain to attract the attention of both Nike and Adidas. I wonder if this counts as a pro-Nike or an anti-Nike statement (or pro- or anti-Adidas for that matter). I once worked in a studio which only allowed its designers to use PC’s, a number of them indicated their feelings by customising their laptops with vinyl stickers of Apple’s logo.

Customised body hair © Eduard Xandri

Finally, I don’t think there’s many people who could look at this without smiling. Less permanent than a tattoo, and admittedly not an option for everyone.

These are just a few examples from Customise This, there are many more from the designers shown as well as others I haven’t mentioned. If you’re looking for an overview of commercial customisation examples, this book isn’t for you. However as an introduction to the creative opportunities which customisation makes possible, it’s a great place to start.