Fridgeezoo.
March 8, 2011
I am obsessed with these beautiful creatures! Fridgeezoo is the best Eco friendly product out there. These animal themed cartons let you know when you open the fridge door for too long, letting the fridge cool, meaning more energy and work is required from the fridge to regulate the temperature. Such a smart, chic idea! Thanks to the Dieline for introducing me to my new obsession.
I cannot choose between the Penguin and the Walrus.
ISTD Brief.
March 8, 2011
Next year I will be choosing my ISTD/ D&AD brief and so I have been looking into work that previous students have created. I found this beautiful piece by Rishi Sodha, I was instantly pulled in by the presentation, the beautiful, chic black packaging, and the explosion of the individuality wrapped posters. A beautiful controlled and executed piece.
Rishi is a very talented, award winning designer, I’m sure Rishi’s career will be very successful. On Rishi’s website Rishi explains the thoughts and process behind the concept:
“The original brief was to explore the concept of 100 and its significance.
As such, in this project I decided to answer the question: If we are defined by the people we know, can you be defined by your relationships with 100 people? 100 people were each given 100 seconds to answer 3 simple questions about an anonymous person, referred to as X. These posters look at their answers & invite the viewer to make their own judgements of the anonymous subject.”
Paperclips.
October 2, 2010
Some of my packaging Prototypes
Last year at university, we were given quite an interesting project. We had to choose an object, mood, feeling anything really and change people’s perceptions of it. Our tutors wanted us to choose something that was not obvious, or that wasn’t well marketed out in the environment. After much thought, and many mind maps I finally settled on the ‘paperclip’. I thought it would be an easy task to change the perception of such a generic item, but I found that it was easier to talk about the perceptions than to visualise it.
My core message for this was ‘if a paperclip could talk’. I wanted people to take a step back and really realise why they use paperclips. A paperclip is a mundane piece of stationary that we use everyday day, we take it for granted to hold our documents together. Why do we choose a paperclip to hold our documents together? The reason is how they are marketed; paperclips will not rip or mark your paper, and allow for movement of pages within the document allowing for no error in paper orientation.
The paperclip was made an iconic piece of kit by the 1980’s epic MacGyver! MG could get himself out of jail, disarm bombs, break into high security buildings, fly planes armed only with his paperclip! Now ask yourself truly how exciting is a paperclip?
So how could I get these ideas together, and stop people from mistreating these poor paperclips, not giving them the respect that they so rightly deserve. I broke it down into smaller chunks of copy. I created my very own Paperclip font and each of the phrases began with ‘I can…’
I can protect you. (Holds your legal documents together, or reminiscent of MacGyver)
I can tell your secrets. (Holds secure information)
I can hold your heart. (Hold together Love poems, letters, thoughts)
I can hold your inspiration.
And so on.
When I came to visualise these it became difficult, as for an advertising campaign, through billboards and idents to change the perception of a paperclip would not appeal to any paperclip company as they have no need to advertise a piece of stationary that we use everyday. I had to find another way to capture the hearts and minds of the public in a way that might appeal to a company who makes paperclips. From my research I had realised that the packaging of paperclips is really lack lustre, the paperclips themselves can be silver, or coloured but they are all packaged in transparent, plastic boxes. There was no meaning or thought to the boxes, or to the reasoning behind the colour and that really bothered me as a lot of thought had gone into the style and use of the paperclip to make it so user friendly, to prevent it from damaging your documents. Why had this same care and consideration not been taken over to the packaging presentation? This is what I chose to tackle. I created a box that was playful and exciting, that would please the eye and draw you over in a stationary shop. That would make you stop and think, why does this packaging look like this? I created illustrations to provide a visualisation of the different uses of a paperclip. I created a box with the branding ‘I can…’ placed on the front of it. Inside the box is four compartments each colour coordinated, (inside each box is some paperclips the colour that corresponds with the colour of the lid.) Each box not only has a colour but it also has a use. So when you require the help of a paperclip you choose the corresponding use; heart, inspirations, dreams, secrets. All the boxes I made by hand from my own net designs.
Publication.
January 29, 2010
In the last semester at university we as a class undertook the task of creating a publication, that would be sent out to local and international studios to showcase the talent within our year. This project was a group project, and the class was divided into groups of 3, and we were each given a studio or creative to interview. After the interview we had to design, and come up with a proposal for the publication, whether it be print as in a book, a collection of cards, or posters or be it media, in the form of a DVD or CD, or a website. My group received the amazing opportunity to interview Dublin Creative, Creative Director for Dynamo and Co Founder of The Small Print; Richard Seabrooke. It was an overwhelming task to undertake, interviewing a designer of such calibre and then designing some form of publication that he would then see, and would be tied to him. The pressure was at times overwhelming but I think that just added to the creative process, as a group we broke up designing and working on different parts of the proposal. One of us designed posters, another packaging and another quotes from printers etc.
These are some of the pieces that I created for this project. My main task was to create posters for the publication. We had decided to propose to the class that we create a package which inside housed 18 posters, each creatives interview on one separate poster. Double sided and full colour, one side holds an interview designed using a beautiful typographic layout which compliments folds and the otherside an illustrative poster that in some way represents the subject.
I created over twenty designs for the poster. I adore the colours and the modular typography used in the branding for Richard’s company The Small Print, and the idea of modular shapes and colours is what I ran with, when creating the posters. Some where photomontages, some purely typographic, so illustrative and some a mixture of all. The poster was thin long rectangle, made from two squares. The fold was two diamond folds on each of the squares. Each poster, is received as a square, and it unfolds beautifully, I think it is an extremely exciting fold.
I created this little cost effective envelope (as a cheaper alternative to the beautiful one that we had proposed that Rory Murphy designed). It is created out of a piece of tracing paper, with the name of the participants wrapping around it, and a beautiful bold sticker begging the recipient to open it. I wanted the envelope to be visually exciting and intriguing.
The idea then being that once the envelope was opened 18 mini squares would be awaiting inside, to be opened and the viewer would be faced with a informational interview, that they can read and then once finished they can stick up the posters of their choice, if not all of them, in their offices.
Below is the contents of the package that the recipient would receive. Unfortunately, this proposal was not chosen although we put up a good fight and I am extremely proud of this piece of work.
Excitement.
January 29, 2010
I recently received the most exciting package in the post. I have never been so excited or nervous of receiving post in my entire life. I do not think I have ever opened a piece of mail so fast. ( I also don’t think I have seen a package sealed with so much glue.) I had tracked this parcel for four days as it traveled from one side of Europe to another via FedEX. I will upload the parcels contents once I get pictures later on this evening.
Brooklyn Fare.
October 28, 2009
New York based Mucca Design created the branding and design for a new grocery store called Brooklyn Fare. The store sells healthy, environmentally friendly food. Mucca designed a custom typeface, color palette, and in-store graphics from packaging to uniforms to interior design. The above diagram is how Mucca summed up this project on their website, it is quite quirky. Mucca said their goal in this design was “to position this smaller, neighborhood store to be able to compete with the national grocery giants.”
The typography Mucca designed is called Fare Serif, and it was designed to be used in large formats. It is such a clean, fresh and playful typeface. The type is only ever represented in white or black which looks extremely fresh and predominant upon the four colour palette. I absolutely adore this branding, it is so fresh and innovative. There is no over design, there is not too much information, there is no logo, it is just simple, plain text that is so easy on the eye that it just begs to be read. The slogans on the in store design are so quirky and fun and extremely friendly. Me being me I would have to collect each piece of the design, just to have it all.
The napkins are so quirky ‘wipe that smile on your face’, ingenious, it communicates with the customer, something that almost all grocery stores fail to do. Just reading the napkin would make you smile and feel good. The layout and spacing of the type is so cleverly done, it all just fits so perfectly together, throughout all of the treatments. On the napkins the type is all in the same typeface, in the same weight, but in differing sizes but even at that you still know that the smaller font is the logo, or the shop name.
I want to work in this store, who knew orange could be so beautiful. The quirkiness of the uniform just adds to how inviting the store is. ‘We know our store front to back’, which makes the employees so approachable, the uniforms again beg for you to go to the wearers. It is such a simple yet such an extremely powerful piece of design. The designers went straight back to basics, and have succeeded. They have created an extremely exciting and innovative piece of design that I believe will stand the test of time. I want to hop on a plane to Brooklyn to see this design in its environment.
Check out more of Muccas designhere!
Hangerpak.
October 18, 2009
Throughout my career as a designer, I want to strive to create environmentally friendly design that do not drain natural resources, that do not release harmful toxions or pollute the environment in any shape or form, so I am constantly searching the internet and books to find solutions or inspiration to all design projects that way come my way.
Designer Steven Haslip won first prize in the D&AD 2007 student awards, with this environmentally friendly design for packaging for online clothing companies. The concept for ‘Hangepak’ came from his own previous experiences with online shopping. He describes the inspiration of this piece on his website by writing; ‘I buy t-shirts online and they always come wrinkled and I always run out of coat-hangers. So I designed a sustainable, reusable way to send and keep your t-shirts. As you open the package you create a coat hanger. The packaging could be made from recycled material whether it is card or plastic and the only waste is the green tear-away tab.’
It is completely ingenious, and in the worrying environmental climate we live in and in a world where people are starting to grow an environmental conscious, it would attract people to buy a certain product if they new doing so would help the environment. I am not too sure how to describe the concept, ‘gimmick’ cheapens the whole design. It is such a simple design, but such a smart design at the same time. It is such a simple solution to the amount of packaging that gets thrown out and with the recession the world is struggling in at the moment, it is nice to know that once you buy the t-shirt you have bought a hanger too. It is also a cheap design to produce, and could be produced in many different materials. I adore design that is interactive and that requires the user to think. This is a beautiful piece of design that would attract attention and actually encourage people to buy a t-shirt just to get the packaging.
if you would like to see anymore of Steven’s work check out his site:HERE!
Imagehaus.
September 21, 2009
Imagehaus is an American Graphic Design agency who produce everything from branding to websites. I instantly fell in love with their work, it is so organic and quite retro in style. The colours are all quite pale and neutral which all compliment each other, along with their use of textured papers.
Out of all of their pieces of design that I have seen this is by far my favourite piece. It was created for the All Seasons Wild Bird Store, and the agency created a complete brand revamp, starting with the logo then to the stationary, gift cards, packaging, store bags and signage. The bag design has such an organic, country feel. The muted colours and simple illustrations against the natural brown package background really make the design pop and appeal to the eye. This definitely shows how in design that less is more, and how pattern breathes life into the designs. I love how each bag has its own identity, with different font styles and illustrations, but though still consistent enough that they look like they are from the same company.
This is some branding the company designed for a barber shop in Minneapolis called Schmidty’s. The branding again got a revamp with a glossy-free, retro feel by Stuart Flake. The company describe the shop as a ‘no frills’ barber shop. I think a beer mat was an amazing idea for the business card/ brochure. A mans barber shop, none of their clients would take notice of traditional business card, but a beer mat would definitely catch their eye. I have always liked design ideas that are both branding but that are also practical. A beer mat is an easy way to spread word, and a less aggressive way too. I love the muted colours too, the designers have been careful to make design actually look like a beer mat not a business card, so the whole design fits and works.
This is a piece of branding that the company created for Anglo-Italian inspired clothing company Kuhlman. Imagehaus describe this piece as ‘a complete collar-to-cuff brand makeover’. I absolutely adore this piece of branding, it is so clean and crisp and it has such a superior feel to the design, it looks expensive. I love how all the pieces differ but are the same in style. I love the use of green it is very royal especially with the use of pattern. It is a highly decorative piece of design, that is exciting, new and fresh.
visit their site at: Imagehaus
There is a lot of beautiful inspirational pieces of branding and stationary design on the website.
