Wednesday 20 October 2010

The Cromer & Sheringham Art Festival featuring Harmless work from Artist Jacqui Jones

Jacqui Jones - Oil-Skin

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Honey Organic

Brazilian designer Diego Aguilar designed this concept: Honey Organic. More after the jump!

"This practice brings the package in pure organic honey sachets. Perfect for the breakfast, the kit contains 20 sachets, which will make your meal more healthy."

Peter Popple's Popcorn

Peter Popple’s Popcorn is a new range of healthy snacks made with ‘Mums in mind’ as a lunchbox filler or an anytime treat. Designed by Family and friends.

The product is made with only natural flavours and ingredients and is ‘air popped’ meaning it’s cooked without using lots of greasy oil.

Family (and friends) have devised the name, identity and packaging design, as well as trade stands and flyers for launch.

The Peter Popple ‘P’ character brings to life the world of a foody scientist who is mad about popcorn and explains to children the amazing natural process that makes popcorn go pop.

The phrase "It's popalicious!" has also been trademarked with the intention of building future brand recall.
The brand was launched at the 2010 speciality fine food fair in London with orders being received from both major retailers and smaller delis.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Beauty'in

Lovely design from Interband Brazil

"After the great success of the brand éh!, Cristiana Arcangeli reached Interbrand again with a challenge: to create the first Brazilian brand that unites the pleasure of food, the health aspects from the vitamins and the technology of cosmetics, the ‘aliméticos’."

"As the concept of products that combine food and cosmetics was not known in Brazil, Interbrand had the mission to create a brand that understands and educates the consumer in order to bring to their life new routines and habits of health and beauty. To better understand the behavior of the new consumer, more conscious and careful about its choices, workshops were held with physicians, scientists, journalists and opinion leaders, culminating in a great learning that guided the entire project: the external beauty is the result of a good nutrition that has quality and is enjoyable.

A major market research with the collaboration of Interbrand offices in Japan, Paris, London and New York was also extremely important to identify which products were most significant to the lifestyle of the Brazilian, and also helped defining how the products should be presented.

The construction of this strategic brand work began by defining the line up of products and the creation of the brand name Beauty’in. The second step was to develop all shapes of bottles and lids, followed by the creation of the brand identity and the labels. Beauty Drink and Beauty Candy: choosing names for easy association generates almost instant recognition of the product’s nature by its consumers. Labels texts illustrate everyday situations of consumption and indicate the functional benefit of each variant. - Calories, + health and beauty in every swig and every bite.

To match the performance of cosmetics with the pleasure of food, the visual identity represents the functionality of the products on the illustrations of the letter B, of beauty. Cells, ties, stylized waves and splashes come to life with color and shapes that suggest the essence of beauty. Simplified tables, step-by-step instructions and informative graphic interference teach the consumer to experience the ‘aliméticos’ in a quick and easy way.

A brand that is born big deserves a great launch event to match its height. Bringing together a team of top professionals from diverse fields, a great show of music and theater was attended by over 1500 people in São Paulo.

Beauty'in. The new brand that brings contemporary, practicality and a great innovation to the market. Because beauty, comes first from within."

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Yeni Raki Ilk Hasat

Pearlfisher created a new limited edition bottle for the famous Turkish raki brand Yeni Raki.

Granny's Secret Ketchup

"Serbian food company Foodland manufactured an excellent new product within its famous brand “Bakina Tajna” (Granny’s Secret) - home made country ketchup. Foodland’s production plant is situated at the foot of mountain Kopaonik, in a nearby and ecologically clean, uncontaminated environment of BRUS municipality, village Kobilje. PGS designed the label for ketchup. It is the first in the line of designed products and it announced the re-branding of Granny’s Secret old packaging design, which shall soon be replaced by the new one."

CR Stitch Up - Courtesy of CR Blog

One of Peter Crawley's stitched illustrations featured on the Feed section of this site recently, and in the current issue of CR. Yesterday, we got another piece of his work in the post.

"Thought you might appreciate a bespoke CR stitched illustration," said the note on the back. Well yes, yes we did. It's absolutely beautiful. Crawley rendered our initials in black thread on a piece of white card 28cm square.

This piece is courtesy of the CR Blog.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

An App for Warhol

The Remote Palette app was developed by Dare's Flo Heiss and Perry Price through the agency's DareLabs R&D division. With the iPhone and iPad connected, the phone becomes a palette, allowing the user to choose colours and brushes with which to paint on the supplied outline drawings on the iPad.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Christmas rush is starting...

With only two and a half months to go until christmas, Think Envelopes has already seen orders for christmas DM campaigns, so dont miss out and visit the site now at www.thinkenvelopes.co.uk.

Order before 3pm and get a next day delivery (subject to stock).

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Antistat, Sister Company launches new IC Packaging solution.

Antistat announces the launch of their latest innovative IC Packaging Solution, the Clip Chip Package.

Following the success of the 'unique' peel packaging solution for integrated circuits, Antistat have continued their research and development to create a new innovative solution to protect individual electronic components in transit and storage.

The new “Clip Chip” package, aimed at high cost, low volume device transportation, has been designed to reduce chip damage and alleviate the high expense of using sealing equipment for devices.

With 4 of the most popular chip sized inserts available to hold the device into the carrier, the design is flexible enough to suit most standard devices preventing pin and general product damage in transit whilst providing an ESD safe packaging solution.

It can also be made from recycled materials helping to reduce the impact on the environment with additional benefits of waste reduction over the existing non-recyclable foam and card solution.

The official launch for the new Clip Chip package will be the 1st October 2010.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Meat packaging goes green...

Meaty Packaging

The packaging is completely biodegradable. Since the paper was treated with water proof starch, it is completely nonabsorbent to prevent any unsightly damp spots and discoloration.

Coke go colourless!

An eco friendly package proposal for Coca-cola.A convex logo substitutes colorfully sprayed can.Naked can help to reduce air and water pollution occurred in its coloring process. It also reduces energy and effort to separate toxic color paint from aluminum in recycling process. Huge amount of energy and paint required to manufacture colored cans will be saved.

Let's see if it makes it to market?

Light Bulb Package Redesign

This environmentally friendly package is redesigned for General Electric high-end light bulbs. It is highly encouraged nowadays in the design world to design with sustainability in mind.

Unfortunately, we can't find out who the designer was to credit them - but we think it is great!

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Birdy Juice

Designed by Mats Ottdal | Country: Norway

An adorable packaging concept for fruit juice using the form of the standard juice carton to create wings and feet for bird characters.

Recovery Kit

Retro-inspired novelty tins containing gifts for a range of maladies. The cream base of the tin works well with the contrasting colour used to differentiate each gift type, and the colourful cross graphic gives the kit a tongue-in-cheek medicinal feel.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Salomon Exo III Calf

“After seeing my Doritos Packaging Concept, Salomon gave me an opportunity to create a packaging design for one of their new products Exo III Calf (Compression tights for calves) and an In-Store Display for the entire Exo Sensifit Range.”

The compression tights were placed in such a manner to represent the letter “X” in the EXO logo. The product was kept in place by two knitted elastic bands.

When the product is removed, a hidden “X” becomes visible.

Many packagings have their size labeled on the back of the packaging. This makes it hard for the customer to find the right size instantly. That’s why I decided to place it on front. The proper size is underlined with a silver marker.

The dieline construction allows for the packaging to be folded and neatly closed upon purchase.

Nude Bee Honey Co.

“Nude Bee Honey Co.® was launched in 2010 by entrepreneurs Edward Okun and Jared Cantor with the aim of delivering the most delicious raw honeys produced by independent beekeepers.

Working with independent beekeepers to deliver varietal honeys means a constantly evolving product line. Different types of honey come in and out of stock based on their limited supply, which means all of the honeys we carry at any given time are limited edition.

Produced throughout Ontario Canada, packaged in Guelph and distributed from our small but efficient warehouse in Kensington Market – Toronto, Nude Bee Honey Co.® is changing the way people love honey.”

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Mr Happy should have gone to Specsavers.

Nostalgia can be a powerful tool in advertising, as the in-house creative team at Specsavers clearly realise, if their new ad is anything to go by. The ad features an array of characters from the classic BBC TV series Mr Men, and is centred around Mr Happy, who is unexpectedly grumpy...

Mr Happy is found lying in bed, with his mouth firmly turned down as he clutches a pair of glasses. The voiceover (which is a splendid impression of Arthur Lowe, who provided the voice to the original Mr Men cartoon series) then informs us that Mr Happy's sour mood is caused by the various offers he missed out on by not going to Specsavers for his specs. We then see him stomping irritably around town, falling out with Mr Greedy, Mr Messy, Mr Tickle and Mr Bump in turn.

The ad was directed by Passion Pictures' director Darren Walsh, who studied the animation in the original TV series in order to reproduce the retro 2D style, complete with imperfections. This is not the first time Specsavers have turned to retro children's telly for inspiration, and the ad follows the brand's Postman Pat-themed ad from last year, which was also directed by Walsh and had a similar attention to detail.

Credits:
Agency: Specsavers Creative
Creative director: Graham Daldry
Creatives: Simon Bougourd, Neil Brush, Michael Hutchinson, Aaron Scoones
Production company: Passion Pictures
Director: Darren Walsh

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Gap to pull new logo.

Gap North America president Marka Hansen has confirmed that the company is to abandon the new logo launched last week after it attracted a storm of criticism.

The new logo was created by New York consultancy Laird & Partners. After it appeared unannounced on Gap's website there was much speculation over whether it was genuine or simply a means of generating debate. However, Hansen appeared to confirm that the logo was genuine in a piece for the Huffington Post last week in which she said that "We chose this design as it's more contemporary and current. It honors our heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward." It was then suggested that Gap customers could join in the debate around the new design by suggesting their own versions: "Now, given the passionate outpouring from customers that followed, we've decided to engage in the dialogue, take their feedback on board and work together as we move ahead and evolve to the next phase of Gap," Hansen said. "...We plan to ask people to share their designs with us as well...We'll explain specifics on how everyone can share designs in a few days."

Overnight, however, AdAge has reported that Gap will be returning to its old design. This was confirmed in the following statement from Hansen: "Since we rolled out an updated version of our logo last week on our Website, we've seen an outpouring of comments from customers and the online community in support of the iconic blue box logo.

"Last week, we moved quickly to address the feedback and began exploring how we could tap into all of the passion. Ultimately, we've learned just how much energy there is around our brand. All roads were leading us back to the blue box, so we've made the decision not to use the new logo on gap.com any further.

"At Gap brand, our customers have always come first. We've been listening to and watching all of the comments this past week. We heard them say over and over again they are passionate about our blue box logo, and they want it back. So we've made the decision to do just that – we will bring it back across all channels.

"In the meantime, the website will go back to our iconic blue box logo and, for Holiday, we'll turn our blue box red for our seasonal campaign.

"We've learned a lot in this process. And we are clear that we did not go about this in the right way. We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community. This wasn't the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing.

"There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we'll handle it in a different way."
This is the second time that a major US-based brand has retreated from a redesign in the face of online opposition, after Tropicana famously pulled its new Arnell-designed packaging.

So what's the lesson here? Has Gap shown an admirable ability to listen to its customers or has it merely bowed to mob rule – assuming that the whole thing wasn't simply a giant PR stunt.

Regular readers of CR's blog will know that change is almost always met with hostility online, even (especially) from fellow designers. But often the same work that was openly derided becomes years, even months later, first accepted and then loved. It takes time for people to get used to the new. The Guardian redesign, for example, was the subject of hundreds of hysterically critical online comments: a year later it won a D&AD Gold (not that D&AD is the be-all and end-all in these matters). And when the Cadbury Gorilla ad was first screened internally to the company's senior management, the marketing director was told in no uncertain terms that the commercial would never be allowed to see the light of day. Once it was eventually screened, Dairy Milk sales shot up, it generated a return on investment about three times the average and suddenly Cadbury was telling everyone how much they loved it.

The new Gap Logo may not have been very well designed but, assuming we haven't all been had, a precedent has been set that must be worrying for anyone involved in this business. In this case, negative reaction may have been justified but many other landmark projects would have been similarly killed if a brave client hadn't ridden out the first waves of criticism. If clients are going to fold at the first negative Tweet, or if a self-selecting, vociferous minority are allowed to hold sway, what chance has any challenging or genuinely radical work of getting through in the future? And a word of sympathy too for Laird & Partners. Presumably they would have presented many different solutions. Gap chose this one. Now Laird has been hung out to dry. What a mess.

Incidentally, Brand New has a great summary of 'Gapgate' so far here

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Harmless Landscape_More from artist Jacqui Jones.

This series Harmless Landscape was taken in Snowdonia during spring and summer of 2010. All of the images feature water soluble film and are taken in locations that highlight the relationship between water and the landscape.

Jacqui Jones installation: Oil-Skin featuring water soluble plastic will be in the courtyard of Cromer Museum Oct 23-30th. Semi figurative clothing made from water soluble film will be hung on the walls of the fisherman's cottages, the artwork will start to dissolve if it rains during the course of the exhibition.

Monday 4 October 2010

Hiho

"Integrated branding agency Blue Marlin is delighted to announce that it has won a bronze award for its brand identity work for jewellery and homewares retailer Hiho at the Design Business Association Design Effectiveness Awards, held on 22 October 2009.
Blue Marlin picked up the prestigious award because its work for Hiho resulted in demonstrable bottom line success within a very short space of time. The design investment paid for itself in just five months. While the rest of the retail sector struggled with some of the worst trading conditions seen for a generation and jewellery retailers in particular suffered spiralling declines, Hiho chalked up its best ever sales at shows and events with a 31 per cent like-for-like sales increase. Like-for-like sales at the first refitted shop in the chain rose by 21.4 per cent.

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Dany Booney Beer

We couldn't find who designed this beautiful package design, if anyone knows, credit where it's due!...

Rustic Bench

Rustic Bench is the first in a collection of unique outdoor furniture utilising the natural process of rusting to create a 'living furniture'. Being exposed to the elements of nature, the pattern on the bench will slowly reveal itself and keep changing over time to its full rusty beauty.

Made from stainless steel, the durable bench is long-lasting and can be commissioned to meet the client's bespoke requirements for both commercial and domestic spaces.

Designer: Bettina Nissen Design (United Kingdom)
Material: Stainless Steel
Dimension: 1000x380x450mm

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.

Sparrow Guitars

Uploaded by:

Rethink

Country:

Canada

Website:

http://www.rethinkcanada.com

In 2009, more Guitar Hero guitars were sold than actual ones. We thought that was kinda crazy, so we created this poster campaign for Sparrow Guitars to remind people there’s just no substitute for the real thing. Our tagline for the campaign? “Stop playing games. Start playing guitar.”

Disclaimer: Some images hosted on this blog have been collected from external research associates to be presented as stimulus to those seeking news from the cutting edge of packaging. The imagery is not being presented as our own and copyright still belongs to the owner/creator of said work.