Increase Self-Esteem with Donuts

From an article in the January 20th Media & Advertising section of the New York Times:

The power of positive thinking has been promoted down through the decades by everyone from sages and self-help gurus to hucksters and swindlers. Now, in particularly parlous times, comes a campaign that offers an encouraging word, albeit with a reference to a brand name baked in. "You kin' do it" is the theme of the upbeat campaign that began in early January in the form of television and radio commercials; print, online and outdoor ads; signs in stores; and promotions. As can be guessed from the replacement of "can" with "kin'," the campaign is courtesy of the Dunkin' Donuts division of Dunkin' Brands.

Clever and works visually too. The perfect way to integrate the message with the existing recognizable brand visuals. Link to commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ino6sVc6-ug

The NYTimes Gets Typographic

In wrapping up the year, the NYTimes Magazine 12/28/08 issue chose to honor certain individuals who had passed away during the past year and "The Lives They Lived." Illustration by Nancy Harris Rouemy, a designer for the magazine, and typeface design by Pattrick Griff/Canada Type was carried from the cover to the table of contents and through to individual biographies of each of the deceased. The style of the type evokes the delicacy of life and is reminiscent of things past.

Paper Design Taken to New Heights

Yulia Brodskaya is a Russian-born artist who began "producing contemporary office decoration artwork for Moscow-based companies while studying for (her) first degree in Graphic Design." Now working out of London, she is creating some really innovative 3D paper forms with illustration and typography, which she titles "papergraphics." Some samples of her work:

Medical Design to Tickle the Funny Bone

Each year, a jury of "365: AIGA Annual Design Competitions" selects a group of examples of outstanding design produced over the previous year to be mounted as a public exhibition at the AIGA National Design Center in NYC (the exhibition opened December 10). Some selections also become part of the AIGA Design Archives, an online visual database of inspirational designs on AIGA's website. Here are some of my favorites from this year's selections that incorporate medical themes into the designs.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute May 2007 Bulletin (selected illustrations)
Editorial Design Category
Designed by VSA Partners, Inc.
Description: Our aim is to engage the reader’s interest through a fun and intriguing opening spread.
Juror Notes: For this type of magazine, the design is surprising – play between illustration ad opener type beautiful – playful.

Sparklehorse Poster
Promotional Design and Advertising Category
Designed by Planet Propaganda (Madison, WI)
Description: Gig poster for live-music venue

Rant
Book Design Category
Designed by Rodrigo Corral Design (NY, NY)
Juror Notes: Fetishistic fiction design perfectly considered—gruesome and jewel­like at the same time

Inspiring Logo Redesigns

Pepsi: The relaunched branding and packaging for Pepsi and its flagship brands is quite the jarring change. The "Pepsi Globe" logo is supposed to now represent a lively and cute smile--an attempt to more directly connect the product with consumers' emotions. I definitely agree with Chris Glass' blog, which mentions how the design is definitely more feminine. Surely the thin san-serif lacks the testosterone that the Pepsi labels possessed in the past. And while I agree that this might not be a good or bad thing for Pepsi, I think it's smart that they are trying to create shelf recognition based more on an icon than type with a background pattern/image. Pepsi shouldn't need words to appeal to its consumers.

Museum of London: As a part of the museum's £20.5 million renovation (aimed to open in 2010), London-based firm Coley Porter Bell designed a new identity for the main museum and the Museum of London Docklands and Museum of London Archaeology. From a press release: "The striking new logo, designed by award winning agency Coley Porter Bell, takes the conceptual form of London's thumbprint. Coloured layers map the shape of London over time, reflecting the ever-changing, diverse and dynamic make up of London and Londoners, past, present and future. The brand mark has been crafted to create visual impact, and link the Museum venues." The new typography is modern and simple, and the integration of layers and topography is interesting. The brand extensions are beginning to work, but the "Docklands" and "Archaeology" seem a bit too off-kilter, especially in their lighter weight and darker colors. Like the London Olympic logo, I seriously question the main logo's new color palette. Couldn't they have come up with something a bit more classic to reflect the city itself?

Tasti D-Lite: The "frozen yogurt" that isn't frozen yogurt recently launched a redesign to be carried throughout all of its stores in New York City. I applaud the effort to make Tasti-D look as drool-worthy and seductive as a full-calorie banana split sundae. From the blog "Brand New": "Avenir is refreshingly light as a support to brand the otherwise slick and generic symbol. The lockup is proportionally top-heavy with the huge dollop of product floating over the loose type." The focus is now clearly on the product. Tasti-D finally realized it needed to raise the bar to compete with brands like Pinkberry and also to compensate for many people's innate aversion to mystery substances.

Typographic Treatments

Justin Thomas Kay is a Wisconsin-based art director and graphic designer, working in New York City since 2004. He recently received one of the 2008 "Young Guns" Awards from the Art Directors Club. He works mostly in editorial/print and apparel, and has some great typographic explorations. This was one of my favorites: typographic explorations for apparel for the Zoo York Juniors '08. Zoo York is a style inspired by New York City graffiti culture from the '70s. The name originates from a subway tunnel running underneath the Central Park Zoo, where graffiti artists gathered at night. Ned Wright, a designer located in the Midwest, is also using creating some unique designs with typography. His type and package design for Legacy Chocolates taps into the warmth and comfort that homemade chocolates can provide, and are complemented by small "needlepoint" details.

This is one of designer Cameron Moll's letterpress posters, "handcrafted character by character over the course of roughly 100 hours." The Salt Lake Temple is formed by the typefaces Bickham Script Pro, Engravers MT, and Epic. The Salt Late Temple is the largest and best-known temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A polymer plate was created with the raised plastic of the reversed design. A perfect example of text as image... gone OCD.

Designs for Sports Fans

Football mania has arrived with the Superbowl quickly approaching. Even though the redesigned Arizona Cardinals' stadium opened in 2006, I still thought I would share these designs. After all, last year's Superbowl was held at this new stadium and the Cardinals are still alive in the playoffs. Pentagram's solution for the interiors of the stadium, specifically selecting upholstery for the seating in the Club Lounges, is appropriate, clever, and fresh. They developed a "reversible fabric that features an abstraction of the game in its own language: football play diagrams.



More recently, in mid-December 2008, the Boston Red Sox revealed their redesigned logo and uniforms. The designs include a new alternate blue road uniform resembling the team's road gray uniforms from the 1980s and the "Hanging Sox" to serve as the primary logo for the team--"a reincarnation of a logo that has been used by the club since 1931." The secondary logo is still the "Circle Sox" logo that is used on apparel and souvenirs, but it's also been revised. According to a poll by Boston.com, roughly 45% of fans didn't like the changes and wished they kept the traditional cap and jersey designs. Another 35% liked some of the changes, but not all; the last 20% account for those that liked the redesigned logo and uniforms.