Jan 13
Packaging
Graphic designer and farmer's son Peter Buchanan-Smith understands branding and the storytelling that transforms a product into an experience people want to be a part of.
He started the Best Made Company to sell high-quality, sturdily-packaged, American felling axes. Yes, it does sound a bit strange, but once you hear the story and see the products you'll understand what he's about.
As they tell it, "A Best Made axe is a tool for survival and productivity and at its heart it's a symbol of many admirable virtues." Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art describes the axes as "the ultimate antidote to life on the high-broadband lane."
One of the axes...
Peter tells the story...
A story about the "Urban Ax" from the NYT...
Best Made Company is in the process of expanding its list of products, among the additions are these badges...
The home page...
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Jan 4
Packaging
Let's make stuff! Take, for example, something as simple as this one gallon can of "Immortality" from Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company — if you wanted to make a similar product, where would you get the can to apply the label to? Easy: from a place like The Cary Company.
Below, just to get you thinking, is a list of companies/websites that provide supplies for making things — packaging, raw materials, fasteners, and so on. I can't vouch for these specific companies but the list will give you an inkling of the possibilities.
Inventables.com for raw materials, tools, fasteners, and electrical components...
TheCaryCompany.com for containers...
DiskMakers.com for CD and DVD duplication and packaging...
Gaylord.com for library and archival supplies...
Sciplus.com for products with a science or educational tilt...
SpecialtyBottle.com for bottles, jars and tin containers....
WorldClassMedals.com for high-quality medals...
My post about Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company...
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Jan 2
Basic design
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in New York have co-organized an international exhibition titled Graphic Design: Now in Production — what is being called, "an ambitious look at the broad-ranging field of graphic design".
As the exhibit's website describes it, the exhibit "explores how graphic design has broadened its reach dramatically over the past decade, expanding from a specialized profession to a widely deployed tool." The work featured, "explores design-driven magazines, newspapers, books, and posters as well as branding programs for corporations, subcultures, and nations".
Whether or not you are able to visit the exhibit, I encourage you to order a copy of the exhibit catalogue, a 225-page book that includes hundreds of examples plus twenty-some opinion pieces on the recent history and current state of graphic design by the exhibit's curatorial team and others.
The irony is graphic design, as Ellen Lupton puts it, is "about doing something in the world" or pragmatics — and the very nature of such an exhibit is to look at the work and describe it (for the most part) outside the context for which it takes action. It will fascinating to see how well the exhibit is able to bridge that divide.
I'm anxious to see it — here are the venues:
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis through January 22, 2012
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, May 16, 2012
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, September 30, 2012
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, July 19, 2013
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC, Oct 24, 2013
A quick overview...
The exhibit web page...
About the exhibit catalogue...
Purchase the exhibit catalogue...
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Sep 26
Packaging
If you're enamored with Dieline.com, you'll love Boxvox.com. How do I explain the difference? Let me put it this way, I've come to think of Dieline.com as a fashion show and Boxvox.com as a sewing machine. Randy Ludacer's blog looks at the fabric of packaging: the current state of packaging, the history of packaging, the technical side of packaging, and all threads in between.
Chained Polyhedral Portion Packs...
Package as a metaphore...
Geografia's Polyhedral Planet...
Edge matching puzzles...
Randy, who is also a musician, even writes songs about packaging (bottom of the page)...
But don't miss Dieline.com either...
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Aug 3
Basic design
Sporting team identity and branding is big business. Dan Simon and Studio Simon has carved out a spot in, among other niches, Minor League Baseball. The interview recounts how Simon got involved with sports team and event logo design.
Studio Simon...
A 2010 interview with Dan Simon on the Minor League Baseball website...
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Oct 25
Packaging
Branding is about associating a story and a style with a product, service, or organization. It is no wonder, more than a few designers have used the human form to communicate the personality of the products they promote.
Example 1...
The designers: united dsn ...
Example 2...
The designers: Subplot Design ...
Example 3 (not always human)...
The designers: Tokyo Agency Inc...
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Aug 7
Packaging
A couple of days ago I wrote a post on the design of street fashions, T-shirts, caps, and such (When the brand is the product). I understand the value of it, I like to look at it, I am intrigued by the designs.
But for some reason I have trouble with sneaker design. My mind does not recognize the same connection between design and footwear that it does between design and shirts and caps. I see people walking around with what looks like little sports cars on their feet and it looks weird to me.
So, in the interest of facing your fears, I sought out and sampled a site devoted to sneaker design--sneakerfreaker.com. I still haven't totally overcome my lack of interest in sneakers, but I do have a better appreciation for the craft of sneaker design.
An article about profiling Keep and Una Kim...
More interviews with sneaker designers...
A recent design from Puma...
Luxury sneakers?...
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Jul 8
Packaging
Came across this excellent piece on packaging design that is every bit as applicable to today as it was when it was first published a couple of years ago. It was written by Steven DuPuis, the Founder and President of The DuPuis Group, developers of branding programs for clients including Dole, Heinz, Kellogg's, Mattel, The Walt Disney Company, and ConAgra. He seems to know of what he speaks.
10 Packaging Design Trends To Watch In 2008--or anytime...
A sneak peek at Package Design Workbook by DuPuis Founder Steven DuPuis and John Silva, its Creative Director...
Home of The DuPuis Group...
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Mar 30
Packaging
If you were hopelessly addicted to looking around for exceptional design, you might have come across this striking package design on the Norwegian Design Council's site. It was designed by Strømme Throndsen Design for the Trygve Nesje flour mill.
Package design for flour from the Holli ancestral farm...
The design is discussed in depth here...
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Mar 16
Packaging
Here, the designers contrast the mechanics of typography with an organic background. Reminds me that, often, the designer's primary challenge is to find new ways of doing familiar things. (The work is credited to Why Not Associates in collaboration with Gordon Young.
Typographic tree columns at the Crawley Library in Essex ...
While you're there, check out the rest of the designer's (Why Not Associates) portfolio. I especially like the FutureLab logo...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Before & After: Graphics For Business...
Jan 7
Packaging
If you happen to be traveling on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, I can't help but think the storefront at 372 would catch your eye. The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. stocks some fairly unusual products--including gallon cans of Gravity, jars of Sasquatch Mucous, and a giant container of Helium Gumballs.
What it is, in reality, is a gateway for 826NYC--a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students, ages 6-18, develop their writing skills. Here's the story:
Tell me-if you were walking down this street--the Brooklyn Superhero storefront wouldn't get your attention!
Another view of the storefront...
Inside the store is the entrance to 826NYC...
Some of the featured products...
The store was designed by Sam Potts Inc.--which features an equally interesting portfolio of work...
This is the 826NYC web site...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Becoming a Graphic Designer
Nov 16
Packaging
Great labels stop you in your tracks. Sometimes they show outcomes, sometimes they tell a story, sometimes they have a life of their own. Two wonderful examples:
The SuperThrive label design...
The Dr. Bonner's Magic Soap labels...
Sep 7
Packaging
Here is a vibrant makeover of a long-time P&G brand—a complex mix of a new logo, illustrations, colors, and packaging shapes.
Herbal Essences makeover...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Before & After: Graphics For Business...
May 11
Packaging
As soon as I saw it I wondered who was behind the new package design of Adobe's CS3 software suite. I particularly like the contrast of the free-flowing colors and shapes with the crisp, mechanical-looking type. It is by Tolleson Design.
Tolleson Design...
