Posts Tagged ‘Design’

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Letter vs. Letter

Friday, March 30th, 2012

Dueling letters. Extravagant fonts. Consumer engagement.

What’s not to love?

Thetypefight.com is an online project that allows visitors to the site to vote on which letter of the week (today, it’s Q) is better-looking.

Some days it’s an easy choice, some days it’s not. But every day showcases a different artist and tells the story of the font up for debate.

The most recent font (a fight between W’s) was decided with only 3 votes.

Like fonts? Love graphics? This site’s for you. It’s sure to be entertaining, and you may just learn something, too.

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History of Crayola Colors

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

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Heineken: Designed to Drink

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

To mark their upcoming 140th anniversary, Heineken has launched a global design challenge inviting creative talent across the world to connect through Facebook to form design teams for a bottle of the future.

The ‘Heineken® Limited Edition Design Challenge’ is open for entries until 31st January 2012 and offers anyone the chance to form a creative collaboration with a stranger, by choosing to pair design concepts for Heineken’s next Limited Edition bottle.

The design challenge:  Create a bottle design that symbolises how people around the world will connect in the next 140 years.

(feels more social media than beer but you get the point)

The winning duo will see their design launched in an exclusive Limited Edition pack sold around the world from December 2012 to celebrate the anniversary.  Added bonus – Winnimg names will also appear on the bottle.

To enter, designers should visit Heineken Facebook tab (yourfuturebottle.com) and download the design brief and toolkit, including the bottle template and Heineken assets. Once completed, designs can be uploaded to the online gallery and to finalise entry the designer must select someone else’s concept to pair with. The virtual duo then forms a creative partnership and the two are submitted as a contender together.

Get drinkin’ and get designin’

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Empire State of Mind

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

New York’s MTA is going old school.

Really, really old school.

Through the month of September (on weekends), New York commuters can ride a vintage 1920 train on New York’s 2 / 3 line.

Who is accountable for this throwback fun?

HBO

Surprised?

As part of the “Compliments of Nucky” campaign promoting the September 25 return of period drama Boardwalk Empire, HBO has put the vintage 1920s train back on the track on New York’s 2 / 3 line (Nucky refers to the show’s central character, played by Steve Buscemi). The train, a real transit museum piece, originally appeared in 1917 operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit system.

MTA customers can ride the train at the 42nd, 72nd and 96th Street stops. According to HBO, the train features authentic period details like rattan seats, ceiling fans and drop sash windows. Non-period elements include Boardwalk Empire- themed artwork that directs riders to the “Compliments of Nucky” Facebook page, where they can get access to Nuck-related perks.

On the final weekend, “brand ambassadors” will be outside of the 42nd and 72nd St. stops giving away free metrocards (nice!)

The campaign will include further deals and content via partnerships with other brands -

  • A Living Social tie-up will allow fans to book prohibition-themed packages for the reduced rate of $19.21 (ahem – 1921)
  • On September 24 and 25, “Nucky” will pick up all eastbound Pleasantville tolls into Atlantic City from the AC Expressway.
  • The campaign’s Facebook app will include daily instant win prizes
  • Consumers who “share” the app with three friends can gain access to “Nucky’s Suite,” where they will get access to original content from the show and get the chance to win trips to Caesars Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Translating the fiction of Boardwalk Empire into a livable, targeted, experiential campaign?  We’re impressed.

And while we want to ride the 2/3 train, our favorite part of the campaign leads us to Jersey -

HBO has also sponsored an Atlantic City beautification project and plans to give the gateway to Atlantic City a landscape makeover. The entrance sign to Atlantic City (where Empire Boardwalk is set) reads, “Atlantic City Beautification Project… Compliments of Nucky Thompson.”

Relevant and witty?  Nice work Nucks.

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Absolut Overload

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

While contemplating cocktails I began to contemplate booze branding.

Specifically Absolut.

Our industry is not longer advertising or marketing.  It’s everything.

It’s shopper activation, print ads, retail planograms, social media, television (and online television), sampling, apps, website design, user-interface design, coupons and the occasional branding.

It’s overload.

How do we make something smart, relevant and compelling and then execute that idea in every imaginable channel.

(let’s be honest – even if we recommend strategic, channel based execution, a client will undoubtedly come back and say “what about Facebook?” or “I want a billboard!”)

Which leads me back to cocktails.

The Absolut campaign is a stellar example of how a brand can be brilliant, relevant and compelling in ONE media.

And because Absolut did one thing well, the print campaign evolved.  It become more than a campaign – it became a iconic part of our culture.

So let’s remember that single-focus, single-execution campaigns can be powerful.

Let’s remember it’s far better to do one thing well than several things mediocre.

And when we forget, let’s all head to the bar, order an Absolut and let the vodka remind us.

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Circle Back

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Marfa, Texas.  Ever heard of it?

No?

Us either.

Turns out there are a lot of things to like about Marfa.  Wide open spaces.  Friendly people.  A thoughtful, charitable, active community.

At under 2,000 residents, Marfa is home to the Marfa 100, a charitable bike race started last year that benefits the local public radio station and the LIVESTRONG Foundation.

To publicize the bike race, the LIVESTRONG Foundation and Latin Works sought to found a visual representation of cancer survival. The solution? PedalPainting.

100 people took turns riding bikes outfitted with paint brushes for 1km each, producing a unique group of posters dedicated to those who battle cancer.

Simple premise.  Simple design.  Powerful execution.

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Stop & Stare

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Very cool stop motion piece for Nokia’s N8 Phone…

What does this piece have to do with the N8?  The entire thing was shot with the N8 Phone.

The phones were mounted in a custom-built rig and operated remotely by the camera crew in order to capture the huge images.

Amazing what you can do with sand artists, volunteers and…a cell phone.

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Live The Language

Monday, July 18th, 2011

For your Monday morning entertainment (and our typography obsessed designer friends everywhere), we’d like to share these “Live the Language” spots.

A series of videos which combine exquisite typography and playful visuals to cinematically capture the joy (and uncertainty) of learning a new language in a strange city.

(Credit: Commercial for EF International Language Centers.  Designer and AD Albin Holmqvist. Director Gustav Johansson)

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Bid Ideas in Small Packages

Friday, July 15th, 2011

How do you communicate Smart Car’s low impact on the environment?

You create low impact billboards.

Simple as that.

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Clever Change

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Puma has done it again.

Remember this post we did on their “Clever Little Bag”?

Now Puma has introduced their Clever Little Shopper.

All of this is part of Puma’s mission to reduce its carbon “paw-print” by making its packaging more environmentally responsible.

Puma’s Clever Little Shopper, a shopping bag made of 100 percent cornstarch, will decompose in a compost pile in three months OR dissolve completely in a bowl of warm water in 3 minutes (resulting water is eco-friendly and safe to pour down the drain).  Puma estimates that the new compostable bag will save 192 tons of plastic and 293 tons of paper annually.

Savings of that magnitude?  That’s more than clever.

Puma is a great example of a company leading the way by doing the right thing.  They identified a serious need and set their company up to actually do something about that need.

And they didn’t just make one change and then check it off their list – they set themselves up to be a catalyst for change.

And real change? That’s even more than just being clever.

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