Roku – Getting Creative

In this post I’m just going to give a list of things that I feel help me (and hopefully you) to get inspired to create and design.

1. Music – Sometimes that one song that you just can’t stop listening to, can be put on repeat and keep me creating for hours. Though, by the end of the piece I don’t want to listen to that song until next year. lol

2. Other artists – This is a big obvious one, but it’s helped me through design problems and gotten me out of ruts. If your feeling stuck, just go to a portfolio site like behance.net or carbonmade and peruse the works of anybody who catches your eye.

3. Interior Design – Specifically in social places like restaurants and coffee shops. If you go to ones with interesting decor, or huge murals, that can be a great inspiration.

4. Art Museums – You can love or hate the classics, but they were the OG’s of the industry. They can expand your creative horizons with concepts from the past.

5. Art Galleries – This one goes along with #2. Again, other peoples art is a fantastic inspiration.

6. The Outdoors (anywhere outside of a building) – Go outside to a park, city streets, or just anywhere and observe your surroundings.

7. Good Conversation – Good conversation can lead to discoveries of new ideas and concepts, which can then be turned into visual concepts.

8. Barnes and Noble or a similar place – Go see book cover designs. Number 2 again.

I think I’ll leave it at 8 for now. Maybe, I’ll think of more and repost with additions. Until then…Chow!

Go – Brand Criticism #1 – Glaceau

Well not so much a criticism, but more like endless praise.

As far as branding goes, these guys have it going on. Their identity is simple and effective, and screams elite active living. If you are a young successful person, with an active life, Glaceau’s small but sturdy line of four beverage products will compliment you perfectly. These four products consist of a nutrient enhance water beverage (Vitamin Water), a nutrient enhanced energy beverage (Vitamin Energy), a mineral water with electrolytes (smart water), and a flavor enhanced water beverage (Fruit Water). All of the sub brands are solid, and cohesive with each other, making the Glaceau brand extremely recognizable and extremely formidable. So formidable in fact, that after Glaceau (which is actually a division of Coke) emerged on the active life scene, almost every other bottler followed suit.

So what makes Glaceau’s brand so effective? Well, incredible design of course!

The designs of all the beverage bottles are contemporary and clean, with a large emphasis on typography and color, with some organic shape on the smart water bottle. The colors are loud and vibrant portraying a young and exuberant feeling. The bottles of Vitamin Water and Fruit water are the shape of Gatorade bottles, but with a smooth surface, therefore they already have an automatic recognizable connection with active lifestyles. This brand is just well done.

So, in conclusion, all I’m trying to say is that the Glaceau brand is design applied with brilliant simplicity. A perfect poster boy example of how the simplest option is almost always the best as far as design goes. I tried to find the creative company who designed the brand and came up with a New York based firm called MoxieTM. It seems they are to blame for the brilliance or at least alot of it. Check them out they do great work and have a beautiful site. Oh and speaking of sites, I almost forgot a huge part of Glaceau’s image. Their site is a wonderful piece of Flash magic. Definitly take a peak.

Cheers and good times.

Shi – My Logo Design Criteria

I, like many people have my own idea of what makes a good logo. These are my personal criteria for logos at this stage in my life.

1. The logo should be the simplest option. In fact in most cases, I believe that a logo solution can be dealt with in a 2D plane. Let me elaborate. I believe that the 3d options, drop shadow and bevel and emboss options on photoshop and illustrator should be used sparingly unless a solution begs for it. Note: I hate Google’s logo, bevel and emboss BLEH! Now that is not to say that there isn’t a time and place for those kinds of effects, but seriously… is it really that necessary?

2. A basic sans font like myriad pro is elegant, simple and versatile. Serif fonts have their place, but so far it seems most solutions can be dealt with using sans serifs. Crazy grunge fonts, gaudy fonts,  or  decorative fonts are only appropriate for very specific situations when one needs to convey a time period, or mood.

3. Color can make a logo. Color to me is the easiest mental connector for a consumer. Also, it’s a good idea to play with a colored background against your logo design, it gives you other choices for possible applications.

4. If you must have a slogan, it’s best that it’s short. Preferably one to four words. Though, I’ve designed a logo with a sentence under it. lol

5. Even if your company’s name is long, I am a believer in fully spelling the entire thing out as apposed to abreviating it or creating an acronym. The only reason being that it gives of a feeling of transparency, as in your company has nothing to hide. It makes a company seem less faceless and more “here is our name and here is what we do”. Although, if a logo client wants to be faceless, acronyms are great.

6. The last that I can think of at this time of night. A good logo is a tested logo. Before you even show a client your ideas (which you should have multiple). Show other designers and just plain people, and get a good consensus on its effectiveness. I admittedly need to expand on my logo testing.

For now I’ll leave it at 6 unless something else comes to mind while I’m going back over this post in a few days, seeing if I sound coherent.

Have a good night.

San – The Idea of Branding

What is branding? What is a companies identity and why does it matter?

Well branding is defined as “in marketing, the use of logos, symbols, or product design to promote consumer awareness of goods and services”

To me though, branding is more than that. Branding defines the success of a company through creating a personality for said company.  This personality in turn establishes and creates a customer base and customer knowledge for that company. Perception of a business is manufactured before anybody knows the business exists or what it does. This concept is incredibly important and extremely interesting to me. Example, say you are walking downtown and you see a modern cafe. It’s logo is minimalistic and refined, with clean lines. It’s appearance is also very clean and minimalistic. A normal person, from this first impression would assume that this cafe was very nice. They would assume that their food might be slightly exotic, perhaps all organic, expensive, and lastly probably very tasty. The truth is the food could be terrible, and unhealthy. All that matters though, for that business, is that you perceived that cafe was going to be great and spent your money there. That is the power of branding and identity. The power to convince consumers through nothing more than graphics and presentation that their service is top notch quality. This is important because this is why you can succeed as a business owner, which in turn can create jobs and quality goods and services. This thereby, fuels the economy and keeps us going as a country. Branding is incredibly important to our culture and our way of life, and I hope to be a crucial part of branding in the future as a graphic designer. And, I can’t wait to see what kind of creative and effective branding will be part of our future.

Ni

Second post ever.

So this morning on my way to work I almost was involved in a serious life changing accident. lol

That lol is like a nervous wow that was intensely crazy lol

It all started with a large dodge truck tailgating me out of nowhere heavily. I mean like 3 or 4 feet away heavily. So, being conscious of the fact, I tapped my breaks on his inconsiderate hiny. This action, apparently unprovoked in the driver’s eyes, made him speed uncomfortably close past me in the break down lane to my left (I was in the far left lane), and cut in front of me. Not only did he cut in front of me, but he miscalculated in his rage and his rear bumper nicked the front left of my car, nearly sending me uncontrollably into the adjacent lanes. He then proceeded to flip me off, and quickly maneuver out of view, cutting off more cars than I have fingers, seemingly to escape without anyone seeing his plates. Now, I was a little rattled and shaken for a few minutes, but then I realized something after that brush with death. I realized that the reality of this world is that there are people who do things like that. People who think they can push other people around, and people that are crazy or have a skewed sense of respect. People who think that they are above the law, or being courteous, and people who are genuinely douche bags. These people actually exist, and this is a fact we have to live with. But, we don’t have to accept these people’s actions. It shouldn’t be ok to let those people walk all over you. That’s why I’ve decided that I will not stop tapping my breaks on people who tail gate, which in my mind would be what most people would do after having such a crazy experience. I though, refuse to do so. I will not let those kinds of people walk over me, or make me fearful. And, even at the expense of my own life I will not allow those people to continue encouraging a world where that kind of behavior is allowed. Don’t let people walk over you. Everyone has the right to exist on this planet without douche bags interfering. Exercise your right!

Now a word for the quick to conclusion. I’m only saying to not allow unprovoked douche bag actions. If you were a douche bag first, and deserve the retaliation then you should accept the consequences which you brought upon yourself.

Ichi

So this is my first blog post, and on this special occasion I will bore all of you with a poem. This poem will probably only be slightly coherent so enjoy with your own perspective.

In accordance with one’s own feelings,

I feel it prudent to ask that man who is attempting to gain chaotic control,

to desist in his efforts,

for nothing will come from an ill-experienced visionary with no specific goals,

accept the banter of an ignorant man,

the irresponsible squawking of a bird whose beak is filled,

with unrealistic and untested ideas,

from which disaster is almost certain to come,

this is not negativity but logic from which most success is attributed,

those who seek to put the bird in power,

will hopefully never get to regret their mistake.

A poem about today for no reason, or maybe not a poem, but a rant.

Idk

Have a good day.