Ju Ni – OMG Packaging Designs!

A list of some of my favorite packaging designs.

1. Yogi Tea

These boxes caught my eye the moment I walked into the organics section. Sporting complimentary water color gradients and intricate half border detailing, this packaging is brilliant. It really screams contemporary Asian tea. Needless to say, I bought some.

2. Bloomingdales Brown Bags

These bags are simple, and that’s what makes them beautiful. Also, the size verbage on the top line creates a feeling like if you bought enough stuff to fit in the large brown bag, you would look wealthy to everyone else. This, therefore, makes everyone subconsciously want to spend more, or buy enough to merit a large brown bag, which is freaking brilliant.

3. Method Products

First of all, the shape of this bottle and the simple typography makes this soap bottle packaging beautiful. Also, the fact that it is completely transparent creates a clean feeling, which is good when you are a hand soap product. The handwash refill packaging is also beautiful, using the bottles a droplets of clean looking liquid and simple effective typography.

4. American Apparel Bags

How good is American Apparel packaging? Good enough for this picture to be from an exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It’s simple, clean, and contemporary, which is perfect for a company that convinces people (including myself) to buy single plain T shirts for 20 dollars.

5. Microsoft Office for Mac

The reason I like this packaging is because of the graphics and the shape of the box itself. The design of both are so very Apple-y, and what I mean by that is that it is clean and fun and contemporary. This is a fairly different look than Microsoft with it’s usual graphics. Wouldn’t you think they could employ this kind of design in their own products? It seems like lately they are trying, but vista still looks forced.

Ju Ichi – The New RR Website

So recently our web designer where I work (Recycle Revolution) went M.I.A., and I’m not talking about the catchy but america hating Sri Lankan. He just decided to stop coming in. Anyway, since this event we have had a website that is’nt updated, and is terribly not coded to web standards. So, a programming friend and I are redesigning it completely with some sweet new design aspects and better usability. Here is a picture of the concept I designed that we are building off of:

Since this one we have expanded the viewing area to 1280 this is currently 1024

So let me know what you guys out there in computer land think of this compared to the current one at

www.recyclerevolutiondallas.com

Ju – My Social Networks

1. Myspace.com/rollerninja

2. Facebook.com

3. linkedin.com/in/wesphelan

4. Behance.net/wesphelandesign

Kyu – 10 of my favorite brands

1. Glaceau

2. The Bahamas

3. Apple (of course)

4. Heat Wheels

5. American Apparel

6. Urban Outfitters

7. Toms

8. Yogi Tea

9. Method

10. Franco Shade

Hachi – Aspiration

This is going to be short and sweet.

Do you have something you love to do? Do you wish you could do it forever? (by this I don’t mean drink or do drugs or any of that. Those habits can only stand in the way of one’s aspirations)

Well if you said yes, I have a message for you. Go for it. Do it. You may say, “I can’t. I don’t have money.” or “I’ve already missed too many years of school.” These answers are nothing but excuses. Get a job, get some loans, and go to school for what you want to do, then get out there and do it. It’s that easy and that hard. If you really want something, get it. If you aspire to be anything, a forensic scientist, a pro-football player, a stock broker, or anything, go to school and do it. There is nothing, but yourself to stop you. If your lazy, nothing will happen. If you believe in yourself and work hard, something will most likely happen for you. I know this is cheezy and uncool and silly, but excuse my French and Fuck all of that. If you aspire to do something, then DO IT. It’s that easy and that hard.

A message for life from someone who is working to make real his aspirations.

Shichi – Improving My Craft (a rant)

I’m at a point right now where every time I sit down to create, and really put time and effort into it, my design and composition skills seem to improve. This is encouraging, but then I look at where I could be, and in my mind should be, and I get frustrated. I feel like I should be improving faster, and I don’t sit back and appreciate where I’ve gotten. I want so badly to be at a point right this minute where I could send my portfolio to a firm like Pentagram, and they would at least consider me. And maybe they would, but I sincerely doubt it. I just need to appreciate my accomplishments, however small, and realize that each little improvement helps me become the designer I want to be in the future. I need to use these improvements to push myself farther on my next project. I need to challenge myself every time to do something different, so that by the time I get out of school, I will have a well rounded portfolio, and be prepared for as many design solutions as possible. I also need to solicit more projects. I’m getting valuable experience working with one company and expanding it’s brand, but I really should be taking on other projects as well. So that’s what I’m going to do; I’m going to push myself harder to improve my work and get more projects. If your reading this and need a designer, check out my portfolio in my who am i section. I’m hungry for design challenges, and want to prove myself as a competent designer.

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.