Seattle's Best Blood Donation Clinic

The old, more classic looking label, changed to the simple, new one

 

Coffee and Graphic design are two inseparable activities and are usually combined for the best results. As such, I find i'm in the cafeteria many mornings to get coffee, and our school serves Seattle's best. This being the case, some classmates and I noticed right away the dramatic re branding.

Our first reaction was it definitely looks like a blood donation clinic, with the stark white droplet amongst the red. It really has a sort of sinister and unsettling look to it. In a way, it also looks like a happy face. At first i thought it was such a terrible rebrand, but now I'm actually fond of it, that is, with a few changes.

To completely get rid of that blood-like feel, I think the solution would be to simply make the red a nice, rich brown. The type could be left red. With that simple change, the logo would seem fairly classy, modern and clean in a competitive coffee market. The old logo is classic, but it also feels cheap and dated. The new logo is definitely a step in the right direction in establishing a quality coffee brand, but it still in need of tweaking. Another solution would be to make ripples in the coffee and ditch the droplet, which I wouldn't necessarily associate with coffee.

An Anti-Rebranding

Rebranding is always a difficult choice, because a company is discarding or changing their brand essence that has defined their product and attracted consumers for one reason or another. In this case, i believe Euro-Shopper (a president's choice-type brand) has taken a large, blundering step backwards.

The Company's goal was to make their look more modern and easily recognizable. They definitely made it more recognizable, but hardly more modern. The plain, red colour palette screams retro and only looks appealing to designers. Not only did they fail one of two objectives, but they also failed to take into account the fact that people who don't buy these cheap brands, simply don't because they look cheap. People trust the more expensive brands to deliver a higher quality product. The new look screams cheap-knock-off-brand, while the old one appeared to be more higher end. Even the illustrations look retro and dated in the rebranding.

As with Starbucks, the colloquial saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to mind.

My Prophetic Dream?

I occasionally have dreams that I can remember pretty clearly and this was one of them. I'm sure it was just nonsensical (very likely it was) but it got me thinking about an aspect of designing I've been neglecting lately: research.

Maybe Freud or somebody would have a different interpretation of the dream, but basically, all that I can recall is my first year teacher, Vince, reciting fact after fact about various birds. Vince always had knowledge (no matter how vague) in a very wide range of things. I recall during a logo project called 3 Point, he advised me to look at a variety of planes, all of which he knew the names.

Research can give a project a whole new spin or direction that you would not initially have thought of. Knowing details of the project you are working on can also be extremely helpful in instilling confidence in your client and being able to justify your choices.

Digital Painting

When I'm not laboriously hunched over my PC designing for the Conestoga Graphic Design program, I enjoy playing the odd video game. As you might guess, video games take extensive work and involve many people of different professions. Programmers are needed to code the game, there are writer's, digital animators, concept artists and even graphic designers for the packaging, logos and website design.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejR2iOuPhEQ

In the free, online game, League of Legends, the company offers "art spotlights" on youtube, to view the work that goes behind digitally painting the characters. In this particular video, it took the artist just under 4 hours to paint and draw the character. A goal of mine over the summer is to become much more proficient in digital painting and I find the art style and use of colour in these spotlights to be pretty inspiring.

One of my digital painting efforts.

Illustration Styles

One of the biggest challenges and desires for Graphic Designers and Illustrators is the need to make your own, unique style. We want to stand out and be known for something that is specific to oneself. Here are a few summarized steps I found in and artical by children's book illustrator, Rachelle Anne Miller, in developing a unique, illustration style.

1. Practice, Practice, Practice!
The more you draw, the better you’ll get. It’s important to draw A LOT in order to become successful at any style. Before worrying about what makes you unique from other illustrators, just practice your art and perfect it. Draw in a lot of styles. Rachelle also stresses the importance of trying many different types of mediums.

2. Choose Your Medium.
Review all your work. What medium appealed to you most? What was most fun? If you love what you’re doing, you’ll do it the best!

3. Identify and Emphasize.
Once you’ve chosen your preferred medium, you need to make yourself stand out in that medium. For example, observe all your watercolour work and try to notice elements about your work that occur in each illustration. Rachelle emphasizes to try and push the medium in a way that nobody has taken it.

4. Do Your Research. Know Your Market.
After getting a bit of a sense of your favorite medium and your personal trending as an artist, you need to place yourself in the market. What kind of work are you looking for as an artist? Are you looking for work in publishing? If you’d like to become a children’s illustrator, research other children’s illustrators that are working in the same medium as you. How is your work different?

5. Find a Mentor.
Is there an artist you look up to? Someone who truly inspires you and is working in a similar market? Try emailing them for advice! I know when I started out, I received invaluable advice from other artists that helped form the illustrator I am today.

Lastly, Rachelle urges to make a strong portfolio (just as required by graphic designers) and keep consistent in your newly discovered style.

Kraft Dinner Package Rebranding

The classic noodley predecessor .

The new, modern re-brand.

It’s always nice to see re-branding that’s actually done nicely these days, unlike some recent blunders (the Gap and Tropicana anyone?) The most successful re-brands always seem to be the ones that aren’t complete overhauls, but nice, subtle changes. I’ll go into some detail on why I think this was a good update.

The noodle smile. I just want to flash a big grin right back at that box. The re-brand just has such a friendly feel, from the very slightly lighter blue palette, to the smiley faced noodle.

The new sanserif font is also a good update to the old serif font. The font is perfect in mimicking the shape of the noodles. The colour of the font is also similar to that of the product, unlike the old one.

The actual photography look much more appetizing. From the brighter colour, to the dripping cheese, that spoonful of KD looks all the more delectable.

All in all this update was fairly flawless. I wonder what it’d look like trying to remove the circle the type is in, although i suppose you’d have to remove the background noodles. The packaging with it’s new “smile” message and modern feel is a great success.

Design and Happiness

At the recommendation of a classmate, I decided to watch a Sagmeister video on TED.com (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/stefan_sagmeister_shares_happy_design.html)about happiness and design.  Usually you assume that all of these bigwig designers are going to be riding around on their high horses, staring down their noses at us common designers. Contrary to my presupposition, Sagmeister seems like a very genuine, humble, down to earth designer and a happy person.

Sagmeister makes a list of the things in his life that make him happy and about 5-6 out of 10 of them are design related. He then lists a few designs that have made him genuinely happy. What i took from this was not only does designing make us happy and fulfill that sense of creativity everybody has, but it also has the ability to evoke happiness in others.
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An Austrian magazine asked Sagmeister to develop dividing artwork in between pages. He keeps a journal and writes things he has learned and decided to have creative photographs spelling out some of these tidbits of self-improvement. One i really liked was “complaining is silly, either act or forget.” Nobody is bound my circumstance and we have the power to shape our lives in whatever fashion we wish. Sagmeister’s design not only satiates his creativity, but it sends a positive message to countless numbers of people. The ability graphic design has in touching the lives of hundreds, thousands or even millions fascinates me.

Why do we design? Do we do it for the money, to feed our ego, artistic expression, or to shape the world? Maybe we design for all of those reasons. Whichever the case, our design has the ability to send powerful messages on large scales and make seemingly ordinary things, beautiful.

The Five Stages of Developement

Today in class we had an interesting look into a few of the stages of development that Graphic Design has gone through since its inception as a commercial art in around the 30s. This is a concise summary but the vernacular is the local language and norm of design that one does not question or stray to far from. The awakening is analogous to the transition to adolescence; the beginning of questioning and breaking free from the rules established.  Professionalism was the beginning of graphic design as an actual profession and career. We are then led into segmentation, which is the division of many vernaculars, each appealing to their own demography.  Finally, we enter the lattice. The lattice is our current design stage and tries to incorporate many different vernaculars, unlike segmentation which stays within it’s own element.

There is a point to this very short summary, and that is to raise a question: what next? The article suggests that maybe the next stage is a dismantlement of client, designer, and communicator into a stage of everyone being a designer. The tools we use are readily available to everyone, so people believe they can simply cut out the need for a designer.

Maybe I’m in denial for fear of job loss but  the need for a graphic designer will always be present. Like any profession, it is a discipline and cannot be easily learned on your own.  Sure there are books, resources, tutorials etc. available but we have learned things that clients will never learn, unless attending a design program of course.  Our ability of having our work critiqued by professionals, having somebody guiding you through the process of kerning, presentations by other graphic designers, and a comprehensive look into the client end of things. Like an electrician or a plumber, graphic design is a profession with skills that can’t just be taught through book or tutorial.

Maybe we’ll just become trapped in an endless cycle of the five stages of development; establishing a vernacular only to question it. Maybe 3D will be the new future of graphic design, leaving behind 2D design in the dust. Perhaps a new tool will replace the pen tool, making much used vectors outdated. Whatever the case, every new up and coming graphic design will play a part, no matter how small, in the next stage.

The Future of Hand-Dryers!

Hand dryer from outer space.

As designers we are constantly looking for that seamless synergy of form and functionality. A more recent component to enter this synergy is environmental sustainability.

At malls and other places, I’ve noticed that somewhat recent implementation of these futuristic looking, double sided hand dryers. The idea is you stick your hands inside and a jet of hot air dries your hands from not just one side, but from both sides! My hands were completely dry within just a few seconds, unlike the current hand dryers, which take hitting the button twice or more. This fairly ingenious industrial design not only dries your hands faster but saves energy by being on less and therefore reduces unnecessary waste. .

At school it saddens me to see garbage’s in the bathrooms overflowing and spilling onto the floor piles of paper towel. I know it’s tempting to  grab a piece, quickly dry your hands and toss it in the garbage, but there are hand dryers literally a few feet away. A quick solution would be to just get rid of the paper towel dispensers all together, which would force people to use the hand dryers. An implementation of these new hand dryers would also be a nice fix, as there would probably only be the need for one since they are quick and efficient.

These hand dryers are a somewhat recent innovation. This is just another example of the potential industrial design has to improve our lives on a subconscious level.

Starbucks Rebranding

 

Starbucks rebranding from 1971 to the proposed 2011 change.

Between 1971 and now, 2011, Starbucks has gone through three different rebrands. The siren we all know to be Strarbuck’s mascot has become an icon and staple in the coffee world. She began has a more provocative and topless figure and eventually progressed to the simplified and less revealing, single coloured icon.

Just recently Starbucks proposed a removal of the type around the siren and an incorporation of the staple Starbucks green as the logo colour. Alone and void of any type, can this typeless logo stand the test of time? The proposed change is unnecessary and a waste of Starbuck’s time and money. As the colloquial saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  The ring of type is the only constant that has remained since Starbuck’s humble beginnings of the completely brown logo. Why take away the brand essence of a company that has taken years to establish? 

  Maybe years ago this change would have brought in more coffee sales with a sleek, modern re-branding.  Starbucks is a commonplace coffee shop and not unknown to consumers, so what could possibly be the reason for their lower sales? Could it be the outrageous prices for less than amazing coffee? Re-branding is definitely not the answer for more sales in a Tim Horton’s-saturated coffee market.  Instead, perhaps they should consider lower prices or coffee promotions that have done corporations such as Mc Donald’s much good.