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.
.
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.