BAR CODES—Who Knew They Could Be So CREATIVE?

I saw my first "illustrated" or "designed" bar code last fall, and actually I photographed it and used it in one of my blog posts for GDS108. It was a natural flax seed cereal, and I happened to turn over the box to see the bar code made into the plants that the cereal was made of. I loved it for some reason! It really made me smile, and I thought, "How creative!" Here's a link to my blog post from last year: Previous Blog Post About Cool Bar Code.

Actually, what I really like is this. Here is this ugly thing that has to be on your packaging. We have grown used to seeing bar codes and sort of ignore them, but they do get in the way of the design. So, designers have figured out how you can incorporate the bar code into the art or vice versa. And, the bar code, of course, still has to work. That's what's so cool about this. It may seem like a small thing, but I think it's awesome.

"Barcodes grace almost every product we sell. Considering how much package real estate they command, why shouldn't they be more fun?" Steve Simpson

Here are some other designed/illustrated bar codes for your viewing pleasure. Most of these are from Steve Simpson's portfolio website.




This is my favorite, but there are some others I really like as well.

Love the dragon!

I'm not sure I totally get this one...

Perfect!

Love it!!!

This one is wonderful!

From Steve Simpson's website. Excuse his "French."

So many possibilities!

Sources:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/7747763/Illustrated-Barcodes

http://stevesimpson.com/17721/1202053/portfolio/illustrated-barcodes

Strike Out Hunger Posters—Creativity for an Important Cause

This is a very creative poster campaign for a very worthy cause. As I was looking through some of the exhibits in Communication Arts (online subscription), these posters really caught my eye and made me want to take a closer look. 

This Strike Out Hunger poster campaign appeals to baseball fans, and it is strategically timed to coincide with a major... here—just read this (from Commarts.com):

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10.03.14

Strike Out Hunger posters

Posters, Public Service

Hunger and food insecurity are year-round problems in Nebraska and Iowa, especially during the summer, when donations traditionally drop off. To ensure supplies are always available, Food Bank for the Heartland created Strike Out Hunger, an annual food drive that coincides with the College World Series—when all of Omaha is steeped in baseball. For this year’s posters, ad agency Swanson Russell found inspiration in iconic concession-stand packaging to combine classic baseball Americana with headlines that highlight the issue. Each headline also contains handcrafted lettering. Response to the effort was overwhelming. Donations reached nearly 350,000 meals, well over the Food Bank’s goal of 250,000.

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And now check out the posters:

I love the vintage look of the concession stand food packaging as well as the typography. The copy is so well-written and clever. The art is outstanding. The two-color high contrast designs immediately draw you in. These are amazing posters—evidence that graphic designers do work for important things and help make positive changes in the world! 

Source and Credits:

commarts.com

Jeff Jahn/Dave Markes, art directors; John Vogel, writer; Logan Bartels/Dave Markes, designers; Ed Salem, creative director; Randy Schnackenberg/Michelle Sukup, producers; Swanson Russell (Omaha, NE), ad agency; Food Bank for the Heartland, client.

swansonrussell.comstrikeouthunger.org

MILK LAB PACKAGING

MILK LAB Packaging Design/Identity

The logo itself is really nicely designed. I like the simple slab serif typeface in all caps and the "milk splash" made with a wavy circle is so simple and straightforward, very clean.

The pastel colors with white text and designs gives the packaging a "refreshing" and cool (as in temperature) look. Funky little designs shaped like the desserts, the milk splash, and some other things I can't identify. It's playful!

From the Dieline website: MILK LAB's founders took a research-based approach to the brand, studying ways to devise better dairy food menus without artificial additives and designing a systematic space for daily sales and brand chain expansion. Studio fnt set out to reflect the brand's unique positioning: 

"We wanted to make the identity easy and straightforward. As the MILK LAB specialized in dairy foods, we focused on milk in the identity design. Milk splash was selected as the main visual motive. While typographic elements stay simple, a set of illustration invites customers with friendly gesture." - MILK LAB

Source
The Dieline website

Credits 
design: studio fnt
illustration: Hyekyung Shin
space design: FHHH Friends
country: South Korea

Wear the PANTS!

These Dockers posters are really eye-catching and beautifully designed. I think it's a fantastic ad campaign! I love that typography (each poster used a different typographer's work) takes the place of an actual model. I love the different typefaces used, and even though it's not necessary to do this to enjoy these, I think it's fun to read some of the text. The textures in the backgrounds are great as well.

This, to me, is one of those ideas that has been done before, but as a series, this ad campaign has added a uniqueness and aesthetic value that surpasses most of the work I've seen that uses typography to fill up a specific shape. Really creative stuff!

Source: Communication Arts Typography Annual 1, Jan/Feb 2011, Pages 104-105

"The fashion and apparel category is a sea of sameness. We wanted to create something distinct, something that would break the category conventions of models and lifestyle imagery. Utilizing different typographers for each ad allowed us to treat each advertisement as a piece of art. By keeping it simple, we were able to get back to what Dockers is all about: men and pants." (Communication Arts, page 104)

Credits:
Michael Kim, designer

Dana Johnston, art director

Craig Erickson, writer
Desmond LaVelle/Julie Scelzo, creative directors

Tom O'Keefe, executive creative director

Am I Collective/Julian Quayle/Craig Ward, typographers

Kevin O'Brien, photographer

Draftfcb, ad agency

Dockers, client

GAGA TEA! Now I've seen everything!

This whimsical design won 3rd place in the 2012 Dieline awards in the student category. I'm not really a Lady Gaga fan, but these tea bags that represent her different looks over time really gave me a chuckle. I think it's a very creative idea, especially since Lady Gaga apparently drinks a lot of tea.

Check it:

I love the illustration work, the clever names for each flavor, and the display box. The humor is refreshing! Nathalie Hallman, the student who designed this award-winning piece, is a very talented designer. It's great to see that there is a student category in the Dieline awards!

Hey! Got a great packaging design? Submit it! Go here.

Source: The Dieline Awards Website

KEE WAH??? YUM!

A funny coincidence. I had come across this packaging design for Kee Wah Mooncakes recently, and within a couple of days someone handed me a mooncake to try. Pretty yummy! They weren't Kee Wah mooncakes, but pretty tasty nonetheless. So, I went back to The Dieline website where I had seen these packaging designs, and, well, here they are.

I didn't know anything about mooncakes before except they are a chinese sweet of some kind.

• "Mooncake is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival is for lunar worship and moon watching, when mooncakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the four most important Chinese festivals." (wiki)

I love the concept! I love autumn, moon watching, festivals, and sweets. What's not to like about a mooncake then?

As for the packaging, I absolutely  LOVE the clean, minimal, simple, elegant, and sweet design! (The rabbit is so sweet to me.) The simple line drawing of a rabbit bounding over a hill (snowy or otherwise) with the moon shining brightly in the upper right creates a smooth, magical feeling, which I think is what mooncakes are supposed to be, in a way. Also, the typography is beautiful. I really like how each flavor is in a different colored box, but the design on the boxes are the same except for that. The color schemes are lovely and appetizing, by the way.

Read below the pictures for more information about mooncakes and especially some of the design choices for this repackaging project.

Source: http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2014/8/24/the-custard-mooncake

OREOS—MORE THAN JUST A COOKIE

Oreos have been around forEVER. They were my favorite cookie to dunk in milk when I was a kid (well, second to homemade Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies...), and of course there was always the taking apart of the cookie to eat the "icing" first, or whatever. Point is that they really haven't changed, and are, I would imagine, still a favorite of many children as well as some grown up children.

Bright color is something that always catches my eye. This poster series for Oreos definitely did. I saw the instantly recognizable Oreo cookie right away, and I was intrigued to see what else was happening in the posters. Each one has a hand of some kind reaching toward the Oreo which is apparently being held out to take by another kind of hand. They are playful, simple, colorful, and have a positive message, which is that Oreos can bring together even the most unlikely pairs.

I love the illustration style, the colors, the typography, the layout; everything works. It's making something old new again. It's a really creative idea, and the execution is beautifully done. Very appealing to kids and adults alike.

 "The Wonderfilled campaign was created to show people that Oreo is more than just cookies and creme—it's an icon of childlike wonder that can help change people's perspectives for the better. To take the Wonderfilled idea to people at street level, storefronts in Richmond featured posters that showed iconic adversaries—a pirate and an admiral, King Kong and a damsel—coming together over a shared Oreo cookie." (P. 102)

Source: Communication Arts Design Annual 55, September/October 2014, pages 102-103. 

Partial Credits:

Angie Elko/Whitney McCall, designers

Martin Allais, Illustrator

Ben Ely, studio artist

The Martin Agency (Richmond, VA), ad agency

Mondelez International, client