Author Archive
Pepsi, WalMart and Best Buy logos: Better or Worse?
In 2028, graphic design students will look back at 2008, and what will they conclude about the state of design? Based on the new logos Pepsi, Walmart and Best Buy released this year, maybe that the design world embraced a ban on All Caps, or that blue and yellow were the colors of the year, or that serifs were horribly out of vogue. I’ll be interested to hear everyones thoughts on the following logos. Here are mine:
I’m guessing the designers who worked on the new Walmart logo spent some time studying the Target logo, who would blame them. I’m happy they lost the star from the center of the word, but the yellow burst at the end lacks energy. If you could find a few people who don’t know what Walmart isand asked them to figure out what Walmart is from this logo, I think energy company, light bulb makers, or even idea generators would be higher up on the list than big box discount store. Read more and see an evolution of the logo here.
When I first saw this logo, I thought, “Geez, this looks a lot like the new Walmart logo”. The old logo does look out of date, but the new logo is bland. I’d love to see the other options they didn’t choose, I’m guessing the nice way the line of the price tag parallels the stroke of the y was not the only interesting element the designers came up with. I have yet to see this in our local store but there is nothing subtle about the giant yellow price tag and I’m not so sure the new version will have any stand out power at all. Read more about the logo and see it applied to some store fronts here.
Pepsi. What the heck. I’ve been reading a lot about this logo on line. And I will admit, the more I read, the more I see what they were going after, but as a brand that needs to grab me as I’m reaching for a Coke, it falls flat, or falls goofy – this just feels goofy. This video does a good job of showing the history of the logo, 
as well as the ‘planning’ of this logo and how it applies to the various versions of Pepsi, but I’m not buying into the variations, and I’m not loving the (once again) san serif type that replaces the bold, All Caps version. I will give a shout out to the typography, where they have put a swish in the e that replicates the white swish of the old logo, but much like the variations for each version of pepsi, it’s way to subtle, and gets lost on the shelf. I also include a photo of the Siera Mist can, which got an image update in this process as well. I’ll take this opportunity to ‘…not say anything at all’, as it is the polite thing to do.
What do you think about these updated logos? Do you see the influence of the Obama logo in the new Pepsi logo? Are these representative of your 2008 design work? Will you embrace the All Caps ban? Leave your thoughts below in the comments section.
The Fall TV Schedule: Opening Credits
Pushing Daisies promo image
There is a lot of great design in opening sequences on TV these days. My favs: The Big Bang Theory – it’s fun, fast paced, and features a theme song by the Barenaked Ladies; Chuck – the campy, nerd-inspired take on James Bond type graphics is fun and illustrative; Without A Trace – the complexity and the collage style of the graphics does a good job in distilling the show down into a 30 second message; Pushing Daisies – Bryan Fuller is brilliant and everything he does is visually spectacular [If your not watching this show, START NOW!]; Numb3rs – it does a great job of tying together the concept of the show with the necessity of stating who the actors are; and True Blood – I LOVE the theme song, and the rapid fire, disturbing images keep me glued to the screen, I can’t turn away even though I want to. Below is a collection of some of the Falls opening credits. Let me know your favs in the comments section below.
MONDAY:
TUESDAY:
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY:
Smallville (CW)
Survivor (CBS)
Ugly Betty (ABC)
Kath & Kim (NBC)
CSI (CBS)
The Office (NBC)
Supernatural (CW)
ER (NBC)
FRIDAY:
Everybody Hates Chris (FOX)
Ghost Whisperer (CBS)
The Ex List (CBS)
Numbers (CBS)
SUNDAY:
The Simpsons (FOX)
The Amazing Race (CBS)
Dexter (Showtime)
True Blood (HBO) (nsfw)
A little Crane in the family
Paper with a good hand. Thick cover stock. Embossing. Laser die-cut.
Promotion for AIGA conference on Crane paper
These kind of descriptions are pillow talk for designers, and are all elements that Crane & Co. do. Brilliantly. Thick, rich brown cards with a light blue strip have done me well after an interview, and cute, baby-pink cards with lovely pink bunnies embossed on them were so perfect as thank-yous after my baby shower… that was until my son arrived a few weeks later! To me Crane & Co. have always represented elegance, class and thoughtfulness. I was delighted to learn that Crane & Co. and AIGA NH/VT are 2nd cousin of sorts – Vermont resident Peter Hopkins, Media Relations and Historian for Crane & Co. is the father-in-law of our last Communications Chair, Jennifer Hopkins. I’ve been following Peter’s blog, The Crane Insider, for a few months now, and love his casual, friendly approach to keeping readers up-to-date on happenings in and around Crane & Co. The blog contains many videos on how they make, guild or style paper for various needs. One of Peter’s recent post talks about a great early July trip to Fenway, and shows us an invitation to the Tifany & Co. celebration of the World Series the Red Sox won (Tiffany & Co. crafted the World Series trophy). It’s beautiful and simple and elegant, just like I would expect from Crane.
Check out The Crane Insider, and drop Peter a line to let him know what you think of the blog or ask questions about Crane & Co.
BoNE on the Road comes to Colby-Sawyer College
September 18 – October 16, 2008
Opening reception: Thursday, September 18, 6 – 8 pm
Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery • Colby-Sawyer College
541 Main Street, New London, NH 03257
AIGA Boston’s 2007 BoNE Show is on the move as a traveling exhibition, showcasing the best designs in New England as chosen by a panel of nationally celebrated judges: Stefan Bucher of 344 Design, Luba Lukova of NY, and Kevin Krueger of SamataMason. The nearly 100 pieces on exhibit were chosen out of more than 500 entries.
Brought to you by AIGA Boston, AIGA New Hampshire/Vermont, and
Colby-Sawyer College. This exhibition is also made possible through the generous support of friends of the Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery.
Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday 10 am – 5 pm; Saturday 10 am – 2 pm
Phone: 603 526 3000
Value: Design is Intrinsic to Success
Designers are often described as “the fun ones,” asked their opinions, because they are “always up on this stuff.” Its more than that. Designers are key decision makers. They are being consulted along side of CFOs, Lawyers, and VPs of Technology in top companies around the globe. Locally, AIGA is constantly working to promote and advance the profession of design, and this includes educating the non-design community on the value of design.
At the 2006 How Design Conference in Las Vegas, Moira Cullen [previous AIGA Kansas City and Los Angeles chapter President, and 2006 AIGA Kansas City Fellow, as well as past creative development strategist at Hallmark and current design director at Coca-Cola North America], presented a great session on “how to articulate the intrinsic value of design, validating your contribution and putting yourself in a position to contribute both concepts and strategy, rather than just producing on demand” (It’s available for download, for a fee, on the F+W website). As designers, we seem to struggle to put into words why we are important, why we should be valued. Moira does a great job at explaining this and giving us the tools we need to have these discussions with our associates.
Another great tool that supports this reality is the Design Index Study which showed the share prices of a group of more than 150 quoted companies recognized as effective users of design out-performed the stock market by 200 per cent between 1994 and 2003. Add in today’s design-conscious companies of Target, Apple, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and there’s no denying that designers are key to the success of a company.
To complement this education of the masses about the value of design, designers also need to be aware of their value. You can help to keep the value of design elevated by making ethical pricing decisions, purchase legal and ethical hardware, software, photography, copy and illustration and support peer designers by not undercutting fees below fair market value. In the next few years, with the design community working as one, we will be more universally recognized as intrinsic to success.
Sara Morin, Chapter President
See Hear Speak of the Week
These are fantastic (via crew)
As is this.I’d like to make icons like these.
Not only beautiful, but a great story too!
What are you seeing and hearing about design? Leave comments and links below.
Comic Influx
Perhaps it’s because I’m lucky enough to work nearby a great two-year school for the study of creating visual stories, the Center for Cartoon Studies, that I’ve started to notice the influx of comics and graphic novels in mainstream marketing. I’ve collected just a few examples here, but I’m seeing more and more each day:
- Random House, Macmillian and Dark Horse bring comics to our bookstores.
- Emily the Strange gets her own movie
- Bizarro and Derek Jeter share a SI cover
- Batman’s got a milk mustache & you can get in on the action
- Iron Man, Batman, Hellboy and the Hulk hit the summer big screen
- A movie, based on a graphic novel won the ’07 Cannes Jury Prize
- The longest running sitcom in the US is a cartoon
Todays graphic designers are incorporating cartoons, comics, graphic novels and visual story telling into more and more of their work. To raise the awareness of this great pairing, and to provide an inside look into the creation and education surrounding this medium today, we’ve asked Alex
Webinar for AIGA members
AIGA members, take advantage of this membership benefit:
AIGA WEBINAR:
AVOIDING DAMAGE FROM A DOWNTURN
Join AIGA and David C. Baker on Thursday, June 26, for an exclusive webinar broadcast. “Avoiding Damage from a Downturn” will explore how your design firm can continue to thrive despite a struggling economy. Baker will discuss the steps and measures a firm can take to avoid loss and limit the damage that would otherwise occur by anticipating the pressures of an unstable economic climate.
AIGA is committed to supplying members with the information needed to react to the economy appropriately, build future safeties for your firm and continue to be profitable. This 30-minute webinar will be followed by 15 minutes of Q&A via a chatroom.
Click here to register for the webinar with your AIGA member ID.
Offered exclusively to AIGA professional and associate members.
Not yet a member? Go to aiga.com to join.
URLs on TV
I couldn’t have said it better myself, so I won’t even try:
“…it does not work, and you know why? Because no one can remember the bloody URL you put into your TV ad!…”
RSS us!
I love Google Reader. I visit a bunch of design and entertainment blogs, and it was getting to be too much to visit each site, bookmark what I was interested in, and remember to go back to see the latest posts. My super web-guru husband turned me on to Google Reader, one spot where I can see all of the sites I’m interested in, see what has new content, and even find new sites I might like.
Now we’ve made it easy to follow the AIGA NH/VT blog in Google Reader or any other reader you choose to use. Click on the links to your right under FEEDS, or click on the orange RSS logo in the address bar at the top of your browser. Set how you’d like to be notified of updates, and sit back and let the information roll in.
I’m sure there are other great ways to use RSS feeds, share what you know in the comments area below.
AIGA NH\VT 
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