Iridesco Watercooler

Teleport me back to the early 1900s because I’m quite fond of the brandmarks of those early days.

20 Corporate Brand Logo Evolution

British Design Classics stamps by Royal Mail

Wow.

Gorgeous little electric car by a former designer at Volkswagen.  The name of the company is Mindset, which sure doesn’t sound like a car company, but maybe that a good thing.

One million gold-and-black engraved invitations for Obama’s inauguration are printed in Dumbo, Brooklyn, by Precise Continental, a 26-year-old printing company that is FSC certified.  Details - recycled paper by Neenah Paper, ink by BuzzInk, typefaces: Shelley Allegro and Kuenstler.  Read the whole thing on NY Times.

I’ll admit it: when I first saw this line of undies (or would you prefer “undergarments”?) by N. Hoolywood (yes, with two o’s) I wanted to take my wallet out and hand over my credit card.  Just look at the details - and look at that packaging!  I had to slap my vain self to get back to reality.

I love good package designs, but this one just seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it?  I know us designers obsess over details, but I wonder when does it become unhealthy?  I mean, seriously, who gives a shit when we got a recession on our hands, and a lunatic governor who wouldn’t step down?

On another, more humbling, note: an article in the latest New Yorker about shoppers brownbagging their luxury goods.  Guilty of shopping when your friends are being laid off, or just fear of being robbed?

We received this 110% spam/scam-looking invitation via e-mail.  I think they need to work on their pitch to entrepreneurs.

I just saw this sweet ass HP Mini on Uncrate, clicked on the image, went on the HP website and what did I see?  A tiny picture of some black laptop with what looks like a molded, stained screen.  Look, if you’re selling a product, please make sure your product shots are at least as good (and as big) as the pictures used on blogs.

I did a quick comparison of how HP and Apple display their products on their websites.  Moral of the story: when in doubt, think: what would Apple do?

One of our Harvest customers, Headspace Design, has recently won an Ice Award for their package design for Mucci Pucci, a dog food company.  I love the package design and asked Kyle about the story behind it.  This is what he said:

Mucci Pucci is run by a couple of entrepreneurs who wanted to sell home-made, organic, human grade ingredients to an audience of dog spoilers. The design challenge was to create an identity that was high-end and almost fashionable, but also fit their small start-up budget.

The logo communicates cute and friendly, and the tagline sums it up, “For dogs with taste”, a tongue-in-check play off of the snooty attitude we think of when it comes to dogs getting bought human-grade treats. The bone designs on the packages are made up of organic designs, and they differ for each flavor. The bags used are cheap, recyclable paper, and the labels were printed and applied by hand.

Headspace, which is based in Nova Scotia, also designed Mucci Pucci’s website, point-of-sale booth, staff shirts and poster campaign - and you can see them on their website.  Aside from the honor of getting the award, Mucci Pucci has been selling out since April 2007, when the marketing campaign launched.  That’s good design, folks.