NIKE WRITE THE FUTURE
NIKE WRITE THE FUTURE
The Google Job Experiment
Madonna, Adobe Photoshop Day Cream
Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.
- Paul Rand
Marlboro? What Marlboro?
If looking at the above image suddenly inspires an unprecedented urge to grab a smoke and start puffing away, that’s because Marlboro wants you to buy their cigarettes. Or at least that’s how the conspiracy theory goes. Dutifully reported by our blogging peer, Graphicology, it turns that the Ferrari Formula One racing team is trying to sneak an allusion of the Marlboro logo through their speedy car’s new paint job in the form of an abstract bar code that supposedly resembles a Marlboro pack — a tactic made necessary due to a ban on tobacco advertising by the European Union. Fact or fiction? You decide.
Seattle’s Best Coffee began roasting in 1970 in what was yet to be the northwestern cornerstone of U.S. coffee culture, Seattle. The company has expanded to a modest and respectable 500 stores across twenty states and being the official coffee shop at Borders bookstores, giving it an additional 500 or so outposts. It is also the second largest coffee roaster in the U.S. behind Starbucks, who ironically (or not), owns Seattle’s Best, purchased in 2003 by the giant. Today, Seattle’s Best is announcing a major push in its distribution: By partnering with other retailers like Burger King, Subway and AMC Entertainment (one of the largest movie theater chains in the U.S.), to add Seattle’s Best coffee to their menus, bumping its distribution by about 30,000 points of sale. Additionally, Seattle’s Best will be dispensing coffee via vending machines, although I’m not clear how or where. Along with this announcement, a radically new logo has been introduced, designed by Seattle ad agency Creature.
We hear so much about the brands, logos and their significance in the modern world. Everyday we see numerous brand identities with their creative logo designs. But have we ever wondered…from where did logos actually evolve? Let us take a brief account of the journey of logos from the ancient times to the modern era.
Genesis by Greeks:
Although there is no definitive account of logo design, but the term “logo” is derivative of the Greek Term “lógos” meaning “word”. A similar term used nowadays is “logotype” meaning “type of several letters cast in one piece”. The ancient times saw logo used as a cipher by Greeks to communicate secret messages of their kings and rulers. Many early Greek and Roman coins portray the monograms (or logos as we say today) of rulers.
Merchant Trademarks:
Then came the thirteenth century, the age of trading. The monograms had developed into trademarks for merchants. The earliest traces of logo design comprise of trademarks for farmers, goldsmiths, paper makers, and other merchants. No doubt the roots of branding go back to the agrarian age. Farmers used hot iron stamps to decipher their cattle from one another. By the 17th century, every merchant and trader had a trademark or name stamp of his own.
Industrial Revolution:
The biggest contributor to the development of logo design was the 18th century shift from agrarian to industrial. The focus started shifting from agricultural to industrial products. With the advent of photography and lithography, the trademarks started gaining much finer quality. Innovators in the visual arts and lithographic process—such as French printing firm Rouchon(1840s), Joseph Morse of New York( 1850s), England’s Frederick Walker(1870s)—developed an illustrative style that went beyond tonal, representational art to figurative imagery with sections of bright, flat colors.
Earliest Corporate Logos:
One of the first famous logos to have ever been developed for a multinational was the Prudential Insurance’s “The Rock of Gibraltar” logo in the 1890’s. Another well remembered corporate identity is the old Nipper trademark of RCA in 1910 (Dog “Nipper” sitting in front of a phonograph with the slogan “His mater’s voice). The present age of logo design began in the 1950s. The Chase Logo, designed in 1960 by Chermayeff & Geismar is considered as the benchmark for contemporary graphic design in the United States. The Chase logo with its paradigmatic design was the first abstract logo of the modern era.
Future of Logo design:
Where is logo design heading for? Which so much of logo design trends we have seen in the recent decade or so, it is most certain that the future of logo design is bright and prospective. Surely, there will be logo design trend predictions in 2010 as well.
The Bloomberg BusinessWeek redesign
On April 26th, 2010, Bloomberg BusinessWeek unveiled the magazine’s new look, only months after Bloomberg’s acquisition of the publication.
Over the years the aesthetics of the brand have evolved (as seen in 80th anniversary video above), but this latest iteration has the Bloomberg name taking its place with equal prominence in the masthead logo.
A broader color palette has also been injected throughout the spreads. Though the redesign is substantial, it is secondary to the increased variety and volume of content. The April 26/May 2nd issue has 136 pages compared to the preceding week’s magazine which only had 68 pages.
“…We’re going to double the number of stories, improve the quality of paper we print on, and increase the size of each issue by 25%. At the same time, we know that volume isn’t worth much without perspective. Everyday the world of business gets more complicated. Our writing and editing will be focused on sorting the signal from the noise, and giving you the information you need to compete in the week ahead. Our rich, vibrant design will enable you to navigate quickly to the stories and issues that matter to you most…”
—letter to readers from Editor Josh Tyrangiel in April 25th, 2010 issue
The redesign team was led by Creative Director Richard Turley, with karlssonwilker lending their talents to the infographics and charts.
(Read on about Richard Turley’s involvement with Christian Schwartz on completing the revival of the Neue Haas Grotesk typeface—discovered the info on the custom design thanks to soulellis).
Puma’s new shoe box - is not a box!
Geometry, dimension, and translucency. Veerle’s blog has an interesting article on the evolution of Adobe’s CS5 branding.(via @AisleOne)
(via ngm, johnnychallenge, gorg)
via simko:
Play More Notebook designed by Trapped in Suburbia.
We wanted to get our clients moving behind their desk, so we created this notebook with writing space on one side and side ball patterns on the other. Just screw a piece of paper to a ball and you can play soccer, or rugby, or throw a tennis ball in your waste basket. (via)
TED’s Brand Of Innovative People And Ideas
Posted by Sheila Shayon on April 9, 2010 11:32 AM
TED’s tagline is “Ideas worth spreading,” and it has been doing just that since being founded by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks in 1984. An annual conference event since 1990, Wurman left following the 2002 conference, and Chris Anderson is now the owner and curator.
As editor-in-chief of Wired, Anderson coined the phrase “The Long Tail,” which he expanded to a 2006 book, Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More. His non-profit, The Sapling Foundation, owner of TED, is dedicated to “leveraging the power of ideas to change the world.”
TED.com has become the Who’s Who of technology, entertainment, and design. Ted Talks are available free on TED’s website, and on iTunes, YouTube, and most recently a free iPhone app. The archive now exceeds 500 talks seen by upwards of 15 million people worldwide.Continue reading…
It’s funny to recall “design memories” and I never thought I would look back to 2001 with a weird sense of nostalgia when Landor introduced the identity for Brand Hong Kong (BHK), it felt like the culmination of great work after big successes like FedEx, John Deere and BP. At the time, it was one of the most prominent efforts to brand a destination and Landor had done it pretty amazingly. Managed by the Government’s Information Services Department, the goal, then and now, for BHK is simply to establish the city as not only the most cosmopolitan city in Asia but around the world — to be more specific, BHK must communicate “Cosmopolitan, Secure, Dynamic, Diverse, and Connected” as attributes of the city, and “Free, Enterprising, Quality Living, Innovative, and Excellence” as its values. After nine years, the identity has been revised.
