Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Stay hungry. Stay Foolish.

Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford in 2005, still resonates with me today. This is probably the most inspirational thing I have read in a very long time. It made me think about why I do what I do and the effects of it.

So go on, read it.
Enjoy.

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Thursday, November 5, 2009

I liked being scared and hungry.

"It's always better to be a little scared and a little hungry. It keeps you working harder." Said by Paula Scher in an interview posted on Design TAXI.

Great words to live by as a designer.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Project Packaging - Summer 2009

Check out the photos from the Project Packaging class of summer 2009.
They had one 9 week project, and three 1 week projects to do and these were the results.

9 Week Projects

Post Cereal





Milka Chocolate





Imperial Sugar



Skinny Cow Ice-Cream



Georgia Natural Honey







One week challenges

The Alcoholic Type
For this challenge students choose two fonts from a hat and had to design beer packaging around it. Only using those two fonts for their design

Fat Tire



Black Toad





Spaten Optimator



Spaten special edition



Brooklyn Brewery





Hornsby Hard Cider





Walmart Packaging

For this challenge students had to redesign Walmart food packaging and the only prerequisite was that they use photography and keep the Great Value name.















Animal food packaging
For this challenge students were given dog, cat, or bird food to design.













Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Brand Gap

This presentation is based on the book by Marty Neumeier. Good presentation and great content.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Project Packaging - Season 4, Challenge 3

Recently Portfolio Center’s Project Packaging class came to our offices to have their work judged by the our very own Eric Berrios and myself, their current instructor. They had to pitch their idea, try to sell us on it while standing in the daunting environment of a real conference room.

For this particular challenge students were given G.I.Joe or Barbie as their main product to design. They had to come up with a concept not currently in the market to be launched in the Holidays 2009 and the deliverables included, 2 packages, one figure and a complement to the figure. To keep them honest a couple restrictions were put in place as well; company logo needs to stay true to it’s current version, clothes needed to be designed according to the concept, all packages must be mocked up as they would be sold in the store.

And now for the winner…
(Drum-roll...)

Laid-off Barbie and sticker page



Checkout the unemployment checks, the resumes, box of tissues, Ramen nood, etc.



The others...

Street Cred Barbie and her Bling



Black Label Barbie and Magazine subscriptions



Barbie Go Green and Garden Set



Arctic Ops G.I. Joe and Polar Bear



On a Budget Barbie and Dog

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Project Packaging - Season 4 Challenge 2

More value, lower prices. Hmmmm

For this challenge students were given Kroger brand as their main product to design. Deliverables included, 2 packages, one circular and square/rectangular box. To make this more interesting a couple of restrictions were put in place; company logo needs to stay true to it’s current version, photography must used on package, products chosen need to correspond with one another, design needs to be expandable to other products in the store and finally, all packages must be mocked up as they would be sold in the store.

Guest Judge John Hartwell

And now for the winner.
(Drum Roll...)

Total Value Oatmeal Cookies and Olives.
This solution is simple and sharp, and can be implemented onto other products with ease.


Detail


The others...

Kroger Baked Beans and Gas Relief

Kroger Chiles and Refried Beans
(and the photo would be where...)


Kroger Strawberry Jelly and Peanut Butter

Detail of illustration

Kroger Bandaids and Alcohol

Kroger Tomatoes and Raisins

Kroger Pasta and Garlic

A stop at the "buck of the star"

Hank was on the road yesterday and saw these, grabbed a quick snapshot and had this to say about it...

Nice typographical handling on the packaging – bold to see and aesthetically curious and pleasing, + really held together as a unit in the main logo structure...

The type is incredible and a challenge to achieve. I wish someone would step up.

Take a look and delight in it's wonderfulness.