..:: THOUGHTS ::..

WHAT!?!?!?

via Brand New

"Buyology, “the world’s leading strategic neuromarketing company,” has released its first annual Most Desired U.S. Brands Report after six years of spending $8 million testing 240 global brands with more than 5,000 consumers. The results are pretty baffling... the thing you desire most every single day is Crest. That’s right, Crest is the number one, most desired brand for men. Crest! If there was a brand for watching paint dry that would be more desirable than Crest."

See more HERE!

..:: THOUGHTS? ::..

Via Creative Review

Nothing like a good logo controversy to kick off the New Year: the emblem for the 2016 Rio Olympics was unveiled on New Year's Eve and immediately ran into accusations of plagiarism.

The logo, designed by Rio-based Tátil, "translates the Olympic spirit and the nature, feelings, and aspirations of the athletes, Rio and the cariocas," according to the official guff. "Different countries, athletes and peoples are joined in a warm embrace – in an individual and collective move, which at a second glance, reveals one of Rio’s most beautiful icons, a vibrant Sugar Loaf, radiating joy, unity, celebration, and friendship."

However, a story in the Washington Post, following up on Brazilian media reports, alleged a similarity with the logo of US not-for-profit the Telluride Foundation. Tátil's Fred Gelli put any likeness down to coincidence and noted that the broad concept of people embracing each other is not novel. Quite.

Apparently, Tátil's design was selected from eight finalists, after a five-month selection process that initially involved 139 agencies. As an exercise in box-ticking it does its job: joyful amorphous people? Tick. Suggestion of diversity? Tick. 'Friendly' scripty typeface? Tick. Values that could be ascribed to just about any bidding city? Err.. check.

Lord knows, the London logo has much about it to dislike but at least it's more memorable than this insipid effort.

..:: THOUGHTS? ::..

Via Huffington Post

Gap has debuted a new logo on its website, doing away with the blue square we've come to know and love. There's no word if the stores will follow suit or if it's just an online thing.

Blog Kitsune Noir reports that the design community wasn't too impressed and that the new logo now has its own (perhaps unofficial) Twitter account addressing complaints.

..:: THOUGHTS? ::..

Via Brand New
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 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.

..:: THOUGHTS? ::..

Via PSFK

The Daily Mail reports that cereal maker Kellogg’s is planning to laser etch their logo on individual Corn Flakes in an effort to set themselves apart from imitations and generic brands.

A limited number of boxes with the laser toasted cereal will be put into production before they move foreword with branding some cereal pieces in every box. If it’s decided that it’s feasible, Kellogg’s may apply this questionable branding across a number of thier products.

The Daily Mail explains:

Kellogg’s embarked on the project to reinforce that they don’t make cereals for any other companies and to fire a shot across the bows of makers of ‘fake flakes’.

Helen Lyons, lead food technologist at the company, said: ‘In recent years there has been an increase in the number of own brands trying to capitalise on the popularity of Kellogg’s corn flakes.

‘We want shoppers to be under absolutely no illusion that Kellogg’s does not make cereal for anyone else.

‘We’re constantly looking at new ways to reaffirm this and giving our golden flakes of corn an official stamp of approval could be the answer.

Not really sure how I feel about this? THOUGHTS?

..:: ILIKE ::,,

Another one of the Bay Areas finest, Jeremy Fish, talks about Art and Tee Shirts.

Love his take on it.

..:: DIG THIS ::..

I am a Font nerd! I love everything that has to do with fonts.
That's just one reason why I love this!

FONTCAPTURE

Make a font out of your own handwriting! Super easy to do. And it is wild seeing your own handwriting in a font.

Worth the 5 minutes it takes to get it all said and done!

Thanks to @inspiredmag for tweeting it! :)

..:: THOUGHTS? ::..

After fifty years of Futura, IKEA will be changing its catalog typeface to Verdana.

Via idsgn:
The font will replace IKEA Sans (a customized version of Futura by Robin Nicholas), and IKEA Serif (based on Century Schoolbook). In an interview with the Swedish design magazine Cap & Design, IKEA’s Ivana Hrdlickova says the main reason for the switch was to allow the company to use the same typeface in all countries (current IKEA typefaces do not contain Asian characters, for example). Being that Verdana was designed for the web, it also allows the company’s image to remain consistent online and in print.

Read the full story here.

Of all the choices, Verdana!? Really!?

..:: THOUGHTS ::..

For over 20 years Freshjive has been a mainstay in the street wear game. And its identifiable logo has been there for the whole ride.

But, things change.

"Freshjive embarks upon one of the world's first anti-branding campaigns, in which they will be stripping their logos from not just the outside of their garments, but from the labels themselves."

In an exclusive interview with the Hundreds streetwear blog, Klotz states:

"Throughout the years I've become uncomfortable with this business of branding and brand identity. I'm not the type of person that buys something for the brand name. I've also never done a very good job at creating a captivating identity to our own brand logo. Also, within the streetwear culture, the promotion of a company's brand has become downright silly to me. What's amusing is I still really enjoy designing gear, graphics, and even logos. But when I see kids wearing company logos it reminds of people who are trying to be a part of a "tribe" or "gang", as if they need to be part of something, which seems to go against the idea of individualism in style."

Not sure how I feel about it. I mean, me, I wear a plain white or black shirt everyday, so I may actually wear it, but is it really a smart move for business?
Will younger kids spend the money when nothing really distinguishes the brand?

Thoughts?

Huffington Post

..:: THOUGHTS? ::..

I found this while stumbling around the inter web.

Is it just me, or is this a direct ripoff of one of the worlds most famous graffiti artists BANKSY


I'm not saying its not good, it just it's almost done exactly! Even the message is the same! I wonder if BANSKY gets CD credit?!

Probably not.

..:: DIG THIS ::..

Loving this color.

Pantone 3262.

So many uses, depending on what you pair it with it can be kinda 80's, or super modern.

Try it with a nice soft brown, and white, classic.

I have used it lately with great success, and in painting, I am using it mixed with pinks and gray tones. Looking really good.

Anyway. Have a great weekend.

..:: iLIKE ::..

So I feel kinda bad for dissing the Wendy's commercial. Not really, I mean that is a really bad commercial, but Wendy's has been known to do better spots for years, and I just think they had a bad one there.

Either way. I have learned that if you say something mean about someone, or something, its best to say 2 nice things.

So here are 2 examples of really great spots.

Ahh, I feel better.

Good Karma.

(But really, that Wendy's commercial sucks so hard.) OK, I'm done.

..:: iLIKE ::..

Helvetica is for sure in my top ten as favorite fonts.
(which I will be posting soon)

And if you haven't seen Helvetica the movie, go check it out.

Here is a great look at 40 Logos using Helvetica.

Classics.

..:: INNOVATIVE ::..

One of my new favorite blogs posted this awhile ago,
but I had to put it up.

If you haven't seen True Blood yet, its worth a watch, but really, this campaign is almost better then the show!

I love when agencies/clients are not afraid to take a risk. The campaign really stretches out way past the realm of "The Box". Great work.

Read more here.

..:: BRILLIANT ::..

God Damn that's good!

Have a great weekend.

..:: REBRANDING ::..

I have wanted to share my thoughts on when a company or brand should Re-Brand for quite awhile, But that's a really tough question. There will always be someone thinking "it looks better the old way", or "it looks to spacey" or "I don't get it", blah, blah, blah.

I think its best to re brand when its not working anymore. and by IT, I mean the thing that got you to where you are now, is no longer the core message. When you have grown, when you have made strides in another direction, offering a new service. When the company changes in a major way, maybe its time to update? Just sayin.

The Detroit Lions announced their new logo the other day, and this is an example of IT not working. Not only is the team needing to bounce back from a horrible season last year, but the city of Detroit is in need of something fresh, something new.

Lets hope that the new logo can help pull Detroit out of its slump, not only the team, but the city.

..:: GOOD DESIGN ::..

I know I have been slacking on my posting lately, I promise to be more on it when things calm down.

ANYWAY!

I am in California right now for work and play, and I got to thinking
about the state of design in CA.
California has always been huge in creating new ways to be environmentally sound, and with the economy being the way it is, its time to make a difference in the way architects think about housing in CA.

Modern residential design is one of my passions, and thinking of the environment is so key in the next steps of our world. This is a great look at the way we, as designers should be thinking.

..:: EMERGING ::..

So we all know that Twitter is the latest craze.
And we know that the Hispanic market is really booming right now.
So, why didn't someone think of this sooner?
Twitteros is for Latinos that twitter, and apparently there are many! This thing is getting tons of hits and growing everyday!
During SXSW this thing picked up huge numbers, and got some really great press.

Oh, and that logo aint bad either! :)

..:: DIG THIS ::..

If you haven't watched the new TNT show TRUST ME, your missing out!
They bill it as "Mad Men for the rest of us." I was kinda skeptical at first, I mean I watch kind of a lot of TV, and I don't really need anymore new shows! But this one stood out and I am really getting into it. It stars Tom Cavanagh and Eric McCormack, as two friends that work at a Ad agency in Chicago, it not only does a really great job of getting the feeling of Ad work, but it brings some much needed laughs provided by Cavanagh, as Conner.
Another thing this show does very well, is brand placement. Something that is now the standard in movies and TV. But as a show about an Ad agency you cant do it without clients, smart move to not make up fake clients, they use real ones, and it does not go unnoticed. They have done a great job using them as background and not "whoring it out" like some brand placement strategies often tend to do.
Check it out.

..:: LOGO BOWL ::..

So, I am not really a big football fan, but since I live in America and I am human, I have been forced to learn everything that is, Super Bowl.

Neither of these teams really interest me much, but while I was being spoon fed Super Bowl knowledge while getting ready for work in the morning, I thought, "Hey, some of these football logos aren't half bad!"

I have to say, after looking at these for awhile,
its kind of a close race for me.

On one side you have the classic iconography, with the Steelers. simple, to the point, And really, can you argue with the steelers logo?

On the other side, you have the Cardinals logo. Youthful, sporty, I think some people would say "edgy" (not me). But also,
a good football club icon. And very now in terms of recent sports teams and current trends of re branding.

After the smoke clears on Sunday night, and the hangovers are just a memory on Monday, or even Tuesday. One team may be able to hold the trophy high, but if the logo sucks,
is anyone really going to remember!?

:)