The CPB Shine Award is a competition we hold every year to uncover the finest new graphic design talent. It’s open to all 2nd year graphic design students and the winning entry becomes the following year’s poster.
Today I went to the printers to see this year’s Shine Award poster coming to life. Jia Ying Gnoh’s beautiful creation will soon be winging its way to a design course near you, after a few secret finishing touches!
Chiquita bananas have launched a campaign based on their iconic blue stickers. DJ Neff has designed a huge range of fun characters, using the iconic colours and shape of the little blue sticker. They’re still instantly recognisable as Chiquita even when on their own - a brilliant example of brand equity. But what makes this a truly ‘2010′ project is that they’ve pushed the creative idea even further, linking it into interactive games on the brand’s website. Check out an interview with DJ Neff here.
Ok so I get that we are living in a digital, web 2.0 world where our lives (supposedly) are getting easier as we have more technology to ‘help’ us. However with all these gadgets taking over our lives i’m almost certain there will come a time when we wont even have to think for ourselves any more, computers will control our brains.
Its already happening to boardgames, have a look at what Hasbro have done to my favourite childhood game, Monopoly.
“Gone are the £400 property bargains, the silver playing pieces - and the opportunity to sneak a note out of the banker’s box”
Yesterday to mark its 75th anniversary, Monopoly unveiled their 21st Century version called Monopoly Revolution. In a move that mirrors whats going on in our own society the nostalgic boardgame now uses electronic banking instead of paper money and the board itself has also changed from a traditional square to a circular board with sound effects! The new version completely removes the need for players to use mental arithmetic and think for themselves, its what I said at the beginning…. technology is taking over our lives!
In another move, property prices have also shot up to reflect modern prices. No longer a bargin at £200, Kings Cross Station now costs £2million and not surprisingly Mayfair has not escaped the price hike either, it can now be purchased for tidy sum of £4million!
An estimated one billion people have played Monopoly since its launch. Designed by Charles Darrow in 1935 it has gone virtually unchanged, so why take the decision to mess around with it now?
In my opinion Monopoly is a classic & iconic piece of nostalgia that didn’t need updating.
As my Mum & Dad used to say to me - if it aint broke don’t fix it!
For years we’ve popping up our bread half way through the toast cycle to check its just the way we like it, peering over the top to make sure the edges haven’t burnt, narrowly missing singeing our eyebrows off.
Obtaining that perfect piece of toast hasn’t been an as easy task especially when you have such high standards. Just read the requirements from some of the CPB toast addicts and you’ll know what i’m talking about…..
“Caught just before it starts to darken, white and pale caramel coloured”
“crispy golden on the outside, fluffy inside with burned bits round the edge”
“I am very particular about my toast. I prefer hand cut bread, evenly done with a nice golden brown colour. It mustn’t be too overdone and if it’s too lightly done it’s too soft”
“Golden brown evenly toasted all over . To ensure its evenly brown I frequently peer into the toaster to check how its coming along”
If only we could see whats going on inside I hear you cry!!
Has anyone else noticed a minor invasion of furry creatures recently? The fuzzy little critters are cropping up everywhere from Spanish car adverts to dutch mobile phone ads, even coca cola have crawled onto the bushy bandwagon. Is there a recession-based psychological reason behind this phenomenon, or is it just a cool trend that people are copying? Have they always been here and I just haven’t noticed? I’m sure there are more examples so let me know if you have any more sightings!
It’s probably a bit late to post this considering this event is taking place this weekend, but I thought I’d put it up anyway because it’s good reference. Onedotzero is a festival of the latest digital happenings going on at the BFI Southbank. Click on the link below for a closer look.
http://www.onedotzero.com/event.php?id=31216
And look at this video to give yourselves a taster of what’s on.
The Zippo lighter is, in my view, a style icon. It’s cool. It’s the bad boy of lighters. It’s James Dean. It’s Cool Hand Luke. It opened Apocalypse Now - need I say more.
But with smoking on the defensive. Disposability increasingly being king. How will its functional durability, its no nonsense ability to light in any conditions, its enduring style, play a part in todays’ world.
Well, it’s adapted, its cool lives on, it’s now the virtual Zippo. Allowing a whole new generation of users to experience its cool. It has just exceeded its 5 millionth download to the iPhone and is one of the fastest ever downloads.
You can open it with the flick of your iPhone, light it by turning the flint and if you blow your iPhone or move it back and forth, the windproof flame sways realistically.
Apparently in the States you’re now as likely to see the iPhone Zippo at the end of a concert as the real thing.
In my opinion this is ilustrates the power of a brand with a clear sense of what’s at its heart. They’ve seized an opportunity and made themselves relevant … where next for Zippo?
One Sunday, bitterly cold afternoon in late November. My friend Katy Coe came bouncing in with a huge bag of clothes, and one very big idea ” Im going to call my shop ‘Vintage Deli “, she beamed at me with her wide grin and smiling eyes. I was completely taken away with her energy and enthusiasm, so we sat in front of our fire and started sketching ideas, not long after I came up with a mark which did and said exactly what Katy wanted, and designed a homepage to show off Katy’s collection of beautiful clothes. Her website is up and running and well worth a look…
Need to chill out and de stress after a hard day at work? Had too much caffine and now you can’t sleep? How about trying the latest drink from Canadian beverage maker Slow Cow.
Offering “an acupuncture session” in every can, the drink has been produced to ‘calm your nerves and ease jitteriness from energy drink consumption’. An antidote to drinks like Red Bull and Rockstar, Slow Cow has been developed to help people calm down, de stress and chill out when they need it the most.
It’s a cheaper alternative to going to a health farm!
Optimsim in design and communication is a trend that we at CPB identified in the latter stages of 2008. We put together a great Visual Futures semniar, which was presented earlier this year and what is great is that we continue to see forms of optimsim creeping in to every day communication.
Have a look at these great examples from Microsoft which were spotted on the coolhunter website
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