Avoid Consumerism

Since it's crisis time, and everyone's recommending to consume less & eventually boycott brands & big corporations, here is some thoughtful visual communication we found here & there that is also pretty delightful & amusing...

Pentawards is the first and only worldwide competition exclusively devoted to packaging design in all its forms. It is open to everybody in all countries who are associated with the creation and marketing of packaging.
Judged by a prominent international jury and endorsed by Icograda IDA, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond Pentawards were distributed to the best brands’ packaging designs of this year’s competition and handed on to the winners at the Pentawards Ceremony, at Luxepack Monaco (France), on October 30, 2008.

Piper Heidsieck - Rosé Sauvage designed by Viktor and Rolf won the Best Of the Show Diamond award.
Entitled 'Upside Down,' this is a bottle that rests on the neck, the neck and front labels and cap foil reversed!

“How do you do something new with something timeless? We had only one answer: reverse the proportions;”

This is how the two Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf express it. So the designers kept all the traditional graphic features of champagne (bottle, cork, ice bucket, glass, and labels) but thought that if champagne could turn one’s head, it was only necessary to reverse all these visual elements to amplify this impression, and especially to differentiate the Piper Heidsieck brand from its competitors by recreating the packaging of the champagne.
The bottles of Pieper Heidsieck Rosé Sauvage signed by Viktor & Rolf were launched on the market at the end of October 2007 in several duty free shops and in exclusive bars and wine bars. This is therefore a limited-time edition. The glass bottles are covered by a sleeve produced by Sleever International, a leading global company in this very innovative area of packaging design.

The idea of working with such an exciting signature as Viktor & Rolf is born from a strategic and creative design management partnership between Piper Heidsieck and BETC Design. It is this creativity in support of packaging, also expressed throughout the communication (the site will also spin your head around) that won over the Pentawards jury.

Chez nous, il y a du talent...et le médiocre aussi!

Bumped into Beirut 001 --a blog from Beirut as its name indicates-- that houses some good visual communications, a witty social design sort of expression.

However, the blog seems to be dusty somehow, in the sense that the last sign of life dates back to...Hold your breath...2006.... & the owner---of what was supposed to be a space to archive some posters & postcards, made in Lebanon by Grabriel F. or whoever is behind Beirut 001---holds other blogs that ain't any active too. Whatever...It's worth a quick visit for whatever is in there...

tarararam

The cedar tree of the Lebanese flag is the national symbol of Lebanon, eternity and life. As our country gets shaped over the decades by never ending conflicts, maybe it’s time to replace our headstrong cedar with a curling winding twisting spiral. (tarararam) (music of the Lebanese National Anthem).
By Wael Morcos from The Place.

Continue reading here

COKE ROCKS 8x

This is An artistic and cultural exchange like no other and the latest from Coke, Operation~: Coca Cola’s WE8 Project.

What is it all about?
Uniting eight of China's most interesting artists and design firms, and eight of the West's most exciting artists and design firms, and eight of the West's most progressive musicians to interpret the ideas and passions that connect us all--by sharing and expressing one of eight themes:
Happiness; Active; Human collaboration; Peace on Earth; Individual perseverance, Healthy world; Uplifting moments; Global Harmony.

To search out an answer to the questions:
What opens your heart?
What does good fortune look like?
What makes you smile?
What fuels your desire?
How do you live in Harmony with the environment?
What do you wish for the world?
What makes you happiest?

The result?
The result is we8: A vision and soundtrack that celebrates the infinite possibilities that await us when the doors are flung wide-from East to West, from culture, from me to you.
Some of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous soda packaging bottles ever seen. The eight bottles are already circulating in various markets, and collectors are already rushing to get their hands on these unique Coke limited edition bottles.
The vision and soundtrack are available now "for a whole new world living on the Coke Side of Life."

Moreover, Coca Cola is giving you the opportunity to design your own?
Yep, Coke allows you to input your own designs for others to check out and assess.
Many creations are already on the roll, and you can check it all out at we8.coca-cola.com

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The Peace on Earth Bottle was created by Joyn Viscom.

'Peace = lotus + bottle. Red balloons and white birds morphing from origami airplanes symbolize the message of peace. As messengers, the four children in white are sending the message of peace to people from all over the world.'

The Happiness Bottle was created by Wang Xu.

'The Haha mirror shows happiness you can see. Hahaha is the sound of someone laughing, full of happiness.'

The Uplifting Moments Bottle was created by MeWe.

'Now, we are trying to put imagination back to the aluminum bottle. With the gemstones, when the Coca-Cola logo faces you, you discover the word ‘happy.’ And the butterfly bottle symbolizes beauty and the most uplifting moment when its transformation takes place.'

The Human Collaboration Bottle was created by Milkxhake.

'Coming from all over the world yet sharing the same sky, we start everything with a loving heart, so that our world will be even more beautiful.'

The Active Optimism Bottle was created by Chen Shao-hua.

'Nothing visual can fully represent the multi-faceted meanings of happiness. But the artist turned to popular text messaging and his blog to ask to young Chinese people: What words say happiness to you? He then selected 8, 4-character words, which most represent the idea of happiness among young people, and placed the words in the mouth of the laughing Bodhisattva—a traditionally hilarious Chinese symbol.'

The Individual Perseverance Bottle was created by Jiang Hua.

'The horizontally extending pattern is actually Coca-Cola in Chinese characters. They are used to wrap around the bottle. Customers in China might be able to guess its meaning. The geometric pattern also reminds the user of the organic shape of the Coke bottle.'

Sexy laptops laser engraved

Portland, Oregon based custom laser engraving for your laptop, iPod, mobile phone etc.


Beetles' iPod is designed by Jona Bechtolt and laser engraved by Joe Mansfield

Laser engraved black Mac Book designed by Joe Mansfield -


Design your own
Or
ENGRAVE YOUR TECH
Or
Watch the making of

PePsixpressive Art

ARTCO & Pepsi

While the art and design worlds are trying to reconcile their differences and work together, Cary Lietzes of ARTCO is working to bring artists and major corporations closer, by creating branding that is visually stimulating and unique. Design has a long history of struggle with the mass market but Lietzes has pioneered a fresh approach to the subject and carved out an intricate niche for herself and the artists and brands with which she works.

Using her knowledge of fashion, marketing and publishing, Lietzes recognised the need for new blood in the marketing world and identified current artists whose forward thinking and creativity suited these needs.

Hence, ARTCO's current project with Pepsi is not surprising, but is refreshing.
ARTCO has assembled 10 artists to design the Pepsi cans for the company's 4 biggest markets.

Very specific guidelines were set, along with some technical restrictions in relation to Brand Pepsi.
For instance, artists were only allowed to work within 6 colors, 5 of the 6 were Pepsi designated colors; not more than 20% of the design could be in red, in order not to be confused with you know who, "Always NANANA"...

The challenge was even greater with such a limited creative framework; however, the wide exposure, artists will be getting as a result, is by itself a satisfying reward.
The 10 different designs will be sold worldwide, with the new designs rolling out in select countries before expanding to more locations throughout the year, reaching a wide cultural mix.

USA / NICK Z; China / STELLA LAI; Puerto Rico / DZINE; Korea / YOON LEE; Brazil / AVAF; India / THURKAL & TAGRA; UK / JON BURGERMAN; Russia / DUBOSSARSKY & VINOGRADOV; Mexico / FERNANDA BRUNET

Things I have learned in my Life So Far...

'Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far' is an interactive exhibition by Stefan Sagmeister that opened at
Deitch Projects on January 31, 2008, in New York.
The exhibition includes works that have a life of their own, transforming throughout the exhibition as viewers engage with them.
Sagmeister’s illustrious career, as he is one of today’s most innovative and influential graphic designers.
His conception and application of graphic design goes above and beyond traditional notions of the practice, taking it to the realm of performative and conceptual art, painting and sculpture.

Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far is timed to coincide with the release of a new book of the same title, which surveys Sagmeister’s illustrious career, and is set to be released in Marcvh 2008.

Karim Rachid ObliqSound

Independent New York/Hamburg based music label, ObliqSound comissioned Egyptian industrial designer Karim Rashid, to conceptualize the packaging design of Vol.2 ObliqSound Remixes.
Only 2000 copies, of Rachid's design, were available worldwide; labelled The 'limited edition', it got produced in pearl white & electric blue and was released in October 06.
ObliqSound Remixes Vol. 2., Karim Rashid's first-ever CD design project, is a beautiful collectors' item, which marries great electro jazzy sounds with cutting-edge design of an aesthetically distinctive multi-purpose accessory.


"Art, design and music are so intertwined and intrinsic to one another… they are conduits and modes of self-expression. So when the elegant, bombastic label ObliqSound approached me to design their special remix CD, I was jazzed to say the least. I have loved jazz all my life, and my favorite most influential period was in the seventies when jazz got conceptual and funky (dazz, fazz and acid jazz sounds). I love their really contemporary new jazz sound. It has the nuances and flavors of my favorite jazz periods, but takes us to a new level, offering a new axiom in jazz. I wanted to create a techno-visual package that speaks about this new age of digital jazz, of jazz that has been remixed to move our spirits, our lives and touch our modicum and aural landscape." (Karim Rachid)