chocolate. yum.

Candy. More specifically, chocolate. A saturated market. How can you enter this market of giants and be original? Well, having great package design helps.

I noticed the brand because of the clean work and cheeky execution. They have a variety of chocolate bars and each has its own personality while keeping the brand identity intact. The simple text and illustration work on them is inspiring to me, as this is what I would like to see out of my own work soon. No crazy photos. No over-done photoshop craziness (well, at least not at the moment). Just simple illustrations with personality.

Check out all the work in the shop section on bloomsberryusa.com. Its worth the click.

fellas, valentines day is around the corner... just a reminder (if you're a participant).

Simple. Clean. Focused.

I think this is really strong work. It is from Print or CA Design Annual (? forgot to record, but I will check on that and update). Great balance. Very simple design. They eye is drawn quickly by the heavy weight and strong contrast in the camera lens to the text. The idea is well executed, using only one object and one word to communicate a very strong idea. The design is understood at almost the very split second your eye sees it.

Treats From Taiwan

My brother just got back from a trip and one of the stops included Taiwan. He brought back some goodies. I was proud of him and his purchases. Here are some shots of the treats from the National Center for Traditional Arts in Yilan, Taiwan (yeah, it sounds kinda touristy to me to, but I won't judge). There seems to be a theme of thirds, throughout the exterior packaging design and the housing of the product itself. The designers also seem consistent in their affinity for the color red.

I had this idea...

I had this idea (I did, I swear) a while back to help strengthen a small coffee house identity. It was an attempt at connecting its local shop(s) with the surrounding community, generate press and some exposure in the local papers and art/ culture publications. It was basically to feature local artists or anyone who had submitted a decent design for the to go cups in "fill in the blank's"local coffee house. Run a limited number and get those printed on the to go cups (not sure yet how they will afford the printing on that, a grant perhaps?) and then keep the designs on a porcelain cup such as this or one of those plastic tumblers in the store or to auction off to raise money for the store. What do you think?

Hmm... Why?

Michigan State University (along with Nike designers) will be updating their logo, the spartan, soon and I really don't know why. Yeah, it has been updated before, but why all the sudden another change?

What I do know is that ever since the movie 300 came out, somehow the university has latched on to it and shoved it down MSU football fans throats via the jumbo-tron during games (mostly to the fans enjoyment). Is Hollywood to blame? Do you see any influence here?

Old Logo:

New Logo:

Helmet from movie, 300:

Hmmm...

Homework 2

This didn't go to well...