If it's not wildly obvious already, I am obsessed with Ladurée. Why? Where to begin... it represents everything I love: amazing pasteries & chocolates, beautiful branding & packaging and an authentic legacy of doing it exceptionally well for 150 years.
While In London and Paris – I sought out almost every location to sample something new I hadn't tried before. My new favourite item is pictured above with the rose petal – it's called the rose & raspberry Ladurée Saint-Honorés and is every bit as delicious as it is pretty.
Of course, I shipped home all of my empty boxes so that they could assume their rightful positions on my packaging wall.
Just ordered this print as I have loved it for ages.
Am a fan of huge Parra's work and hope to collaborate with him one day on the right project.
An exerpt from Display
I love food. I love packaging. I love paintings of food packaging.
See more of Jonna Pedersen's work here.
Amazingly wonderful. By Peter Mendelsund
Found here.
See more here.
Just finished reading Debbie Millman's "Look Both Ways" – a collection of essays that surprised me by their intensely personal connection to the author. A quick read that took me a couple of hours one lazy afternoon, the book covers a series of reflections Debbie has about certain brands or even city landmarks that she has come across in her life. In the book she recounts how profoundly humans connect to stories and ideas that brands represent and how we can create entire worlds around these things, places or concepts. Essentially, this idea, is the cornerstone of all branding and advertising and she punctuates this repeatedly by giving examples of her strong ties to the ideas specific brands embody.
All told the book is engaging because the voice of the author is sincere and authentic and the presentation of the text as handwritten pages is charming.
That said, I was disappointed that after her long successful career, that she felt the need to end the series by saying that anyone that pursues our line of work (commercial art / advertising / branding) has somewhat sold out just because it's a secure living. I think I would have reframed the path she was heading with this idea (because she clearly states she is looking for the next professional chapter/challenge in her life) and simply stated that humans cannot do one thing for their entire lives and expect to be satisfied. Sure, that's how things are structured so you can climb the ladder, build credibility and make more money – granted. But humans, in my humble opinion, are only truly happy when there is a steady and consistent opportunity to grow and learn something new. After 20+ years in any business, a person could get restless – sure. Does this mean one should suddenly discount their career choice and abandon it? Or should they just acknowledge that maybe it's time for a change?
Our industry gets so much flack for not being real, or artistic or worthy of respect. Sure, if you want to judge an entire industry by the lowest common denominator, you can label it crap pretty easily. But given that Debbie chose not only to devote her professional life and career to it, but also create a book with countless stories about the strong connection of her love for various brands – surely there is something of value there to her that transcends merely selling buying and stuff? As I see it, her questioning of her next professional step causes her to undermine the whole point she is making in the book.
Branding and advertising is modern day story telling. Yes, it's littered with bullshit and crap, but there is also work out there that changes not just what people buy – but how they think, act and treat one another. The transformational power of brands is big, real and can be awe inspiring and can change the world. So why call yourself (and the rest of us) a sell-out? Was Tibor a sell-out? I wish people in our industry would stop apologizing for what they do and own it – celebrate it. We work hard and sometimes, we get projects and clients that provide the most marvelous opportunities to change perceptions.
Understanding human desire and motivation is fascinating and it drives and inspires me daily to create new ways of communicating. Whether it's for potato chips, phones, handbags or oatmeal, landmine awareness or protecting freedom of speech – there is value in all of it. No regrets over here.
Stopped by Jonathan & Olivia today to see their new Top Shop make-up bar. I've been a fan of this line since I saw the charming packaging profiled on numerous design blogs a while back. I love the naive illustration style – it feels so right for the TS brand.
I'm happy to report, after testing practically everything there, that the make-up is quite nice and the pigments are rich. I left with a big bag of goodies and will report back after a few longer wears.
Love the combination of pink and green. More here.
Aren't these great? Click the images directly to see larger.
Buy them here from Pop Chart Lab
Genius. See more here.
After placing my order for a hard copy to frame, I took the liberty of highlighting all of the areas I've called home over the years – it's kind of neat to see it all mapped out like this.
Below is my favourite Ork overall simply for it's great composition.
I brought back a bunch of Chocolat Factory products for my staff and colleagues at work – the chocolates taste as good as the packaging looks. Wish we had a location here in the Big Smoke.
The packaging and typography of Aubin & Wills wares is quite lovely don't 'cha think? Check out the fox with a top hat – bloody charming.
Nice design by Camilla Lillieskold for children's online retailer Mini Giants. Illustrations by Nila Aye. Via LovelyPackage.
In their own words: "The Society of Gluttony is an elite squad of eaters who gather roughly every 45 days to recklessly devour food that the members’ wives/girlfriends would find fairly disgusting. Also, we like to get drunk." Logo design by Mikey Burton.
This book looks like an inspiration in the right direction for any designers looking to market their own ideas outside of their agency jobs.
I'm a Toronto based designer that enjoys blogging about whatever intrigues me
Free work is for registered charities
I woke up in the middle of the night yesterday worrying about a list of so called freebie design favours I've foolishly agreed to. If you're a designer, you know this situation all too well – a friend, family member, co-worker, boss or friend-of-a-friend approaches you to design some card for their cat that "will only take 5 min" and "will be fun and great for your book". I'm so tired of this scenario that I am officially declaring 2010 the year I take back my personal time and decline every clueless request.
The illustration above is by LunchBreath.