NE Creative

Heinz Reinvents Ketchup Packet

Heinz has redesigned their every messy ketchup packet into a new, slick, dipable or squeezable packet. Some evolutions take longer than others. Learn more... (Source: CrunchGear)

Michael Bierut on Clients

This has been circulating the interwebs for a couple days, but it's so vital that I thought it should be posted here as well. Michael Bierut, star design partner at Pentagram, spoke at the January get-together of CreativeMornings, a New York presentation series. Anyways, what he covers applies to each and every one of us. Some very insightful things to keep in mind here, such as when he talks about little kinds of courage that make a huge difference. Courage to possibly talk clients out of work they don't need. Courage to send them updates on work after it's been approved, if you think it works better. Sometimes counter-intuitive, often self-effacing, and always honest -- this is worth the time to watch it.

Just maybe don't do it on your clients' time.

Doe Eyed Design Makes You Go Cross-eyed...

...In a good way, of course. And by Doe Eyed, I mean the online portfolio that was recently dropped by Lincoln's own Eric Nyffeler, gig-poster designer extraordinaire. He's one of the few Nebraska designers represented in this year's Print Regional Design Annual. (Hey Nyffeler, congrats on that, by the way.)

Anyways, there's some great illustration work in here, some inappropriate drawings, and a very tactile grittiness to everything that makes it all feel even more genuine and full of goodness.

 

Also the posters are for sale. You should get some to adorn your walls. As an added bonus, the guy has amazing customer service. Delivered some posters to me personally during the Christmas snowpocalypse. True story.

DAAKE Creates the 'Nebraska Football Experience'

 

Wow, talk about a dream project. I'm going to have to go to Memorial Stadium to see this for myself. Back in November (right before the victory over Oklahoma, as it were) the University dedicated a room in the North Stadium Complex for a totally immersive media experience. Video and graphics, done by DAAKE in collaboration with Contrivium Design & Urbanism, Inc. and The Mixing Room, make an homage to our three Heisman winners. In the arms race that is the building of collegiate athletic facilities, I wonder who else has something like this? Why would I not be surprised if Texas is now building their own OMNIMAX dome to wow recruits?

Anyways, get more details and check out the video here.

The Paint-Less Coca-Cola Can, a Greenier Coke

Interested article on Gizmodo.com asks if a naked Coke can would help save the world "one can at a time." They even break it down and do the math.

"I assume the consumption only increases through time, but let's take the daily 2007 numbers from Global INForM Cases Sales database: The total number of Coca-Cola cans sold per worldwide is 67,873,309. Diet Coke and Coke Zero sold 35,387,241, while My Coke sold 103,260,550. Yes, that's all per day.

"So using only classic Coca-Cola's daily sales figures, that means 24,773,757,785 are sold every year. Twenty-four billion cans. That is indeed a lot of paint and paint removal products."

Even if Coke announced that would do this for a whole month every year to reduce their carbon footprint, it would give them incredible positive press and in turn it could influence its competitors and other canned drink products to also do that same which would overall reduce energy even more. Someone call the CEO of Coke.

These Shirts Cracked Me Up

Buy it here...

Buy it here....

Belvedere Packaging Design by Clarity Coverdale Fury

This "Network box" packaging just floored by when I saw, so I had to share.

Fonts in the News

I am late to the game on both of these but I thought I would still bring them up if anyone wanted to discuss it here.

Ikea has changed their body copy font from the Futura to Verdana. The reason for the change? Verdana will allow Ikea to use the same typeface in all countries since IKEA's current typefaces contain no Asian characters. Verdana was designed for the web, which will allow for consistency online and in print. In what sounds like a stupid design move, to me, make sense. Others are outraged. Time magazine picked up the story and there is an online petition which has over 3,000 signatures. At least they didn't change it to Papyrus... (Images via idsgn)

In other news, the long await James Cameron sci-fi movie, Avatar started the marketing push for the movie. And we can see from the creative for the movie that Papyrus was chosen as the movie title's font. They spent 300 million dollars to make the movie and they choose Papyrus as the futuristic, sci-fi movie's title font type. Comical, at it isn't comic sans. If you have free time I recommend doing a search for Avatar, Papyrus.

Branding: Pepsi vs. Coke (Revised)

As commented on the post Branding: Pepsi vs. Coke, that graphic of the two logos over the years was not accurate at all. In fact Coke has changed their logo, while not nearly in as many big changes as Pepsi. Thankfully the corporate design blog did some research and put together its own branding timeline between the two cola companies. (Via Brand New)

Retro Design Trend in Alcohol Ads?

Here is an interesting look at three different alcohol brands Jim Beam, Canadian Club and Miller High Life that all have similar retro design style. The Jim Beam and Canadian Club, both Fortune Brands brands, work were both done by Energy BBDO, Chicago while the Miller High Life was done by Saatchi and Saatchi, NY. I won't lie, I like the throw back look. I can enjoy bringing back the long copy ads.