Packaging

With Mic’s Chilli, the Devil Is in the Details

By Delphine Hirasuna | June 29, 2012September 5, 2014

Irish chili may sound like an oxymoron, but Mic’s Chilli, made in Kilcoole, County Wicklow in Ireland, has the authentic look of a product that comes from “South of the Border” – and we don’t mean Tipperary.

Dublin-based illustrator Steve Simpson has done all of the branding and packaging work for Mic’s Chilli since it launched its first products at the end of 2010. Using Latin American patterns and iconography, the Inferno packaging features Day of the Dead skeleton figures, with “talk bubbles” showing chillis to indicate degrees of hotness — one chilli for mild; four chillis for on fire.

Photography

Behind the Scenes at a McDonald’s Photo Shoot

By Delphine Hirasuna | June 29, 2012September 4, 2014

Anyone who has witnessed a food photo shoot knows that there is a vast difference between making food look delicious through the lens of a camera and actually making it taste great. This is true of both gourmet dishes concocted by renowned chefs and fast foods sold from a drive-thru window. Under hot studio lights, fresh vegetables wilt, peaches turn brown, hot foods coagulate and moist foods dry out. Photographers use “stand-in” foods during set-up and have back-ups in case the “star dish” proves not to be photogenic. Food stylists have an arsenal of tricks to simulate, imitate, and enhance ingredients to create a “just-made” illusion. Styling this hamburger shoot for McDonald’s is tame compared to most food shoots. What it didn’t show is what a Big Mac looks like after it has been wrapped in paper flattening out the bun and squashed into a bag with fries on top.

Humor

New Era Caps Pits Chicago Against Chicago

By Delphine Hirasuna | June 23, 2012September 4, 2014

These viral videos are actually ads for New Era Cap Company, which is the exclusive manufacturer and marketer of caps for all U.S. major league baseball teams, minor affiliates and more than 200 U.S. colleges and universities. The videos don’t mention headwear until the close, but viewers recognize the rivalry, antics, jabs and banter of sport fanatics just by seeing the logo on the caps. The Chicago Cubs and White Sox caps make clear each wearer’s team loyalties and “tribal ” identifications.

Starring popular character actors Craig Robinson and Nick Offerman, the series of video ads are hilarious – and probably very close to reality. The ads follow on the heels of another Brooklyn Brothers ad series for New Era, starring actors Alec Baldwin and John Krasinski and the rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox.

Advertising

Louis Vuitton Origami Invitation

By Delphine Hirasuna | June 20, 2012September 4, 2014

The opening of a new location in Osaka, Japan, was occasion for luxury retailer Louis Vuitton to ask Italian design studio Happycentro to produce an appropriately elegant invitation card.The result was a printing and folding tour de force involving offset printing, transparent, silver mat, pearl and rainbow foils, dry embossing, silkscreen and die-cuts. As if that wasn’t complicated enough, the square sheet was precisely folded by hand origami-style 34 ways. One has to believe that the designer Federico Galvani has a fiendishly clever mind to devise something that tested the skills of printers and origami artists alike, but the team pulled it off and the result is lovely and unique.

Packaging

Olympic Branding Champions

By Delphine Hirasuna | June 14, 2012September 5, 2014

Coca-Cola has just unveiled six limited-edition cans to cheer on Team USA at the London Olympics this summer. San Francisco-based design agency, Turner Duckworth, combined three of the world’s most recognizable icons to communicate the entire story –the stripes of the American flag; the five interlocked rings of the Olympic logo and silhouette of an athlete, and Coca-Cola’s signature red and Spencerian script logotype. The effect is succinct, direct and graphically powerful. Coca-Cola is rotating the can designs throughout the summer, with a new one appearing every two weeks, culminating with a special composite logo timed for the opening of the Olympic Games.

by Corporate Design Foundation

Month: June 2012