Author: Delphine Hirasuna

Interviews

Erik Spiekermann — 2011 German Design Lifetime Achievement Winner

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Designer/typographer Erik Spiekermann, who founded the globally renowned MetaDesign and FontShop, is the recipient of this year’s German Design Lifetime Achievement Award. Here, he spoke at length with gestalten.tv on his approach to and philosophy of type design, visual languages, design processes and other subjects. His remarks are thoughtful, informative and inspiring, and though this video is nearly 14 minutes long, we think it is worth viewing. Congratulations, Erik. Well deserved.

Humor

One-Minute Cooking Lesson

By Delphine Hirasuna |

A weekend Fourth of July holiday project that designer Marta Harding produced with her husband, photographer Joshua Harding, this stop-motion video, “How to Make Dill Deviled Eggs,” is fun and instructive and maybe embedded with an embryo of an idea on the future of digital cookbooks. Who knows, maybe they are onto something.

Viral Marketing

Virtual Supermarket — Wait No More

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Up until now QR code technology has seemed more gimmicky than practical. Holding your smart phone up against a QR matrix on a magazine page or a storefront window to reveal the secondary message feels like a bothersome extra step that quickly grows tiresome.

But here’s a QR use that promises real convenience and time-savings. Tesco Homeplus in South Korea opened virtual supermarkets in subway stations, permitting commuters to use their smart phones to make grocery purchases. Designed by Cheil ad agency in Seoul, wall-size displays along the passenger waiting platform simulate the experience of shopping in a real supermarket, showing images and prices of a broad range of frequently needed products. Shoppers merely have to scan the QR code of any product they want to purchase to add it to their online shopping cart. The transaction is all completed online and the purchased items are delivered straight to shoppers’ homes.

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Viral Marketing

Nokia N8 Mobile Phone Film Winner

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Here’s a novel way to get consumers to test out your product. In March, Nokia announced a competition to shoot a short film entirely with a Nokia N8 mobile phone. It invited entrants to send in a story pitch and offered a $5,000 filming budget and two Nokia N8s to eight finalists.

“Splitscreen: A Love Story,” directed by UK-based JW Griffiths, won the first place award of $10,000.

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Brand Language

How Not to Brand a Country, but Succeed Anyway

By Delphine Hirasuna |

The occasion of America’s Independence Day on July 4th offers a good time to reflect on how the Star-Spangled Banner became the official flag of the nation. It all started back in 1777. A ragtag army of American colonists was engaged in a fierce battle for independence from Great Britain. Designing an aesthetically pleasing flag to represent themselves was the last thing on their mind. Outnumbered, outspent and outmaneuvered, the Continental Congress had more urgent matters to deal with.

But an emissary from a pro-colonist Native American tribe forced Congress to act by requesting a banner of sorts to display so that scouts would not come under “friendly fire” while on missions for the Continental Army. To prove they were willing to “pay” for such a flag, the emissary included three strings of wampum. Congress hastily put a flag design on its agenda, and 11 days later: “RESOLVED: that the flag of the United states be 13 stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be 13 stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation.” This resolution was one of many passed that day. The committee obviously didn’t give the matter much thought, but “borrowed” liberally from several sources, including the Sons of Liberty red-and-white “stripes of rebellion” banner and the 13-star blue canton of the New Hampshire Green Mountain Boys and Rhode Island Continental Regiment.

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