Industrial Design

A Film Celebrating Industrial Design

By Delphine Hirasuna | June 8, 2009September 4, 2014

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From Gary Hustwit, the independent filmmaker of the award-winning “Helvetica,” comes a new documentary on industrial design. “Objectified” explores the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. A stellar lineup of the world’s most talented industrial designers talk about how they re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. “Objectified” is a look at personal expression, identity, consumerism and sustainability. It is currently screening at film festivals, cinemas and special events worldwide. Check here to see where it is showing in your part of the world: www.objectifiedfilm.com.

Advertising

Bombay Store Posters

By Delphine Hirasuna | June 5, 2009September 4, 2014

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To celebrate its 100th anniversary this year, the Bombay Store in India issued a series of ornately rich and colorful posters that incorporate a motif of patterns made from its vast assortment of products. Designed by Ashok Karkala and Vishu Nagula of Joshbro Communications in Mumbai, the posters blend the elegant sensuality of paintings by Art Nouveau artist Gustav Klimt and the psychedelic spontaneity of 1960s posters by graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo. The Bombay Store poster illustrations were done by Murali Alle and Ravindra Joshi, and the photography by Nilesh Patankar.

Packaging

Making the Product the Package and Vice Versa

By Delphine Hirasuna | June 3, 2009September 4, 2014

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Is it possible to brand a product without creating a printed label? At the Accademia Italiana in Skopje, Macedonia, design student Petar Pavlov was determined to find out. In a Packaging Design class, he was assigned the task of creating a packaging prototype for “something very dear to him.” He chose chocolate, he says, because it is “something that I can’t live without.”

Petar, whose study focuses on graphic design and visual communications, says that his obsession with typography, along with his decision not to use any printing for the packaging, inevitably led him to the idea of turning the chocolate itself into letterforms that spell out the name of the product.

Book Excerpt

Design, Design, Where Art Thou?

By Delphine Hirasuna | May 29, 2009September 4, 2014

Editor’s Note: Although branding expert Marty Neumeier claims that he compresses his thoughts to be quick-read “airplane books,” his insights are so thought-provoking and inspirational that they are best read in short segments so you can chew on what he has to say. This is a chapter from his latest book.

Excerpted from “The Designful Company”
by Marty Neumeier
The discipline of design has been waiting patiently in the wings for nearly a century, relegated to supporting roles and stand-in parts. Until now, companies have used design as a beauty station for identities and communications, or as the last stop before a product launch. Never has it been used for its potential to create rule-bending innovation across the board. Meanwhile, the public is developing a healthy appetite for all things design.

One survey by Kelton Research found that when 7 in 10 Americans recalled the last time they saw a product they just had to have, it was because of design. They found that with younger people 18-29, the influence of design was even more pronounced. More than one out of four young adults were disappointed in the level of design in America, saying, for example, that cars were better designed 25 years ago.

Foreign Correspondents

Typography in China

By Delphine Hirasuna | May 28, 2009September 4, 2014

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Editor’s Note: The global marketplace is real. Some brands are as familiar to consumers in Rio de Janeiro and London as they are to shoppers in New York City and Mumbai. That does not mean that the world now speaks a common design language nor approaches design in a universal way. What resonates in one culture may be rejected as odd, irrelevant or ignorantly offensive in another. In some cases, consumers may find the product appropriate, but the sales pitch tone-deaf and riddled with cultural clichés. Designers working across cultures confront the challenge of understanding differences in business and social customs, technologies, and typical design assignments as well as aesthetic preferences.

In the interest of broadening our knowledge, we are launching a “foreign correspondents” feature, beginning with our dear friends, Anita Luu and Sing Lin, two American designers who opened their Affiche International Asia office in Shanghai two years ago. An innocent question about the availability of Chinese typefaces led to a fascinating discussion, which is presented here.