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.

Product Design

A Soft Drink for Grown-Ups

By Delphine Hirasuna | September 19, 2011September 4, 2014

Two guys from the London brand/design consultancy Wonderland WPA walk into a classy bar and ask for a soft drink that is not the kind you can get out of a vending machine or in the refrigerated section of a truck stop.

That may seem like the set-up for a joke, but it is how Story beverages came to be invented. Finding the choice of alcoholic drinks in fine restaurants and bars limitless, but the availability of upscale nonalcoholic ones few and far between, Wonderland WPA saw a market niche begging to be filled. They defined a new category of soft drinks that would be offered exclusively in bars, restaurants and hotels, and created a brand identity that looked stylish and grown-up. The simple, elegant packaging enhanced the perception of being sophisticated and worthy of drinking on a special night out. Launched in August 2011, Story will initially be sold only in the UK, with plans to introduce it into export markets in 2012.

Brand Logos

Gap Climbs Back into the Box

By Delphine Hirasuna | October 14, 2010September 4, 2014

In case you missed the 9,000 or so listings on Google, here’s the story: On October 6, Gap unceremoniously unveiled a new logo on its website, jettisoning the familiar “white Gap in a blue box” logo it had been using for the past 20+ years. The outrage on the social media was immediate and almost universally negative. Among the thousands of comments posted online, some of the less terrible remarks were that the design was banal and probably done using Power Point – it got worse from there. One week later, Gap announced that it was yanking the new logo and returning to its old one because it realized the “passion” that consumers felt toward the old brand. This in itself seemed strange since most rebranding programs are months in the making, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to execute, and involve dozens of corporate managers, departments and outside suppliers. What made Gap cave in to public pressure in less than seven days, rather than consider that the “shock of the new” always causes some discomfort? Why not wait to see if the furor dies down in a few weeks or months?

Brand Logos

How Design Profits Nonprofits

By Delphine Hirasuna | April 7, 2010September 4, 2014

The goals of designing for a nonprofit are not much different than designing for a for-profit business. Nonprofits need to raise money, albeit for an altruistic cause. They need to build strong graphic identities, market their programs and convince the public that their good intentions will produce effective results. Yet many nonprofits approach marketing their organization half-heartedly, ending up with a look that is generic at best and sometimes sadly amateurish. Yes, they are hampered by low budgets and minimal staffing, but also at times by the misguided belief that if their materials look “too professionally done,” donors will think that they are squandering their money rather than applying it to the cause they care about.

Brand Language

A Banana With Personality

By Delphine Hirasuna | March 2, 2010September 4, 2014

How do you brand a banana? It’s a generic fruit, like an apple or peach. right? If you live in the tropics, you can grow bananas in your backyard. Still, for the past 65 years, only one banana has a brand identity, not to mention, a name, a face and a personality – Chiquita.

Back in 1944, Chiquita charmed consumers by turning a caricature of Carmen Miranda, the flamboyant Brazilian samba singer/dancer with the tutti-frutti hat, into its brand icon. Then to reinforce its slogan “Quite Possibly the World’s Most Perfect Food,” it created a little blue sticker that to this day it affixes by hand onto every single banana it sells.