Advertising

No Words Needed

By Delphine Hirasuna | May 1, 2014September 4, 2014

Hermes is one of those “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” brands. Its silk scarves are coveted and collected as genuine works of art, the ultimate in elegance, refinement, and taste. Artists around the world are commissioned to produce unique designs for Hermes scarves. Each pattern is painstakingly engraved by Hermes artisans who typically take 750 hours to achieve Hermes’ nuanced colors and detailed design. Requiring an average of 27 ink colors, the image is silk-screened onto fine silk cloth. Although more than 2,000 Hermes scarf designs now exist, with 20 new designs issued each year, the look, classic and opulent, is decidedly Hermes. Dramatic colors and bold designs are the signature of the Hermes brand. Saying anything more would be redundant. This explains why the catalog and video ad for Hermes’ spring 2014 Soie Folle collection is without voiceover or marketing text.

Advertising

Pedigree Slow-Mo Focus

By Delphine Hirasuna | December 4, 2013September 4, 2014

This commercial for Pedigree dog food is beautiful for its pure simplicity. Shot at 1000 frames per second using a Phantom camera, the slow-motion video captures every movement and feature of each dog, from the twitch of the ears, the attentive eyes, the loose tongue, the tensed muscles and flying fur as the dog leaps for the Pedigree treat. The plain studio backdrop and lighting eliminate superfluous environmental distractions, making the dogs the sole point of focus. Viewers can’t help but marvel at what expressive and unique creatures dogs are. TBWA/Toronto made this commercial for Pedigree Petfood Canada, with film direction by Bob Purman of Imported Artists Film Company and sound by Joey Serlin at Vapor Music.

Design Education

5 Common Mistakes Package Designers Make

By Delphine Hirasuna | November 1, 2013September 4, 2014

Editor’s note: Packaging design presents its own unique set of challenges to graphic designers that differ from other kinds of print design. Here, we asked Brad Murdoch from Process, a premium packaging manufacturer based in Salt Lake City, to help us identify some common mistakes. Process handles custom packaging and fabrication through its network of overseas manufacturing facilities.

Publishing

The Art of Book Cover Design

By Delphine Hirasuna | June 6, 2013September 4, 2014

Designing a book cover is an exercise in balance. The image or graphic has to distill the story without giving away the plot. It has to create “shelf presence” to entice shoppers to pick up the book for a closer look. It has to avoid false advertising, but can’t be boring, even if the content is. It should give shoppers a sense of the genre – suspense, sci-fi, romance, self-help, current events – but imply that the author has a unique and fascinating take on the subject. While it is true that “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” it is also true that you can design a cover that makes shoppers want to buy the book. This video from Random House features interviews with book designers from its publishing groups (Random House, Knopf Doubleday and Crown) providing insights into the complex process of creating compelling, eye-catching and meaningful book cover jackets.

Packaging

One in Four Million Bottle Design

By Delphine Hirasuna | December 10, 2012September 4, 2014

As renowned for its creative branding as it is for its premium vodka, Absolut continually tops itself with fantastic new visual expressions. In this case, the Swedish vodka-maker, owned by French company, Pernod Ricard, teamed with Swedish ad agency, Family Business, to give new meaning to the term “limited edition.” The idea was not just to make each Absolut bottle seem unique, but to actually be unique. To do that, Absolut had to reconfigure its bottling production line to recreate artwork with splash guns, 38 colors, and 51 patterns. A complex computerized algorithms program orchestrated these elements in a randomized fashion so that no two bottles were decorated alike. In fact, Absolut estimates that it would take 94 quintrillion bottles before two identical designs resulted. The company is not producing that many, but it did individually number each of the four million bottles in its limited edition line, which it appropriately named “Absolut Unique.”