Archive for June, 2008

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So… is smoking cigarettes cool again?

Friday, June 27th, 2008

I don’t know about you but I thought smoking cigarettes was dead. I live in the L.A. area call me health conscious or a palm tree hugger if you want but those TRUTH commercials scared the need for nicotine right out of my mind. With that said… fashion company SOPHOMORE based out of New York is taking a leap of faith with their latest ad campaign.

Not only does the companies ad campaign seem to have chosen all models under the age of 18 but in a few of the ad photos they’re smoking cigarettes.

I personally don’t care and actually kudos to them for taking a bit of risk with their campaign. From reading up on the company I’ve learned they are a relative new comer to the fashion industry, you’d think they would proceed with caution with regard to advertising… or not!

The photos for the campaign as a whole I totally dig, they deliver a definite throw back to the late 70’s early 80’s, when smoking was cool, tube socks where in and BMX bikes where a sign of BLING!

Take a look at the ad campaign photos.

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Posted in Advertising, Pop Design | No Comments »

Lacoste design 2083 a.d.

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

Lacoste has always been an leader in innovation with regard to design. The company was started way back in 1933 by its founder, René Lacoste a famous Frenchmen who won the Davis Cup, French Open and U.S. Open tournaments.


René was a bit of a renaissance man himself always inventing little nick knacks but his most notable invention is the polo shirt. Although many years have past since the company was started the company Lacoste still has a large customer base and is continually changing its image and brand to keep up with the changing times.


This brings me back to focus on their latest advertisement campaign which asks you to imagine how the game of tennis would look in the year 2083! They’ve done an excellent job putting together a chic futuristic movie that transports you to the future arena of tennis… Lacoste style!

If you’d like to see the FULL GALLERY of images click the link below.

You can also view original Lacoste Website click the link below.

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Posted in Branding, Pop Design | No Comments »

The GOOGLE brand wagon…

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

I’ve always been fascinated with the simplicity and elementary design of Google’s logo. It’s so basic it hurts! The thing is, is its perfect, who doesn’t know what the Google logo lQQks like? More importantly their attack on branding, their image and product has been flawless.

You know you’ve done a good job branding your product when your name becomes synonymous with the product or service you’re offering across the board. Think about it there are dozens of search engines out there about 4-6 major players, Yahoo!, Ask.com for example… have you ever told anyone to “Yahoo! it”?

No I don’t think so, it seems Google like a few other companies before it (Kleenex, Xerox) have put their marketplace on lock down, fo shizzle. So the next time you’re watching a movie and the actor on screen replies to a question… “I don’t know, Google it”, you can laugh to yourself knowing I probably noticed it too.

Only a few other companies have accomplished this that I can think of Kleenex and Xerox are the first that come to mind. Hey give me a “Kleenex” or hey Bob run down to Kinko’s and Xerox a few copies for me please.

Lets take a look at some of the logos Google has put forth over the past few years shall we.

Here we have the Google Summer ‘08 logo, looks hot!

This logo is from back in 2004 the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA.

Google’s Fathers Day logo from a few years back, I like this one.

If its not obvious enough, this is the Google St. Patricks Day logo.

There is an interesting history with regard to how the “Google Doodles” came to be. I’ll share an excerpt from Wikipedia.

Google Doodle

The first Google Doodle was a reference to the Burning Man Festival of 1998. The doodle was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. Subsequent Google Doodles were designed by an outside contractor, until Larry and Sergey asked then-intern Dennis Hwang to design a logo for Bastille Day in 2000. Hwang has been designing the Google Doodles ever since. [2]

Clicking on a Google Doodle links to a string of Google search results about the topic, which can drive a lot of traffic to unsuspecting sites.[3]

Google doodles have been produced for the birthdays of several noted artists and scientists, including Andy Warhol, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Louis Braille, Percival Lowell, Edvard Munch, Béla Bartók among others. Additionally, the featuring of Lowell’s logo design coincided with the launch of another Google product, Google Maps. Welsh novelist Roald Dahl has been featured, with the logo containing characters and items from some of his books, such as Matilda. The celebration of historical events is another common topic of Google Doodles including a Lego brick design in celebration of the interlocking Lego block’s 50th anniversary. The logo is also notorious among web users for April Fool’s Day tie-ins and jokes.

On February 14, 2007, Valentine’s Day, the Google doodle featured a chocolate-dipped strawberry that combined the second “g” and the “l” as its green stem,[4] giving the appearance that the “l” was missing: thereby displaying “Googe”. In response to several speculations the Official Google Blog,[5] responded: “When you look at the logo, you may worry that we forgot our name overnight, skipped a letter, or have decided that ‘Googe’ has a better ring to it. None of the above. I just know that those with true romance and poetry in their soul will see the subtlety immediately. And if you’re feeling grouchy today, may I suggest eating a strawberry.”

Google was criticized in 2007 for not featuring versions of the Google logo for American patriotic holidays such as Memorial Day and Veterans Day.[6] That year, Google featured a logo commemorating Veterans Day.[7]

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Branding has a sweet tooth…

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

Well lQQky here I’ve found another reason to post about… CHOCOLATE! Can you blame me, I mean come on, who doesn’t like chocolate? As it turns out this company just happens to do a real good job branding their confection, such a good job I had to do a lil write up.

Lets take a look at some of the designs they came up with to market the already saturated market of chocolate and confections. They’ve broken down the different chocolates in what they call ranges. I won’t list them all but lets look at some of the stand outs.

ROMANCE RANGE

EXCITING IN THE DARK

I don’t know maybe after mid-night and a few drinks bust this bad boy out and see what happens.

EAT ME

Well I think the title says it all.

ORAL PLEASURE

Hmm, I wonder what they mean here… it just taste good, I’m sure.

DARK SECRETS

We’ve all got them, now you can enjoy sharing them with all your closest friends, or friend.

HOLIDAY RANGE

CHRISTMAS SURVIVAL

It’s about time now instead of hitting the boos super hard because the in-laws are in town, now you can find and escape in this special blend of holiday chocolate.

HANUKKAH NOSH

Keeping it real for our Jewish peeps, a lil happy, happy, Hanukkah chocolate. Oh, and yes in case you’re wondering its kosher.

If you’d like to see the full range of chocolaty goodness click on over to the website and check them out.

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Posted in Branding, Typography | No Comments »

Create a font from your own handwriting…

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

Handwriting image

Wow’za, ever since I was a young boy all I could think about was having my very own font. Yes that’s right while other boys where begging their mums and dads for the new 64-bit Nintendo I was searching the world for new crafts and technology so that I could create my own custom handwritten font.

Well I’m happy to say I’ve finally found the technology, (woo hoo). LOL, thanks to a company based out of the bay area FONT SHOP, they’ve created a nifty service called HandFont. The service is great basically you download some forms from their website, follow the instructions for submitting your handwriting, mail it in and 2 to 4 weeks later you’ve got your own custom OpenType font ready to be used.

To learn more about the process check out their website.

See HandFont page

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Album Cover Gridlock by: John Digweed

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

Please excuse the pictures I should have taken a little more time to do it properly but I’m a busy little bee these days. In any case so long as we can get past the second rate photography I’d like to kick of a new branch of my blog focusing solely on album cover art and typography. Having been a dj for over a decade I’ve seen some pretty cool cardboard come across my way and I’d like to take this time to share my collection.

I’m starting out with something relatively simple, John Digweeds latest release “Gridlock” from his record label Bedrock. This album cover is 100% type I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw it I just had to swoop it up.

John Digweed

Getting a little closer up here you can see the actual typeface used, I don’t know the exact font that was used but I’ve seen many like it. The closest I could get was this OCR A STD font. You can see the differences I’ve outlined with the dotted lines.

OCR font sample

Now for a look at the cover closer up looking straight down.

Again apologies for the lazy camera work, went a little crazy with the flash. Anyways it may seem like a minor detail but I like the little cursor they put at the end of his name. The font totally has a computer feel to it like you’d see it being typed on a computer monitor in some Hollywood movie. “Knock Knock, Neo… follow the white rabbit”.

Now you get a look at the actual type on one side of the record with the track listings, etc.

And now if we flip it over to the next side we get this, really posh “R”. If you’re wondering what the letter stands for its for Renaissance, (Renaissance Recordings).

If you’d like to actually hear the track click the link below and enjoy.

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I told you Typography is sweet!

Friday, June 20th, 2008

Sweet sweet typeography

Mmm, mmm I know I’m a junkie for good design and typography but if you start mixing sweets and good type damn gina… I just don’t know what I’m going to do with myself!

~ Echo

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Separation Creek House, Australia, by Jackson Clements Burrows (JCB) Architects

Friday, June 20th, 2008

This is a wicked cool house I stumbled upon surfing the web, I just had to put it up. The place is absolutely gorgeous and deserves its place here on the COD blogging page.

Lets take a little tour of this modern masterpiece, courtesy of one of my favorite publications and websites. Wallpaper*.

Aussie Home

Only an architectural enthusiast would endeavor to build a home on this extremely steep site at Separation Creek, above Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. With a forty-five degree incline, the property challenged both the owners and architects, Jackson Clements Burrows (JCB) Architects. ‘Most of the one hectare site was too steep to build on. Only a few hundred square metres offered space for a building,’ says architect Graham Burrows, one of three directors of the practice.

With a base footprint of approximately seven by nine metres, the new house appears to grow out of the dirt landscape like a tree. Rooms extend like branches from the central core, or ‘trunk’, reaching for the light and views over Bass Strait. ‘We wanted to create a dynamic sculptural object. But we also wanted to take advantage of the views,’ says Burrows.

Designed for a couple with two young children, the brief was for a simple beach house, something relaxed and unpretentious. The rooms on the first floor extend beyond the trunk, cantilevered from three to six metres above the site. The rooms at ground level, with separate access, include two bedrooms, a bathroom, laundry and storage. And on the first floor, via a staircase made from broad timber sleepers, are the kitchen and living areas. Between the two levels are the main bedroom and ensuite. ‘Each room focuses on different parts of the site. I suppose the heroic shot is from the terrace off the living area,’ says Burrows, pointing out the Wye River Peninsula in the distance.

Aussie HomeThere are few divisions in the open plan living areas. One partially enclosed area is the study, adjacent to the entrance. However even this room is relatively transparent, featuring green louvres, adding colour as well as channelling the sea breezes. At night the study sheds a greenish glow throughout the living areas. Louvred glass windows also appear in the ‘pop-out’ above the kitchen. ‘We wanted to draw hot air from the house in the warmer months and also wanted to attract the northern light, as well as the views up the hillside,’ says Burrows.

Cantilevered rooms also provide protected nooks for the children to play outside. One of the most used parts of the property is the sandpit, directly below the sunroom. Concealed by a timber deck when not being used, the area also includes built-in benches for relaxed parental supervision. ‘This area reminds me of the outdoor spaces that were popular in the 1950s. Then children were encouraged to play outdoors,’ says Burrows.

This beach house is relatively modest in scale at approximately 190 sq m. It doesn’t scream out to the many motorists who wind their way along this stretch of the Great Ocean Road. In fact, from one direction, the discreet design means it’s unlikely to be detected at all. For this family, it’s all about the spectacular location, where the rugged bush meets the sea. And the architecture, although quiet in appearance, is just as exhilarating.

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