For years, Coke has encouraged people to share happiness—and has given them lots of surprising ways to share a Coke. This time, they’ve taken the classic Coca-Cola 330ml can and designed it for two persons. Twist, turn and share—”yes”, the Coca-Cola can itself.
Conceived by two French designers, the can that splits in half is being given a trial run over in Singapore
Wallpaper magazine asked the Contemporary Industrial Design Company Fort Standard to design a piece for their Handmade Exhibition in Milan during Salone Del Mobile, they set out to design a survival kit with the intention of creating something which looked and felt as precious as its contents.
The design became largely about the packaging as it needed to be serious, yet beautiful; an object you could easily bring with you on a day hike or even keep in your car or boat but most importantly an object you would want to bring with you everywhere.
The kit (which, unfortunately, is not available to purchase) includes a compass, pen knife, fishing wire, and more in a sharp looking and compact golden canister.
Google has marked the birthday of Saul Bass with one of the search engine’s most elaborate “doodles” yet – an animated sequence based on his designs for film title credits, film posters and corporate logos.
Bass, who died in 1996, worked with film-makers including Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese over the course of a 40-year career, approaching his commissions in the spirit of a graphic design problem to be solved.
Born into an immigrant family in New York’s Bronx, he began working on print work for film adverts in Hollywood during the 1940s. A breakthrough came in the film industry when he was hired in 1954 by Otto Preminger to create an innovative title sequence for the credits of the film, Carmen Jones, which he did using an animated flaming rose. Until the 1950s, the normal method for film credits was to present names and titles on cards, or against an unmoving backdrop.
The following year, Bass’s credit sequence for another production, The Man With the Golden Arm, played again with a strong graphic image – white lines rearranging themselves into a twisted arm – which was carried over into the film’s publicity, prefiguring the corporate identity approach of modern film advertising.
Bass later worked for Alfred Hitchcock on North by Northwest and Psycho, once again using his favoured lines, which morphed into a vortex of whirling spirals in the opening credits of Vertigo.
After a lull in the 1960s, he made a comeback in the 1970s. His last completed credits sequence was for Casino, which featured Robert De Niro being blasted by a car bomb through a raging inferno of Las Vegas neon in Casino.
Coca-Cola promotes Diet Coke as the perfect soft drink for those looking to keep a slim figure. And to further drive that point home, the soda company teamed up with Ogilvy & Mather Paris to create the Slender Vender—the world’s thinnest vending machine.
Barely wider than a single can of Diet Coke, the machine can be placed where traditional vending machines just can’t fit. Like between treadmills at the gym, slipped alongside competitor’s pop machines, or under your bed for an easy reach morning pick-me-up.
A hand-drawn, black-and-white Mickey Mouse animated short film will debut June 11 at the Annecy Animation Festival in Annecy, France, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced Tuesday.
The vintage-feeling short, which is called “Get a Horse,” features the voice of Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse.
The Burbank studio described the short as “never before seen,” but a studio spokeswoman, when asked if the short is newly made, refused to comment.
The enigmatic cartoon finds Mickey, his cheerful gal pal Minnie Mouse and their pals Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow enjoying a pastoral musical wagon ride—until Peg-Leg Pete shows up and tries to run them off the rode!
Presenting this “lost” Mickey short at Annecy will be filmmakers Lauren MacMullan (Wreck-It Ralph, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Simpsons), Dorothy McKim (Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice, The Ballad of Nessie, Meet the Robinsons) and legendary Disney artist and animator Eric Goldberg.
The next feature from Disney Animation, “Frozen,” opens Nov. 27.
Congratulations, you have decided to open this book, even though you have no idea what it’s about, and the cover is weird and seemingly at cross-purposes and possibly even pretentious. But you opened it anyway. And you know what? That was a design decision. Yes indeed, whether you realized it or not, pretty much most decisions you make, every day, are by design…Take my word for it, you are a designer.”
Chip Kidd opens with the promise that everyone is a designer, and uses each page to show the reader why that is. Each spread explains and demonstrates a crucial introductory graphic design concept–form, size, scale, repetition and pattern, color, typography, etc. Beautifully designed, and clearly explained, Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design ($18), is truly one of a kind.
Chip Kidd is a Designer/Writer in New York City (and Stonington, CT, and Palm Beach, FL). His book cover designs for Alfred A. Knopf, where he has worked non-stop since 1986, have helped create a revolution in the art of American book packaging. He is the recipient of the National Design Award for Communications, as well as the Use of Photography in Design award from the International Center of Photography, and countless AIGA awards. Kidd has published two novels, The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners, as well as Batman: Death by Design, and original graphic novel published by DC Comics and illustrated by Dave Taylor. He is also the author of several books about comics. A distinguished and prolific lecturer, Kidd has spoken at Princeton, Yale, Harvard, RISD and a zillion other places. His 2012 TED talk has garnered over 400,000 hits as of this writing, and is cited as one of the ‘funniest of the year.’
The 160 page hardcover will go on sale October 8, 2013.
The clever versatile Slot Sofa by designer Matthew Pauk features a slide-out coffee table and footrests that disappear into the couch when you need more space in your living room.
The Amp Mug ($12) is a suitable warming companion for all musical preferences- from blues rock, to heavy metal, to hard core punk.
Drink a mid-range traditional cup of tea, step it up a notch or two to a strong high frequency black coffee or sip a spiced green chai with some soft and subtle distortions.
The Movable Book of Letterforms pop-up book by Graphic Designed and Book Artist Kevin Steele serves as a basic introduction to letterforms, their origins, and unique characteristics.
The 22 page book measures 8.25″ x 2.25″ and was created in 2009.
The interior was digitally printed on Mohawk Superfine 80lb paper. The cover is composed of Laval velour bookcloth debossed with polymer plate. All the movable parts were cut and assembled by hand.
The book is unfortunately not for sale as only 3 were created.
Designer Elizabeth Perez has created a unique copy of Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit that includes a match and contains striking paper along its spine.
Fahrenheit 451 is a novel about a dystopian future where books are outlawed and firemen burn any house that contains them. The story is about suppressing ideas, and about how television destroys interest in reading literature.
It’s a basic human desire to separate an OREO cookie. Humans love either cookie or creme. And sometimes a man just needs to invent a machine to do the hard work of separating the two.
Today, that man is physicist and cookie-part preferrer David Neevel. Watch him operate the device he created that separates OREO cookies.
The machine was built as part of the Nabisco’s “Cookie vs. Cream” campaign and more separator machines will be introduced in the coming weeks.
You can learn all about David’s machine in the campaign’s fun documentary-style video (and discover all the sacrifices he suffered through to build it).
“Spocks” are a Mister Spock-themed socks challenge design by tides, now up for voting on Threadless. Not wanting these socks would be highly illogical, for wearing them will cause you to live long and prosper.
When the talented graphic designer Olly Moss isn’t creating amazing posters or cutting out pop culture silhouettes he apparently has enough time to design his own video game dinnerware based on The Willow Pattern.
The Man of Steel has been around for 75 years, and as you can imagine he has had many looks over the years. To showcase how the Kryptonian hero has transformed through the decades, The Superman Homepage created this cool infographic called “The Changing Face of Superman.”
Click on image to make larger
This new Target gift card ($5 – $1,000) was created by the Design firm Invisible Creatures.
Unfold the map, flip the switch and watch Bullseye cruise along!
Or better yet, turn the map over and draw your own track (using the complimentary marker) – Bullseye follows along the path you’ve created!
Anthony Dever’s photo blog Bookshelf Porn is similar to Pinterest except the site only includes photographs of shelves full of books. Neat shelves, messy ones, indoor and outdoor ones, shelves shaped like an igloo and built into a phone booth. Everything’s submitted by members of the site’s community. It’s a fascinating tribute to the place the printed word has in our lives and it’s done with hardly any words at all.
MakerBot, the Brooklyn-based global leader in the 3D printing technology, has opened its first retail location in New York. The MakerBot Store, opened to the public on September 20th and will have an official launch and unveiling in October.
“I have dreamed of opening this store ever since we started MakerBot. Technology like our Desktop 3D Printers has to be seen to be believed,” said Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot. “The MakerBot Store is a utopia for creative explorers, and it’s full of MakerBot-made things that make perfect gifts.”
Visitors to the MakerBot Store will have the unprecedented opportunity to experience MakerBot technology, such as the just-released MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer, live and in-person. The machines will be up and running, and patrons will have the chance to purchase amazing gifts and accessories made on MakerBot Desktop 3D Printers, created at the company’s workshop.
The MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer ($2,199) will also be available for immediate purchase at the MakerBot Store, as will MakerBot PLA and ABS Filament, which are available in more than 30 colors.
Other attractions at the store that will be sure to delight 3D printing enthusiasts all the way from hobbyists to professional engineers and designers include:
- A MakerBot Gumball machine with a variety of MakerBot-made products to choose from
- Ongoing demonstrations by MakerBot 3D Design staff
- Really cool project installations such as the MakerBot Marble Run, a giant contraption made almost entirely on MakerBot Desktop 3D Printers.
Store Location and Hours:
The MakerBot Store
298 Mulberry St.
New York, NY 10012
(347)457-5758
store@makerbot.com
makerbot.com/retail
Open: Mon-Sat 12 PM-7 PM; Sun 12 PM-6 PM
Photo credit “Scott Beale / Laughing Squid” laughingsquid.com
A team of 15 Hasbro designers, engineers, marketers, product development specialists, model makers, model painters and computer-aided design experts in both Pawtucket, Rhode Island and Hong Kong were tasked to handle two requests from their target customers.
Boys ages 8 to 16 wanted a blaster that had greater ammo capacity and shot projectiles farther.
The design team had recently broken the 50-foot barrier with a new line of guns that fired little Frisbee-like discs. But could they create a standard foam dart capable of traveling an unheard-of 75 feet—about the length of a regulation tennis court? And while they were at it, could they significantly increase the dart-carrying capacity of a blaster? At the time it was 35 darts. How about 50?
Read about the meticulous design, engineering and testing that goes into creating better Nerf guns HERE.
Nerf’s N-Strike Elite Hail-Fire, the flagship dart blaster of Nerf’s 2012 lineup is a hulking semiautomatic with unprecedented ammo capacity and a 75-foot range.
Microsoft has just unveiled their new logo, which is the first update to their logo in 25 years.
The logo has two components: the logotype and the symbol. For the logotype, they are using the Segoe font which is the same font Microsoft uses in their products as well as their marketing communications.
The symbol is important in a world of digital motion. The symbol’s squares of color are intended to express the company’s diverse portfolio of products.
Gum Cards is a limited edition screen-printed collectible card set focusing on artists and designers. The cards are illustrated and designed by James White.
Each Gum Card ($10) is a limited edition release of 250 plus 50 color variants, hand-signed and numbered by James White for authenticity. The cards are screen-printed on double-thick French Muscle-Tone Black 140lb. cover stock.
The first two cards of the series feature a couple of White’s favorite people in the industry: Aaron James Draplin of the Draplin Design Company in Portland OR and Johnny Earle AKA Johnny Cupcakes from Boston MA.
All Gum Card orders will be shipped in custom packaging and for added protection, each card will be inserted into individual plastic sleeves. Extra goodies like stickers, buttons, and of course gum will be provided.
If you want to cut in line and reserve your cards before they sell out, go to GUM CARDS Indiegogo and check out the rewards that correspond with your pledge.
Baking company Warburtons has announced Toastie Knife, a prototype butter knife ingeniously designed with a heated blade. Designworks Group created the knife for Warburtons which uses two AA batteries to heat the blade to 41.8 degrees Celsius (the perfect temperature to easily slice through cold butter).
Voted as ‘Most Desired Breakfast Innovation’ in a poll of just under 3,000 people, it is not yet certain if the knife will go into production.
Anybody wishing to own a Warburtons Toastie Knife one day can tweet @Warburtons using #ToastieKnife.
Jonathan Mak Long, who created a much-praised Steve Jobs Apple logo tribute last year, recently designed this eye catching minimalistic poster for Coke.
The image has been lauded around the ad world since winning an Outdoor Grand Prix Lion Tuesday at Cannes.
Theses superhero and supervillain icons were created by the Polish design studio re:design based on the classic AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) icon.
Click on above image to make larger
Pie Charts (A Baker’s Dozen), the latest print by Pop Chart Lab, features Pie Charts showing the ingredients in 13 pies.
The German firm Korefe designed The Real Cookbook (Das Echte und Einzige Kochbuch), a special edition edible cookbook that is made of fresh pasta which can be baked into a lasagna. Gerstenberg Publishing House published this unique cookbook as a special project.
