Finally! A Good Redesign

sunkist

I opened our beverage fridge at work yesterday and noticed a couple of cans of Sunkist in there. I didn’t remember ever seeing Sunkist in our drink case, but what stood out more to me was the new design. Apparently the logo and can were redesigned back in November 2008. With all the talk of the bad redesigns recently (Pepsi is terrible; Tropicana is criminal), it was refreshing to see something that actually works.

Sunkist packaging from 1981

The original logo (photo is from 1981, but it didn’t change since its debut in 1978) was pretty contemporary for its time. This new update brings the previous incarnation into the 21st century, but at the same time gives it a little retro feel. The typography reminds me of the Coca-Cola logo or the original Pepsi-Cola logo. I will concede to Armin at Brand New that the blue ocean swirls surrounding the type are a little much, but on the packaging, and really standing on the strength of the typography, it works. This mark has the perfect combo of contemporary and classic. Mmm… I think I’m going to have to make some Sunkist popsicles this weekend.

New Sunkist logo image from Brand New. Archival image of old packaging from Beverage World (May 1981), scan linked from Wikipedia.

Apple Envy

applecritique

When us designers start off designing a home page, we invariably create at least one variation that’s based on the Apple.com home page: a large hero graphic and three or four smaller promo tiles below that. That basic framework that Apple perfected is essentially a reference design.

However, their pioneering is more than just skin deep. Spoonfed Design has a pretty good analysis on why Apple.com is so great.

I think it’s a testament to the quality of work that comes out of Cupertino that most of their designs, whether it’s product, OS UI, advertising, print or online is held as the reference standard. Having worked at Apple, I can assure you that seemingly simple and elegant design (product shot with a headline set in Apple Myriad on a white background) is not as easy as it seems. Besides, what other company can you name that has sparked such design trends such as colored plastic, gel-like buttons, and glassy navigation tabs?

Usability Analysis of Apple.com: Why is it so Good?

The Homer

KraftFoods

See the train wreck that can happen when you design a logo by committee? According to AdAge, the logo was the result of a “‘co-creation process’ with consumers, employees, ad agency Nitro, London and another shop, Promise.”

Honestly I can’t believe that Kraft is proud of it! Maybe one sign is that this logo will not appear on their packaged goods. Instead it will appear only in corporate communications materials.

Still, why unveil a stunningly ugly mark like that? Looks like logo salad to me with a burst here, a swoosh there. Throw in a little pseudo hand-written font like Tekton and voila!

Please leave the design to professionals, people! Reminds me of Homer Simpson’s ultimate car of the future design, “The Homer.”

(via Brand New)

P.S. Don’t get me started on how disastrous the website looks.

Gray Lady with a Jetpack

nyt_skimmer

Print is dying. With the recent shutterings of Domino, Craft, Cottage Living and a slew of magazines, and the layoffs at various newspapers, print is dying. That’s why it’s important for newspapers and magazines to reinvent themselves and make them relevant again in the 21st century.

That is why I love that the New York Times is innovating. With their special interactive story features to T Magazine to their Fashion Week collection browser, they are embracing the print killer and creating new opportunities for readers to engage with the news, and for advertisers to speak to their audiences.

The New York Times latest endeavor is a public beta of sorts, along the same vain as some Google products, and is called Article Skimmer. It basically takes the articles and lays it out in a nice, neat, easy-to-skim grid. It’s not Flash, just DHTML, and it’s quite lovely.

(via NYTimes.com First Look Blog)

Smule Smiles with $3.9 Million

One of my favorite apps in the iPhone App Store is Ocarina (iTunes link) by Smule. It turns your iPhone into an electronic wind instrument. The interface is not anything I’ve seen before and it’s just fun—even for a non-musical guy like me. The best thing about it is listening to what other people are playing around the world right now.

So this morning comes news that after selling one million copies of Ocarina, Smule has secured $3.9 million in funding. I’m very happy to see some money come out of such innovation.

Now where’s my million-dollar idea?

(Via TUAW)

Sell the Horseshit

pepsi

Yesterday the design and advertising community was abuzz over the leaked presentation deck for the new Pepsi logo by the Arnell Group. Yes it is absolutely a work of pure horseshit. But, I was reminded of the decks that my colleagues and I create every day and how somebody’s horseshit may be someone else’s chocolate cake.

We all have to sell our work. Ideally the concepts and ideas come from a well-formed strategy, but that doesn’t always happen. Many times the strategy must back into the creative. In other words sometimes you might have a great idea that you’ll need to justify after the fact.

This is even more true if you’re dealing with a purely formal exercise such as redesigning an iconic logo like Pepsi’s. A good design strategy would be to do the due diligence and look at the different historical variations of the logo and then just have at it, coming up with dozens if not hundreds of iterations. But afterwards when you find the new design you subjectively like, you’re going to need to explain in an intelligent, tangible, evidence-based manner detailing how you arrived at that solution—especially if you’re getting paid $1 million for the effort. So that’s when you break out the horses and shovels.

(via Brand New)

Update: Validation that the Arnell strategy deck is all BS from a freelancer:

“(the logo design) nothing to do with any of that bullshit on the PDF, that was (I believe) just a way to keep the client entertained (like we, viewers of this PDF were) and make them feel like their money (1.2B) was worth something.”

2009-02-09_101938

A secret passion of mine: funny warning signs. Here’s one I saw today on an automatic car gate. The best part of this sign is the squished head.

A Long Time Coming

lunarboy_retrospective

Welcome to Lunarboy.com 4.0. I have actually been working on this version for a while now, having started the design of it back in April 2008. This is a far cry from when I pulled an all-nighter to get version 1.0 up back in 1999 when I applied for a job at USWeb/CKS.

The goal with v4.0 was to convert it from being primarily a portfolio to being primarily a blog. The portfolio still has a strong presence but I felt that I needed an outlet for just random thoughts about things I’m interested in. This was before I discovered Twitter, but it’s still a valid goal.

This site uses the same backend as v3.0—the excellent ExpressionEngine. The markup and CSS were coded by hand using lovely tools like TextMate and CSSEdit. More details available in the colophon.