So I recently discovered a fellow designer and blogger, Lizzy B, when I saw her mexican inspired stationery and fell in love. The girl is a pattern genius, and not only that, she puts together these awesome image inspired colour palettes that I can’t seem to get enough of. The first one is now my desktop image, and I will be definitely looking to her for colour inspiration from now on. You can check her out at Lizzy B Loves, but in the meantime here are some of my faves that she’s put together.
Hello darlings, mo here. Thought I’d take a time out in the middle of the week to bring you a few of my favourite things. For some reason my brain just doesn’t want to work after a certain point in the day, so what better way to spend the afternoon than by looking at some sweet inspiration?
As most of you know, CHRISTMAS is coming. Yes i said it. The C-word, and while I do enjoy the festive season (mostly for it’s spirits – no not spirit… spirits with an s… of the alcoholic variety there folks), I am in agreeance (and oh-so thankful), that there are people rioting for the absence of christmas music until at least december first. If everything held off until the day of I’d be okay with that too but anyone in retail will know that that day will never come.
So, since we’re on the topic of christmas, I have recently discovered that holy s*** it’s november and I need to start thinking about what to do for C-cards. Last year we went postcard style, but this year has been all about kraft paper and I just can’t stop thinking about it, so if you’re one of the lucky ones on my list (AND IF I HAVE YOUR ADDRESS – which if I don’t by the way email it to me), expect some recycled goodness coming your way. Here are some of the things inspiring me so far, and don’t ask me how I plan on working these into a C-card, just wait and see!
Sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7
When my friend Terri asked me if I would design the invitations for a baby shower she was hosting, I was instantly on board, and even though she would have loved a simple, single sided invitation, I decided to take it the extra mile, or two.
After learning more about the Mum-to-be, whom I have met a few times before and adored, I knew exactly what direction we needed to go. It was also very helpful that I already knew the entire theme of their nursery (woodsy, trees, owls, and various other woodland creatures) so we were able to eliminate almost all of the back and forth.
With the help of Graphic Designer and Illustrator Andrea Denton, we were able to create a layered invitation complete with directions, stickers, and corresponding gift tags that would be mailed out to each invitee. We chose to print black on recycled stock, and paired it with evergreen back cards to give it the natural feel we were looking for. Here are the final results:
Your packaging is the most crucial part of your product because it is the piece that comes face to face with your customer, and in that brief moment that you get their attention while they’re scouring the shelves looking for what they want or need, your packaging is responsible for whether or not they buy your product. The bottom line is:
Now, depending on what your product is, this can be a tricky task. Simply going to the store to pick up a bottle of wine for example, can be extremely difficult. For me, at least. When it’s my turn to go to the store, my friends know that I will come back with a selection of wines simply because I love the labels. And if they turn out to be good then I will buy them again. So that being said, we can revise our previous statement:
When you’re industry is saturated with hundreds, if not thousands, of similar products, it makes it extremely difficult to break through the noise and be seen by your customer. This is where your packaging needs to serve it’s core purpose – to sell your product – so that your customer picks up your product as opposed to your competitors’ that could be sitting right next door.
Which brings up another thing to take into consideration – where and how will your product be displayed in retail locations? Unfortunately, you can’t really control this, but it’s another reason why your packaging needs to pack a punch and get noticed.
Now, there are many elements that need to be included on your packaging. The basic and most necessary ones are your Product Identity, Net Quantity, Product Description (optional and usually depends on the product), UPC Code (or Barcode), and Second Language Translation, which applies mostly for us Canucks up here in Canada. Not only do you have to incorporate all of these elements into your design, but you need to do it in a way that the brand messaging of the company is prominent and in line with their branding guidelines, while creating something unique and different that will stand out from the crowd.
There are so many reasons why your packaging needs to be well thought out and you can find much more information on Wikipedia, and there’s a really good article here on brandchannel about Packaging your Brand’s Personality, but the one thing I really want to emphasize is that the one crucial part to creating effective and attractive packaging material is to DO YOUR RESEARCH.
This is hand’s down the most important step to take before you even start designing. What I like to do first, is draw up some preliminary sketches and get my initial concepts on paper before I start my research, because once you start looking at what’s out there you might get side tracked and your initial idea may morph into something else without you even realizing it. Once you’re done that, go out and research similar products. Go direct to the retail stores (if you can) and ask yourself the following questions:
1 / How are the products being displayed?
2 / What part of the packaging do you see first?
3 / How high/low are the shelves and how will that affect the visibility/readibility of the packaging?
4 / What trends do you see happening in the designs?
5 / What is the competition doing?
As long as you take the time to do some proper research and ask yourself the right questions, taking into consideration the wide range of product display techniques, you will have the basic information you need in order to start designing effective packaging material that will sell the product. Here are some examples from my own inspiration gallery:
Reference: Brand, Sartorial by Penhaligons, Pareje de los Bancales, Stiegl Haus Beir, Hot Dang, Good Co Cafe, The Bitter Chocolatier, Level Ground Trading.
Yes, it’s true. I am a Starbucks addict. But it’s not my fault they make the most delicious soy-sugar-free-hazelnut-no-foam-extra-hot-lattes.About a year ago, Starbucks revealed it’s re-brand, and it was one of those moments when all I could say was ‘yes’. Like when you know something is exactly right but you might not know how to express or convey that feeling in any given language. This was perfect timing since they were coming up on their 40 year anniversary, so what better way to celebrate than with a fresh face that appeals to the now as opposed to the then?
I’m not going to say that Starbucks was in need of a re-design, but it is important as a brand to adapt to the time and culture of now. Just like the famous quote by Heraclitus, “the only constant is change”, so, if you want to be continually successful, you need to constantly change. Now, when we talk about branding that doesn’t mean throw it all away and start from scratch. It means you need to make small changes like adding a new shade of your corporate colour, a new typeface, or, like Starbucks and Nike (amongst many others), simplify, simplify, simplify. Here are some examples of the evolution of the Nike, Kodak, and Shell logos.
Now, it definitely takes time to build up recognition within the market, but it’s well worth it. Think about it this way, if someone were to launch a new brand and they’re logo was comprised of a symbol and a wordmark (the text part of a logo), and they chose to separate the two in the earlier stages of their company, then there are going to be lots of people who won’t recognize who the company is simply by looking at the symbol alone.
Alas, this is where patience and constant attention to detail throughout your marketing really pay off. Because today, after 40 years, most people would see the Starbucks Siren (the mermaid they’ve used as part of their brand since day one) by herself (without the wordmark around her), and they would know instantly who that is. But if Starbucks had of done that during their early years, there’s a good chance that not everyone would know who it was. You can read a good article on the history of the brand here.
Some of Starbucks’ re-branded marketing material that I picked up in Santa Monica.
All I can say is that after 40 years (14 for me), I still love Starbucks as much as I did when I had my first sip of delicious-ness. Happy one year anniversary, Starbucks re-brand!
Because my head has been in baby land just about all day, every day, thanks to my new born niece Lilith, I decided to create some children’s art. For some reason, I like referring to newborns in third person, and perhaps this is because they are so new to the world that it doesn’t seem real just yet, but I’m just not sure. There is also a very good chance that I could get this from my parents, who I’m sure have called me many names throughout the years.
‘Little Creatures’ was conceptualized as a derivative of my third person obsession, and the design plays up that concept. However, if it had been ‘Animals of any Kind’, my task would have been much easier (since I wouldn’t have been limited to small animals), but the concept wouldn’t have been as strong. So I look at this as a learning opportunity for parents and children, to learn about some new animals that they may have never heard of. Like the Xerus, Yaffle, or the Zokor for example.
I hope you have enjoyed this educational experience, but if you can think of any animal, and it has to be small, that is a bit more common and might fit better with the concept, I would love it if you would share this wonderful knowledge with me!
I figured since I’m leaving on vacation this weekend I’d better post my Christmas cards before it’s too late. Granted, this is later than I had intended on waiting before I shared them, but if I post them a month from now that would be a bit ridiculous and it would make more sense to wait until next Christmas!
I had a lot of fun designing the Christmas cards for Weddingstar this year, and I had complete creative freedom which made it even better. I kept them simple and focused on the type, with a fun snowflake pattern incorporated on the back and throughout the type treatments. We printed half in red and half in green, and kept some white space on the inside in case you wanted to write more than just the generic message we included. So, because I can’t wait until next Christmas to share them, here they are – a month late in January!
When a client sends me copy for a project, I usually won’t edit it unless there are spelling and/or grammar mistakes. Sometimes, after I read it over a few times, I may have some suggestions or changes to the writing itself, which I will then communicate to the client. However, there is one thing that I almost always change, or remove all together – the dreaded exclamation mark.
The function of the exclamation mark is to emphasize it’s preceding sentence, or to say something loudly or express excitement. It is not necessary to include two, three, or even seven exclamation marks at the end of any given sentence or statement. Just because my next statement is one that I would really like to get across, I am going to place one exclamation mark at the end of it – one exclamation mark is enough!
Now sometimes you want to say something really loudly, and you get so excited that you have to add more exclamation marks. Please don’t.
Personally, if there is a statement that needs a bit of oomph, I would either bump up the size, make it bold, or use all capital letters instead. I try to avoid the exclamation mark at all costs.
When editing long parts of copy, for example on an editorial project such as a magazine or annual report, it is good practice to separate the copy into segments. This breaks up the subject matter and also makes the content easier to follow. A lot of the time I will use pull quotes to emphasize the more important parts of the copy. This is where I will bump up the point size and possibly use an italic or bold typeface in order to make the sentence or statement stand out to the reader. The example below does all of this and uses all capital letters to emphasize what they want to say, and the white space around it gives it room to breathe – which is another rant I will go on another time!
Now the way in which you design your copy depends heavily on the type of project you are working on and the type of client you are working for. If the content matter is more on the serious side, I would avoid the use of exclamation marks all together, unless there is a piece of copy that would really benefit from one exclamation mark. On the contrary, if you are working on a fun project, or for a client who’s business is fun and energetic – for example anything to do with kids – then the use of a few exclamation marks here and there (please don’t over-do it because then it just gets tacky), could work.
Basically to sum everything up, the most important part of any copy driven project is to read it first and analyze the content before you start designing. Don’t be afraid to make suggestions to your clients. After all, you’re the designer and they’re paying you for your expertise and opinion. If you find that exclamation marks work with the subject matter, then great! But if you can design the copy in a way that you don’t have to use exclamation marks to put emphasis on all of the important bits, then do. The end result will be much more visually appealing and professional looking.
Have you ever had clients who insisted on using multiple exclamation points? Or maybe they insisted that you do something which you didn’t agree with. I’d love to hear your comments and how you get around these situations!
