P... P... P.... PACKAGING!

CHOCOLATE PACKAGING
Almost everyone loves chocolate... but probably no-one as much as me.

White, milk or dark!

For those of you that simply just DON'T LIKE CHOCOLATE... there is something really wrong with you and here is some great packaging to place around the house to help you look normal.

Looking more like jewelery packaging than chocolate, nashvillewraps.com, an American company are attracting customers on a whole new level which seems to be the way things are going with design at the moment. (Above)

The range below have boxes you can actually reuse for trinkets and the choice of colour is brilliant. What girl wouldn't want to receive these chocolates for Valentine's Day? (Below)

Another example of a stylish solution to box up our favourite treat.

I feel this is not so sexist! (Below)

Very stylish and elegant. This design for Melt chocolate's was done by an American design student. (Above and Below)

Using a popular character on packaging to sell the product, pure genius! (Below)

Two of the largest competitors in Australia, Cadbury and Nestlé, have recently had an overhaul of their packaging. Going from foil wrap to cardboard. The idea is to cut costs, modernise their image, and hopefully encourage people to recycle more.
A lot of what you buy is recyclable but the amount of packaging is excessive and needs to be cut back dramatically. Valentines and Easter chocolates being the worst offenders with Easter eggs having over 60% of the product being the wrapper!

BEFORE

AFTER

In conclusion I would formally like to state that I LOVE CHOCOLATE!
Who cares about the wrapper, as long as it tastes good.

Thank you for your time,

Elisha Solomon

www.independant.co.uk/environment/greenliving

Post 3. Website Design - Chris Nowlan

Website Design

Virgin Mobile

Problem

The average Virgin Mobile customer is still in his teens. His cell phone isn't for calling the office or checking his schedule; it's for connecting with friends, making plans, and downloading ring tones. It is for staying in touch with his culture, a youth culture that is always on the move. Virgin saw that its users cared more about community than utility, and knew it was time to change its image from a pay-as-you-go telecommunications provider to a youth wireless network.

Response

The design team began an in-depth exploration of youth culture, hitting the streets in hip New York neighbourhoods to see what was happening. They found a culture that thrived on music and art, media, and each other. They wanted to communicate quickly and cheaply, not only through phones, but also in every way possible - email, text messaging, note passing, and conversation. The design team also conducted industry analysis to determine a new identity for Virgin Mobile that would balance the fashionable and the trustworthy, the edgy and the reliable. Because Virgin Mobile users are so young, parents often foot the bill for their mobile devices. The website had to be cool enough for its users, but professional enough for their parents.

Result

Customers love the simplicity of the design, its new offerings, and its community partnerships. Links to the site have been showing up on youth discussion boards and blogs across the country. And this new devotion to teen culture is just the beginning: frog's re-branding of the website provided an information structure flexible enough for further extension into on-site blogs, community posts and concert updates, music reviews, and other features.

Other Examples

The blockbuster website, which launched in September 2006, promises to bring Blockbuster's online positioning up to the level of its storefront success. Rather than a simple redesign of site aesthetics, the update puts power in the hand of the user, with high-level functionality and a true incorporation of personal choice.

The resulting site helped position Microsoft Windows Mobile as a leading force in the mobile communications space, setting the benchmark for online marketing, support, and evangelism of mobile software and devices.

Bibliography

http://www.frogdesign.com/case-study/virgin-mobile-website-design.html 20-8-09

I Was Thinking about doing my “major report” on an artist/graphic designer that I have found intreging for some time. He goes by the name of ”soopkichn “. His work is very distinct and individual and quite ground braking. The fact that he spells his name “soopkichn” instead of the traditional way “soup kitchen” lets one know that he does not take him self to seriously. In fact the fact that he is called “soopkichn” in the first place should let one know that he is a bit of a laraken. I really like graphic/art work that is quirky and weird and makes you look at it and sort of wonder. Its kind of surreal work that he does and really abstract. He has his own website www.soopkichn.com so go to it and check it out it will blow your mind . The fact that he studied here at Kingscliff further intruiges me so yer “soopkichn” he is great ……..so yer give us some feed back....he also owns his own company or so i'm leed to believe and does skateboards and has a skate team...

blog 2. typography

Typography for mobile phone devices: The design of the QUALCOMM Sans font Family.

In 2004 Punchcut worked with QUALCOMM to develop a typographic strategy with respect to QUALCOMM’s custom user interfaces within its mobile operating system and applications. The first tangible expression was the design of a custom family of sans serif fonts to e used in current and future QUALCOMM mobile user interfaces.
Up until this project QUALCOMM had not formally evaluated a forward-thinking font or typographic strategy with respect to user interfaces within its mobile operating system. QUALCOMM understood that font usage issues were becoming more critical to delivering an effective and appealing user experience.


The primary brand goal was to provide QUALCOMM with a font family that was distinct from its competitors, thereby enhancing the company’s position as a thought leader in the mobile phone UI space.

Once the H and O were designed, repetitive text settings were composed in different widths and sizes to explore how to design a bold weight that maintained the same width as the regular.

Punchcut is working with QUALCOMM to extrapolate outline-based truetype font files for use on the mobile device. This will allow a much ricer experience as the natural jagginess of the pixilated curves is replaced.
Screen resolution is getting higher and expectations are rising. There are still yet a number of typographic sensitivities that can be brought to the mobile device that will only serve to enrich the user experience such as italics, short caps, expert glyphs, embedded symbols etc.


http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/typography-for-mobile-phone-devices-the-design-of-the-qualcomm-s

luke post 2 - littlebigplanet game design.

LittleBigPlanet, is a video game for the PlayStation 3 It is developed by Media Molecule, a British company founded in part by Rag Doll Kung Fu creator Mark Healey, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Many saw the game as an important title for Sony's PlayStation 3. The game received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from critics and has been praised for its presentation, including its graphics, physics and audio, along with its game play and large array of customisable and online features. Additional praise was given to its scope and future potential based on user-created content and level creation facilities.

The player may customise their character in a range of ways. They are able to select a base colour and texture for their character from a range of materials and designs along with giving them pre-made items including clothes, masks, swords and capes
Although the create aspect does include minor tweaks to existing levels whilst they are being played, such as placing stickers and decorations in levels, the main focus of this mode is the level editor. The editor incorporates a large number of editing facilities to create levels from a low to a high degree of complexity. The player may create new objects by starting with a number of basic shapes, such as circles, stars and squares, and then painting a shape into the level using one of the many materials. Objects may be glued to each other or to the level. More mechanical features are also available, such as connecting objects together with string, using bolts to spin objects, or using various kinds of triggers.

Even though it is just a video game it gives you that feeling of creating and designing while sitting down with a controller. I loved the artwork and design in the game. The characters and the game had a unique visual presentation.

Post 3 Infographics- Rita Masarin

Today information graphics surround us. They illustrate information that would be difficult in text form, and act as visual shorthand for everyday concepts such as stop and go.

It is used heavily in children's books and are also common in scientific literature, where they illustrate physical systems, especially ones that cannot be photographed (such as cutaway diagrams, astronomical diagrams, and images of microscopic or sub-microscopic systems).

Modern maps, especially route maps for transit systems, use infographic techniques to integrate a variety of information, such as the conceptual layout of the transit network, transfer points, and local landmarks.

Traffic signs and other public signs rely heavily on information graphics, icons and emblems to represent concepts such as caution and the direction of traffic.

I believe infographics, especially in advertising are some of the most challenging types of art, as they must simultaneously serve two completely different purposes.

First the designer must be able to generate a concept and have a strong graphical impact. Second, you have to accurately display the information in a way that is logical, as well as fits with the overall design

I think the use of imagery to convey data can be very compelling. It draws viewers in and taps into their creative side.

The root source of the info is still the most important but this can really amplify data for those who are more visual-learners like me.

http://abduzeedo.com/beauty-infographics-and-data-visualization

http://www.joezeff.com/web/html/home.html

.dalydesign.co.uk/info-graphics.php

KINETIC TYPOGRAPHY

KINETIC     ANIMATED    MOVING    PERSONIFIED  CHARACTER   MOVEMENT    EXPRESSION


Kinetic typography—the technical name for "moving text"....
Kinetic typography refers to the art and technique of expression with animated text. Similar to the study of traditional typography of designing static typographic forms, kinetic typography focuses on understanding the effect time has on the expression of text. Kinetic typography has demonstrated the ability to add significant emotive content and appeal to expressive text, allowing some of the qualities normally found in film and the spoken word to be added to static text.

Kinetic typography refers to an expression of text that transforms itself in time and space, it can add a sense of emotion to various print and digital media.

Kinetic type has been widely and successfully used in film as well as in television and computer-based advertising. Perceptual psychology research on attention, reading performance, and comprehension has indicated that time-based presentation of text can be used effectively to capture and manipulate a viewer’s attention and in some cases improve overall reading performance.



It is distinct from other forms of temporal typography including 'serial presentation', which involves the sequential presentation of still typographic compositions. Temporal typography divides kinetic typography into 'motion typography' (subdivided into 'scrolling typography', 'dynamic layout') and 'fluid typography'. In dynamic layout, text elements move in relation to one another. In fluid typography, letterforms change and evolve without necessarily changing location.

With the advent of film and graphic animation, the possibility of matching text and motion emerged.

Early feature films contained temporal typography, but this was largely static text, presented sequentially and subjected to cinematic transitions. It was not until the 1960s when opening titles began to feature typography that was truly kinetic. Scholars recognize the first feature film to extensively use kinetic typography as Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). This film's opening title sequence—created by Saul Bass—contained animated text, featuring credits that "flew" in from off-screen, and finally faded out into the film itself. A similar technique was also employed by Bass in Psycho (1960).
Since then, the use of kinetic typography has become commonplace in film introductory titles and television advertisements.

One thing I love about movies is not the actual movies themselves but the opening/closing credits. Simply inspirational but most of all it(opening titles) creates and builds the atmosphere of the movie. It sets the mood, tone, and every literature aspects of it. Closing titles are great as well. Most producers chose the conventional scroll animation but some decided to end the movie with style and they truly did. some examples are- the kite runner, pulp fiction...

www.marcofolio.net/.../15_stunning_motion_typography

vhttp://www.mk12.com/video-popup.html?ideo=/v5_quicktime/2003/wwft_trisect.mov&title=WWFT%3A%20TRISECT&date=&info=2003&type=inhouse

www.marcofolio.net/.../15_stunning_motion_typography