Creative Concepts and Clever Packaging

Here are some pretty creative concepts and packaging found on {Packaging | UQAM}. I am unable to translate the descriptions, or else I would have included them - but I think they are pretty self explanatory.

Sydney International Food Festival

I love food and love it even more when people do creative things like this with it! Check out these international flags made of food - advertisement for the {Sydney International Food Festival} this year. Jason, even you have to say this is pretty cool!

Thanks to {Steven} for finding this!

A Modern, Traditional Wedding

First off, it made me smile to find a blog post - again on {Style Me Pretty} - that was titled A Modern, Traditional Wedding. This is exactly the style I love - tradition with a modern twist. An of course, the green is an ultimate fave! Again a DIY wedding inspired from many of the posts on SMP. The flower in her hair was purchased from {Nomsa's Etsy Shop} and photography was done by Brian Cummings of {Rob Grimm Photography}.

Some explanation from the bride herself:
I’ve been obsessed with SMP since the moment of my engagement. Admittedly, I haven’t known what to do with myself since the wedding and all my free time which was once spent on wedding blogs. As a graphic designer I saw my wedding as an opportunity to showcase my style and personality, to brand us as a couple, in a sense. I found the best way to let my personality shine was in the tiny details. Everything from the programs to the cake topper I thought about in great length. Also, being on a budget, most of these projects required a DIY execution, which also helped to give my wedding a unique look and feel. Overall, Id say the style outcome was contemporary with an eclectic sprinkling.

As for the fashion…I purchased from J Crew and had a seamstress add the flowers, an overlay, and a train… I had a vision, and she really made it come true. The bridesmaids and groomsmen also wore J Crew.

The simple centerpieces which were DIY, and nature inspired. I letterpressed the coasters myself that said Eat + drink and be married.

The flowers were all DIY put together by the wedding party the night before the ceremony. The W in the rings picture was also the cake topper and was a vintage metal letter I purchased at {Three Potato Four}.

Our guestbook was made of tiny envelopes where the guests were asked to write a wedding wish, message, or funny story. We also made little pins for guests to wear to really continue the look.

Making of My Portfolio

Well, it feels a bit strange that I have graduated college and been working full time for over a year now already. I was reminiscing on my days in school - long nights/all-nighters and thought I would share some of the process of how I made my portfolio book and case all by hand. Enjoy!

Flicker Photo Layout - Pretty Sweet

This {Flickr link} was sent out a while back at work and while cleaning up my email folders I found it again and thought it was definitely worth sharing!

Words Hurt Too

This is an excellent typographic piece done by {Loducca}, a campaign associated with Children & Adolescents Reference Center - Words hurt too. Any kind of violence against children is a crime. The bruise and blood is made up of typography - phrases such as "Nobody loves you" or "I hate your voice". Found via {Fubiz}.

I Love You, Blogs and Coffee

Story of my life! I must get one of these :) I am obsessed and get lost in design/wedding blog world and can't live without coffee...Check out this screenprint along with many other great designs by {MadeByGirl}.

Quite amusing if you ask me...

I found this a while back and have since been thinking about whether or not it would be a good idea to post. Ideally I should probably stay away from anything that can be seen as inappropriate (condoms) or offensive (brutal leaders), but then again that just isn't me. So {here} it is, I found this to be extremely amusing and hope you will too! If only their parents had used protection...

Faves from {The Die Line}

BEFORE AND AFTERS

RECENT DIE LINE PICKS
These are just a few of my favorite package designs found on {The Die Line}, a great blog/resource for anyone interested in a variety of package design. I have included the before and afters / re-branding that I though were pretty effective and well executed, as well as some overall well-design products and packaging. Seems as though I have been thinking along the same lines as {Pattern of Life} lately...

Happy Belated Birthday America!

I have come across this {design} on several blogs in the past few days and it keeps standing out to me so I wanted to share it with all of you. It is a pretty creative concept that is well executed. Each print is handmade, signed and numbered in a series of 175. They are xylene transfers on paper - much like screen printing but without a screen and the design is transferred by hand inch by inch. Each piece is original and therefore may be slightly different from each other.

Save the Dates - Raffi & Kohar

Here are the save the date cards that I designed, printed, and put together for a friend of mine. The image is one from their {engagement photoshoot}. Check back for the wedding invitations I designed for them once those are printed. Can't wait for the big day guys!

DEADLINE Post-It Stop Motion

Stop motion absolutely blows my mind when done well. This is definitely up there on my list. Watch it all the way through and be amazed by all the work that went into making this finished product possible. After 3 months of planning, 4 days of shooting, and over 6,000 post-its, this is what they came up with. Check out the video below to see the making-of.

Icon Spelling!

Being that I stare at a computer and these icons about 18 hours a day...I am sad that I never thought of this myself! I found it to be pretty clever when I saw {these words} spelled out using the Apple icons - work by {Mike Giepert}.

SEQUENCES 2009

I was blown away by this - a collaboration between Siggi Odds, Sven and Mundi. {Sequence} is a real-time art festival in Reykjavik, Iceland, hosted annually by the Living Arts Museum. The {final project} consisted of an idea of milk captured in time - hinting at the festival's real-time focus. They spent a lot of money, buying liters of milk, but had fun in the process. In the end, they couldn't resist the temptation to pour the milk all over Mundi - captured in the last image. The posters were offset printed with two colors, black and bright PMS 605. They noted that an environmentally friendly printer was used.

Color Picker

How cool is this!? {Color Picker}, designed by Jinsun Park is a concept pen that would allow you to scan colors from anything around you and instantly use that color for drawing. The pen would contain and RGB cartridge that the pen would then mix according to the target color scanned. Amazing idea and much more convenient - one would no longer need to carry around multiple pens and pencils.

Diesel - "Only the Brave"

A clever packaging solution for Diesel men's fragrance - Only The Brave. It is named after Diesel founder Renzo Rosso’s "Only the Brave" charitable foundation, and the bottle is modeled on Rosso’s fist

Mika78

After creating her own stationary for her wedding, Mimi Woo realized she wanted something more than the 8 year career she had as a package designer in New York City. She was able to combine her love for design with one of the most intimate and important events of her life - it changed her. Shortly after her wedding, {Mika78} was born. I promise I wont go on and on about how much I am in love with letterpress...SO MUCH...because I have done so a whole bunch on previous posts. I picked a few of my favorites from her beautiful collection. Not only does she design invitations and stationary, but she also offers custom design services through Bespoke to help completely tailor your design sensibility and wedding style - reflecting the true essence of the couple. Below are just a few examples of her gorgeous work.

Mark Webber - Linocuts

The linoleum block prints done by {Mark Webber} are truly amazing. Having worked on a linoleum carving before, I can say it was quite difficult - and mine was probably one of the simplest designs ever - not a map of Amsterdam! All the images were flipped (they are carved backwards so they print the correct way - much like a stamp) - so that makes it even harder! The amount of detail in the map blew me away. The second image is just because the statement he is making is oh so true...

inhabit - surround yourself.

Check out some cool products from {inhabit living} - made up of a husband and wife design team. They were lucky enough to find someone who shares an equal passion for design. Their passion is not just of design for the home, but an overall appreciation for design and the design process in general. They design everything from scratch - they are not just private labeling existing designs or making pillows or bedding from someone's fabrics. These are their sketches, thoughts and ideas brought to life in the 'inhabit' line.

Vintage Steel Letterforms

I always love finding great vintage items that would make awesome decorative pieces in a home - this is definitely one of them! These {stainless steel letterforms} were "rescued" from a 1950's era New York parking garage that was being demolished in 2002. They are in great condition after being cleaned up really well - they would look great on the wall, and many of them stand on their own.