What's in Store

Back in school, one of my design professors urged that when we finished school to make sure we "give back" to the school in some way. This post isn't necessarily giving back to my alma mater per se, but is more about sharing valuable info with my peers in the design community. In 1986, Archie Boston videotaped interviews with 20 L.A. designers, which are now finally available on DVD and better yet— YouTube. Designers like Saul Bass, April Greiman, Louis Danziger, and many other can be seen in all their old-school glory. The series of interviews shows that despite how long time has passed, their design philosophies are still relevant today. This time capsule of design history is helpful in influencing where design goes by reminding us where design has been. Check out the videos here Does this count as my 1%, Archie? 10/30/07 Joel Penos

Because of what I do for a living, I am hyper aware of different package designs. I am most intrigued if a package catches my eye when I'm not shopping to do research. This was the case the other day in the toothpaste section of the grocery store. There, in a sea of blue, green, and red boxes, sat a white box for Rembrandt toothpaste. It popped off of the shelf because of its simplicity. There were no bursts or "new and improved statements". Just a clean package that offered two different flavors. I can remember when Crest and Colgate were pretty much the only choices of toothpaste and Crest came in a white box and Colgate was in red. (These pictures don't illustrate my point as well as observing this in the store.) I decided to pay more attention to other areas of the store and I didn't have to look far---the mouthwash area had two white bottles and they hit my eye as I scanned the shelves. It only makes sense--blue and green may represent the minty flavors thes

I have belonged to a wine club for quite some time. My wine always came in a plain brown box and inside was a beautiful, well constructed, green litho-labeled box. I always thought the box inside was nice but a waste because I would promptly throw it away. When I opened the box this month I was surprised. The inside of the plain brown box had a litho-label of a winery and a nice cover sheet. Below the cover sheet was vacuum-formed egg crate that protected the wine. I thought this was an ingenious way to save materials and still give the customer the feeling they were receiving a superior product.

A Family Guy bus wrap, with each family member in a window--cute! I'm amazed the Simpsons didn't do this during their movie blitz; I really would've loved that. I'm not a big fan of Family Guy, but I love this bus wrap. And the coolest wine bottle label ever spotted at Trader Joe's. I was going to a wine and cheese party and had to pick out some bottles. I don't know anything about wine, but I know interesting graphic design when I see it. And I learned that the wine's not too bad, from those who claim to know these things. Steph Han Windham 10/9/07

We get a lot of mailers from stock photo companies, and usually they're pretty interesting. I was arrested by the photo on the cover, with the creepily enlarged eyes--a rather deplorable trend, in my opinion, but it did get my attention. So you're supposed to pull the orange tab out, but the force required to pull it out makes it easily ripped, which is what happened here. Some blah blah blah about their images You open the pullouts to reveal more sort of related images. My favorite's the bunny ears. I guess the mailer did its job in not getting thrown immediately into the trash, er, recycling bin, but these days I'm paying a lot more attention to stuff anyway because I'm on the lookout for blog-worthy materials. 10/01/07 Steph Han Windham