What's in Store

Imperfect Produce  is a customizable weekly produce delivery company that offers irregular produce at reduced costs. The company was born out of a desire to reduce food waste. According to their website, “ more than 20% of the fruits and vegetables grown in America never make it off the farm because they aren’t perfect enough for grocery store standards,” resulting in “billions of pounds of wasted produce every year.” This is an issue that I’ve been aware of for a while, after having seen the documentary  Just Eat It , but I didn’t really know what to do about it aside from picking less desirable-looking produce at stores. So I was really excited when I found out that this service had become available in LA, having first established itself in Northern California.  I’ve been using the service for a few months now and there is much to recommend it, which I'll get into later, but as a graphic designer I’ve been especially impressed with their branding.  See below f...

I first saw the Litter Robot at CatCon LA last year, browsing through the aisles of every kind of products for cats imaginable, including a lot of tech items. It's sort of the Rolls Royce of automatic cat litter boxes, with a price tag to match ($450, but hey free shipping!). My boyfriend and I joked that this would be one of the first things we'd get when we moved in together, since between the two of us there would be three cats and we could just imagine what the litter box scooping situation would look like. Fast forward a year later, and we decided to take the Litter Robot plunge! We read up on all the reviews, of course, and when I saw that it was one of Styletails.com's picks for best of pet tech from CES 2017, it sealed the deal. When it got delivered to my office about a week after placing the order, I was pretty impressed with the package design; they do a lot with just black ink on corrugate cardboard. It's cost-effective but still impactful: simple, clean...

Came across this intriguing  article  about how minimalism' grip is loosening in the design world, making the way for "maximalism." Judging from the crazy patterns on some Lu La Roe leggings that have been making the rounds in the office, this observations seems to have merit. As a devotee of minimalism and a survivor of the 80s, I'm a little wary of this trend, but as with all things, it's a cycle and we've come back around to "expressive" and "vibrant" but also possibly "overkill." Perhaps we're approaching another roaring 20s!

Go to any large city and chances are you'll run into an "Irish" pub. While some are no doubt owned by genuine Irish expats, looks like most of these establishments are professionally designed by companies such as   The Irish Pub Company . Touting itself as "Taking the Best of Old Pub Culture & Integrating with the Trends of Today." they certainly have a process that works. They've built "Irish pubs" all over the world, filling a demand yet also creating more as the popularity of these establishments increases. This post is a fascinating glimpse into the world of professional pub design.

A junior at Michigan State sure has made internet waves with his dating " resume ." It's clever, hilarious, and very well-designed. We're pretty sure we'd say yes if he asked us out. Bravo!

Ever since live GPS tracking allowed people to see the paths they've walked/run/biked, people have gotten the bright idea to make pictures. There was a woman a few years back who famously drew all kinds of penises while running with her Nike+ app , and now there is a guy who biked 125 miles just so he could draw a picture of a goat . I gotta say, I'm not immune to immortalizing myself through GPS drawings--the two pictured in this post are my attempts. It required some planning in Google Maps and running with a sheet of detailed instructions on when to turn on which streets.

How has the commoditization of the consumer technology market influenced the design of the packaging. This blog explores two difference scenarios: Packaging as a silent salesman and packaging as an extention of the brand. But first. here are the reasons we know that commoditization has taken place in the consumer technology market: The length of the product cycles has gotten much shorter. Price erosion has effected margins in many categories (ie: TVs, mobile phones, Ink jet printers) House brands now complete with well known brands such as Sony and LG Customers can gather product knowledge at the tap of a finger Some categories of products are impulse buys (ie: ear buds, phone cases, chargers) For brands such as Apple, this doesn't present an issue. They have a branded store which allows them to charge a premium and control the competition in the retail environment. They sell their brand at other retail outlets as well; but they will often have a branded section within a...

Do you l ike to shop? Go for a walk or run? Post pics of your pets? What if I told you that while doing any or all of these things you could be raising money for charities of your choice? It sounds too good to be true, but sometimes our overly connected, technological world comes through to make making a difference easier than ever. I’ve been using AmazonSmile, the Charity Miles app, and the #postyourpet hashtag on Instagram to raise little bits of money whenever I shop, walk/run, and post my pet pics online.   AmazonSmile I’ve been buying from amazon.com for years, but it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I found out about their AmazonSmile program. To enable it, you just go to the AmazonSmile link after you log in, and then choose which charity you’d like your money to go to, and Amazon does the rest. They donate a small percentage of the sale to the charity of your choice. There are five major charities to choose from: American Red Cross, The Nature Conservan...

The reason the path-to-purchase has potholes can sometimes be blamed on the manufacturer. Each group responsible for bringing the product to market often function in silos with no common goal. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the consumer high-tech industry. The result is an inconsistent message that confuses the customer throughout the buying process. Identified below are the four steps outlining the physical and digital touchpoints a customer may encounter along the way. All of these touchpoints should have a consistent message and branding. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. I have experienced each of these during my time working on the client side and agency side of retail marketing. POTHOLE #1 Weak Branding : Product Design and Engineering While a product is being engineered, there is also an industrial designer involved who designs the format and footprint that determines how a consumer will interact with the product. I have worked on launching products ...

Who knew that GIFs, that first generation web phenomenon, would have such staying power into the new century? As with anything, it’s all about convenience and ease-of-use: GIFs are small and easy to share across all sorts of platforms, making them a popular way for people to share videos and animations (usually funny). But GIFs have evolved and become more sophisticated over the years, as the rise of cinemagraphs and gifographics can attest. These are relatively new terms; cinemagraphs refer to a still photograph with only a part of it animated, and gifographics are infographics with animated elements. Either way, they breathe life into static photographs and infographics, making them much more compelling! Below are links to articles that are good introductions to this old/new animation technique: The GIF's Sexy Sister: How to Create a Cinemagraph Top 5 Marketing Gifographics and How to Create 'em  Inspired by these articles, we took an infographic we’ve finish...

When the CES tradeshow debuted 50 years ago in New York, they presented 14 companies. Fast forward to 2016 and there were almost 4,000 exhibitors and 170,000 attendees eager to interface with new technology. I have personally been going to CES for over 15 years. Each year it gets bigger, louder and more crowded (except for 2009 which was depressing). If there is a common theme every year it is about making connections. Connecting people with technology and connecting technologies together. This cable throne, similar to the Game of Throne's chair of swords, made quite a statement in Display Port booth. People were encouraged to sit in it and take pictures. Here are some of the technologies from CES 2017 that will continue to keep us connected: 1) Smart Home Technology. Imagine being at the grocery store and you can't remember what you have in the refrigerator. No worries, check your phone which logs into the camera inside of the refrigerator. Smart home devices are n...

SYNQY is a cloud subscription service that makes it easy for manufacturers to put interactive, up-to-date branded content on resellers e-commerce sites. Place the SYNQY script in an appropriate area near the product and buyers are fed branded content once clicking on a top layer image—without leaving the dealer’s site. The top-layer and content are independent of the 3rd party website, so content is updatable without any further intervention by the website owners. Why do we call call these digital end-caps? Because they provide a branded area the manufacturer can control on a retail website. Just like in a brick-and-mortar store, when a manufacturer purchases space on an end aisle, they can brand that endcap and control the message. Below are samples of some live SYNQYs Kenwood eXcelon Authorized Dealer Badge http://www.drdashboard.com/car-stereo-receivers/ Purpose: Raise awareness of Kenwood eXcelon Line and why-to-buy   SiriusXM “2 Ways To Save” Pr...

Our latest infographic about what people want this holiday season:

Even though Costco doesn't carry that many SKUs (only 4,000 compared to Walmart's 150,000), the size of the warehouse space and the variety of product can be overwhelming. During any trip I make to Costco, I always take a look at some of the packaging and displays and note what grabs my attention and others that are just so-so.  Since Costco is self serve, displays are the silent sales person. In addition, if there are only 2-3 brands in a category the packaging and display must work harder to capture the consumer's attention and sell the product. The Good iHome: I was immediately drawn to this iHome packaging and display: The display invites you to take a closer look. The pallet wrap is colorful and tells the customer what the product is: A Rechargable Bluetooth Speaker with Speakerphone. The packaging has a hologram that changes color as you walk around the display which mimics how the product performs. The pallet holds a counter top type display that...