Update your reader now with this changed subscription address to get your latest updates from us.
The email newsletter has also moved. Updated the subscription to the new newsletter.
△
Commodity
Identity and supporting marques.
△
Men’s Collection
Product design, packaging and art-direction.
Photography by Luke Pearsall
△
Women’s Collection
Product design, packaging and art-direction.
Photography by Luke Pearsall
△
Commodity
Brand Iconography
△
Commodity
Product development sketches
We [Commodity] worked hand-in-hand with Ferroconcrete to create not not only the brand, but also the complete e-commerce experience. This wasn’t a typical client/agency relationship as Yolanda Santosa (founder & creative director of Ferroconcrete) is also one of the co-founders of Commodity.
We noticed that the fragrance industry had been almost untouched by the digital age. The market seemed to be saturated with shirtless male models and lofty slogans—so we set about creating a modern brand of scents that felt accessible even for people who aren’t into fragrances. Eventually we want to bring people in to the creation process and let them vote on an ever-changing range of scents.
The problem is you can’t smell what you see online, so the biggest challenge was to design the service itself. We came up with the idea for an online service that lets people live with multiple scents in their daily lives. It made finding a great fragrance easy by letting you discover scents based on your own style, sample them in the comfort of your own home, and then have your choices delivered to your doorstep. We named the brand “Commodity” to bring a sense of honesty back to the industry. Each scent is simply named after a real commodity or an abstract one.
For the 20 fragrances to truly shine, the design had to be simple and humble. When it came to the packaging, we opted for minimal and ergonomic shapes. We decided to highlight the name of each commodity without adding any superfluous elements. Even the exterior packaging puts an emphasis on content, highlighting the volume (30ml or 100ml). To bring warmth and familiarity, we used leather or suede for the ‘Roller’ carrying case. It feels like a trusty wallet and only gets better as it ages.
Logotype: Customised Novecento
Primary Typeface: Tiempos
Secondary Typeface: Alternate Gothic No 3 & Novecento
If I’m honest, I rarely ever see Kickstarter projects (of this nature) that are the “complete package” — a great idea brought to life by beautifully executed product design and branding. So when I first set eyes upon Commodity, something within me just clicked. Not only did I appreciate what they were they trying to do as a company, I also couldn’t help but admire the effort they put into the branding of this venture — when a product label has the power to make you reach for your wallet, they’re clearly doing something right ;) Suffice to say, it made sense to give the hard-working ladies and gents (of Commodity) a feature on SI and maybe, just maybe, earn them some new fans in the process :)
Thank you once again to Owen for putting all the imagery and text together for this feature and best of luck reaching $50k!
Commodity on Kickstarter
www.commoditygoods.com
www.ferro-concrete.com
Update your reader now with this changed subscription address to get your latest updates from us.
The email newsletter has also moved. Updated the subscription to the new newsletter.
Update your reader now with this changed subscription address to get your latest updates from us.
The email newsletter has also moved. Updated the subscription to the new newsletter.
△
Fourth Floor Corner Shop Identity, Packaging and Signage
Design: North in collaboration with Richard Stepney
△
Fourth Floor Packaging
Design: North
For more than two decades Fourth Floor has been doing things differently – cutting and colouring hair with maximum application and minimal fuss from its bright, split-level salon atop a 1930s industrial building in the heart of Clerkenwell. Accessed via a goods lift, it has remained firmly below the radar while attracting a fiercely loyal clientele and whilst many come from the arts, media, design and the creative industries all share with Fourth Floor an independence of thought and outlook. Its recent twentieth anniversary was marked by the publication of a clothbound book (click here to see the feature) featuring interviews, designs and recipes from clients including Jon Snow, Tom Dixon and Nigel Slater.
Now Fourth Floor is venturing into new territory. From the beginning of November to the end of December 2012, its upper floor — the fourth, in fact — will play host to the Fourth Floor Corner Shop, an emporium showcasing a selection of covetable wares from local businesses and designers based in Clerkenwell and Bloomsbury, who share Fourth Floor’s independent, idiosyncratic ethos. Clients will be free
to browse the concessions, pre- or post-appointment, while casual visitors will also be welcome to experience this unique retail environment. “It gives people a chance to see what we’re about, while also offering a showcase for our friends and neighbours,” says Fourth Floor owner Richard Stepney.
The ’4′ graphic was intended to inherit some of the DNA of the striped identity of the Fourth Floor packaging that North created some years ago. The Corner Shop logotype is loosely based on Skyline Black (designed by Imre Reiner C.1927) but has been completely redrawn.
Big thank you once again to Stephen and Jeremy for making this feature possible.
www.4thfloor.co.uk
www.northdesign.co.uk
Keeping with this weeks theme of classic design, here’s a great site called Art of the Arcade by Nick Dart that showcases the lost video game designs and illustrations from the 70s and 80s. Hopefully it gets updated more frequently.
Diet Coke has announced that they’re permanently changing the packaging of the Diet Coke cans to this beautiful, minimal and bold design created by Turner Duckworth. The cropping and scaling of the logo creates some interesting white space, and I this design will definitely stand out on the shelves. Diet Coke has reported that the new look is performing really well. More at Creative Review.
△
Fedrigoni Packaging
Design Project were recently appointed by Fedrigoni to produce technical literature and packaging to showcase their UK product portfolio to designers, printers and specifiers. The 4-part swatch set, housed in a protective sleeve, brings together a selection of their Coloured, Unique, Pearlescent and Textured paper & board ranges.
To give structure and to help identify the ranges, each swatch displays a different colour bar on the cover — a visual identification system that was directly derived from the paper waterfalls within each guide. To support the information-heavy content, all the grades and weights have been meticulously arranged and are accompanied by an easy to navigate product matrix.
This Paper Specification Guide is a limited edition, so if you’d like to request a copy, email info@fedrigoni.co.uk (while stocks last).
Typeface used: Akkurat
Photography: Lindsay Broadley
Having purged SI of malicious malware (this week) which rendered the site un-viewable, it’s good to be back! Obviously I’m still “warming up” for the next big update (coming next Friday) so in the meantime I have some brand new work to share with you from a studio that many SI readers know and love: Design Project.
You may also be interested to know that Design Project are hard at work on their new website and you can track their progress by following them on Twitter: @designproject_
Thank you once again to Andy for the exclusive feature :)
△
Maeven
Identity for Maeven (pronounced may-ven), a Brooklyn-based online shop with a collection of vintage and preowned designer clothing. The pattern, used in packaging materials ranging from tissue paper to stickers and mailing bags, uses the two thicknesses of the logo to form a texture reminiscent of pixels, referring to the vintage shop being only online. The colors are a modern interpretation of the vintage red and blue striped envelopes.
Typefaces Used: Modern 20, Modern No. 20 Italic
△
Jennifer Behr
Brand book design for luxury hair accessory designer Jennifer Behr. The logo was bronze foiled onto the thick cardboard covers.
Creative Direction Roanne Adams (Studio RoAndCo)
Design Lotta Nieminen
Typefaces Used: Trade Gothic Bold Condensed 20, Arnhem Blond
△
Trendi
Layout redesign for Finnish monthly fashion magazine Trendi. Together with Leena Vainio. Subscriber covers were stripped of the commercial big titles, and replaced with hand lettered versions.
Typeface Used: Austin with hand lettering by Lotta Nieminen
Paper Doll beauty editorial
Paper headpieces: Lotta Nieminen and Aino Ahtiainen
Photography: Marko Rantanen
△
Arttu
Design and layout for the 4/08 issue of Arttu, the University of Art and Design Helsinki’s quarterly magazine. Open sources and shared information were the leading themes of the issue, and were also used as an approach from a design perspective, showcasing the table of contents first thing on the cover. In collaboration with Mikko Luotonen.
Typefaces Used: Knockout, Monaco, Sentinel
△
Feyt
Identity and web layout for Feyt (www.feyt.com), a website that customizes and curates your shopping experience with the help of online surveys and stylists.
Creative Direction Roanne Adams (Studio RoAndCo)
Design Lotta Nieminen
Typefaces Used: Gotham, Caslon 540
△
Anna Mun Olla
Exhibition identity for the Annantalo Culture Center in Helsinki. Anna mun olla (Let Me Be) showcased art about and by disabled people. The visual concept of the exhibition was based on filling in the sentence “Let me be …”. This was applied to a series of four posters, opening invitations, entrance stickers and programme. In collaboration with Mikko Luotonen.
Typefaces Used: Modified Knockout, Plantin, Futura
△
KI Kinnunen
Visual identity for fashion designer KI Kinnunen. The golden rectangle used on the business card and hang tags symbolizes a protective shield, one of the important inspirations to the first collection.
Typeface Used: Modified Trade Gothic Bold Condensed No. 20
△
KI Kinnunen — Faraday Suit
Book design for fashion designer KI Kinnunen’s written master’s thesis. Like its content, the layout for Faraday Suit – Vestural Retreats for Electrospheres was influenced by science and designed in line with the identity created for the fashion brand.
Typefaces Used: Knockout, Gotham Book, Austin Roman, Mercury Text
△
Marks & Spencer
Label illustrations for Barossa, major British retailer Marks & Spencer’s range of Australian wines.
△
Herald Tribune
Cover illustration for the International Herald Tribune’s Global Agenda 2011 issue.
△
Suez
Illustrations for the annual report of Suez Environnement, a French utility company which operates in the water treatment and waste management sectors.
△
Casamica
Editorial illustration for Casamica, the design supplement to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The letters in Verso Est (Towards East) were illustrated for the opening spread, featuring elements from all the cultures presented in the issue dedicated to Eastern design.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you the multi-talented graphic designer, illustrator and art director Lotta Nieminen. Based in New York but originally from Helsinki, Finland, Lotta has worked for fashion magazine Trendi, Pentagram Design and RoAndCo Studio in addition to being a recipient of numerous awards and accolades (rightly so may I add!)
Whilst this feature has been long overdue, the timing couldn’t be better — Lotta’s beautiful new site went live this week and I encourage you to have a look as there are many gems on there that didn’t find their way into today’s feature. Thank you once again to Lotta for making this feature possible and for being a long time reader — much appreciated :) To SI’s loyal readers: Take the time to enjoy what you see here today because it may be a while before we do another big feature of Lotta’s work… :)
Heads of State designed this identity and packaging for newly launched artisan confectioners Wondermade. They wanted this truly tasty marshmallow treat to be bold and fantastic on the crowded shelves at confection stores. With a unique assortment of flavors Wondermade needed a really special little box.
We letterpress printed this packaging assortment on French Papers. Using Speckletone Madero Beach 80lbC custom duplexed to six different Poptone 65lbC colors we achieved a 145lbC hefty box, still able to pack flat and fold up sturdy. On press, we used the same plates for all the boxes, just adding a color wash up on the diagonal strip plate as we rotated through the Poptone colors. That way the outside and inside of the package coordinate and the colors can be matched up with flavors. The boxes are sealed with a digitally printed label that Wondermade can add as they create new flavors. We think the letterpress craft of these boxes makes the ritual of opening and enjoying even more special. You should try them now.
