Browsing: design

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In your space: The Better Drinks Company
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At the start of this month Charlie’s announced its new name: The Better Drinks Company. But that’s not the only change taking place behind the scenes for the drinks manufacturer. A new office space was commissioned to physically represent the company’s new philosophy.

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Rest in Pets’ cardboard caskets aim to tap into furry funerals
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Given the size—and growth—of the pet industry, and the increasingly close relationship humans have with their animals, it’s not unusual to see strange new products being launched (I’m looking at you cat soufflé). Not surprisingly, most of the products are aimed at pets that are still alive. But ‘cardboard engineer’ Mat Bogust and his wife Jane have seen a gap in the market and launched a Kickstarter campaign to try and give their cardboard casket business Rest in Pets a leg up.

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Chromacon artists speak about their illustrated lives
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This Sunday saw the inaugural Chromacon illustration and animation convention hit Auckland City, bringing with it a host of talented illustrators, designers and world creators.

As someone whose illustration prowess goes only as far as drawing shaky stick figures, I was awed by all the artwork crammed into Aotea Square. Not so awed that I couldn’t ask a few of the illustrators who caught my eye a question or two.

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The changing face of brands
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It’s always interesting to observe how brands have evolved over the years. As this infographic shows, companies like Canon and Mercedes-Benz have refined their iconic logos in fits and starts over the decades, but some are more or less unrecognisable alongside their original incarnations.

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Meet Twitter’s new, more optimistic mascot
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Avid Twitter users will no doubt be familiar with the ‘Fail Whale’, a picture that regularly showed up when the service was over-capacity. That has become increasingly rare, however, and Yiying Lu, who designed the first image, has come up with a new one: the Success Loch Ness.

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New Zealand seventh on D&AD list, just four campaigns in line for Pencils
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D&AD is renowned as one of the world’s toughest awards shows (hence the brouhaha when Clemenger BBDO took a yellow pencil for Ghost Chips the same night it was denied at Axis). And while New Zealand has further cemented its reputation as a creativity hub and been ranked seventh in the world after the first round of judging, just four campaigns are in line to pick up yellow pencils: Silo Theatre Identity by Alt Group (Branding Schemes/Small Business), ‘Donation Glasses’ by Colenso BBDO for Mars NZ, Pedigree Adoption Drive (Direct Response/TV & Cinema Advertising); ‘Call Girl’ by DraftFCB for Prime Television (Radio Advertising over 30 seconds) and ‘Metamorphosis’ by String Theory for Good Books (Writing for Film Advertising).

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Heineken celebrates the cheers moment with digital bottles
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As part of its “Lounge of the Future” concept for Milan Design Week, Heineken recently debuted Ignite, a new, more interactive twist on the simple beer bottle that uses LEDs and wireless sensors to light up when bottles are clinked together, to flicker when taking a swig, or even to be remotely controlled.

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The necessity of imitation: why copying is fundamental to the creative process
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Creativity and originality go together like peas in a pod. But Auckland designer Kate Cullinane’s thesis, a book called Sample Copy: An Exploration of the Role of Copying in Design, takes the stance that imitation is a part of the creative process. And it’s just won an international Art Directors Club Gold Cube award, as well as being named in the top three in the global Type Directors Club Awards for Typographic Excellence (the final rankings will be announced in July).

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The super powers of sponsorship
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Product placement is just about as old as time itself (or at least, almost as old as the film industry). But what if some of our favourite superheroes were to be underwritten by the likes of Nike or Adidas? Italian Roberto Santos’ series Sponsored Heroes imagines some possible pairings.

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Adshel rebrand gives it the squiggles
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Outdoor media is doing it pretty tough at the moment, but Adshel had a stellar 2013, both here and in Australia. And now it’s got something else to shout about because, after 15 years of loyal service from the old brand, it has unveiled its new one.

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In your space: Westpac
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Banks are increasingly cottoning onto the importance of the customer experience, and Westpac’s signature store at 79 Queen Street (which opened late last year) is a prime example.

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Avanti backs up its beautiful bikes with a beautiful website
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Avanti Bikes, which celebrated its 25th birthday last year, is renowned as a design-led company, as evidenced by the gold it won at the Best Awards this year for its sexy Corsa DR. And that focus on design is helping it move into other overseas markets. Now it’s added another technology-driven advantage to its arsenal in the form of its multi-lingual, responsive website, which was built by Auckland digital agency Salt Interactive.

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Cars and clothes collide in Audi/Huffer collaboration
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Huffer, which turned 15 this year, joined forces with Absolut last year to design its own bottle and now it’s putting its special touch on premium cars, because 15 unique Audi A1s—the result of a collaboration with local fashion man and Audi ambassador Steve Dunstan—will hit Kiwi shores in January.

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Redcactus grabs a triple at Pentawards
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There were 1200 entries from 46 countries for this year’s Pentawards, which celebrate outstanding packaging design, and three projects by specialist consumer branding and packaging agency Redcactus made the final cut and were announced as winners.

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Speight’s gets a crafty, modern makeover
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It’s pretty tough going for the mainstream beers at the moment, with all the growth coming from the craft category and the old stalwarts struggling to keep up as palates change and new tipples tickle fancies. Speight’s Gold Medal Ale is still the country’s most popular beer brand by volume, however, and the brand has recently tried to become more craft-like and even branched out into—block your ears Southern Men—cider. So, in an effort to create a more cohesive family unit and ensure the flagship variety continues its reign, the brand has been given an overhaul by Dow Design.

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