Our design pals at Landers Miller designed the wonderful Street Sweets truck here in NYC. We love it!
Today it came to our attention via Midtown Lunch that the The Schnitzel Wagon out of LA looks an awful lot like the NYC Street Sweets truck. Hmmmm, not cool. At least, Landers Miller are being champs about it and saying, "Well, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.."
Interesting article in the NY Times about branding of heroin packets. This quote from the article sums it up nicely:‘ “Even something so forbidden, so demonized, can be branded.” ’
The packets will be part of the "Heroin Stamp Project" at the White Box Gallery in NYC. 
While in Japan, my husband and I fell in love with the Japanese version of the ad campaign for Clash of the Titans. The campaign had the usual posters from the American campaign, but it also had these totally rad anime posters highlighting the best parts of Clash of the Titans story. We lamented that we didn't get as awesome or imaginative posters in America. Learn more about the posters go here.
How Japan saw Clash of the Titans:
How America saw Clash of the Titans:
I would hate to have this guy as a client. My favorite line, "My card is die-cut. My card is foil-stamped. My card is embossed." Now it just needs flocking and flitter and we are set.
Funnel, aka Eric Kass, is a identity design powerhouse. He has created identities for photographers, retailers and many others. He also maintains a blog of inspiration, a shop full of delightful paper goods and a gallery and working studio. Color me four shades of impressed.
Justice - DVNO from Freedom Record on Vimeo.
We posted about Capacity.tv's rebrand of Cartoon Network back in January but I thought you'd enjoy seeing the video montage of all the interstitial clips. Watch it all the way through for cool Halloween and Jedi bits!
[A diagram showing how a planet in space and Pepsi has a gravitational pull.]
P+P have been wondering what was the Pepsi rebrand team was thinking since we wrote a post a couple of months ago. Searching around the blogosphere, we found a supposed pdf that explained the science behind the rebrand. Unfortunately, it seems that you need a doctorate in genetics, geometry and art history to wade through the rebranding jargon. Check it our for yourself and let us know if you crack the code.
[Via Ad Lab.]
Mattel and Nickelodeon have attempted to update the look of Dora the Explorer, a staple for the preschool and elementary school crowd. The new Dora is targeted for the tween market, recreating her as a 10-year-old girl. The preliminary sketches were released to overwhelming outrage from parents. Lylah Alphonse at Boston.com made a good point about it being okay for kids to "graduate" to new toys and interests.
Outside of the outrage, I don't think the tween Dora looks all sexy and slutty like the media is painting her. She doesn't look like a Bratz girl, that's for sure. Opinions?
Anyone who knows me outside of the design world knows that, besides my love of Vespas, MINIs and yarn, I collect Blythe dolls. So, when Target launched its new ad campaign for the Alexander McQueen line featuring Blythe (customized by Minklet, one of the best Blythe customizers in the US), I had to find it.
Will the doll generate interest in the clothing line or will the ad and marketing generate more interest in the dolls?
More images of the dolls from the ads and the assorted marketing materials are posted on Flickr.
Apparently, we aren't the only ones who don't love the new Pepsi rebrand. All around the blogosphere people are posting fun little digs about the Pepsi logo. Here are a couple of our favorites.
Neatorama posted Lawrence Yang's hilarious logo tweaks and says that Yang plans to make stickers of them to slap up on advertisements around the city.
And Advertising Age posted another great logo customization.
While catching up on my cartoon intake this weekend, I noticed that Cartoon Network rolled out eye-catching and smart interstitials and network bumps. Capacity, a design studio out of California, turns out to the be the creative force behind the new branding. Capacity partnered with Kidrobot to create cute, blank figures called Noods which then take on the colors, personalities and characteristics of various Cartoon Network stars. Check out their homepage for a great montage of all the branded bits.
Wandering through the grocery store the other day, I noticed that two huge brands had received a facelift – Pepsi and Tropicana. 
Pepsi traded in their swish red, white and blue globe for an eerily Obama-like globe which Pepsi claims to be reminiscent of a smile. Besides the weird updated globe, Pepsi gave up it's uppercase block letter logo type for a lowercase rounded hipster-ish font. Overall, the new packing disappointed and confused me. The packaging failed to grab my attention and I found it unsophisticated and generic looking. Unfortunately, the Mountain Dew packaging and Sierra Mist packaging were worse then Pepsi packaging.
The Tropicana packaging fared slightly better then the Pepsi repackaging, but barely. The type on the package looked cleaner and more timeless, but still falls on the blah side. The worst thing for me was the large glass of juice covering most of the container that looked like a cheap stock image which I found not appealing. Overall, both rebrands make Pepsi and Tropicana look like knock-off generics and not a quality product.
[Left: Old logo designed in the 90s. Right: New logo designed by Louise Fili]
Today I stumbled across the new Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval and I was pleased to see how well-designed and beautiful it looked compared to past logos. Digging around, I found that NYC typographic-guru Louise Fili redesigned the new seal in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the magazine.
[A few of the Obama logos that were not chosen. See more at Logo Design Love]
About a month ago, Ana published a lovely post about the making of the Obama logo. After reading the article I wondered what the rejected logos might look like and a couple days ago I got my wish. Logo Design Love shows off the other logo options that weren't choosen along with an Sol Sender's thoughts on each of them.
McDonalds' has created one of the recognizable brands in the world, but that doesn't seem to matter in their two new Quarter Pounder stores in Tokyo. The stores, packaging, and advertising are all devoid of the classic golden arches and red-headed Ronald. The menu only has two choices: Quarter Pounder with Cheese Set or a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese Set. And check out the packaging! I have to say that I kinda like the generic constructivist feel.
[Via InvestorSpot]
