FRESHTHRILLS

It’s an annual tradition, which began long, long ago: The spread of holiday cheer to everyone you know. A celebration, if you will, of a good year that’s past and the hopes for an even better one to come. But this year we found ourselves wondering how we could spread holiday cheer during a time when cheer was in short supply. This was the year where it seemed like bad news was everywhere; Unemployment hit an almost all-time high, and morale, an all-time low. Advertising spending went down, unemployment benefits, up. We knew it was bad when even the president admitted that not only were we approaching a recession, but we were deep smack in the middle of one. “This bites!” a voice yelled.

And from there…an idea was born.

We drew our creative inspiration from the depression era. For typography, we wanted to evoke a no frills, tough times feeling, and after reviewing a few options we decided on a typeface called Memphis as the primary font for the identity. Memphis is a classic Slabserif designed in 1930 by Rudolf Wolf.

Graphically, we drew our inspiration from the age-old newspaper headline design, with the use of double ruled lines and justified text. For packaging, we stayed true to our “no-frills” concept, using leftover assets from previous projects. Thus, the Recession Bites “brand” was established.

We tasked our copywriter with creating a language that acknowledged the difficulties of the past year, yet showed our upbeat and playful mentality towards the future.  Poking fun at both recession era language and recent events, we created copy that matched the aesthetic look of our design with tongue-in-cheek wordplay.

From the start we felt that it was important to find a way to reduce waste, but as with any print project, we printed dozens of designs, most of which were printed and discarded. When it came time to pack and ship our Recession Bites, rather than create more waste we shredded the rejected designs, and thus got our packing material.Not only did this add a great finishing touch to the Recession Bites concept, it also helped to make it our greenest project to date, something we hope to continue to do for the future.

Oh yes, the “bites.”, Chocolate truffles made fresh by our team. Consisting of an Oreo center and covered with dark chocolate, they were topped with a green icing made from white chocolate and candy canes.

Credits:
Concept, Brand Identity, Packaging & Design: FRESHTHRILLS, LLC
Copywriter: Matthew Goldfarb

While doing a bit of research on package design for a FRESHTHRILLS branding and package design project, I recently stumbled on what I think is one of the coolest package design solutions I’ve seen in a while. This design gem was developed by Po-Zu an environmentally friendly footwear brand in collaboration with Maharishi a British lifestyle brand.

All of the leathers and rubbers used in their products are organic, and the shoe box itself is made out of biodegradable coconut material and can be reused as trays for growing seeds. The innovation goes beyond the packaging and the company’s website says of the wearing experience, “Over time, the warmth of your body and the pressure on the coconut foot mattress will help the foot mattress to conform to the contours of your feet.”

Pretty cool stuff.

As we enter a new age of mobile devices with the iPhone and Google’s Android, interaction designers and developers have been and will continue to experiment with new ways to for people to interact with their devices. I have been amazed at the speed and breadth the iPhone has had an impact. From music artists to medical research to the Obama campaign. I think is shows that these are devices we have all been waiting for. But I am most excited about the future of this medium and over the next few years the public will learn to sort and prioritize this content much the same way it has with the internet.

Above is an example of true innovation. The iPhone development company, Smule, has transformed the iPhone in a wind instrument. Check out these videos demonstrating the app, here and here.

A few weeks ago on I had a chance to experience the Down exhibition by New York City based artist Kehinde Wiley at the Deitch Project Gallery in New York’s Soho. The artist is skilled portrait painting tradition. His work is larger than life and is best viewed in the gallery, go check it out.