FRESHTHRILLS

A few days ago I was struck by this very interesting website. Not for its design or attractive colors but by the fact that it’s a smart, thoughtful and well executed piece of advertising.

It’s called Harmony and it’s a sort of How-To guide from GOOD magazine sponsored by Prius. In typical GOOD magazine’s content, the site offers facts and figures about what we as humans can do to help the environment.

This concept is well executed and the marriage of the GOOD magazine content and Toyota’s Prius is a natural fit that doesn’t seem forced or inauthentic.

The website was executed by For Office use Only and written by Nikhil Swaminathan

In the process of research or just looking for general inspiration we’re often drawn to unique and interesting places.  We’re often impressed with small companies and start-ups because they are examples of  making the most with what you have and we can identify with that.  We like to keep our studio small and focused on creating the best brand experiences for our clients.

We’re highlighting this simple and delightful range of dairy products by Healthy 10 founded by Rod Dorman an entrepreneur with true passion and an appreciation for good design.  Rod says his creativity is “expressed in the form of product development and business”.  However, it is this studio’s opinion that design and product development are essential recipes in developing a successful brand or product.

The packaging was designed by Michael Tsanis at Eric Mower and Associates

FRESHTHRILLS had the pleasure of partnering with a great company called Solidea, the sister company of Acquis Consulting Group, a management consulting firm that uses innovative thinking to help their clients become more competitive.

FRESHTHRILLS designed and built a very sleek website with a clear navigational structure, and simple photography all to convey the experience and focus of Solidea. The site was built entirely in HTML/CSS with JavaScript animation and minimal use of Flash to allowing the site to be very SEO friendly, which is a huge added value for our client and the studio’s capabilities.

Launch Site

I love food, who doesn’t?  But I especially love food photography and for issue #18, Theme Magazine combined my love of food photography and typography into a striking cover photo from the issue’s fashion story. With warm and simple photography by Ryuhei Shindo this cover is intruding and delightful.  Time for lunch I’m hungry.

Check out Theme Magazine issue #18

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.

I was recently introduced to the Geneva Sound Systems, discribed as a high-end music furniture business. The product is a clean simple design and on the company website they explain that, “We are also minimalist about features, adding only those functions we feel are essential to a good experience.” Amen to that.

Check out this great package design for Beauty Bank by BorsaWallace.

In the business of design staying fresh is always a top priority and inspiration can come in many forms. Understanding the ins and outs of the business of design is equally important and knowing how to deal with clients and creative is the typical juggle of a small design studio like us. In our constant pursuit of growth and progression we’ve read and re read many books on both topics.

In the studio along with the many magazines, tear sheets, postcards, business cards, sketchbooks, we also have a great collection of books on the subject of business and design, books like The Business Side of Creativity by Cameron S. Foote, who’s first, second and third editions dog-eared from use editions grace our bookshelf and gets used regularly.

On the creative side, we have many books covering Interactive Design and Development, Advertising, Branding, Naming, Logo design and Identity strategy. These books are not only essential for creativity but they serve as valuable business tool as well.

Whether you’re a designer or a client trying to learn more about the design business, here’s a short list of books you should consider reading.

The Designers Research Manual
The Design Entrepreneur
Logo Savvy
Masters of Design: Logos & Identity
Designing Brand Identity