January 25, 2009 • 1:29 pm
After seeing a poster for Tropicana Orange Juice, I thought it was an adbuster campaign. The ad looked so generic and so did the product hero shot that it looked like a fake ad with a fake product. So I went to the website (above) and it was their new package design.
It was a real product with a package design that looked like a generic product. Is the seduction of clean design turning brands into unemotional products?
I have to admit, I do like the way the information is arranged on the package. It also does not disappear on the shelf with the large photo repeating along a row.
Tropicana is also a member of the Carton Council that has a great campaign about recycling cartons:
http://www.werecyclecartons.com/
During my research of this product I also found that PepsiCo is making to reduce their carbon footprint with this product. How green is your orange juice?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/business/22pepsi.html
Filed under: Creative Direction, Environment, Packaging, Positive Change
This store had to be the weirdest experience in retail I have had since exiting the so-called haunted Winchester House into an inescapable gift shop torture chamber. The first hint this Ferrari store will be annoying is that every two minutes the loud sound of a race car will be going around your head. Yes, I am not kidding. At first I thought I was hearing things, then my wife and I started laughing then – after it did not stop – the sound was not funny anymore and testing us to leave the store.
I am a fan of Ferrari automobiles, especially the 250 GT line and the Mondial designs. Way before the cars went all tacky and cliché. I have friends who own Ferrari’s (or had owned one or two in the past) so this is no diss to the automobile, but a commentary on the use of an icon in automobiles, speed, and sexiness. They have replaced the logo worn on the tush with a logo you can wear anywhere you desire. The plus side is that both sexes can wear it now.
The store could have embraced the Ferrari legacy more but it decided to be a cross between a Coach purse store for men and a tanning bed on the highest setting. The 1000 watt lighting in the store could not be any brighter and I expected the aggressive sales-dudes to both hand me a pair of Ferrari emblazoned shades and also fill up my gas tank.
The store is way over done and in the aforementioned cliché manner. I would have loved to see a more museum quality to the store that showed why the Ferrari is more than a street legal race car for a Ferragamo wearin’, hair club member, secretary dating, divorced father with a coke dealer who sells him short.
Sure this persona is over the top but that is the very one-dimensional approach the marketing department must have made when writing the specifications for the experience design. As mentioned, I am a fan of the automaker and this store made me embarrassed to say that. It also made me drop my search for a classic Ferrari that I have been eyeing for a few years.
If sales do not produce the expected results, it may be easy to blame the economy but there are still fans there who would purchase a Ferrari product if they did not feel like they walked into a gimmicked-out retail experience.
Filed under: Creative Direction, Experience Design, San Francisco
January 17, 2009 • 11:08 pm
Growing up I watched Borg, Lendl, Connors, and McEnroe to name a few but was very fond of Lendl and now exciting to watch Djokovic who has a similar demeanor. It is a great sport to watch and also fun to bet on if you know the players well.
I picked Novak Djokovic to win last years Australian Open and was researching the brackets that was just released for 2009 and saw some amazing possible 4th round match-ups. The typical Aussie Open sites that display the brackets have printable versions but these are impossible to read and a mess to tape up and manage. Then I came across a crude but useful “You Pick Em” site that challenges users to pick their favorites:
http://www.britishtennis.net/pickem/pickemef%20128.htm
It helped me make my picks for winner (men’s only but looking for women’s bracket) and along the way am predicting this 4th round matchup:
- Rafael Nadal vs. Lleyton Hewitt
- Gael Monfils vs. Gilles Simon
- Andy Murray vs. Radek Stepanek
- James Blake vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
- Andy Roddick vs. David Nalbandian
- Marcos Baghdatis vs. Novak Djokovic
- Juan Martin del Potrovs. David Ferrer
- Stanislas Wawrinka vs. Roger Federer
Mardy Fish has ben playing some exceptional tennis and may be in the 4th round instead of Baghdatis. I have to see how they are playing the first and second rounds. As for the women, a clear favorite is Elena Dementieva who is due for a Grand Slam title.
As for the bracket tools, I did some research and saw some installable PC software that looked lame but found it strange that there are not easy to find online tools or apps to use that were fun and social.
If you stumble across this post and know of some tools please share them. Also check out the converted spreadsheet where you can check off the prediction and see how engaging and simple this is to create. The user-interface is horrible but nothing a nice pixel bedazzling could not cure.
Enjoy the Aussie Open and if you have DirectTV you will be able to see the games on Channels 701 – 707 from January 18 – 25th. This is a great user experience to see the early matches before it goes to the networks and is one great reason to have DirectTV – and also a Slingbox.
Filed under: Experience Design, Usability , bracket, data, information, match-ups, predictions, slingbox, Usability
January 13, 2009 • 3:52 pm
We are in the middle of launching the new site for Thunk! There are more samples to go in the work area and we are discovering typos all the time. How do typos seem to hide so well before something is launched?
Feedback welcomed:
http://thunkinc.com/
We have another design for thunkdesign.com but it may end up being the same site since we are moving to “Thunk” since more of our services go beyond design.
I am pitching more work that involves strategy, management, product naming, and prototyping. It seems like straight visual design work is less of a commodity.
Filed under: Thunk News , launch, promotion, prototype, typos, visual design, website
January 11, 2009 • 7:53 am
It is awful how Yelp.com reviewers are getting sued because of their freedom of speech. The format of Yelp! allows for anybody with a keyboard to flame or rant about irrelevant topics about any business. Yelp! keeps it there for the “entertainment factor” but they should monitor the reviews, have more criteria to evaluate business better, and have more qualified reviews. I used to go to Yelp! but now it’s a bunch of writing on the bathroom wall.
It’s difficult enough having a business in San Francisco – or any city with Yelpers in the mist. I had a bad experience with a company and the search results come up very high and they said that it was damaging their business. My goal is not to ruin their business but to warn people about their practices. But they fixed it. and if the owner contacts you about the review then the reviewer should update the post or remove it.
The environmental firm Sustainable Spaces broke a mirror and damaged the wood floors at my home but they fixed it after they refunded me the cost of the service and had a good chat with one of the founders. They are great guys and I doubt they would start a lawsuit but if the issue is resolved and there is no reason to have the review posted then I think it is polite to remove the post or update the situation if resolved.
The bathroom on the wall now has a signature and an IP address attached to it.
Filed under: Environment, San Francisco
January 6, 2009 • 12:59 pm
I am a data junkie and have to admit I spent way too much time dorking around with this dashboard:
sprint.com/widget
Much respect for Sprint for making an effort in the market. I want to know who rejected the offer to have the iPhone under their network, they should be shot. I still have one reliable Sprint phone but have to deal with Apples stupid partnership with AT&T. I love the iPhone product but AT&T blows donkey widgets.
Filed under: Differentiation, Experience Design , apple, at&t, dashboard, iphone, sprint, timesink
