Coke Shows Off One-Brand Packaging – A Branding Challenge

This month in Mexico City, Coca Cola unveiled a new “One Brand Packaging” approach to its product line. Executives said it’s a “contemporary spin on a classic icon” by utilizing the Coca Cola red disc. Those of you who are not as familiar with Coca Cola’s brand, the classic icon they’re referring to is the red disc pictured below. It was first introduced in the 1930s on hand-painted Coca-Cola advertising, and according to Coca Cola, the Red Disc has become synonymous with “great taste, uplift and refreshment”

Undoubtedly, any change to such an iconic brand such as Coca Cola, is going to be a huge challenge. If executed wrongly, it’ll hurt the company’s brand and bottom line financially. In today’s market, where soda consumption is at new lows for the 11th consecutive year in the U.S., damage to the brand would border unsurmountable. Luckily though, Coca Cola has bounced back from major PR disasters in the past involving its brand so it knows first hand what works and what doesn’t.

In 1985, Coca Cola decided to change its formula amid rising competition from Pepsi and even brands owned by Coke (Sprite & Fanta). So it devised a formula that was preferred in focus groups over Pepsi and called it “New Coke”. Long story short, many boycotted the new brand and Coca Cola eventually brought back its classic formula and ditched the brand labeled as “New”. Coca Cola 1985 Brand Failure

So when Coca Cola unveiled a new design, it’s no surprise that when they looked at the challenge of a rebrand, they were looking to their beloved and iconic history for inspiration. Thus the contemporary spin on a classic icon was devised. At least on their packaging. Now the cans show off the iconic Coke Red for classic, Silver for light/diet, Black for zero sugar, and Green for their Coke Life. To be honest, this is the first time I’ve seen or heard of Coca Cola Life, so in case you were wondering too, it’s a lower-calorie version of Coca-Cola, using stevia and sugar as sweeteners. The More You Know.

“By applying the Coca-Cola Red Disc to our packaging in such a bold way, we are taking the next step towards full adoption of the ‘One-Brand’ strategy, uniting the Coca-Cola family under one visual identity and making it even easier for consumers to choose their Coca-Cola with or without calories, with or without caffeine.”

– Chief Marketing Officer Marcos de Quinto

This approach to the “One Brand Packing” is not only contemporary by its simplicity, but also influenced by its failures 30 years ago. Using imagery that invokes the classic taste and admiration of coke is not only a smart marketing and branding solution, but also essential to the Coca Cola brand identity. Aesthetically, the new designs are bold without taking away the classic feel of Coca Cola and they don’t fall into the trap of looking like its other products, thus confusing consumers on what exactly they just picked up or bought.

Unfortunately though, the U.S. won’t see these cans for at least another year if not more or at all while Coca Cola works on it’s already busy marketing schedule in 2016. So we’ll have to go to Mexico to get an up close look for now. Will this brand experiment last? Only time will really tell, which is probably why Coca Cola is choosing to limit this new brand to a select few countries. Overall though, I believe it’ll be successful in its goal to unify the brand.

Well done.

Battered Women’s Shelter: Reaching Out to the Most Vulnerable

The Battered Women’s Shelter of Summit & Medina Counties (BWS) is located in Akron, Ohio. Akron has a diverse population ranging from Arabic speakers to Spanish speakers because of its acceptance of refugees outside of the U.S. While Akron celebrates this cultural diversity, the intake of refugees from around the world presents a unique situation in the community. Domestic violence within families is a problem for any group, but is amplified for families who are unfamiliar with the language and culture of the U.S. These groups often do not know of the resources available to them.

At the beginning of this project, I visited center in Akron to get a tour of the facility itself and see first hand what the BWS did for the community. Seeing this large facility with rooms, kitchens, and safe areas for entire families, was inspiring and knowing that this resource is available for those in need was satisfying. Knowing that these resources may not be accessible the most vulnerable who are not native to the culture of language of the U.S. made this project even more important to me.

Knowing the predicament ahead the Battered Women’s Shelter set a goal to reach out to these under represented groups by using languages and images relevant to those communities so these individuals can get help or encourage community members & leaders to help someone they know. To do effectively do this, the BWS decided that a series of brochures and street cards would be the best way to reach out to the often-reclusive individuals being abused.

Brochures and Street Cards were designed in 5 different languages with the help of translators to ensure text is understood and that terms were culturally relevant. A special feature requested and eventually required for street cards was the ability for a user to conceal vital information from their abuser(s). To do this, Mooney Design suggested a distinctive solution, a perforated section smaller than a business card that can be quickly torn from the main card and concealed. The street cards as a whole can also be disguised, as a bookmark the individual has another way to keep the entire card hidden.

As someone who is not fluent in any other language other than English, this project was an adventure. While French and Spanish were easy for me personally to work with and understand, it was Arabic, Burmese, and Nepali that used characters from a non-Latin alphabet that caused me some concern. One difference to point out was that Arabic writing is wrote and read from right to left rather than the English way of reading left to right. This proved to be a bit of an adjustment for my Adobe program InDesign as I was not using the Middle East Edition. Another aspect was using letterforms not from the Latin alphabet. This was an adjustment for me, as I wanted to keep to the cultural norms of that language in regards to sentence direction, kerning, connected characters, point sizes, and widows in text. Through research and help from translators I was able to get the task completed and to the translators liking. Overall this was an awesome project that allowed me to not only utilize my design abilities, but also help a community.

Microsoft’s New Logo for its “new” Browser

So if you’ve been paying attention to the world of Microsoft, you might have noticed that they’re rolling out a new browser called “Edge” to replace the infamous Internet Explorer. Generally with a new browser comes a new logo and boy did Microsoft get a new logo… or did they?

Left: Internet Explorer
Right: Edge

I am by no means going to say the new Edge logo is a poorly done logo. On the contrary, it’s actually a good mark in general. However, every logo and brand has context that has to be taken into account.

The Internet loves to Mock Internet Explorer

Since this new browser is going to be replacing Internet Explorer, it’s important that it be seen as not only a new thing, but also better than the old thing. That shouldn’t be hard considering that Internet Explorer is the browser everyone loves to mock so any association between the two browsers should be avoided. So the first mistake with the Edge logo is that it looks almost the same as the old Internet Explorer logo. Now as a designer, I know that they’re definitely not the same and small changes can make a huge difference, but the similarities are too striking between the two. Both are a lower case “e” and both are predominantly blue. They also seem to both be making the ‘swish’ motion in the logo.

When viewed from a distance or at a smaller size, they both look like they’re for the same browser, but one is a newer version. This goes back to association and how it should be kept to a minimum. If Edge is going to distinguish itself from its predecessor, it needs a new distinguishing look that doesn’t incite jokes or jives relating to the previous browser. I believe Microsoft really missed an opportunity to start a new product with a new refreshed brand. Only time will tell whether or not Edge is the browser Microsoft needs, but for now the “Edge” logo has nothing edgy about it.

Malala Fund Annual Report Project

For this project, called Free Association, the brief stated that I choose an animal, geographical location, and a non-profit organization that I admire. Using this information I was tasked in creating the cover design for the annual report for the non-profit I chose. This cover had to include some reference either textual or visual to the animal and location.

Once I chose my 3 topics I had to research them extensively. As with all my projects, research is one of the most important, it’s the first thing I do and creates a solid foundation for any design project. Since I was already familiar and supportive of The Malala Fund, I didn’t need to do too much research into the organization itself, but I did specifically look into her trip to Nigeria. If you would like to know more about Malala Yousafzai, please visit MalalaFund.org.

Initial sketches for research and logo design

I chose the Nigeria as my location of interest because of the recent kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls by the terrorist group, Boko Harram. When Malala Yousafzai recently visited that region, she met with the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathon to discuss the problem.

 

Finally the animal I chose was the hummingbird, which I feel has a great symbolism for the Malala Fund. In my research I found that the hummingbird represents “Independence” and “Resiliency” and is capable of going long distances to get what it needs. Girls in Nigeria and other parts of the world often have to travel long distances by foot to get an education. I felt that the parallel between those was uncanny. Knowing the story of Malala Yousafzai and the violence on her life by the Taliban, I saw another parallel. Malala Yousafzai is even more independent and resilient after the assassination attempt. With this information I knew that choosing anything else but the hummingbird would be the wrong choice for this project.

Concepts for the Stronger Than Logo

More research continued as I kept designing. I found articles written by Malala and highlighted key points that I found inspiriting and wanted to somehow emulate in my design and content. At the end of this post I will include links to the resources I utilized.

Swatches used for the project

Once I had my 3 items picked I knew I wanted this report to be colorful and hopeful. I wanted positivity to emanate from this report, as there is already so much negativity in this subject. In my research, I saw that the Malala Fund’s website uses color very well and I really wanted to expand on it in my report. By using a colorful pallet I can instill a feeling of hope and compliment the good that The Malala Fund is doing. I had to somehow make reference to Nigeria and a hummingbird though, which at first was very difficult. Eventually I settled on a hummingbird/Malala quote. I went through several variations of this idea and after some critique and process of elimination I settled on the final logo.

The quote itself is a reference to Nigeria when Malala was speaking to the girls being threatened with violence and kidnapping for getting an education. Next I chose to highlight a flower, brimming with color to symbolize the variety of needs girls all over the world fight for.

The initial flower illustration, which was changed after critique

At first the flower was monotone in color, but after critique it was decided that I should illustrate my own. The result was well worth the time in illustrating. In critique, peers found that the logo looked like the hummingbird was getting nectar from the flower when placed together, which provided even more to the symbolism.

The final illustrated flower

Next I wanted to provide some example pages of what the inside of the report might look like. Using the grid system I devised a 2-column solution that accommodated the text and relevant imagery. This gave the report a consistent feel and made finding information easy. As with the cover, I made sure a colorful pallet followed into the content pages. All of the text that I used, excluding the text on the first page, is from articles written by Malala. I am very excited to finally share this with all of you. I hope that by doing this project I have helped spread awareness for girls education around the world.

You can see the booklet in full at this link.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed seeing this project as much as I enjoyed creating it.

 

EDIT:

Links to research used:

NBC: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbc-news/55126317#55126317

UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nigeria_73837.html

WashingtonPost: http://wapo.st/1jG1EUC

SpiritAnimal: http://www.spiritanimal.info/hummingbird-spirit-animal/

MalalaFund: http://www.malala.org

Quantum Technologies Logo

At first, this project seemed counter-intuitive, reading from the brief

“…And while they don’t care what name you come up with, they did have some mandatory input regarding the way in which you render their logo: They want all elements of the system to be rendered in a hand-wrought calligraphic style…”

A highly advanced technology company wants a logo that’s in script form?! As a designer who pays attention to what other companies and brands do, this stipulation isn’t exactly a great starting point at first glance. How many tech companies do you see that have brands rooted in script or hand drawn elements? There aren’t that many companies that come to mind. So the first hurdle was to step back and get out of the comfort zone, oh and do tons of research as well!

 

First order of business in just about any design adventure is to do research. Since this company boasts its perfection of quantum computing, and myself only being a novice viewer of the Science Channel, I had to figure out what makes a quantum computer work and what makes it so revolutionary. Now, without going into all sorts of details and figures into how a quantum computing works, here is my sketchbook page with my notes on the issue. There were tons of resources and lecture notes on quantum computing that I found so very helpful in understanding quantum physics for computing. You can find one here

Once I felt that I had a firm grasp of the subject, it was off to the next phase, sketching logo concepts. I really liked the idea of superposition in quantum physics and its relation to computing. (I won’t go into too much detail, but you’re free to look it up and see for yourself!) With computing now, lines of code are displayed like this: 010011010110111101101111011011100110010101111001010001000110010101110011011010010110011101101110

and with enough lines of code, it can limit a computers’ processing speed:

 

Now, with quantum computing and superposition, all those ones and zeros become super imposed onto one another and can be read many times faster. (Again, I’m really over simplifying) Essentially, the ones and zeros are on top of each other, which gave rise to the logo concept of a symbolic circle (The zero) with a vertical line going through the center (The one).

 

With this idea of drawing ones and zeros and representing superposition, I drew so many different variations of the circle with the line going through it. Eventually, I devised what you see below, but now I had to figure out a color and how the logo may be used for a company like this.

I decided a lighter blue would be best because of its link to high intellect, but using a light blue, makes the brand more approachable to the common user as it is associated with understanding. The idea of quantum computing alone makes it intimidating to the average user (Heck, most of everyone would feel intimidated and perplexed about quantum computing) so using colors like blue and green along with a clever marketing campaign to make the idea of quantum computing simple and clean makes sense from a design and business perspective.

Grungevetica!

Grungevetica! Its Helvetica, but Grungy.

This was one of those fun projects where I took an existing typeface, Helvetica, and made a new typeface from it. To get a grunge look and feel, I wanted to mostly do this project by hand. To start I cut out the uppercase alphabet with an exacto blade and a lot of patience. Once I had everything cut out, I had to decide what to do with my new stencil. For me, very few things say grunge as much as charcoal. It gets everywhere, it smudges and, breaks apart. I took out my charcoal and began not just rubbing over the stencil, but actively drawing  within the stencil. I believe using this technique, I was able to have more control and create a unique texture rather than a uniform shape and color that you’d get with just coloring in a stencil.

Since this was just a small project, I didn’t create lowercase letters nor numbers. However, this creates the possibility for me to do that in the future and improve upon and expand this typeface.

Spray Paint Wars

I think the hardest part about this project was finding a name for my company that sells clothing inspired by street art. I am already familiar with street art in general and am aware of the famous street artist Banksy and his work. With that in mind I really wanted to make a clothing company that didn’t just represent the classic street art you’d see on the side of trains or in common industrial areas. No, what I wanted was something that represents modern street art along with the typical graphics on the side of abandoned buildings.

This led me to research and looking back at documentaries on famous street art and artists. In almost every case street art is done in the dark and very late in the night. In the city that usually means street lamps are on (Maybe flickering) and store fronts glowing with neon lights. With that vision in my mind I finally chose the name Neons for my clothing company. It made sense to me really that the neon light full of color would be a good representation of nightlife when street art is typically done.

Then began the process of sketching a logo for my new company, Neons.

Since I wanted my company to not give into what the cliché version is of street art, I stayed away from really bulky letterforms and letters very tightly squeezed together. Though, I did want to retain some of the look, but without going all out on it. So I eventually decided on drawing up the “N” in Neons in a bulky type of letterform. The e-o-n-s portion of the logo was where I wanted to play on the neon lights bit. So after many more pages of sketches and ideas I developed a rendered version of the logo for critique with other designers.

This initial logo featured a spray can in the “N”. Examples of feedback were that the edges of the “n” needed to be more rounded and that the “N” resembles a Stiletto. I like to ask designers and non-designers about logo designs. Especially for a project like this since this would be a commercial project and finding out how the public reacts and feels about it is very important.

In my second revision of the logo I took some of the advice given. One comment was that the N and e-o-n-s didn’t quite fit together. I felt the same way so I tweaked the “N” and had its baseline line up with the baseline of the e-o-n-s.  I feel that this creates a consistent flow rather than an oddly skewed look from the “N” to the e-o-n-s. I made this logo though to be versatile in its practical use. I made different versions of this logo, some have only the “N” being used, others are in many different color variations, and of course a simple black or white version was created as well. For a clothing company the logo will be on many different things like clothing, clothing tags, cards, signs, online, etc. It’s important that the logo be recognizable and consistent across different medias and platforms.

The project also called for making a storyboard of how the logo can be animated onto screens inside the stores. I liked the idea of having a stencil on a concrete texture and having spray paint over it to then reveal the logo and then the tagline “Put ur street on.”

The project brief didn’t call for this, but I felt like doing it anyway. I found some generic pictures of places online and made mock-ups of what the storefronts and inside the stores may look like with the different variations and uses of the Neons logo.

Creative Workshop: #4 One Line Logo

The challenge: “You’ve been asked to submit an identity design for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The initial sketch of your logo must be composed from a single, unbroken line. Once you’ve placed your pen or pencil down on the paper, you can’t take it off the page until the logo is complete. Don’t go back for corrections –embrace mistakes!”

My first thought when I started this project was “Oh, one line is going to be quite limiting!”.  After the first couple of minutes though, I was actually feeling very liberated in my sketching. I started playing around with type to see what I could do if I wrote London in an unusual way. Then I found myself doing contour drawings of the stereotypical torch, which after a few drawings of that I remembered that the Olympic touch now looks a lot different and actually more simple than the old fashioned one. This led me to doing a drawing of the torch and flame, which I started to like, but it didn’t really say “London Olympics” so I started thinking what London has a lot of or maybe what British are really well known for.

Then it hit me as I was drinking my tea! Lets see what happens if I do the drawing, but at the end add a teabag. After all British are known for their love of tea and tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world (Behind water) so it is also a unifier of what the Olympics are ideally supposed to be. A coming together of nations all over the world. From there I dabbled in some nuanced ways to draw the torch, flame, tea bag, and the occasional turtle. (See if you can find it in the sketches)

 

I gave the logo four distinct colors, though in a larger branding project like the Olympics there would likely be more colors than just these four, but for simplicity sake and as a time saver for me I stuck with these colors. I also decided to try and make a mock lanyard/ID badge so that I could work on my photography skills and photoshop! When I do this challenge again, I will be doing a more expansive and detailed branding on an Olympics that is more current. (Rio 2016 and beyond!) Hope you enjoyed this one! On to the next project!

2014 Comedy Roast!

This year for a local charity (Hannah’s House) I was tasked with created a promotional flyer for an event. This year the lucky individual being roasted was the County Sheriff and the client desired a wanted style poster for him. So as with any project I took the suggestions my client gave me and threw them out the window and decided that a proclamation poster was better. Joking aside though, after researching posters created in the 1800s and my current knowledge of how wood type was used and laid out, I was able to conceive some poster ideas.

A proclamation poster such as this didnt require too much sketching, but it did require a lot of typographic tweaking. Finding a font that was legible for most readers and then placing it on the page prentending that each letter is a peice of wood type that a printer would be using on a press. Overall though the end result was fantastic and the client was very satisfied with the design. I was most happy to be able to help out a community organization with my design work.

Gives you that warm feeling inside… or maybe that’s just the coffee.

Sermo Brand and Viewbook Project

This project had sort of grown into a bigger project. Initially it was just supposed to be a simple viewbook. However, my desire for going above and beyond, I wanted to make it look like a real college. So I had created a logo and style for this viewbook with the intent on showing someone and they thinking it was a real college. Sort of like the plot of the movie “Accepted” from 2006, except I’ve already graduted from college and have no need to fool my parents into thinking im awesome. To start the project I had to read what Sermo was about and what symbols would accurately portray it. The school’s mascot is the flying Osprey and is located at a sea port, so I decided to eventually sketch the osprey flying with a sail behind it.

The logo, im proud to say represents the college, which historically was built by the harbor where many ships and people from around the world would arrive at, which gave the student there an experience of talking to many different people from around the world. This was and is a progressive view when it comes to higher education, which is represented but he sail going forward. You can find out more by taking a look at the viewbook.

What made this project even more exciting was that it was done in a span of two days from concept to finish. Talk about pressure! However when all was said and done I really found myself enjoying it. The client was very happy as well with the end product.