One exception has been Quaker Oats (a division of Pepsi). The Quaker Go Humans Go campaign, with a budget estimated at more than $100 million, is being created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, part of the Omnicom Group. Another Omnicom agency, OMD, is handling the media part of the campaign (NT Times).

The television commercial for their Quaker Chewy Bars instantly caught my attention through a series of very quick (and commentary-less) images of children who were slouched over and motionless. Like a short film, I was drawn in to learn “the conflict.”

The viewer is rewarded when you see friends wind up the motionless children with a large wind-up key, branded with the Quaker imagery. And with a couple of turns, the children were back to school and play.

I think the execution was terrific because it doesn’t insult the viewer and there is no narration until the end.

Unfortunately, Quaker does not get full marks for some of their print advertising. On several buses, I’ve seen the “Go humans, go” ads where neither their name nor their website appear at all.

(Photo by D.C.Atty)

While the execution of the ad itself is good, clean and in line with their overall efforts, I think it’s a missed opportunity not to have some other identifying mark. You may argue that people will eventually discover that Go Humans Go is part of the Quaker push since they are following through with the print, media and POP efforts, but I think that Quaker isn’t as iconic as a Nike who can afford to drop the type mark and rely solely on their logo. At least not right now. But maybe someday, if they keep this up.

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Two quick notes: Joseph Sullivan from the NY Times shares his Favorite Book Covers of 2008, while Pitchfork offers their list of the 20 Worst Album Covers of 2008.

I definitely agree that the cover design of Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends, designed by Jordan Crane, was terrific. Although, a casual observer of the list wouldn’t know it unless you picked up a copy from a bookstore, because the cover actually consists of three die cut covers that overlay the stamped hard-cover. You can see more photos at design:related.

via John Nack

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This really is brilliant.

FAO Schwarz, the high-end toy retailer, who many can recall from the giant piano scene from the movie Big, has really hit a home run with their latest offering The Muppet Whatnot Workshop. (Too bad the economy is in the tank.)

FAO, if you’re unaware, has been having hard times for a long time having done battle up against regular toy stores, department stores, big box discount stores, as well as online retailers. In fact, the only time I can ever recall even thinking about FAO is when I went to visit the famous NYC store when I was a child. (Which, by the way, a pidgeon pooped on my head while waiting in line and turned me against all birds for life.)

Anyhoo… Having grown up with the Muppets on television and in movies, I’m pretty sure anyone around my age would LOVE to have an actual Muppet for our kids (if not for ourselves).

via Daring Fireball; photo: Jim Hensen, FAO Schwarz (with a little help from me)

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Recently The Wall Street Journal ran an article identifying Jerry Dior, a 76-year-old retired graphic designer, as the original designer of the MLB logo.

Paul Lukas from ESPN Page 2 has a nice little article with interviews with Dior as well as from James Sherman, a fellow designer who had, until recently, ALSO been taking credit for the design.

I think its incredibly funny, and not at all surprising, that no one–not Dior, the firm Dior worked for, Sherman, or the MLB for that matter–has any substantiating evidence as to who designed the logo.

via Brand New; photo: Jerry Dior

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Working with manufacturers, Amazon is able to offer frustration-free packaging which is designed not only to make it easier to extricate the products without tools (e.g., your housekeys), but also to reduce the unnecessary packaging, plastics and twist ties that will ultimately just go into the trash. Since the products at Amazon don’t actually have to sit on the shelf and compete with it’s neighboring products for your attention (or thwart attempts at shoplifting), the reduced packaging is an encouraging effort and I do hope that more manufacturers get on board.

Go and watch the fairly entertaining video they made to “demonstrate” frustration-free packaging!

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Well, now you don’t have to.

via Daring Fireball

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We may be Washingtonians here at Magnolia Design, but we’re New Yorkers at heart. So we were very happy to watch Eli Manning and the New York Giants make their way from Wild Card to Super Bowl.

The title game against the Green Bay Packers was a terrific show and evenly matched having to go into overtime. (Only the second time a title game has gone into OT in NFC history!)

But to be fair, the Packers might have won with plays like Drivers’ 90 yard touchdown, had they only played a cleaner game. Time after time, GB were penalized giving NY the advantage arguably less on merit than on egalitarianism. However Manning, to his credit, hasn’t turned over the football in the entire post-season which is particularly amazing since turnovers seemed like a their strategy in the regular season!

And even though the Patriots are 18-0, the Giants have won the last 10 games straight all on the road and came very close to toppling the Patriots’ perfect record in week 17 where better teams prior had failed. So good luck to them.

At any rate, with Super Bowl 42 in two weeks, matching experience vs. determination, it is a good time to mention that in the spring this year, the National Football League will be unveiling their new logo. (Talk about a segue.)

The new NFL logo, more of an update than a redesign, features small but important changes that aren’t likely to upset its fans but will help make a stronger brand.

In short, the logo remains basically the same shape, albeit slightly thinner and taller, the colors darker and richer. The type reflects a more modern taste and resembles the slab-serif font used in the Conference logos, uniting the brands closer together.

The most noticeable change is the reduction of the number of stars on the shield. Merchandisers have surely found it difficult to reproduce all those stars in small formats and the first rule of logo design is scalability. Apparently, according to USA Today, some vendors, without permission, have used fewer stars where applicable on t-shirts and hats.

The stars have been reduced from 25 to 8, representing the eight AFC and NFC divisions. The funny thing is that, after researching, the reason why there were 25 stars in the original logo remains a mystery. Designers could find no reason for 25 stars, says Jaime Weston, director of brand and creative operations. The shield logo was first used around 1940, two decades after the NFL’s founding in 1920.* I think the stars, even the 8 remaining ones are a bit awkward, but its an improvement.

Finally, the placement of the football on the shield is set an an angle and said to more closely mimic that of the Vince Lombardi Trophy which is a positive and logical brand decision.

For a bit of fun, you can see ESPN’s “rejected” logo collection.

* Source: USA Today

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As any designer knows, sometimes you work with some pretty big files. Moving those files back and forth between clients, designers and printers can be a real chore. At Magnolia Design, we have our own FTP site for clients and vendors so they can upload and download large files. But… sometimes, people aren’t comfortable with FTP or it doesn’t work as easily as we’d all like. That’s why I love DropSend.

DropSend allows you to not only upload large files, but then lets you send the recipient an e-mail with the details on how to retrieve that file, even if they don’t have a DropSend account. What’s even more awesome is that you (the sender) can even see if your file has been picked up. You can upload files through their UI or grab their upload client, available for Windows and Macs.

DropSend is the product of Carsonified, formerly Carson Systems, and it’s not the first product to serve this purpose, but it’s one of the better ones in my view. They have a bunch of price plans (hey, they’re running a business ya know), but they also have a free plan. So if you don’t expect to use it much or if you just use it in emergencies where FTP is too complicated, then DropSend is a gawd-send!

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At Magnolia Design, we encourage obsolete computer recycling. But even better than recycling is repurposing. And what better way to repurpose an old Mac Classic than to make a Mac-O-Lantern!

Visit the Bad Banana Blog to find out how to make your very own Mac-O-Lantern!

Happy Halloween everyone. Stay safe!

via Apple Geeks

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People who aren’t in the design “biz” (and even some people who are) often think that typography is just pretty fonts on the page. While this is a common misconception that designers are often faced with, it’s not technically wrong. It’s just… complicated.

According to Oxford American Dictionary, the definition of typography is “the art or process of setting and arranging type and printing from them.” Any designer, printer or art director will tell you that there’s a lot more to it. And most times, it concerns not with knowing what to add, but knowing what to leave out. The responsibility is on the designer to be able to communicate the importance of type in graphic design.

If you’ve been hard-pressed to explain what typography is, then you’re in luck! Here is a video that explains, in brief and under 2-minutes, what typography is. It was directed and animated by Vancouver Film School students Boca (aka Marcos Ceravolo) and Ryan Uhrich through the VFS Digital Design program and features excerpts from Ellen Lupton and Jeffrey Keedy.

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