today i’m taking the opportunity to share 3 wine packaging ideas that are all wonderful, but none of which exist in the commercial marketplace, either because they’re student work or personal projects. i’d love to see more of this on the shelves over the stayed embossed metallic serifs with only occasional illustrations of interest.

sangwine

sangwine by lydia nichols is a project based on a vineyard of her invention to showcase her lovely illustration work. why shouldn’t wine be set in a retro-fantastic national park or a polka-dotted california road trip? the colors and illustrative details are truly charming. read more on the dieline.com

sangwine, image: thedieline.com

niagara chrysalis

niagara chrysalis by melissa deckert. i’ve seen a fair amount of diecut labels, but not many that use the distortion of the wine-filled bottle to add effects to back-side label printing. this is a great way to encourage interaction with the bottle, where a table wine can become a conversation piece.

niagara chrysalis, image: thedieline.com

13 appelations

13 appelations by wei sun is a nice concept package on blend wines from multiple vineyards, tying together concepts of terroir into a patchwork of domaines and landscapes. beyond that, it’s covered in maps, another curiosity that gets people studying and enjoying the packaging. i don’t know a single person who doesn’t like maps.

13 appelations, image: thedieline.com

epazote mint & ginger tea

i found myself wondering if i was running out of new things to write about for seasonal eats, but my guy at the highland park farmer’s market came through with yet another green i haven’t tried: epazote. i’ve heard of it forever, but never really encountered it for purchase before. i asked him about it, and he listed off many favorite mexican dishes its commonly used in, so i thought it’s time to try it out.

epazote has a pungency that almost seems un-food-like, with a petroleum-ish aroma not unlike tea tree, and an antiseptic oil released upon chewing that seems to bloom in the mouth—a similar feeling to chewing mint leaves, but a different flavor. i’m definitely going to try it in food, but since i’m no expert in traditional mexican cooking, the herb’s medicinal properties caught my attention first [i'm going back to highland park to have it served up by the pros]. here’s a tea of 3 digestive aids that will sooth your system after a meal or anytime you like.

epazote: acts as a carminative preventing intestinal gas, and has antihelminthic properties. its limonene content can relieve gastrointestinal reflux disease and heartburn.

mint: aside from the delicious flavor that goes well with epazote, mint’s essential oil is menthol, which stimulates the flow of bile to the stomach promoting digestion. menthol is also an antispasmodic, calming the muscle action in the digestive system.

ginger: soothes indigestion and acts as a carminative. it’s a mild stimulant, promoting circulation and motility in the gastro-intestinal tract. the volatile oils found in ginger also have analgesic, sedative, antipyretic and antibacterial properties, and testing suggests that gingerol may kill some cancer cells. ginger has also been found to treat nausea associated with pregnancy, motion sickness and chemotherapy.

epazote, mint & ginger tea
1 5″ sprig of fresh epazote
2 5″ sprigs of peppermint
1 long piece of ginger root, .5″ wide cut into matchsticks for maximum surface area
20 oz boiling water

take the epazote and mint sprigs and twist them between 2 fists to help release essential oils. place the sprigs and ginger sticks in a large glass and pour boiling water over. let steep 5 minutes and either sweeten to your preference or take it straight. optional: flavor with lemon juice.

i’m a huge fan of the continuous line style of illustration, and this moving version that tells the story of mohawk paper’s legacy is a really beautiful way to evolve a narrative.

bill holsinger robinson logo, image: underconsideration.com

speaking of things connected, i’ve been looking at a lot of ligatures lately. or rather, i’m always looking at them, but i’m thinking about them even more, and i thought this logo for bill holisnger-robinson was pretty nice. see all the details on for print only.

Rahal Kitchen logo, image: anderson design group

taking ligatures to the next level with illustration is this lovely identity for rahal kitchen, which has iterations for all types of vintage-style farm stand packaging. truly great work from anderson design group.

damn good by jason adam & tim lapetino

my buddies over at hexanine have just released damn good: top desiners discuss their all-time favorite projects with how books. i like this book for a few reasons. for one, it’s really well organized into project type, so each project is in a category with similar work. another thing i enjoy now that i know some of these authors is to see what they would curate as a set of work worth sharing. everyone has an opinion about what’s good, and we can easily look at their own portfolios, but it’s always fun to see what they like and are inspired by.

finally, i liked the feedback feature in this book. it’s not just a selection of nice pieces, it’s a chance to hear from the designers about their favorite parts of each project, which can sometimes reveal aspects readers couldn’t have guessed on first glance.

aiga la: speakeasy poster in damn good

i’m honored to be among the group of damned good, here in the form of the aiga la: speakeasy poster, which was a really fun project for the 2010 aiga la fellows gala and celebration. the people who work with the los angeles chapter of aiga are a fantastic group, and this project was a great reflection of that.

this book is 200 pages of full-color, square-format goodness — just one of many available from how books. pick up a copy or try your luck at describing what makes damn good design before may 18, 2012 and win a free copy!

happy monday

we spent a beautiful day on the water searching out whales and dolphins on our way to catalina. at one point, we were riding with such a big group that they were jumping all around us and riding the current the boat created. so amazing!

this video may have a slow start, but it delivers on a small-scale portable rube goldberg machine. see the full write-up along with a diagram of the machine at fastcodesign.com.

sorrel walnut pesto

my mom has been growing sorrel for the last few years, and last time i stopped by, she encouraged me to take a bunch. i don’t have experience with sorrel other than hearing about french sorrel soup, so i figured it was a good time to do some research. after reading the basics, i took a bite of one of the leaves, and though the texture is like spinach, the flavor is pure lemon, becoming progressively sour as you chew it. i could see it mixed into a salad for zing, or softened up with potatoes or cream. but mostly, i wanted to add more lemon and garlic to it, and let it sing! i’m riding out my obsession with roasted walnut oil here, but you can substitute olive or garlic confit oil and pine nuts if you like.

sorrel walnut pesto
1 packed up of chopped fresh sorrel leaves
1/2 cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup walnut pieces
1/4 cup roasted walnut oil
6 roasted garlic cloves
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
1/8 tsp salt
pepper to taste

grand central logo redesign, image: pentagram.com

looking at things new york this week, let’s start with pentagram’s redesign of the grand central logo. i think they did a lovely job paying homage to the iconic landmark by putting a quaint illustration of the timeclock front and center in their legacy logo. see more of how it’s applied at pentagram.com

one wtc logo, image: underconsideration.com

branding for the new building at one world trade center, by wordsearch. looks like a powerful and substantial wordmark so far, it will be interesting to see how it plays out in practice. see more at underconsideration.com.

identity

jack's wife freda identity, image: underconsideration.com

it was nice to see this identity & menu design for jack’s wife freda on art of the menu, since we were just in new york last month and ate here for breakfast. i’ll admit, aside from the good reviews, i was attracted to the cute illustration and simple style. i love how the very menu you eat on as a place-mat is placed directly on their site as well. nice work & good food!

typography

subway sign, grand central station, image: newtypeyork.com

will newtypeyork.com ever update their blog again? i was really enjoying the great type specimens from around town, and thought i’d share this lovely subway sign, also from grand central station.

finally, with the may protests that started yesterday, michael beruit takes a look at the original adbusters poster calling for occupation of wall street, and asks the question: does political graphic design matter?

sharing content online is all kinds of fun, and a great way to raise awareness, but using it for marketing should always be part of a bigger plan to connect back to the content you create on your own site. if you’re spending all your time creating awareness on social networks without consistently linking back to your home base, you work for them. that’s not what you got into business for! but hey, it’s okay — you can turn the tables anytime and start making them work for you.

best practice vs. a common example

marketing in the social media arena should be an all-roads-lead-to-rome strategy by the most direct route possible. think of it like a multiple funnel system, where each funnel is a social community designed around a unique aspect of how people like to communicate. creating awareness about your business or projects is as simple as participating in the communities that suit you best, and periodically saying “hey guys, i’m doing something cool, come take a look” with a link to the most relevant landing page on your site. participation and link strategy should look like this:

however, that’s not always the case. what i often see when i analyze a social media campaign in need of help is that some link strategies are sending users to 2 or 3 different communities to get piecemeal information, with links to the main site infrequent at best. the mistake here isn’t just that you never get eyeballs on your site, it’s can also be a turn-off to your audiences too. each of them have made a conscious choice about the community they prefer, and would be a lot more likely to check out your site than trek around to communities they don’t like. here’s what i generally find when social media marketing is a bit scattered:

lots of effort going everywhere but home

sites like facebook have so many tools to keep you busy creating content [for them] that it’s easy to spend all your time building photo albums and posting informative updates while forgetting to promote your own site. in their desire to compete, social networks provide apps for automatically updating other communities, which is really just traffic-poaching disguised as a convenience tool, giving you crappy-looking updates in the process. or sometimes, it’s just easier to think “but all my videos are on youtube, why not just send traffic there?” don’t send your audience on a wild goose chase for your content. first thing’s first. put the time in on your own site or blog to make sure anything anyone would want to know about you or your business is easy to find. create the content you want to share there, around one main idea at a time, and then report on it in each social media community with a direct link.

put yourself first

the first place to generate content is on your own site. if you need to make regular announcements or have new and changing content you want to talk about and you don’t have a place on your site where you can do this, it’s time to get one [hint: i can help]. consider adding a blog where you can update revolving content. make your full announcement here first, with complete information and photos or videos, when applicable. this is what you’ll be linking to everywhere else. the philosophy here is that you’re training people to learn that your site is where it’s at for any information they’d ever want to know about you. sure, they’ll catch your posts on twitter, facebook & tumblr, but after 3-5 times of clicking through to your site, they’ll make the connection that they can always find what they need on your site. and hey–people who don’t use ANY social media will be able to find it there too, imagine that!

choose your communities and let them know

write custom posts for each community, tailored to how each one showcases information best. i understand the temptation to save time by writing one great post in one place and let that service distribute it for you, but these distributed posts rarely look good elsewhere. often, they take your snappy teaser copy and truncate it to nonsense, replacing half of your sentence and any photo with a generic link [so they can advertise their great service to another sucker]. if you truly believe you don’t have time to write one sentence for each community you’re in, get honest about which ones are a priority. a half-sentence tweet that only links to facebook says loud and clear: “i don’t care about twitter.” keep your community members in mind, and write directly to them. “hey guys, i have something cool to show you, here’s why you might like it,” post your link, select the best photo preview if applicable, and send it off.

need an example?

i’ll walk the talk here for you. first, i wrote this article and posted it here on my blog. i usually write these articles as the main entrée to my newsletter, so i wrote and sent my newsletter. then i went to facebook and posted it on my personal & business pages. the same goes for linkedin and google+. i created a shortened url so i’d have most of my 140 characters to tease it on twitter. if this were a creative inspiration post, i’d pin it to my pinterest board of the same name.

but what about building community on each social network?

hey, there’s nothing wrong with adding to your photo albums and posting quickie updates without always linking to your site — AFTER you finish your self-promotion, that is. give your facebook fans photos to share, post quickie instagram shots to twitter & tumblr, encourage conversations, share support information and press that links to other sites. blend these things in as you see fit, just make them secondary to your main objective…YOU!

have questions?

these are the basics, but there can be a few levels of social media engagement integrated into an overall marketing plan. my penchant for organizing these strategies is also a service i offer. if you need help figuring out how to implement a system like this or want to fold some existing efforts into an overall campaign, reach out and we’ll figure it out!

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happy birthday motor

my little lady is 17! still patrolling all corners of our home, keeping watch on the neighborhood from select windowsills and taking the occasional jaunt down to the patio for some choice sunbathing. here’s to you, motor, happy birthday!