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February 15, 2009

(My Work) Glósóli

Glósóli is a song name from Sigur Rós which means “Glowing Soul,” I thought it was appropriate for a brand name about hair/cleaning products.

My assignment for this project was to take a band or musician and to translate it into products. When I listen to this song it makes me think of fluid organic shapes moving, so I tried to reflect that in the design.

This project was hard for me because most of the designs I make tend to be more rough, amusing, and ornate. The goal for the product line was to make it clean, simple, and look expensive. It’s kind of weird to think about how to accomplish something so simple can take so much work. And for that reason, of all my projects this was the most rewarding because of the challenges.

Here is a video for the song by Sigur Rós.

Filed by Tom at February 15th, 2009 under Design
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(My Work) Grandma Down the Lake- Updated

Family Packaging

After Realizing that I haven’t updated the blog in a while I decided to put up higher res images of my first packaging project in Packaging Design.

It’s weird looking back at this project more than a semester later mainly because I still think it’s my strongest piece. And compared to my other projects it was relatively a quick process to make.

Filed by Tom at February 15th, 2009 under Design
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November 9, 2008

(My Work) Observational Ice Pops

For this project we had to create a frozen snack that reflected an artist that we liked.  I decided to chose the comedian Demetri Martin, who’s genre is characterized as observational humor.  The reason why I chose the name Stressed Desserts is because it is a palindrome.  A palindrome is a word or a series of words that can be read the same way in either direction, for example, madam, level, etc..  The reason why this is relevant to Demetri is because he created the longest grammatically correct palindrome.

Ice Pops to me looked like a Siamese ice pop which I thought was pretty funny and similar to Demetri’s observational humor.  Plus they always have some kind of jokes on the popsicle sticks.

I included “some jokes” as he would put it on the box:

“Saying I’m sorry is the same as saying I apologize, except at a funeral”

“If I ever saw an amputee getting hanged, I’d probably just start calling out letters”

“I used to play sports. then I realized you can buy trophies. Now I’m good at everything.”

Overall I tried to capture Demetri Martin’s simple drawings, having fun creating things, and making light/ fun of everything.

Filed by Tom at November 9th, 2008 under Design
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November 6, 2008

Frustration-Free Packaging

Amazon has come out with what they call “frustration-free packaging,” a minimalistic approach to shipping.  This is a good idea because it is going to be better for the envrioment with having less plastics, and unecessary materials however not so good for a future package designer.

I woudn’t be surprised if more online companies start offering a similar shipping method because online a consumer views the product more than the package, unlike in physical stores.  The frustration-free box is definitly lacking in design, it looks like a box for an oversized item such as a television.

Hopefully this won’t limit the amount of packages being designed in the future, for selfish reasons obviously.

Filed by Tom at November 6th, 2008 under Future
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(My Work) Earth 2.0

Believe me when I say that I did not pick the name New Earth as the name of this brand.

For this project we had to design two packages for Scotts’ sub-brand, New Earth. New Earth is a more organic brand for Scotts. The larger item is Blood Meal, an organic nitrogen supplement. We still don’t know what that means. The second smaller product is a tomato plant food. This was for a branding class so we had to make both of the products relate to each other so that a consumer would be able to tell that they belong together but also different enough so that they don’t look like the same product.

My main goal for the project was to create a gardening line that is much different than what is currently out. Also to stay away from the typical view of what organic means by making it a little less obvious.

Filed by Tom at November 6th, 2008 under Design
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October 29, 2008

(My Work) Grandma Down the Lake

After working a lot on homework, staying up all night, it was rewarding to find out that my first package design of the semester was selected, along with a few other students for the Packaging display by my teacher.

For this assignment we had to incorporate a grandparent or great grandparent. It was a good project because I got to learn more about my family.

I characterized my Grandma with a list of things that reminded me of her, and then used that as a guide for my design objective. My objective for this was to create a package design that is approachable, and still has ornate devices with a premium feeling.

I will post a better photograph soon, one that is not through a glass window.

Filed by Tom at October 29th, 2008 under Design
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(My Work) Election Beer Packaging

Click the images to see a bigger size.

This is a project that I am currently in the middle of working for a Branding class.  Our assignment was to come up with a regular beer, and light six pack of beer about the election or politics in general.  I chose to steer away from the election because it is going to be over soon, and won’t be as relevant soon.  I’m still in the process of narrowing down which direction that I want to pursue.  My favorite part of designing is the first brainstorming for different ideas.  I was able to come up with a variety of ideas, and most of which my teacher thought were well thought out, and smart.

I will post the final package design when I finish it.

Filed by Tom at October 29th, 2008 under Design
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October 15, 2008

NerdBots, they’re great listeners.

A couple people got together, went to thrift and antique stores, collected unique parts, and assembled them together. The result are these amazing NerdBots, you can adopt the robots, or view the ones that were already sold. Who doesn’t love robots?

Filed by Tom at October 15th, 2008 under Geeky
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Cap’n McCain’s & Obama O’s Cereal

“A breakfast of change” -Obama O
“A maverick in your morning” -Cap’n McCain’s

Hilarious.

I’m glad that I came across these hilarious cereal boxes because in one of my classes I am doing something similar. We have to create the package design for a regular and light beer. Seeing these boxes definitely inspires me. I’ll post my labels for the political beer soon. I’m thinking something to do with the controversy over teaching evolution in the classroom.

Filed by Tom at October 15th, 2008 under Design
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October 14, 2008

It’s all about the Gutenberg influenced money.

I haven’t looked into the price range of designers that much until I came across Coroflot.com’s Design Salary Survey. It was pretty interesting to see that a major growth in the market is on the west coast. All parts of the U.S. are increasing in growth which is not surprising because more design jobs are being created each day. I just hope there is a good job for me when I graduate. Especially with the economy lately. Thinking positive.

Filed by Tom at October 14th, 2008 under Design
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