Grolsch v.s. Coca Cola

Dutch beer brand Grolsch has a new commercial. They organized a secret show with Dutch band Moke and Dutch DJ/composer/producer Junkie XL who lives and works in LA. From this meet Grolsch produced this commercial. It has a nice underground feel to it.

And when it comes to branding, it’s a good thing to cultivate a secondary icon like an unique bottle shape. It will separate you from the others. And it’s always good to learn from brands that have set the standard. But don’t take that to literally. The translation of the pay off is something like ‘As unique as Grolsch’. Not so much for the branding part I’m afraid.

dBOD YOU

Design should attract, seduce, inspire, surprice and convince someone: you.

dbod-YOU

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Concept, design and animation: Me @ dBOD
Soundtrack: C72 (Music Tiësto)
3D: Edwin v.d. Laag @ dBOD
Flash animation: Armand v.d. Zwan @ dBOD

Avro logo 10th anniversary

OK. I usually don’t promote my own work on my blog. And this blog wasn’t indented to look back… but hey, you’ve got to make an exception every now and than. There’s a special reason for that, because this month it’s been 10 years that the logo of Dutch broadcaster AVRO was introduced on TV. Enjoy the show.

AVRO opener

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Avro

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The smel of water

Italian fashion brand Replay comes with a fragrance line for man and women. That’s nothing new, witch fashion brand doesn’t have its own fragrance? But there are 2 special things about this one. The product itself and the communication design around the brand.

The product concept is that in the morning you spray on the fragrance and during the rest of the day, you can refresh it by dropping a drop of water on your skin and the fragrance is instantly revitalized.

And then there is the design of the website and commercial I completely fell in love with. Great job how the concept of the product is translated in the communication.

Check the website, the commercial is on there as well.
(TNX Monique)

Inspiration-snack #25

Fashion brand Diesel comes with an online wine store named Diesel farm. An unexpected brand extention, like the idea.

Check the website dieselfarm

The product = the packaging

Earlier I wrote an article about packaging being the product. But what if you’d turn that thought 180 degrees around? What if you’d say that the product is the packaging? When you know most of the packaging is an environmental issue, how could you shape a product so less or no packaging is needed? Because the product is attractive enough by itself or shaped for more efficient transportation. It could look something like this.
And for the sake of the story forget about the ethical and price issue ;-). And I doubt it will solve the environmental problem if plastic is needed to shape, unless of course the molds have an endless life. I just like the thought.

The buddha experiment is from 2003 and the pumpkin from 1996

Source: cakeheadlovesevil

The packaging = the product

I’m always fascinated by smart packaging solutions. See the other stories I’ve written about that (this, this and this one). Packaging is usually one of the reasons someone buys the product, so it’s not something you can do without. The downside is the environmental issue. This is one of those nice example of how the packaging is (part of) the product itself, designed by Knoend.

I’m not the only one who liked the idea, because it won of a Bronze International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) 2008.
Check their website.
Source: packagingoftheworld.com

iPhone Recession Case

Since cardboard has become a theme on this blog I just had to report on this one: The iPhone recession case. If you like it, you can buy it here.

Also read these stories on this blog.
Source: Swiss-Miss

Gap in narrowcasting market filled

Narrowcasting seemed to have been for just the big players in the market; fast-food- and supermarket chains like MCDonalds and Walmart and so on. Only they seemed to be able to hang their stores full of large display’s. But there’s a huge potential in a group of users who basically couldn’t afford such system or for whom it was a way to complex system up til now. We are talking about the small and medium size businesses that would like to create their own content and don’t want to pay over € 500, for content, created by production company’s or don’t want advertisers in their content they have nothing to say about. And, what it comes down to, most of the systems have been way to complex for the independent shoe sales men or the butcher that are not a part of a big chain with their own IT-guy.

So design agency dBOD in collaboration with Samsung, came up with the solution (‘Hey, wait a minute, isn’t dBOD where you work at?’ ‘ That’s right, and I also worked on the project.’ ;-). Samsung (professional large display’s) created a display with hardware inside and is selling it under the name InfoEasy. dBOD created (with technical partner Insiders) a template website Templation. An extremely simple 1,2,3 solution to create content for your own narrowcasting channel. Templation is a website with templates especially made for narrowcasting applications. As user you can easily create your own content, based on these templates with themes, fitting to your business or your message or period of the year like Christmas. It sort of works like a stock website. The good thing: You create your own massage. And the best part: IT’S ONLY € 9,95 PER TEMPLATE! No monthly subscription, no obligations, no software needed, it’s all online. The screen start at € 999,-. Well, that sets a new bar in pricing in narrowcasting!

Templation home page

Templation shop

The studio, where you can edit your own template

So, what’s so innovative about a template website? It’s completely new for a design agency to behave as software developer, but than without the making-it-complex part. You start without a client or a briefing. And you start with a 1.0 version. And it’s a completely new ROI (return on investment) for a design agency. As a design agency you’re used to think in communication, customers and end users, not in technique and that’s what makes it different and, most of all, easier than other Narrowcasting solutions.

This is how it works. Or find out more on the website: templation.nl

New! A 5,5 century old invention redefined

You would expect that innovations in the book industry would be a technological one. Probably a newer and improved e-reader. But no, not this invention. It generally redefines how we’ve been using books since about 1450, since the invention of book printing.

Sometimes you wonder why things are the way they are. Take the book for example. It hasn’t changed for over 5,5 century’s but has it been the ultimate shape? I guess not. As an in-bed-reader I always experience its restrictions. For traveling you make sure you carry a bag because of its size or do not bring too many with you when you’re flying, because of its weight. But finally there is the ‘dwarsligger’ (sorry for you English readers, I would not know how to translate this correctly). Introduced at the Manuscripta last week in Amsterdam. And previewed before that at the New Genes business innovation and marketing event Walking Drink. It’s small and light weight because special very thin paper has been used. And a new letter font was created for better reading in small print, so more text will fit on the page. And, the best part, the way you read a book has just been turned around 90 degrees. What will make in-bed-reading al lot easier.

See the complete info and introduction on the dwarsligger website. (I have to disappoint my English readers again, it’s in Dutch)