We published this back in August but as the Apple tablet launches today, we thought it might be worth another look…

Not since that other bearded bloke came down from the mountain has a presentation of new tablets been so hotly anticipated…

So Apple being Apple, hype around its new tablet is at fever pitch (well, it’s being twittered about lots anyway). From a design perspective, it is during the period of anticipation that we get to see how good Apple is. The web is awash with beautiful visuals by fans predicting the look and functionality of the new tablet. If past results are anything to go by they will be woefully inaccurate. When a phone version of the i-pod was rumoured, the drawings tended to be pictures of the i-pod with a few number buttons stuck underneath (see below). Now we get big square versions of the i-phone design. My bet is the real thing will confound predictions and show why Jonathan Ive and team are in a league of their own.

Not everyone is expecting miracles -  technology authority andfinally.com, quoted in The Guardian, suggested that Apple’s run of dramatic breakthroughs was unlikely to last for ever. “If Steve Jobs stands up and announces this, it could be his last hurrah. The technology industry has matured and, unless Apple does something completely unexpected, we have a pretty good idea what this will look like. The world has been shaped by technology in such a way that it is no longer surprising.” But even if they fail to match previous OMG moments this time, can you recall any other brand whose design evolution was the subject of such breathless excitement? Below are some of the artists’ impressions – let’s see how they stack up to reality later today…

See more interpretations after the jump…

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Can the Dove brand, so long targeted at women, convincingly extend into a men’s range? That, suggests the Brandgym blog in a typically thoughtful piece, is the wrong question (the right one is can it make a decent profit). Nevertheless, from a design perspective it’s an interesting one. Common wisdom would suggest that while women have no problem adopting male brands, the traffic struggles to go in the opposite direction.

But I think Dove stands a decent chance for two simple reasons. Firstly, the target is quite narrow (40+ men) and I think the insight is bang on: speaking in The Grocer, Brand Manager Paul Connell notes “We recognise that getting the girl and racing fast cars is just not a relevant brand image for men over a certain age. Purchasing personal care products continues to be a chore for many men who can still be found using unisex or female products.”

I couldn’t agree more – sadly I fall into his target demographic but even so it’s a constant irritant to me that basic male grooming products all seem to occupy the same design pigeon-hole, a world of superfluous rubber grips, italic silver type, and go faster stripes (with the word “sport” slapped on for good measure). Patronising, generic, ugly and, worst of all, such muskily branded products look like they are going to make one reek like a sixteen year old who has just discovered Insignia.

For these reasons I normally cast about the supermarket aisle in vain for a more visually neutral alternative, one which I hope does not smell of the locker room. I generally end up buying the least girly looking unisex brand. So to my mind, so long as Dove plays things visually neutral (rather than doing “one for the boys”), it stands a good chance of winning over ditherers such as myself who just want something “clean” in all senses of the word. And as a brand with a locked in sense of purity, Dove is well placed to convince on this point. Secondly, there’s another point which bodes well I think: the head of design at Volvo once noted that “If you meet the expectations of women, you will typically exceed those of men”.

If you happen to be casting around for a good example of media saturation or the game-changing nature of technology, this might be of interest: Google have reportedly applied for patent on a method to recognise advertising space captured by its Street View cameras. The billboards can then automatically be converted to Google ads. Presumably the next step is to sell on the ad space – with a premium for high traffic locations such as Times Square. This might be pure sci-fi but with the speed that things are changing possibly not. Either way it’s an interesting example of the way in which the real and virtual worlds are starting to collide. And another indicator that we can believe our eyes less and less.

KFC have created a bit of buzz around their plan to pay for the instillation of fire hydrants and extinguishers in Indiana. These will carry images of the colonel to promote “fiery” chicken wings. Above, a mascot lookalike meets the fire chief. Obviously the spin is around good corporate citizenship, and smart media placement in a world where we are becoming blind to traditional advertising messages. Or awash with them…

A couple of observations: the media plan has probably generated far more free publicity for KFC than the modest $7,500 investment in branded hydrants itself will gain. But I wonder, against a corporate agenda of creating goodwill, if such “smart alternative” branding will not irritate as many folk as it engages – does the world need anymore visual clutter? KFC says it wants people to see it helping communities. Would it be possible to achieve this ambition without visually polluting them? Or might the brand be open to accusation that it is acting a tad disingenuously?

Below, images from Sao Paulo, which famously took the municipal decision to de-brand the city. Leaving a few ugly ex-signs, but certainly a more novel skyline. Back in 2007 the move got 70% approval from its citizens – now that’s good will.

Launched in 2007, Monocle is a magazine and website founded by Tyler Brûlé (late of equally hip Wallpaper* magazine). If you are cosmopolitan, well groomed and work in “the creative industries”, you already know all about it. It has its fans and critics amongst this contingent, but that’s a debate for the bars of Hoxton and Kastanienallee. What’s really interesting is how Monocle has become a real brand, with its perfume (created in partnership with Comme Des Garcons) being a case in point:

They also have a retail presence…

And the beautifully designed website is unusual in that it contains an archive that is only available to paid subscribers…

…And I think this is key to what’s really interesting about the Monocle brand. Whereas lifestyle magazines have typically been passive observers of the trends around them, Monocle has put itself in the driving seat. It’s done this by trading on its expertise. The vehicle for this expertise is the magazine, but the content is perhaps an end to a greater means, as an aspirational brand in its own right.

With the demise of conventional print publications widely predicted as imminent, this offers a vision of what the future may hold for magazines generally. The ones with a distinctive enough brand (both visually and in content) might see the publications becoming loss leaders which prop up the more lucrative products which are built on the magazines’ shoulders.

Shown above are a music album and a car tyre. Monday’s Guardian newspaper carried two stories which demonstrate how brands are adapting to the challenges and exploiting the opportunities of online purchasing. Firstly, in a world of declining CD sales artists are having to offer something a bit extra if they are to compete with the intangible world of iTunes and sell (presumably more profitable) physical artefacts. One smart solution comes from Mos Def who sold his recent album “The Ecstatic” as a t-shirt with a code to download the album on the hang tag.

The second story concerned Ethiopian shoe brand soleRebels, which sells funky shoes made from recycled truck tyres and local produced textiles. Distribution via Amazon and suchlike means they can be based in Addis Ababa but “act American”, and profits are such that they are investing in a solar powered factory. The piece concludes “While it will better showcase the company’s eco-friendly methods, that’s not the main reason customers like the shoes” Alema (the founder) says. “People buy soleRebels because they are good, not because they are green or from Ethiopia. Our product speaks for itself”.

Perhaps, but I would suggest both these stories share a common theme – that online marketing is a great platform for limber thinking, and alternative design approaches which appeal because they feel less production line in feel. Doing things differently is engaging for consumers - the challenge for bigger brands will be to match the imagination demanded of smaller players for whom necessity is the mother of invention.

As demand for the jkr Design Gazette book has outstripped supply and because, hey, it’s Christmas, here is an online version. Lots of overview on how design has been used to sell things this past year, and some predictions for the year to come. If you just want to know if Brad is a fishfinger (fishstick for our friends in the U.S.), just jump to page 52.

Hopefully, despite giving it out for free it will be of some value. If you are as long in the tooth as me, instructions on how to open and read the document are:

Click on the image above then use the side arrows to turn the pages.

One book referenced as a “Big Idea” this year was Wired editor Chris Anderson’s “Free: the future of a radical price”. Whether his prediction that we are moving to an expectation that goods should come for free is right or wrong we debated here. Nevertheless, in a spirit of goodwill to all men (and wanting to grasp the zeitgeist), we have created a free anthology from this year’s Design Gazette (with predictions for the year ahead) which we are sending to our clients. If you aren’t a client, but you would like a copy, please get in touch via the “comment” link below. Ten copies free, first come, first served (unless you are the influential marketing exec on a global brand, in which case we promise to send you a copy even if you are a bit tardy!). It’s certainly not a big idea book, but it does have one or two little ideas on the way branding is evolving…

A few spreads shown below…

Established in 2007 by Andrew Gibbs, The Dieline website aims “to define and promote the world’s best examples of packaging”. The site has developed enough of a following to now have the authority to run a design award scheme which will carry genuine kudos. Two of the proposed trophy designs (a favourite will be picked via online voting) are shown here – they are all pretty cool. Cool enough, in a post modern twist, to be the focus of attention on other design blogs and sites.

But is there more to this than a circle of navel gazing amongst a specialist interest group? I think so. The Dieline is not alone in moving beyond its web-based routes. Logodesignlove and The Dieline are both producing compendium books which will end up in the majority of design studios’ libraries. There will be others. Such sites are collectively becoming the authoritative arbiters of what’s hot and what’s not. (FMCG brands, which tend to work on a blunter level, are generally less represented than quirky “indie” brands, high end luxury goods, and funky limited edition work.)

While this helps designers see trends in an instant (in a way impossible ten years ago), it also fuels a more homogeneous sense of the current styles du jour. There are an awful lot of of fancy wine bottles and boutique chocolate wrappers which are looking the same, as easily influenced designers ape the work of others. And if we are all looking in the same place for inspiration, and that place is other packaging design rather than everything else out there in the world, things might start getting very samey very quickly. That’s not the fault of the websites – it’s just a reflection of how trends get picked up - the internet is merely accelerating the process.

And yet, as always, true talent will be truly original – which will probably be reflected by The Dieline’s eventual trophy winners.

The opportunity to buy accessible, affordable and idiosyncratic prints online has been around for a good few years, via galleries such as Keep Calm, Product of God and many many others. While other creative industries have seen revenue streams turned on their heads by the internet (for example in music, with expensive CD’s promoted by affordable concerts inverted to “free“ file sharing offset by expensive gigs), and others such as writing seemingly facing a bleak future (what’s the equivalent of gigging for most authors?), the art industry has been opened up. Part of the charm of this new source of images has been one of discovery – a sense that what is hanging on your wall is not the same as that on your neighbours. But the book Habitat have produced above – limited to 4000, featuring illustrations by name artists which can be removed to fit neatly into 50×70 Habitat frames, and priced at a reasonable £60 – sees a mainstream adoption of this approach. Talking to Creative Review, project editor and designer Tim Fishlock sounds as enthusiastic about the results as the bright eyed owner of any indie gallery.

So what’s the point here, apart from “nice one Habitat”? Possibly only that the internet is opening up opportunities and helping drive desire for less mass produced design and decoration. And in the wake of this, high-street brands with the required energy and imagination are producing products in a similar vein. While such artworks are not limited enough to quicken pulses on Antiques Roadshow 2050 (a run of 4000 dwarfs a typical Product of God edition of 50), it does perhaps signify that bigger brands might start producing smaller lines which can generate demand outstripping supply. How neat that a 21st century supply chain can bring back an artisinal sensibility.