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I came across this fantastic call for entries for the Creative Circle on the Creative Review blog. It’s well worth a watch, and is clearly a labour of love. How many of the famous ads can you spot? It made me think that for all our efforts to build brands rather than create flashes in the pan, it’s staggering how memorable so much advertising is even years later, even when seen at a glance in a playmobil-style homage. The ad itself reminded me of a classic of yesteryear (below) – there is something timelessly appealing about the notion of all these great characters co-habiting a universe. And perhaps that’s the trick – ideas are a lot more sticky if there is a sense of character and humanity at work. Anyway, take a look, it’s a lovely piece of work.

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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These super-hot crisps have been created with the intention of helping beer drinkers work up a thirst. They’re being given away with cases of stubbies. The design is neither here nor there – just the beer branding on a bag, but that’s not the point really. Rather, with the publicity that’s being generated through such playful thinking the brand is better connecting with its audience.

VB seems to be quite on it right now – they are also giving away pop-up pubs (assembled in a minute because “beer tastes better in the pub”) as shown by these able lady-dems…

… to drinkers who send in photos of their wonky home bars to the VB facebook page…

Brainstorms and suchlike typically throw up lots of daft ideas alongside the serious business of the day. Good for VB to be pursuing the silly stuff that has some life rather than having a laugh then forgetting all about it.

Image from kennethlimphotography.com

Coca-Cola Hong Kong have smartly exploited the fact that in Asia red is traditionally a colour of happiness and good fortune to create specially designed wedding cans. Only available for sale for Chinese wedding banquets, the cans have fast become collectors’ items. It’s an interesting example of a super-brand thinking and acting small and local, but in a manner entirely in line with the brand’s global personality.

Similarly the Pepsi cans below were created for a single day event: Halloween. Typically when a brief comes in for, say, a Christmas edition it is described as “seasonal” because stock will still be on sale through January, and this tends to diffuse the potential impact (a general wintry theme rather than one aimed squarely at the 25th of December). But with digital printing opening up the possibilities of shorter production runs perhaps micro editions are becoming the future for any brand with the energy to sustain them?

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.

This parody of the Michael Cera filmography (you know him – he’s the dorky teen in a handful of indie-style comedies) popped up online this month.  Because Cera epitomises a certain style of quirky film we get the joke, though in fairness not all his posters feature this font. However, someone should get to work on designing a font called “Sundance Festival” or “Twee” such is the ubiquity of the doodle to signify this genre:

Ironic that an intelligent, off-beat, indie vibe is evoked in such a uniform by-the-numbers way. I’m sure film marketers know that the cliché works – when choosing a movie it tells us exactly what we will be getting, much as 3-D metallic sans serif lets you know it’s a superhero action movie. But what clichés give in terms of clarity they deplete in distinctiveness. Arguably it’s significant that the two recent “breakout” indie films which won wider audiences both had typography with a mind of its own:

Perhaps this suggests that if you don’t want to be pigeon-holed to a narrow audience, it’s smart to avoid expressing yourself too literally through the conventions of your category.

Looking ‘round the excellent photography exhibition “Beatles to Bowie” at the National Portrait Gallery (amongst other things it’s a visual history of the branding of British bands, though such a term was probably never used at the time), the famous image above struck me. Partly because it was the perfect encapsulation and launch of the band’s Fab image, in an era long pre-dating Photoshop, stylists and marketing teams. But also striking, seeing the picture circled on a contact sheet, because even without such resources the band and photographer (Fiona Adams) intuitively set the template for a thousand “will this do?” copycats.

Whereas with other groups the inter-band jollity generally appeared rather forced, and typically at least one group member would have looked more at home working on a building site rather than cavorting in front of the camera, The Beatles managed to make being in a group look natural. None of these bands quite pull off the same trick…

…and in the face of this generic prating about for the camera, that other great gang the ‘Stones offered the logical response – slouching and scowling, apparently too cool to play the game:

Both Beatles and Stones feel like closed clubs, with their own private languages, jokes and styles. It would be a bit naff to extrapolate this observation to the general world of branding, but it’s easy to think of super-brands whose ranges feel powerful because they stand apart and talk their own language rather than metaphorically mugging for the camera. The exhibition closes Jan 24th and is well worth a look if you get the chance.

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence’s account of his adventures in Arabia, has a  complex history of various published versions. But a rare edition recently up for sale comes with a great lesson in how to exploit the sales potential of limited availability: an edition of just 22 copies was printed to secure U.S. copyright in the 1920’s. Half went to the author and the Library of Congress. The remainder were given an exorbitant price tag ($20,000) to ensure they were not sold. But these copies were still put to good use, being exhibited in leading bookstores across America. This in turn drove hefty sales for the (only slightly different) $3 version, which must have appeared to be a fantastic bargain in comparison – though probably none of this sharp thinking would have particularly concerned the idiosyncratic Lawrence.

Limited Editions of brands these days share the same agenda of creating publicity (and in the case of certain sneaker lines for example, with similarly impossible to attain exclusivity). But the smart use of these never-intended-for sale books struck me as a rather pure example of using a design artefact intentionally placed beyond the consumer’s grasp as a vehicle for grabbing attention and promoting desire.

The illustration of Lawrence heading this piece was drawn by Augustus John in a few snatched moments. It makes every line count – proof that a little can be made to go a long way in all sorts of endeavours…

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.

Ever heard of the Trogon family of birds? They are often beautiful, and have been knocking around for 49 million years. That should be enough to make an impression, but my guess is they are off most of our radars. Usually nature is a great place to look if one wishes to draw inspiration for design. Indeed when the McLaren F1 team were looking about for something to benchmark their innovation and performance against, they settled on the natural world as their inspiration and competition, rather than say Ferrari (after all, no car has the ability to go from full speed to hovering like a bee).

But the Trogons - not too sure what we can borrow from them as a template. Their lack of fame is probably down to visual incoherence - 39 species in total. We’ve all heard the “but my market’s different” bleat of the brand manager aiming to shirk the global line (at least evolutionary principles rather than maverick office politics is the cause of the Trogon’s diversity), and here is nature’s equivalent. The Trogon is a text book example of how being inconsistent might be interesting, but is a rubbish way to build a brand. While they have been messing about experimenting with different shapes sizes and colours, more focussed species such as the eagle have grabbed all the attention when it comes to endangered species campaigns, flags, songs and the like. The moral – question if your market really does require unique plumage before sacrificing the fame you might enjoy if you simply tow the line a little better.

Thanks to Scienceray for the information and images.