PANTONE Mania!

For the magazine spread I'm working on now I did some research on many pantone color and applications. I found these quite interesting use of the Pantone 100 color or at least soem of the. Im trying make my layouts vibrant and loud but over the article mostly about an exibit back in May 2008 at the MOMA where many artist use the pantone system to create wonder works of art. Check out these uses of Pantone I especially love the clock and bags.

Laundry Detergent Design

I know its sounds a bit weird. I was looking into Designs of Laundry Detergent bottles. I noticed it's really not so much the brand itself but the whole look and feel of a detergent bottle that draws consumers. I found these old retro containers and seems like design in bottles has evolved to more dynamic color and simpler designs compared to old 1950's retro bottle such as this one on the left.. Containers started from wood to then tin boxes and now they come in wide variety of shaves colors.


Heres an old retro metal container.

Now designs are more vibrant and colors pop more as new typefaces became available over the years. One things I noticed most bottles had in common was sunshine references like that of Gain brand, Tide, & Xtra to name of frew. Most bottles over the years ave swayed away from serif typefaces and use more bold Sans serif typefaces. I thought these were interesting to look at. How past designs have evolved to more bold brighter and less decorative designs.

I think overall designers have a strong role in politics and the imagary that is portrayed to the public. In the last campaign it was evident that Obama/Biden had a media campaign, as far as logo design and overall webpage. I noticed that as soon as people saw Obama logo they already knew what it stood for. McCain/Palin didnt have such a strong multimedia approach to their campaign. Alot factor persuaded the general public to vote one way or the other. In addion to the graphics in the recent campaign, I think the debates also played a key role.

As designers we have large responsibilty to portray political views and imagery to the public that do reflect some of our own. Sometimes designers have to put moral stance on issues. Some issues are better left to the middle man in graphic arts. Having that said there are some issues that designers can be biased on because of the major influence it has on society. I ntoticed that Obama had more positive imagery in the graphics world compared to that of McCain or Palin. These are some of the example I ran into:

Always staying well CONNECTED

Part of being in AIGA is to share and inspire many designers, illustrators, even animators. As I mentioned in a previously blog sites like LINKEDIN.COM are quite beneficial to upcoming designers these days. For those of you who have not joined AIGA do it now because it is definetly worth every penny. I'm trying to this point to keep my connections open, who knows many that dream job may come sooner than later if I keep well connected.