2009 Rebrand 100 Global Award Winners Announced

The 2009 Rebrand 100 Global Award Winners have been announced.  If you want some inspiration on your own branding efforts and rebranding creative, take a look at the winners by following the link above.  There are 100 companies listed with links to see the before and after of each company’s rebranding efforts — and not just logos.  You can see websites, collateral, signage, logo guidelines, and more.  It’s a great collection.

One of my favorites is the rebranding of Australia Post, the mail service in Australia.  Take a look at the before and after photos from Rebrand.com showing the outside of the Australia Post retail stores.  What a difference!  The new look is less “airport news stand” and more modern.  The creative was done by Interbrand, and it shows.

Australia Post Before

Australia Post After (concept)

Which rebranding efforts do you like the most from the 2009 Rebrand 100 Global Award Winners?

Hat tip to the Brand New for this post.

Special K Ad Embraces White Space and Gets Noticed

Every advertiser knows (particularly online advertisers) that white space is important, yet it can be so easy to fall victim to the allure of that unused space and fill it up with more messages.  The result is inevitably a confused customer who doesn’t know where to look and ends up simply looking away.

That’s why it’s great to see an ad that makes great use of white space, clean design and simple colors to get noticed in one of the busiest of places – the home page of Yahoo!

Several times yesterday I found myself on the home page of Yahoo!, and each time, my eye was immediately drawn to the ad on the right side of the page.  An ad always appears in that spot, and my eyes have been trained not to notice it.  However, sometimes an ad jumps out at me and makes me take a second look.  Yesterday was one of those days, but instead of just making me take a second look, this ad made me take a second, and third, and fourth look.  Each time I visited Yahoo.com yesterday, I stopped and looked at this ad.  Check it out below.

Taking the ad out of its context, you’d never guess that it could be so visually compelling, but amdist the cluttered mess of the Yahoo! home page, this simple red and white ad for the Special K Challenge stood out like a beacon.  It simply catches the eye and makes you look at it.

Is the message compelling enough?  That’s another story entirely, and the design details could use some tweaking.  But the point is this – the design concept with the stark red and white colors and heavy use of white space worked. 

Just food for thought next time you’re creating an online ad that has to compete with clutter on all sides.  White space is good!  Embrace white space.

What do you think?

Image: Kellogg

Over 1,000 Brands Per Day and Counting

In case anyone hasn’t seen it yet, I have to share Tanner Woodruff’s homework for a course in the Visual Communication Design program at Arizona State University.  He was asked to create a clock and retail or shipping packaging for that clock for the industry of his choice.  Tanner chose to create a clock for identity designers.  He logged all 1,035 brands he interacted with in a 24-hour period (at least as many as he could write down) then created a clock to represent those brand interactions.

It’s so interesting to see one person’s daily interaction with brands visually like this.  You can follow the link to view more pictures of Tanner’s brand clock and the packaging for the brand clock and to read about how he came to create it.

Hat tip to Brand New for this post topic.

Image: Tanner Woodruff

Pentawards for Package Design 2008 Winners Announced

This news comes courtesy of my favorite package design blog, The Dieline.  The winners of the 2008 Pentawards for package design have been announced, and there are some highly creative designs included in the mix.  There is some consistency however in terms of trying to use unique bottle designs in the beverage category and clean, crisp designs across all categories.

I think my favorite is the humorous packaging for Tesco chips that features a character called “The Bandito”.  The funny part is the way The Bandito’s clothes and accessories change depending on which flavor of chips package he adorns.  Very clever and memorable!

 

I also like the unique packaging for Spark laundry detergent out of Korea.  Turning the package into a mini washing machine replica is so simple yet so effective. [Read more]