Pepsi Packaging
This is not new news but I held off on an opinion about the new Pepsi packaging design to see how they rolled it out and integrated the new look with their marketing. My initial reaction to the design was negative as with most people. But sometimes good design grows on you and takes on a life you didn’t expect. Would the new packaging be a flop or pure genius? Well, personally, I think the pure genius category is out. It looks like the logo of a knock off brand – close but not quite right. After seeing commercials and looking at displays, I like it less now than before. From a “does-it-work” standpoint for their brand continuity, and marketing goals, I can’t imagine that it does except to create a lot of “what-were-they-thinking” buzz. The variations on the so-called “smile” are confusing and the overall look seems to distance them from any previous brand identity and equity they banked. I’m predicting a short shelf life for this “un-logo”.
This video kind of amuses me. I guess they figured it might improve if they kept it in motion.
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Find more videos like this on AdGabber
Pepsi Unveils Packaging to ‘Digital and Social Media Influencers’ - AdGabber.
Logo Design Resources
Wow! The title below speaks for itself. I’ve only just begun to go through this list.
Free Photoshop Plugins You Might Actually Use
Sometimes the exhausting Free-Everything-for-Photoshop lists can be, well, exhausting. Who has time to check out 500 sites worth of Photoshop freebies and wade through tons of marginally useful stuff to find the gems. Maybe I’m just getting too old. Thanks to Photoshop Roadmap for this list of 15 free Photoshop Plugins which is thoughtfully selected, presented and previewed. Not to mention many of these free plugins seem pretty useful.
Alltop
So what would you say if I could point you to a site that had all the top news and blogs listed for any subject you’re interested in, say Photoshop or maybe design news?
Check it:
Pretty cool huh?!
Free Photoshop Brushes
I honestly don’t know why anyone would need to buy commercial Photoshop brush packages these days. I needed some cloud brushes and didn’t want to take the time to make them. A simple Google search turned up not only several free cloud brush sets, but tons of free brush sites. And I often find digital artists and illustrators offering their brushes as free downloads. Below are some sites that’ll get you started if you’re looking to beef up your Photoshop brush collection.
Falln-Stock – a really interesting deviantART gallery of object oriented PS brush sets
The Art of Daarken – a fantasy/scifi artist gallery site with a nice set of custom paint brushes (click on tutorials >> custom brushes
Artists of Photoshop
If you want to OD on Photoshop inspiration this is the place to do it – Artists of Photoshop. The site features Photoshop artists apparently submitted by viewers and rated by viewers. Each featured artist image is a link to their web site where you can peruse their full portfolio. Be prepared to spend some time if you are a photoshop junkie.
Logo Of The Day
If you frequent graphic design blogs, you no doubt have heard of Jeff Fisher or Jacob Cass. Both award-winning designers with informative and inspirational blogs for the professional graphic designer. Well they’ve done it again with this cool site: Logo Of The Day - Logo Design Inspiration – Daily!. Take a look and maybe you’ll want to add it to your blog roll as I did.
Life Photo Archive on Google
Thanks to Imaging Insider for this bit of cool photographic news.
Press Release :: OVER 10 MILLION IMAGES FROM THE LIFE PHOTO ARCHIVE TO BE MADE AVAILABLE ON GOOGLE.
“The LIFE Photo Archive featured on Google will be among the largest professional photography collections on the Web and one of the largest scanning projects ever undertaken. Millions of images have been scanned and made available on Google Image Search today with all 10 million images to be available in the coming months.”
Inspirational Corporate Identity Design
Best of Business Stationary, Letterhead & Business Cards : Inspirational Corporate Identity Design
The link sort of speaks for itself. Lots of inspiration here and thanks to Graphic Design Blog & Graphics News Blog for the compilation.
Avoiding The Cliché
When I file through stock images laden with more handshake photos or world globe images than I can shake a stick at, I groan audibly. Check this post at Just Creative Design with another in his series on over-used graphic elements, in this case cliché stock images used in web design. You’ll probably agree with most of them as I did. Its important to note that cliché is not necessarily bad. In the right circumstance a cliché image may be the best choice. But don’t go there immediately if a little thought will cultivate a better alternative.
If you need to find cool, compelling images for your next web design or corporate brochure think more metaphorically and see where it takes you. Adopting a theme that fits the client’s business activity or identity is a good way to go about that. Below is the cover for a corporate brochure and matching web page I designed for a law firm. We chose the theme of “Focus” due to the firm’s specialization in a particular segment of law. Being able to depart from the gavel and scales of justice sameness was OK by me. If you have to use a more cliché image look for the treatment of that subject that stands out as unique. Better yet take a stock image and put a little time into making it unique with some of your own customizations in Photoshop or Illustrator.
