NotCot posted a link today to download (via iTunes) a video of Chip Kidd's "A Number of People."
This is the same talk that I saw Mr. Kidd deliver at the 2007 HOW Design Conference in Atlanta. I thought it was immensely entertaining, and recommend taking the time to download and watch it. Plus IT'S FREE!
Check it out.
As the temperature starts to drop and the leaves start to turn, I begin to ask myself if it's once again time to start growing my annual beard. I actually thought about skipping this year. But then I saw this web site and, well, it's hard to argue with what they have to say.
Especially #9.
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Southside Virginia Community College hosted the Brunswick Festival this past weekend in Alberta, Virginia. The weather was really nice and the turnout was really great. EmporiaNews.com has more coverage of the overall event, and you can see some more pics on my Flickr page.
I really just want to touch on one thing though, and that's daddy winning the Brunswick Stew cook-off. There were 20 stewmasters from all over the state competing, and a panel of judges from surrounding counties declared daddy's stew to be the best. This was the first time daddy's won the top prize, which in my opinion, is way overdue. For a man who could hardly walk without getting out a breath a year ago, and underwent a lung transplant earlier this year, it was great to see him go out there and whoop up on the other stewmasters.
If you missed out this past weekend, he's fixing another stew in about a week for the Lawrenceville United Church's Apple Festival. (Don't worry, it won't be an apple stew.)
I am waaaay behind in this recap, but better late than never, I guess. Amanda and I spent a week in Italy last month. Here’s a quick recap of the trip:
Day 1 (&2):
We leave Richmond and embark on our trip that involved us being awake for roughly 24 hours over the course of the flights to Italy. Our first layover was in Michigan, then Amsterdam, then finally we got to Italy. I’m sure we were a sight to behold.
We head to our room after stumbling out of the vaporetto that brought us to Venice. After wandering around Venice for a while (how hard could it be to find the room?), we miraculously find our room and pile in for a nap. Several hours later we awake reenergized and ready to join a bustling nightlife. We had a very romantic dinner outdoors, then wandered leisurely around the city.
Day 3:
Once we’re up and fed, we make our way to the famous St. Mark’s Square. We find solace from the crowds in the Correr Museum at the square. After a quick lunch, it’s back to the room for another nap to recharge. The afternoon included a tour of the Doge’s Palace. That place was ridiculous. The size of the place was simply unreal. And it was covered in amazing art. As night fell, our courage grew and we decided to just wander around Venice at night and get lost. It was really fun to have nowhere to be and simply submit to the city’s unique landscape and layout.
Day 4:
The weather wasn’t quite as cooperative today as we woke up to rain. But we still got out and ascended the Campanile (the bell tower in San Marco’s square). We also toured Saint Mark’s Basilica, which houses relics believed to be the body of Saint Mark. After our usual afternoon rest it was off to Ca' Rezzonico in the rain.
Day 5:
We decided to take a day trip and get out of Venice for the day. After making our way to the train station, it was just a short ride to Verona. We did a Rick Steve’s tour of Verona and saw everything from the supposed balcony of Juliet to castles and unfinished churches.
Day 6:
Today we took trips out to the islands of Burano and Murano that are right off of Venice. Burano is famous for its lacework while Murano has world-famous glasswork. The islands were very interesting because we got to experience all the best things of Venice (architecture, food, art) without some of the not so great stuff, like the tourists and crazy complicated streets and alleys.
Once we got back to Venice, we took a 40 minute vaporetto tour that was guided by iPod commentary by Rick Steves. It was pretty educational and really interesting.
Day 7:
Our last full day in Venice consisted of a trip through a museum of 18th Century costumes, a stroll through the main market area, shopping in the shops at the Rialto bridge, a visit to the original Jewish Ghetto, and a long walk toward Frari Church (we never actually made it). Later in the evening we went to eat at place called 9 (we think) that had the coolest little flyer as a business card. I also almost fell in the canal before supper too, but that’s a long story for another day.
Day 8:
We headed to the airport only to find out that some European airline workers were STRIKING! Only for that one day though! So all the flights that day were cancelled. This led us to hop on a bus and head to Maestra for the night. We were worried that Maestra was going to be the bunghole of Italy, but it was super charming. We strolled around the downtown area then through a park where we saw old guys playing bocce ball, folks with remote control sailboats on a little pond, kids riding bikes and practicing soccer. It was really charming.
Day 9:
We wake up extraordinarily early to hop on our flight home. And we finally did. We finally got back home and we were so happy to be there. But it was a great trip. Check out the Flickr collection for more photos.
Dear Olga,
I don't know who you are. You probably don't know me either. But I really wish you would stop giving people my cell phone number and telling them it's yours. It's totally not.
Thanks,
Aaron
Amanda and I just made an offer on a house in Richmond. With our Venice trip right around the corner, things are being pushed to happen fast. Hopefully we'll know soon if we'll have an new house to call home.
Exciting things are around the corner, folks. I'm about to wrap up the wedding invites for Sarah & Mat. Plus, I should have my new 903 Creative business cards printed and delivered in the next couple of weeks. For anybody that doesn't know yet, SlickPixel is on it's last leg and as soon as I get a solid new site put together, everything will officially switch over to 903 Creative:
Thanks to everybody that sent well wishes today. It turned out to be a great birthday. I had a monster feast with the Gibsons for lunch followed up by a monster feast with the Whites for supper. Both meals were at dining establishments so I received complimentary dessert at both, a birthday candle in said dessert at one, and a very loud, embarrassing rendition of Happy Birthday at the other.
All this fun plus my new copy of Guitar Hero 3 thrown into the mix. But thanks again to everybody that made today great.
Amanda went to speak at a Richmond area school a few months ago. While she was there a student made this dollar bill flower heart thing for her. She found it in a pocket on our way back to Richmond today. I've seen other things made out of dollar bills, but I thought this by far one of the coolest.
I'm up in Fairfax with Amanda tonight and tomorrow and today we took our first ever trip to IKEA. We went to get ideas for our future Richmond house. It was pretty fun. Not as crazy and impressive as I was expecting, but I think I built it up in my mind a little bit.
Nevertheless, the idea of decorating the new home (that we haven't seen yet, much less own) is very exciting.
Also the TownePlace Suites Marriott gives away sugar cookies. That excites me as well.
We noticed these pretty rad little M&M packages today in Walmart. I use the term "little" loosely. I think these were the 5lb. feedbags. They weren't all like this, just the ones this size. The other sizes still used the current package design. But I thought these were pretty cool throwback designs for M&Ms.
Here's another one that I noticed a while back, but remembered to snap a picture today. This is a before and after of the Sauer's spices. Nothing too thrilling, but all in all I think it's a good, clean redesign. Plus, I'm glad somebody realized that you don't need a picture of the spice to know what you're picking up. This nice new look obviously extends to their website as well. More on the redesign here.
Apologies for the crappy photo quality above. They were taken with the camera phone.
This is kind of a cop out, but I don't care. I wrote this post a while ago for the JHI Blog while I was working there. Since most of what I've been posting is either recent work or personal updates, I thought this might be a nice change of pace. Of course, there's always quality stuff at the JHI Blog, so be sure to check it out. By clicking here or here. Link.
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Here at J H I, we use the first Monday of each month to discuss relevant, inspirational, or unavoidable events or work in the creative community that have captured our attention. We have aptly titled this forum event “First Mondays.” Everybody here has an assigned month during which they bring something before the group. We use this item to spark a conversation that can cover anything from ideas and execution to trends and relevance.
While I realize that this post about the first Monday of the month is being published on the last Friday of the month, I wanted to share our latest topic of discussion.
January was my month, and I chose to focus on the Rembrandt re-branding . While on a shopping trip a few months back, I turned a corner down the oral hygiene aisle and the new Rembrandt packaging was practically glowing from the shelf. I wasn’t even shopping for toothpaste, but in the sea of the blue, red and gradient toothpaste packaging, the Rembrandt products really leapt out to me.
Johnson & Johnson acquired the Rembrandt brand from Oral B and the makeover was driven by the idea that consumers were ready for a product that broke out of the normal oral care mold and transcended into a more sophisticated beauty product line. From seeing Rembrandt’s packaging, website and advertising, the rebranding effort by Johnson & Johnson along with Little Fury seems to have been very well executed, especially given this knowledge of the message they aim to project.
The previously mentioned points illustrate why this product stands out to me as a consumer. But there are elements to the rebranding that register on a different level to me as a designer. While this is not a completely flawless campaign, (I’ve heard that the actual toothpaste tube is pretty lackluster, and we’ve had our own conversation internally regarding the kerning of the logotype), there were still some great decisions made. The box opens from the top, instead of the side, so the customer feels like “they are opening a gift, like they are treating themselves to something,” according to Carmen Nestares, Product Director for the Rembrandt. While you may not hear many squeals of glee from people opening toothpaste, this does further the idea that toothpaste does not have to be completely dull.
Above all, the new Rembrandt logotype itself really impressed me. It is set in a modified version of Copperplate. I (and others) have very mixed feelings towards this particular font. I usually disregard Copperplate as a choice when selecting typefaces for certain projects. Not to say that it can’t be used successfully, but I feel it carries a certain stigma that is difficult to get around. When the movie Seabiscuit first came out, I couldn’t hear or read anything about it without thinking about Copperplate because it was on the movie posters. To me, Copperplate had become a font that was used when you didn’t want to think about what font to use. It was uninspired and a little tiresome.
But the new Rembrandt logotype takes Copperplate and completely erases all of those preconceptions. Suddenly Copperplate has the potential to be stunning. It rises to the top as a font worth a second thought. Maybe I’ll spend a little more time thinking about Copperplate and it uses. To me, that’s a great analogy for this entire campaign. It has taken something that used to warrant little thought or attention and brought to light it’s full potential and value. Brilliant.
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