I posted about Goods of Desire in the past and here’s another great little take away that they’ve launched. It’s a great way to take a bit of Hong Kong home with you. Part of what makes the travel experience is the “charm”, character, and uniqueness to a place. These small souvenirs from GOD address and identify that exact connection or experience we may have to Hong Kong. Clever!
What would you choose as small charm souvenirs for your hometown or favorite city?
If you know me, or you’re the 1 person who follows my blog, I’m sure you know my obsession for cord management. And when I saw this DIY cell phone cradle, I was so excited! (Yes, it doesn’t take much, sometimes..) Made from any large plastic container (or lotion bottle), you can cut it up and create yourself a cell phone charging cradle:
What a great thought for reuse and save on purchasing another knick-knack, though I’ll be first to admit that some are worth the purchase With an old lotion bottle, sharpie, and exacto blade you’re ready to go:
Start by cleaning out any old long and wide plastic container you have (this one looks like a Jergen’s bottle). Make sure that the bottle is wide/thick enough to fit your phone inside of! Then, draw the shape of the cradle on the outside of the bottle with a marker. You can choose whatever shape you like but ideally, it will have a rounded portion with a hole at the top and a “bucket” at the bottom for your phone to sit it (see the pic below). Finally, cut along the lines you traced (be very careful!) with an Exacto knife. Tada!
Brilliant DIY! (ps. Goes hand-in-hand with the most recent IDSA conference in Portland, earlier this month. The theme was DIY.)
The Shanghai based branding firm Labbrand reviews the impact of packaging design on business in a cultural context, particularly in China. Product brand managers need to pay special consideration to how their consumers view color, materials, images and typefaces, while considering the contrasts between Chinese and Western markets.
Packaging design and color has a a big impact on the failure or success of the product it packages. If the consumer is not attracted to the colors and the packaging, they may pay no attention to the product itself.
People use a little more than a minute to make up their minds about a product they see for the first time, and a big part of this judgment is based on colours alone.
“All of us have involuntary physiological and psychological responses to the colours we see,” according to the Chicago-based Institute for Colour Research, a group that collects information on the human response to colour and then sells it to industry. “Colour…impacts our appetite, sexual behaviour, business life and leisure time,” says Eric Johnson, the institute’s head of research studies.
I knew that different cultures and countries have different opinions on particular colors, but I had no idea that the French, Belgian, or Japanese are not attracted to green packaging or that Islamic cultures react to yellow in a negative way because yellow symbolizes death. And of course for the Chinese yellow is associated with the emperor’s clothing and red represents happiness and fortune. The article lists a variety of other colors and the perception from various cultural contexts. The choice of color is powerful when designing packaging for certain markets.
However, this does not apply to every product category: Chinese consumers generally find appealing these bright and shiny colours for food products but tend to prefer white and pastel colours for personal care and household items. For instance, General Mills adapts the colours used on own product packages in the Chinese market by using bright and flashy colours.
These examples really illustrate the importance of understanding a local consumer market when developing products (both 3-dimensionally and 2-dimensionally).
Researchers estimate that more than 70 percent of purchase decisions are made at point of sale . Here the consumer takes in rapidly all the products displayed – and likewise hastily looks for clues that help him make a decision.
Products brands that are successful on the Chinese market clearly take into consideration how images and patterns printed on the packaging influence consumers decisions towards own products.
Packaging has an incredible power over what people buy. The same way people express themselves through the clothes they wear they also make statements about who they are through the products they buy. Indeed, we buy products not just for their functional attributes but also – and maybe even more importantly – because these products promise to fulfil desires and longings. The package that enfolds the product carries a big part of that promise.
The challenge when trying to build a locally consistent “promise” is to interpret the global brand identity and creative concept in a meaningful way for the Chinese market. The package design needs to attract attention, stimulate curiosity, build a connection and ultimately lead the buyer to think the product is the best one offered. China is a country with a long history and a rich culture, creating codes in the minds of consumers that must be considered during package design. In order to be successful in China, foreign brands need to reinterpret their identity through the eyes of Chinese consumers to truly understand how colours, patterns, images, typeface and material choices can contribute build a meaningful product experience.
Original and handmade artistry has been showing and for sale every Friday in Downtown Crossing. The Art Friday’s market is open Fridays from 11am-6pm until October 1 on Summer Street. There’s some great, local works there from photography to pottery, jewelry, and bags. There’s music playing, tourists, and street performers; a great initiative by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Go check it out and support the local artisans while the weather’s still nice!
Remember when you were yelled at as a kid for eating your crayons? Well now you can!
Crayon (made of food!) is a set of food bars made by Luxirare. Crushing up various foods of the same color family and using marshmallow to hold the ingredients together, crayons are formed in a mold. The flavors are based on colors, not actual flavors; the ingredients of each of the 8 colors are listed on the side of the box. The blue and purple colors are least healthy made with more sugar and candy. You can draw with them too!
Looking through some old photos, I came across these tricycle wheelchairs on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City when I was visiting a couple years ago… I’d never seen anything like it before, or perhaps I’m too sheltered. I did a bit of digging and these chairs are actually manufactured in Ho Chi Minh City, by KienTuong, you can see their advertisement stuck on the wheelchair and check out how it works in the video below; oddly fascinating:
Turns out, they are the same company who has teamed with and produces wheelchairs for Whirlwind Wheelchair, a non-profit, aiming to bring wheelchairs to the disabled of developing countries. You HAVE to watch this video (10 min on PBS) about the Whilrwind Wheelchair process and learn about the organization’s support for open source wheelchair development. What a wonderful design process!
Pick a recipe for your kitchen or bath from their website and Design in a Bag will send you a kit (for about US$100) with samples of your personalized selection. What a great semi-DIY concept, making good design accessible to everyone!
On the Design in a Bag website, you can browse online galleries of coordinated kitchen and bath looks, each carefully designed and crafted by Rebekah Zaveloff, an HGTV contributor and the creative force behind Chicago’s preeminent kitchen and bath interior design firm KitchenLab.
Before and After of a client using the Design In A Bag Burgoyne.
Design in a Bagincludes: cabinetry finishes showing color and wood species, countertop and tile selections, shopping / resource list, 4 large-format paint swatches and coordinating architectural drawings illustrating the finishes and wall colors – all which combine to help you envision and create your dream kitchen or bath.
Last night DesignMuseumBoston hosted an event in collaboration with Office Environments of New England to not only eat, drink, and meet some wonderful people, but to also give some background and insight into what the Design Museum is trying to accomplish. In addition to opening nomadic and ever-changing ‘pop-up museums’ in empty store fronts, DesignMuseumBoston partners with other local non-profits, such as Small Bean, to help solve design problems for those in need.
Design Museum Boston is a non-profit organization with the goal of creating and maintaining a network of virtual and physical exhibit spaces online, in Boston, and across New England.
These exhibits will educate the public on the role of design in their lives and the contributions of design within the creative economy. Design Museum Boston will also host events and programs related to design education to further connect the design community to the public.
Join their online community hosted by Ning to contribute ideas, start discussions, and get involved as their “intention is to create a hub for all forms of design, a place where anyone can come to experience and learn about the world we create.”
DesignMuseumBoston and the founders, Derek Cascio and Sam Aquillano, were first featured in a Boston Globe and FastCompany.
Now it’s confirmed, the first physical exhibit will be located at Boston City Hall entitled Creative Capital, opening in September! It looks like great things to come with advancing the design community in New England by educating the public
These posters are some very creative AT&T cell phone advertisements, using only a phone and painted hands that represent a place or object significant to a worldwide location. I wonder who did these and if the series is a concept or if this campaign of “Best Coverage Worldwide” has already been launched…? As beautiful as these images would be as actual photographs, somehow the incorporation of hands as artwork has created an even more gorgeous image.
It’s true that our lives revolve more and more around electronics and it’s peculiar that cord management of all our electronics has really become an issue for us! I love travel accessories and MI-O cell phone cradle via YankoDesign helps manage all those cords when charging your cell phone, so they aren’t dangling all over the place.
There’s also this BuiltNY cord cargo case that’s such a clever idea. The stretchable neoprene material really accommodates the accessories you need and makes it the perfect addition to BuiltNY’s product line.
With an old lotion bottle, sharpie, and exacto blade you’re ready to go:
