Lost My Sock

Saw these leaflets posted everywhere the other day – And thought, this might be a fun to visit the website or it can turn out to be a disturbing! I was willing to take a chance on it and see what happens. You never know what you’ll get when you go to a website that you find posted on a wall in New York City. When you type www.lostmysock.com it brings you to the LittleMissedMatched.com, which confused me for a second. I thought I typed in the wrong web address. I then realized that this was actually supposed to bring you to this site only after I read what’s posted below,

The last time I saw my warm and fuzzy friend was in the dryer and now it's gone!
Don't you just hate when that happens? Then you're left with all those single spares who've lost their pairs. No fun! Or waaaait a sec, could it be??
Can't I just wear any two socks that I wanna wear? And then I'll never have to worry about the missing sock again! I mean, who said socks have to match anyways? That's my theory and how my entire company got goin'! So as a super special THANK YOU for trying to help me find my lost sock, I'm giving you a pack of my marvelous, fabulous, kooky or zany socks for FREE!

All you gotta do is:
 Print this out, Bring it into my new LittleMissMatched store in Grand Central Terminal.

No surprises or sneaky moves, just bring this in and you'll get a pack of 3 coordinated but non-matching socks for FREE!
And in honor of this month's Lost Sock Memorial Day, you'll get an extra treat if you bring in all of those single guys you've got lying around. I'll be donating all gently used socks to charity so come celebrate Lost Sock Memorial Day and help others out at the same time!

Soooo thanks again for trying to help me find my sock – hope I've now helped you solve this age old problem for yourself!
Can't wait to see you in Grand Central Terminal!

This seems like a fun little promotion targeting moms and young girls. I don’t know how successful it will be (or is). How many moms or girls actually saw these plastered all over NYC and thought, “hey this looks like it could be fun website to visit”. I feel as though it needed to be a bit more direct toward moms or young girls- It’s way too vague. You are not sure if it’s a joke or not. The idea is good just the execution seems a bit off.

Bottling Wine

This weekend I helped my father-in-law bottle wine - He makes both red & white wines every year. The photos above document the process - first transfer the wine from the barrels to the bottles, then the bottles are corked, the corked bottles are then moved to the shelves and at the end is the clean up. My job which is not pictured, (because it isn't very glamorous), was moving bottles around. Moving empty bottles so they can be filled, then moving the filled bottles so they can be corked and then taking the corked bottles and storing them on the shelves. This all took place in the basement and at the end everything smells like wine. It was a fun experience, that didn't feel like work at all.

Fiat's Eco:Drive, Great Idea!

Carmaker Fiat has been in the news lately, because of the plans to partner with Chrysler. So while reading up on Fiat, then going to their main website - I came across, Eco:Drive, their Drive Greener program.

Basically, Eco:Drive is Fiat wanting to be more environmentally responsible by providing the car owner with tools where they can analyze the way they drive. This will then provide the car owner with tips & suggestions about how to reduce the environment impact and their costs.

Below is Fiat’s explanation on how it works if you don’t want to read it click here to watch the video.

The car owner plugs a USB drive into their computer, goes to the Eco:Drive website downloads the program for free. Then plugs the USB drive into their car. When they get home they plug the USB drive back into their computer and then the “EcoDrive” system presents the driver with detailed environmental performance of the car including the CO2 emission level for each trip. It analyses the driver’s style and then provides tips and recommendations on how to modify style to achieve CO2 reductions – and save money on fuel.

EcoDrive will encourage the driver to set himself challenges – CO2 reduction targets for specific journeys or over a set period of time. And in a community site will encourage all drivers to come together and pool their savings - working towards much bigger collective targets and showing that a lot of small contributions join to have a massive impact.

I should note that this right now you can only use this in two of Fiat’s cars - Fiat 500 and the Grand Punto but they state this will soon be available in all of their cars. This is an interesting idea overall. Will this make people buy a Fiat? I think so.

I See Pop Chips Everywhere

These ads seem to be popping up everywhere I look, (pun intended). This visual bombardment made me take notice - which in turn led me to post about them.

The packaging is simple, clean and to the point. Very unique and fun typographical treatment. I really like their color-code system for each flavor of chips they produce. The whole look will definitely make it stand out on store shelves. The ads really co-exist nicely with the packaging - Overall a very good advertising campaign. (I do remember seeing this packaging about a year ago on The Dieline website, back then I thought it was a very different (in a good way) for a potato chip packaging.)

They are supposed to different type of potato chip compared to other potato chips theses are literally popped into existence. They apply heat and pressure to the potato and create an unique looking and tasting chip. I have yet to buy them so I can’t comment on their taste. But if you are curious here’s their website where they list all the stores where you can purchase them - www.popchips.com

Design without Borders discussion at NYIT

I went to a graphic design discussion last Friday, called Designers without Borders at NYIT (New York Institute of Technology). The talk centered around a panel discussion about design in a globalized world. Designers that participated in the discussion were:

Roberto de Vicq – company Vicq Design born in Brazil.

Matteo Bologna – company Mucca Design born in Italy.

Maya Kopytman – company C&G Partners LLC born in Russia (but moved to Israel)

Carole Goodman – company Blue Anchor Design born in United States (New Jersey)

Takaaki Matsumoto – company Matsumoto Inc born in Japan.

Pablo Medina – company Cubanica born in the United Stated (Washington D.C moved to New Jersey)

The talk overall was interesting. It was fun hearing from all the designers discussing their background: where they came from, what projects they worked on, funny stories about people they worked with, etc… They discussed cultural differences and how they dealt with it all in their own way. Some designers had problems assimilating to the language and some had a hard time dealing and working with other cultures.

Something I found interesting was that they all pretty much felt that their cultural backgrounds did not influence their design. I’m not sure that’s true. They might think their cultural background doesn’t appear in their design but I disagree. It might not be so obvious, like a design style or certain look that can somehow represent their country of origin. But their cultural background influences the way they think and problem solve. Which is a big part of graphic design.

Another topic they brought up was about how in some countries graphic designers are treated differently, almost like “Rock Stars.” In certain cultures clients value the designer and their opinion more than they do here. They know your work and ask for your help on what to do. They don’t dictate their idea, you design what you think works. They look to you for answers and guidance. This was also a revelation to me -I know some companies here in the states do seek out designers’ guidance for ideas and projects but for the most part, we are there to communicate their ideas. If they don’t like what we have produced, they will tell us and sometimes they’ll tell us how to make it better.

Overall, a good talk with lively designers that kept you engaged. Glad I went. I look forward to more talks from NYIT.

Coffee Wars

Here is Starbucks new print ad campaign plus a video explanation from Howard Shultz himself, (click here for the video explanation). Starbucks is going with an eco-looking print campaign, the eco-look is to show you how environmentally conscious they are over other coffee places. The campaign also puts down other coffee makers, in a nice way. It looks as though they are gearing up for an all out coffee war. But if Starbucks is going through all this you know they are a little worried about McDonalds & Dunkin Donuts taking away their coffee drinkers in this touch economy.

I am curious to see where these new ads will appear? If they advertise in the typical areas they usually advertise in, (for example New York Times) how do they really expect to grow their business? They just keep talking to the same people that already support them. Right now it's tough for them and I think it's going to get tougher. Not sure if this is really the right direction they should be heading. I feel this ad campaign is not going to help them make any head way. The people that buy Starbucks will keep buying it - They people who buy Starbucks but can't justify buying it because of cost will probably stop and buy cheaper coffee some where else - The people who never bought Starbucks are not going to start now.

Got An Original Idea?

In 1993 the California Milk Processor Board was formed to remind people to drink milk. They hired ad agency Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein, who did research and produced the popular milk commercials for the California Milk Processor Board. The television commercials set up the groundwork for the got milk? advertising campaigns that everyone now-a-days recognizes.

Since 1993 there have been countless companies that have co-opted the got milk? tagline, (above is just a small sample of what I found). Usually these knock offs are done by small local businesses who don't have a marketing budget and don't really understand branding. The just "borrow" popular taglines from commercials or print ads that they have seen. Most of the time these appropriated taglines that they use don't even work or make any sense for that particular company.

I feel this forced branding hurts those small businesses and confuses their targeted clients rather than help them. I like the idea of small local companies branding themselves, but why not come up with something original? Come up with a campaign that actually means something to that particular business. Or better yet, create a brand by helping the community, and in turn this will help their brand get recognized locally.