Deadlines Ouija Board
Does trying to work out the various details of a project with your client sometimes feel a bit like trying to communicate with someone from the spirit realm? Not only does strategic branding firm Traina Design feel your pain, they’ve given creatives everywhere the perfect metaphor for that experience, transforming it into a gorgeous board game in the process. At first glance, “Deadlines: Inspiration Through Visitation” seems like your typical Ouija board. But as with everything to do with this project, the beauty is in the details. Read More.
Studio Pression Greeting Card
I call it my “let’s go home” piece and I come across it two or three times a year. It’s a Gallery item that is so superbly planned and executed that it makes me want to declare, “That’s it, we’ve reached the zenith of print design; we can all go home now.” This stunning self-promotional greeting card, designed and printed by France’s Studio Pression, has something for everybody, from steampunks and print nerds to cat lovers and foil fans. Read More.
‘The Christmas Bee’ Book
It’s tough to craft a client gift with just the right blend of fun and sophistication. As a design or print studio you want to appear whimsical but not trivial; creative, but with a bedrock of integrity. Packaging firm GPA Luxury (formerly MW Luxury) managed to tick all of these boxes at the end of 2018 with “The Christmas Bee” Book. With great elegance it manages to entrance while offering a very personal solution to an impending crisis: the decline of bee populations around the world brought about by climate change, pesticides and loss of habitat. Read More.
EBD Whiskey Gift Box
Nothing grabs a client’s attention faster than a whiff of hand-crafted elegance. And if you can sweeten the deal with a bottle of premium spirits, so much the better. For its 2018 annual client gift, Ellen Bruss Design (EBD) used its recent branding and packaging work for client Branch & Barrel as the basis for a truly memorable gift. Read More.
Gift of Water Box
If there’s one thing rarer than great design, it is great design in aid of a good cause. This was the second thing that occurred to me after coming across advertising agency LRXD’s “Gift of Water” New Year’s Box; the first, of course, was “wow!” “LRXD wanted to pass on our health and happiness values to clients by passing on some good to the world,” explains LRXD Creative Director Jamie Reedy. Ostensibly that “good” was an ultra-cool black- and silver-toned water bottle with “Health and Happiness” printed on the side. But, says Jamie, “While the agency gift simply seemed to be a sleek water bottle, the message emblazoned on the box was an important one.” Read More.
