Design Classic

Kilroy Was Here, There and Everywhere

By Delphine Hirasuna | November 15, 2013September 4, 2014

Sometime during World War II, graffiti of a man with a long nose peering over a wall and the message “Kilroy was here” began popping up in the most unlikely and often dangerous places. It was boldly hand drawn on rocks and trees on the battlefields of Europe and the South Pacific, painted on the side of warplanes, on U.S. troopships, Army jeeps and bombed out buildings. The little Kilroy man became the logo of American GIs, and a way to taunt the enemy that there was no safe place to hide. The more remote and inaccessible the location, the more likely a GI would paint the graffiti to announce they had been there first.

Packaging

Illy’s Brand Positioning on the Arts

By Delphine Hirasuna | November 14, 2013September 4, 2014

Explaining its views on coffee, illy argues “If coffee is experienced with all five senses, the very objects that hold coffee should please the eye.” Given that brand philosophy, the Trieste, Italy-based coffee company sought to elevate the humble coffee cup “to meld the sensory pleasures of coffee and art.” In 1992, it commissioned renowned architect Matteo Thun to design what is now the iconic illy espresso cup. From there, illy asked some of the world’s foremost artists to use the white ceramic surface as a canvas for their original art. The illy Art Collection was born. Over the past two decades, some 70 artists, including such contemporary masters as Robert Rauschenberg, Jeff Koons and Julian Schnabel, have contributed to the collection. The cups and saucers in the illy Collection can themselves be appreciated as works of art worthy of display in galleries and exhibitions.

Humor

Real-Life Digital Stories from Google Analytics

By Delphine Hirasuna | January 16, 2013September 4, 2014

If real store personnel treated customers the way some online marketers do, this is what the experience may feel like to shoppers. Google Analytics produced this series of videos to demonstrate how online retailers are losing customers by bombarding them with too many annoying questions, offers and distractions. The videos simulate interactions with the landing page, site search and checkout. The skits are funny but too painfully true. Google Analytics implies there is hope; it directs online retailers to its blog site for improvement tips.

Packaging

One in Four Million Bottle Design

By Delphine Hirasuna | December 10, 2012September 4, 2014

As renowned for its creative branding as it is for its premium vodka, Absolut continually tops itself with fantastic new visual expressions. In this case, the Swedish vodka-maker, owned by French company, Pernod Ricard, teamed with Swedish ad agency, Family Business, to give new meaning to the term “limited edition.” The idea was not just to make each Absolut bottle seem unique, but to actually be unique. To do that, Absolut had to reconfigure its bottling production line to recreate artwork with splash guns, 38 colors, and 51 patterns. A complex computerized algorithms program orchestrated these elements in a randomized fashion so that no two bottles were decorated alike. In fact, Absolut estimates that it would take 94 quintrillion bottles before two identical designs resulted. The company is not producing that many, but it did individually number each of the four million bottles in its limited edition line, which it appropriately named “Absolut Unique.”

Advertising

There’s More to Cuba Than Cigars

By Delphine Hirasuna | November 24, 2012September 4, 2014

Think of Cuba’s most famous product, and cigars immediately come to mind. Think again. That’s what Young & Rubicam Milan wanted people to do that when they created this “From Tourist to Traveller” advertising campaign for Azonzo Travel Agency in Italy. Visitors arrive in Cuba with stereotypical views of what the country is like and discover that there’s more delights to experience on the tropical island than Cuban cigars.