Hey I've Seen That Before! Scribble Drawing Ads

Great package design - CRISP

Not only are the falafel sandwiches at CRISP delicious, the packages are a great user experience as well. Falafel sandwiches can get a little messy, but these come in a neatly packaged and sealed box, where you pull open the tab to take off the top half of your box so that you have a nice neat place to put your sandwich back into between bites.

Random fact - Flounders can change to match patterns

Did you know that some tropical flounders can change color to match their surroundings — and even match a pattern. A study in the 90s done by Vilayanur Ramachandran found that "when he moved the fish from sandy sea floors to black-and-white checkerboard and polka-dot patterns, the flounder quickly sported squares and dots."

Simply Orange Branding

Today Simply Orange setup a tasting bar outside of Grand Central. Not only was it a nice morning treat, but it was a very unique giveaway stand. The stand was complete with banners, logos and a very simple untreated wood counter, designed to look like the crates holding the many fresh oranges surrounding the stand. I thought it was a great touch for the brand promise of natural, simple and fresh.

Then I began to wonder if Simply Orange had managed to implement this brand feeling on other consumer touchpoints - and they did. When I went to the website it had the same image of fresh oranges and an simple untreated natural wood in the foreground serving as a tabletop for the Simply Orange drinks. What a great user experience to continually see reinforcement of the brand promise through visual and design cues. Only problem with the site - the annoying bird chirping that automatically plays on open. Unless you are in the music industry and users are coming to buy your super sweet music, no brand should have music or sound effects autoplaying in the background of their site.

Trendspotting: Wax Stamp Logos/Icons

What happens when communication breaks down...

Found this on StumbleUpon here.

Hey I've seen that before! Papyrus Font Abuse

The other day I noticed that Edible Arrangements uses Papyrus as their font in their logo and I thought "Oh no, what an overused font." I'm not alone in thinking this, check out papyruswatch.com or ihatepapyrus.info for numerous examples of the abuse of this font.

Why is papyrus so overused and abused? Because it's free and "unique" looking, so many businesses probably think they are being different. For the small businesses, maybe I can give you a pass since your budgets are smaller. But bigger businesses, have some pride and get your logo designed and a complete brand identity established. It's the visual that represents your company and what it stands for. What does papyrus say about your brand? Maybe that you stand for cheap quality or the easy way out?

Papyrus font masquerading as a script?