Design

Here’s the latest promo from Santogold. It’s interesting to see stylistic similarities between this video and the one for Ladytron’s runaway that we featured last week.

Santogold

BVD in Sweden were asked to by Turesgruppen AB to create a strong and totally unique café experience: from concept and name, to graphic profile and packaging. The concept needed to be warm, welcoming, honest and genuine and targeted to young professionals.

They created an image that mixed black, white and stainless steel with “warm” wood and other simple nostalgic cues:

The old fashioned café-feeling [is] expressed by things like a board with old, detachable letters and traditional cups and trays. The graphics are clean and simple, but at the same time surprising and playful. The design exudes personality, quality, style and a big city feeling.

Photos and more: BVD Case Study

Mike Sharpe & Barney Steele from Found Collective create this striking music video for Ladytron’s Runaway.

For young ‘trendsetting’ Americans, green is more about style then substance, a recent study by Outlaw Consulting suggests. Outlaw surveyed 100 “forward trendsetters” in NY, SF, LA, and Miami to create their 2008 Favorite Green Brands Index, asking the group to give their opinions on what makes a brand green and who they thought were today’s most environmentally conscious companies. The survey found that their trendsetter’s made a (sometimes false) correlation between brands that favored minimalist design - like Apple and Method - with green practices. At the top of their list of 15 were two brands whose eco-consciousness have been widely debated: Whole Foods (#1) and Trader Joe’s (#2). Sustainable Life Media comments:

…A large number of survey respondents put Apple in the “green” category due to the company’s simple, streamlined design approach - even though respondents weren’t sure of Apple’s specific environmental policies. (Other companies known for a minimal, clean aesthetic include Method, Google, American Apparel, The Container Store, IKEA, and Kiehls.)

…Regardless of design or messaging, the bottom line for young, environmentally conscious trendsetters still comes down to style, the report suggests. For example, trendsetters claimed that they would be more likely to consider sustainably produced clothing if the current offerings weren’t largely unfashionable or overpriced.

“[These young consumers] aren’t willing to spend top dollar on an environmental product, and they won’t compromise quality or style,” says Barbara Bylenga, founder and chief strategist of Outlaw Consulting. “Therefore, the brands they listed are not only those they merely see as green, but also those they see as relevant to their lifestyle and self-image.”

And yet, the study also points to the young influencers’ passion for the eco-movement and commending brands that have pushed the green movement forward in their industries, like Toyota (#3 on the list).

“Overall, we were struck by how passionate these consumers were about the topic,” says Bylenga. “To them, being green does not mean fringe or hippie or new-age - today it’s actually part of being hip and modern. The brands that made our list are being green in a way that resonates with this generation.”

Sustainable Life Media: Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Toyota Top Leading Green Brands for Gen Y

The ISO50 blog has found some great slides from a a 1975 IBM presentation. If they did this back in 1975 it just goes to show how badly Powerpoint has destroyed messaging since then…

More Slides

Business has been rough for Starbucks lately. Everyone knows the chain has announced the closing of 600 stores this year. But it’s often the case that when things are down, its the best time for a radical rethink. Get back to basics and try a fresh approach. That’s what Architect Magazine challenged five design teams recently to do. Reinvent Starbucks.

The US based teams participating were: designLAB - Boston, Pentagram Architects - New York, William E. Massie/Cranbrook Academy of Art - Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Studio Works - Los Angeles, and STUDIOS architecture - New York. Each took a look at improving both the design and focusing the business model.

Most of the proposals created distinct spaces for customers who where either looking for fast service or those seeking a slow, lounging experience. Studio Works proposed stretching the order counter all the way to the sidewalk so orders can be placed right from the street. STUDIOS architecture created a 60-foot long communal table that becomes the core of each store. The table can be configured for multiple functions and aims to create a shared experience something like a community kitchen.

Pentagram went a step further and even suggested a new name. The brand would be called ‘*$’ (that’s not a typo, it reads star-buck) The team scrapped the ‘homely’ casual look of the current stores in favor for a sleek open interior. The offer is meant to be pared down and well executed. In their words, ‘out with the bric-a-brac’.

[ via archinect ]

A couple months ago a very innovative POP opened its doors in São Paulo. Named Endossa, it claims to be the first collaborative store in Latin America.

The idea is simple and quite contemporary: they rent empty shelf boxes to every micro-entrepreneur who wants some space to sell products, without asking for sales commission.

Any product can be sold in Endossa (today you can find bottles of chilies to indie t-shirts) and its time on the shelf depends on demand: high sales means high acceptance.

Endossa achieved great success in the neighborhood around Rua Augusta (indie neighborhood of São Paulo) and it’s creating a micro-community of young entrepreneurs and curious people who visit the place to get  fresh inspiration from the creative pieces inside the stores (and occasionally buy some of them). They say:

“We work as a blog, allowing people to publish their content (promote products) and as search engines or virtual surveys, allowing consumers to decide what product will stay in the store and what will get out”.

Endossa

We concluded our PSFK Conference SF with a bang, creative leads of Method Josh Handy and Nate Pence sharing their rules on how to design the Method way. JoshSpear.com offers some more insight from the Method folks with his great interview with Danny Alexander, one of their industrial designers. Danny focuses on creating sustainable and healthy products, all while keeping an unparalleled level of design simplicity. Here is a short excerpt from their interview:

JS: As our store shelves have become increasingly cramped with more and more of the same stuff, it seems like it’s the products that are either exceptionally different or exceptionally well branded that are finding success. Do you think Method will lose its sparkle once all the tag-along products start popping up?

DA: We try not to dwell too much on the competition — it only stifles the creative process. But, to answer your question more specifically, we have seen and will continue to see competition on many fronts. To date, nobody has been able to recreate the unique blend of style and substance that makes Method so special. We’re selling more than a bottle of soap; we’re offering a philosophy and a culture, which is inimitable. We’re confident that if we continue to focus on delighting our consumers in new and innovative ways, and letting our culture drive our products, we’ll continue to stay ahead of the competition.

JS: So, you’ve got this environmentally conscious, design-savvy creative class, and they’re all obsessed with the idea of sexy cleaning products — words that up until very recently, could hardly exist side-by-side. What are some new product areas that you are hoping to take your currently captive audience into?

DA: Our goal, which is ambitious but achievable, is to create a healthy, happy home revolution. We’ve already blurred the lines between personal care, home cleaning and air care, and while continuing to revolutionize these categories, we hope to expand our offerings so we can lead our advocates further in the fight against dirty. Squeaky Green, the Method guide to detoxing your home (co-written by our founders, Adam and Eric), is one example of how we’re helping our advocates create healthier, happier homes in new ways.

[via JoshSpear]

Mirth.