Go judge a book by its cover
June 23, 2008, 10:27 am
Filed under:
Designers,
FMCG innovation,
Food trends & info,
Innovation,
Innovative marketing,
Innovative promotions,
Innovative stimulus,
Marketing,
new product,
Nice Design,
Nice products | Tags:
FMCG,
Innovation,
innovative packaging,
new product
While you can’t judge a book by its cover, we often judge food by its packaging. One dollars worth of spaghetti sure looks a million dollars with a bit of fancy pants wrapping doesn’t it…Never underestimate the importance of appearance when it comes to food, or anything for that matter…
Why do pet care companies always put an animal on the front of their pet food? The dog can’t read but the owner can. Why are we packaging pet food for the pet? They know what dogs look like, talk to them in their own language.
I’d take a premium supermarket pet food brand & stick it in a stylish black tin with silver labeling & discrete branding with no visual reference to animals. Risky you say? I doubt it.
And another thing… why do washing detergents all use bright colours & show water or clean clothes? We make our decisions on what detergent to buy on the perceived quality of the brand. In the absence of any
laundry powders which don’t present pictures of clouds or water gushing through logos, let’s be honest, we pick the one we think looks more sophisticated or innovative or expensive than the rest.
Why not take washing powder & stick it in a metal canister that sits proudly on the laundry shelf instead of embarrassingly in the cupboard? Or better still, cook some good looking detergent granules &
put the stuff in a stylish transparent container.
For a fresh spin on packaging, make it design-orientated not product-orientated. Just because you’re selling pasta doesn’t mean you need a fat Italian & a bunch of tomatoes on the front. Lord, this is 2008.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Leaving something to the imagination…
June 23, 2008, 12:30 am
Filed under:
Asia,
Designers,
Innovative retail,
Innovative stimulus,
Nice Design | Tags:
commes des garcons,
fashion,
Innovation,
innovative,
Japan,
Retail,
style,
Tokyo,
visual merchandising
There’s something refreshing about a retailer who doesn’t just let it all
hang out for the world to see. The windows of this Commes des Garcons store are like a great first date outfit, you can see enough to know you want to see more but
not enough to satiate the appetite.
It’s almost as if they’re teasing you with a little peek but you have to
go inside to see the full story. You see, sometimes its better to leave a little to the imagination. A glimpse of skin is always sexier than getting an eyeful of the whole booty.
What if we took this idea someplace else . . Why not create a stylish fruit & veg store where you don’t actually show the fruit & veg? When people enter the store they are met with boxes upon old fashioned boxes containing fresh produce. People can read where the products come from, there’s a description of how delicious they are & the price point indicates they’re good quality. But you can’t see what you’re actually purchasing.
The philosophy of the store would be :: we’ve selected the best produce available for you, if you think that you can pick better fruit & veg out of some dumpster in a supermarket then you’re in the wrong store friend.
Think about how can you flirt with your customers? How can you play on their imagination & curiosity to drive demand? You need to make customers want you. Throwing yourself on someone is not only embarrassing, but lessens your chances of scoring.
Like this:
Like Loading...
The next frontier: Design Thinking
March 19, 2008, 3:55 am
Filed under:
Designers,
FMCG innovation,
Food trends & info,
Future of Work,
Innovation,
Innovation shops,
Innovative stimulus,
Looking for insights,
new product,
Nice Design,
Research Methods,
Work Futures | Tags:
Andrew Tan,
CENCOR,
Design Thinking,
GE,
IDEO,
Innovation,
new product,
prototyping,
The Mayo Clinic,
what if,
whatif,
whatif innovationHere’s another little ditty from Andrew Tan’s blog WhatIf which covers innovation & design from an Asian perspective. And no, he’s not part of the global outfit Whatif Innovation, he runs his own innovation company and this is his personal blog.
Design thinking is t
he latest and hottest methodology talked about to help a company innovate. GE calls it CENCOR (calibrate, explore, create, organize and realize). The Mayo Clinic calls it SPARC (see, plan, act, refine, communicate). Andrew’s new company calls it GIP (Gather, Ideate, Prototype). Its most obvious and direct power is in the creation of new products and services. Design thinking allows an organization to differentiate its products and services in an avenue other than pricing.
Andrew’s method is not dissimilar to the IDEO method of industrial design, one which has nurtured some of the most popular innovations of the past few decades. Apple’s first mouse. Prada’s ultrahip Manhattan store. Stand-up toothpaste tubes that don’t get icky. The Palm V.
In the Ideo universe, great design doesn’t begin with a far-out concept or a way-cool drawing. It begins with a deep and empathic understanding of the human condition. The first step for any Ideo team on any project is to try to empathize with the people who might use whatever product or service that eventually emerges from its work. Ideo has crafted a set of systematic research methods for understanding what the firm calls “human factors.” It then goes on to develop ideas and from those ideas, prototypes which can be tested for real responses on real people.
Like this:
Like Loading...
The Information Architects release the 2008 web trends map in beta
January 30, 2008, 11:07 pm
Filed under:
Trends stuff,
Designers,
Digital culture,
Google,
Lifestyle trends,
Thinking,
Trendy Trend sites,
Borrow this,
Nice Design,
Future of Media,
Social media,
Innovative stimulus | Tags:
2008 web trends map,
beta,
Information Architects,
Japan,
Tokyo,
trends
The Information Architects, a strategic design agency in Tokyo, Japan have just released the beta version of their 2008 web trends map. They’ve taken 300 of the most influential and successful websites & pinned them down to the greater Tokyo-area train map. Needless o say Google remains at the centre of the universe [or in this case Tokyo] with various ‘train’ lines such as ‘Social Networks’ line, ‘Game Technology’ line, Adobe & File Sharing lines.
It’s a beautiful thing for the mind & the eyes.
Check it out here
Like this:
Like Loading...
Time for a new mobile handset innovation?
September 6, 2007, 1:54 am
Filed under:
Asia,
Designers,
Digital culture,
Geek stuff,
Innovation,
Innovative retail,
new product,
Nice products,
Telco research Korean handset manufacturers are losing overseas market share. “Ask Korean cell phone makers why they’re losing their market share overseas, and they will tell you it’s because of their focus on top-end products or the strong won”, JoongAngDaily reports. “Some industry analysts, however, take a different view. According to a report released by the research institute of LG, Korean firms are falling behind because they are oblivious to changing consumer demand and because excessive diversifying is eating into their cost competitiveness. The institute noted that today’s consumers are more interested in the “emotional” characteristics of cell phones such as the brand, design, and how the phone feels to the touch, whereas Korean firms are preoccupied with adding new functions. The think tank also criticized Korean firms for having too many models.
Above Story lifted from here
In 2003 Marc Newson designed The Talby for the Japanese market. A stunning handset that looked absolutely beautiful. I remember it because I wanted one so badly. Given the Japanese obsession wtih hyperfunctionality, it was no doubt, crammed with geek goodies. But gee it’s a good looking piece of equipment.
With mobile phones moving further and further down the functionality spectrum, bigger cameras, better screens, more WAP, IMS and other fancy acronyms… when will they stop? I’m looking for a new handset now to replace my Motorola Razr and can’t find any phones that don’t have the fancy bits. For every trend there’s a counter trend, LoFi mobile handset anyone?
Like this:
Like Loading...
Go on..talk nerdy to me
September 5, 2007, 1:18 am
Filed under:
creativity,
Designers,
Digital culture,
Geek stuff,
Gen Y,
Innovative advertising,
Innovative marketing,
Innovative retail,
Nice products,
Social,
Trends stuff,
Urban lifestyles 
Call me a nerd, call me a super geekazoid but I love the idea behind Startup Schwag™ . This little pint sized beauty is a web2.0 startup schwag tshirt of the month club. Bucking the trend of oh-so-cool fashion logos, most of us reach for the unbranded threads that fly under the radar of the try hard cool club. The Sabas or the Alannah Hills or the Edwins, where logos are vulgar but anyone worth their weight in coke can tell where it’s from just by the cut or the fabric or the way it hangs….
Well subtly is out and logos are back in nerdtown. Startup Schwag™ is based on a simple, wonderful idea recently abandoned by RubyRed Labs in San Francisco: Valley Schwag.
You pay a monthly fee and every month you get sent a logo t-shirt of one of the hottest web startups around. Whether it’s del.icio.us or Techcrunch or Digg, you get to be the first to wear a nerd brand splashed across your chest and who cares if no one knows what it means? That’s not the point is it? So go on…talk nerdy to me..
Check it out here :: Startupschwag
Like this:
Like Loading...
a bathing empire
Japanese designer Nigo started his BAPE clothing label out of Tokyo 10 years ago . What was once a fiercely hard-to-get designer fashion range has now become a million dollar empire. Far from exclusive now, Nigo has expanded his BAPE empire to include BAPY for girls, a new
brand Baby Milo, BAPE café & there’s even a spin-off hair studio BAPE cuts. He achieved credibility & fashionista status through his collaborations & carefully planned exclusivity, then he took over the world. This is one clever monkey.
tokyo, japan
Like this:
Like Loading...
K-mart is for everyone
This high end Spanish designers line – ‘davidelfin is for everyone’ makes me laugh – in a small size & at a price point of 68 euro per t-shirt, this designer will in fact, never be for everyone.
If Finny really wanted this shirt to be for everyone he’d be selling it for five bucks at a local market..If truth be told, fashion is not for everyone. Fashion is for the rich, the
skinny, the famous & the connected. End of story.
madrid, spain
Like this:
Like Loading...
Seoul kicks it
This exhibition of footballs was created at one of Seoul’s biggest tourist attractions Namsan Tower. At one of the highest points in the city, this outdoor art installation was a truly innovative display of the city’s football prowess. Maybe Nike should rethink their outdoor media channels?…
Namsan Tower, Seoul
Like this:
Like Loading...
genius jones
miami design district
Like this:
Like Loading...
he latest and hottest methodology talked about to help a company innovate. GE calls it CENCOR (calibrate, explore, create, organize and realize). The Mayo Clinic calls it SPARC (see, plan, act, refine, communicate). Andrew’s new company calls it GIP (Gather, Ideate, Prototype). Its most obvious and direct power is in the creation of new products and services. Design thinking allows an organization to differentiate its products and services in an avenue other than pricing.
