Saturday, March 28, 2009

A quick look...

... at a new series of city themed prints we're working on. Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Hello!


You may have noticed as of late, that we've been slacking a little in the realm of the blog-o-sphere.

Worry no further! We have a lot of exciting things going into the works here at Product Superior: From working hard to complete our newly designed website and storefront, to grinding our gears for new items we hope to offer very soon—we just can't wait to show you what's in store!

For now, we wanted to say Hello! and let you know we're thinking of you.


Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Penmanship


As you know, topics on the future of penmanship have been popping up in the news again lately—a quick Google of "penmanship" pulls articles from various magazines, newspapers, tv news segments, books have been published, blogs—all ranging from this year to a few from the 90s. To read each writing, one gets the impression that some kind of cyclical death of penmanship is happening every other year, once a year. But could this year really mark the start? Hopefully not. I can't imagine what the cards and letters I've received from my mom and grandmother, among others, would have been like were it not for their individual handwriting.

Whatever the case, it reminded me to flip through several books I have on my shelf and even old cards I've collected. In some of the books, I found really interesting samples of handwriting from different states and countries; male and female. Check out some of the things I found.

P.S. In times like this, why not tell someone they're on your mind by handwriting them at note?










Thursday, March 5, 2009

Boxed water

Okay, so while I was prepping for a post about Penmanship, I got the Daily Heller in my inbox. Today's topic (see title link) is about a new brand of "eco-friendly" paper boxed water, AQUAPAX. Reading about it reminded me immediately of a project I did in my favorite and only packaging design class during my last year at the School of Visual Arts: design a brand of bottled water.

Roughly, the point of the project was to choose an audience and develop a brand of water targeting them. Remembering all of the crazy amounts of research I did at the time, I was mostly inspired by Military Ready to Eat packaging and other military items, as well as survival kits. While other classmates chose audiences of kids, modern design types, bar regulars, etc., I chose one interested in no frills,  just pure necessity and functionality. I named it Ration. I developed basic graphics to reference the hydrologic a.k.a. water cycle (remember that in science class?) and other utilitarian style design. 


Image by USGS, from Wikipedia

The type had to be very basic—I wanted to achieve the feeling I got from much of the industrial made military items—as if the person that made it wasn't a designer per se, but maybe military personnel that was forced to read "Handicraft Guide No. 10: LETTERING for use of U.S. Armed Forces Personnel Only." Four aluminum cans of water would be packed perfectly into a small cardboard box. In the research I did at the time, metal cans for the water seemed like a viable solution in the sense that contrary to popular belief, it supposedly wouldn't affect the taste of the water, it was easier to recycle than plastic (so I read), and it has a much longer shelf life than clear plastic or paper. Of course, I can't seem to find any of this information now. 

And there you have a bit of personal history. Here's the photo of the final project, as it was in my portfolio from 2005.