Lovell's Lager

Lovells Lager was created by two successful Australian music industry professionals, with a passion for great tasting beer. Lovell’s Lager is an Australian beer brand that features some different and unique packaging. Most beer companies don’t really think about creative and clever packaging for their beer but this unique box with a black boombox graphic and hint of retro on a plain white box sure stands out of the crowd! 

USPS Revisualization

Matt Chase took re-branding to an extreme. The Unites States Postal Service should seriously consider this face lift, and it's all done up from top to bottom. Chase re-branded the USPS with a more graphic, simple, clean, and quirky identity. The colors are bright and invigorating, and graphics have a slight vintage feel. Beyond just being visually appealing, Chase poured effort into creating a complete re-branding. He meticulously applied logos, styles, and graphics to packaging, advertisements, uniforms, buildings, vehicles, a website, stamps, and even mailboxes. Revitalizing the way we send items essentially revitalizes what we want to send.

Jonathan Faust

Boy genius Jonathan Faust is a young graphic designer, who during his school years, worked on the Earl/Grey identity. A fictitious company, Faust put a great deal of love and attention into a minimalist approach. All from the hope of bringing popularity back to the Earl Grey tea variety, he came out with a beautiful portfolio piece, and admittedly, a print design worth putting into real production.

Saliami Postmodern: CD Packaging

Unique packaging that catches the eye is not easy to come by, but here is a design to feast your eyes on. Mother Eleganza, an independent creative studio based in Vilnius, Lithuania, designed this CD featuring the artist Shidlas of Lowvibe label. The CD called Saliami Postmodern is vacuum sealed like real salami, the contents of the CD are printed on a sticker stuck to the outside, which gives the package the authentic look of meat from a meat shop.

Tactile Surrealism: Tang Yau Hoong

tangyauhoong.com

 Tang Yau Hoong is a Graphic Designer based in Malaysia. His work is immediately striking, as he makes use of negative space, surrealism, and visual metaphors — all framed with bright colours and impeccable layout. His images have a sense of humor, and themes that immediately resonate with the viewer, keeping them locked on the image.

 He has several series exploring different themes: Playing cards, light, negative space (to name a few). Tang Yau Hoong's work has a playful, almost tactile quality. It is a great example of a very graphic style that translates beautifully to print, and I would happily have several of these hanging on my walls!

Hang me some Tea!

Not only is the packaging of Hanger Tea unique and innovative, its printed elements such as simple graphics and bright colours bring vibrancy to the piece and catch the attention of consumers. The colour-coded for different variety cardboard hangers are literally a hanger for the teabag and sit on the rim of your cup. It’s a funny take on tea and how such a simple piece of paper can make a product really unique and innovative. 

EarBudeez Packaging

Ahhh! These are the cutest earbud packages ever. Called EarBudeez, these are such a clever design. Designed by JDA in Long Beach, CA for Audiovox Accessories. They won one of PrintMag.com's 2011 Creativity + Commerce Competition awards for their genius! Just shows that award-winning print design doesn't have to be serious.

Linotype: the Film

Calling all type and publishing geeks! Linotype: the Film is a flick you just may want to catch. Doug Wilson created this documentary on the legendary typesetting machine and its surprisingly emotional story of the people connected to the Linotype and how it impacted the world. Invented by the German clock maker, Ottomar Mergenthaler in the late 19th century, the Linotype machine revolutionized the publishing industry. Instead of typing one character at a time, the machine allowed type to be set in lines instead resulting in much faster printing time—perfect for use in newspaper publishing. 

video from vimeo: http://vimeo.com/15032988

Beachy Cream

Print doesn't just pertain to books, magazines, cards, or stationary. Print in a wide world of innovation. When someone says, "oh the world or print is dead," they can't conceive how wrong they are.
Packaging is part of the print world! It may not necessarily be paper, but surface is still printed upon. In this case, Beachy Cream is an organic alternative to my favorite treat: ice cream sandwiches! A vintage feel is given to a treat with modern concerns. Inspiration was taken from summer days of old; stripes from beach balls, blue from the surf, pin up girls, and polka dots from those teeny bikinis. 6 flavors are defined with an individual identity color along the bottom (and a gluten/dairy free option has a blue label).

Small Card, Big Impact

Bureau Rabensteiner takes time to put the little details together. Creating a business card for Julie Pop Bakery, a print job is taken to another level. Luxor finish is added to the logo, and then going above that by having cards in a colour range. The intent was to bring focus to the variety and individual attention that is put into each CakePop. In this case, no job is too small to make really big impact.

Money Business Card

Graphic Designer Ricky Richards came up with a concept for his business card that really catches your attention. He printed off his business information, and a message, on the back of what looks like a £20 bill. Richards leaves his fake £20 in obvious places, such as the middle of the sidewalk, and walks away. I think this is a really unique idea, it's a way to advertise to the masses at a low cost to the designer, and it looks good too.

Whimsically Elegant Wedding Invitations

Scott Peiffer is a Graphic Designer located in Miami, FL. He resides as an in-house designer and Creative Director for Sandals and Beaches Resort. He creates customized wedding invitations with close attention to detail developing his own textures, patterns and templates. His invitations are exquisitely graphic combining beautiful flourishes, coral patterns, florals, silhouettes and many other beautiful designs all letterpress printed. 

Posters and Music: Excellent Design in Show Promotion

Josh Ritter Posters 2
Josh Ritter Posters 1

Okay, I will admit that I am a sucker for Josh Ritter, and for beautiful show posters. So I'm going to have to go ahead and just feature both of those things in this post.

I think that the show poster is one of those things that has instant tactile associations. They remind me of crinkled paper, plastered telephone poles, tape and venue walls. Josh Ritter's catalogue of show posters is one of my favorites for sure. Most are screen printed, and feature very definite imagery from his songs. They are always topical, themed, and well designed. Josh Ritter's lyrics often have a very old-world feel, and I think that a dedication to print excellence in show promotion is a great way to demonstrate that feeling. Whether the posters have been commissioned by the band, or designed by third parties, it is clear that the print world and the less tactile world of music can have strong ties.

Handmade wedding invitations with serious rustic flair.

http://woodandgrain.com/post/8722900564/invitations

These wedding invitations from Wood & Grain are seriously beautiful, and are an instant reminder of how stepping away from the norm can create an impact. These invitations will surely be kept longer than the traditional white paper/letterpress invitations, and they'll definitely be topics of conversation. More importantly, the use of theme and smart design makes these wedding invitations more relevant to the setting and style of the couple's wedding.

The nature theme present here means that an electronic invitation wouldn't be appropriate for this type of scene, and the bride and groom have definitely made the most of their decision to stick with print. Texture, innovation and fabulous design have been employed wonderfully here. They have even included equally beautiful supplemental material. This is a prime example of how print can be used to make an impact for an important event.

So go take a look, and I promise you will never look at wedding invitations the same way again!