Color Me Healthy
Created for Tokyo Design Week, Palette lets you skip all those boring nutrition statistics in favor of a simpler guide to healthy eating: color. Consuming a rainbow of foods naturally leads to good nutrition, so this system encourages you along the way. It includes everything from clever packages that emphasize the shade of your lunch to Color Cafes where you can get in-person nutrition advice. There’s even an iPhone app to track your diet and make food recommendations. “We wanted to help people sustain behavioral change over time,” says Gretchen Wustrack, design lead, Asia, IDEO.
The system’s colors appeal to people on an emotional level and as judge Jack Bredenfoerder notes, actually help you make the right selection of food in a very pleasurable way. “I think good design connects on an intuitive level right away with a person,” he says about the project. “I believe in the power of color.”
Project website: www.ideo.com/work/palette
Description: Palette is a systemic approach that supports physical and mental health by encouraging people to eat across seven color groups.
Design firms: IDEO and Hakuhodo
Website: www.ideo.com
Client: Tokyo Design Week
Photographer: Patrick Fraser (patrickfraserphotography.com)
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A New Way to Catch a Wave
Designer Thomas Meyerhoffer didn’t mind the strange looks and “What the heck is that?” questions he received while testing out his namesake surfboard. “I allowed myself to make an experiment that might not work,” he says. “It’s a good thing as a designer to allow yourself to fail.” But in this case he’s caught the wave of success, quickly gaining attention for a curvy longboard that doesn’t look like anything else in the surfing world.
As Meyerhoffer puts it, his creation is a “shorter board in a longboard,” which means it brings some of the short board’s speed and agility to the longboard. This functional leap forward quickly won over the I.D. jury. “The Meyerhoffer Surfboard design demonstrates a depth of insight that only comes from a practitioner’s understanding, if not obsession, with the sport,” says judge Paul Bradley. “Every aspect of the board’s appearance is tied directly to a performance enhancement."
Project website: www.surfindustries.com/surfboards/modern_meyerhoffer.php
Designer: Thomas Meyerhoffer
Website: www.meyerhoffer.com
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Blossoming Talent
Most student design work is for an imaginary client, but this wide-reaching project shows the power of real world collaboration. The challenge: Convince underserved Latinas in Los Angeles to go for their annual pap tests. Students chose the yearly blooming of the jacaranda tree as a reminder to schedule your appointment. Then they created a campaign around this symbol called “Es Tiempo” (It’s Time) that proposes a range of awareness drivers and incentives to help break down the barriers to care. The bright purple blooms quickly drew judges to this project, but it was the breadth and depth of the effort that kept them looking. “It’s a model for what students should be doing,” says judge Manuel Miranda. “Immersing themselves in the real world instead of re-doing an existing logo.” He and fellow judge, Niklas Gustafsson, admired the multi-disciplinary approach—the student team spanned advertising, art, design and more—and comprehensive solution.
Project website: www.designmatters.artcenter.edu/index.php/projects/es-tiempo/es-tiempo.html
Description: Students were challenged to create communications to persuade Latinas in Los Angeles’ underserved communities to comply with clinical guidelines for cervical-cancer screening.
School: Art Center College of Design – Designmatters Department
Designer’s website: www.designmatters.artcenter.edu
Illustration: Phillip An
Graphic design: Mark Brinn, Tracy Hung, Chris Lack
Motion design: HaeLee Kang
Photography: Lucia Loiso
Fine art: Camille Onteveros
Lead faculty, advertising: Elena Salij
Adjunct faculty, advertising and graphic design: Maria Moon
Vice president and director, Designmatters: Mariana Amatullo
Senior associate director, producer, Designmatters: Elisa Ruffino
Client: University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center
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More Design, Less Work
The Motorola MC9500 Mobile Computer is the kind of thing you might spy in the hands of the delivery driver when he drops off your package. But that powerful little handheld device is just part of this design’s story. Many of the make-work-easier innovations actually happen in the back room. Batteries have their own e-ink display and LED that lets you know when they’re bad or low on juice without sticking them in a device. And the charging system supports older devices and those of the future to make upgrading less painful.
These and countless other improvements came after in-depth research, and all this effort won applause from the judges. “This is an extremely well thought out solution—paying as much needed attention to back room operations as to the design of the hand units themselves,” says judge Dan Formosa. “The interchangeable keypad solution, along with the re-thinking of the battery charging and “information” station changes the paradigm for Motorola.”
Description: The MC9500 is Motorola’s premier industrial-class rugged mobile computer for demanding outdoor applications. The MC9500 combines a superior rugged and ergonomic handheld design with a breakthrough accessory and infrastructure ecosystem that raises the bar for the industry.
Project website: http://business.motorola.com/mc9500/index.html
Designers: Mark Palmer, Curt Croley, Quintin Morris, Ian Jenkins, Sung Hun Lim (Hoon), Michael Kaminsky
Researchers: Richard Martin, Graham Marshall, Chandra Nair
Outside design firm: Kaleidoscope
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The Lamp That Wasn’t
Click takes minimalism to a whole new level by allowing you to turn your computer screen into a lamp. Just make a donation of your choosing, download the lamp, and watch an image of an incandescent bulb appear on your screen. You can choose your favorite light colors—up to 36 at a time—and the order they change from one to the next. “As a lamp, you’re not going to use it to light a space,” says Patrick Marinez, the designer behind this project. “It’s a subtle presence—more like a mood lamp.”
But even if you can’t read a book next to Click, you do get the chance to experience an object that’s not really an object at all. “Click challenges our idea about what constitutes a piece of furniture or an industrial product,” says judge Jerry Helling. And as fellow judge Todd Bracher adds, “There is an honest elegance that the designer has defined the experience and the body has become irrelevant. For me this is a sign of things to come.”
Description: Click is a downloadable mood lamp that uses the computer screen as a light source to diffuse color sequences at various speeds.
Project website: www.blankbubble.com
Designer: Patrick Martinez
Website: www.patrickmartinez.net
Developer: Julien Gardair, www.juliengardair.com
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Street Scenes
The green movement’s already turned walking, biking and catching the bus into sexier choices. But now Metro40 gives people another incentive to embrace alternative transportation: style. Designed for the urban core, this public furniture collection ranges from a sleek bench that takes cues from the Mobius strip to a bike rack, transit shelter and LED pedestrian lights. Each piece marries function with head-turning good looks.
Judge Todd Bracher appreciated the collection’s environmentally responsible design approach as well as its cohesive design language—the pieces look more like siblings than identical twins. “The Metro40 collection is a well done response to today’s needs to not only bring greater interaction for the public, but also a greater quality of that experience,” he says. And as fellow judge Jerry Helling adds, this is the first time he’s ever wanted a park bench for his home.
Project website: www.landscapeforms.com
Description: An integrated collection of site furniture and accessories for modern transit.
Design: BMW Group DesignworksUSA
Website: www.designworksusa.com
Vice president design: Arno Yurk, Landscape Forms
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Bright Lights, Big Type
The environmental graphics for X Exhibition prove that florescent bulbs are good for more than lighting bland cube farms. For this global design competition in China, simple fluorescent tubes create a typography system that serves as both signage and lighting for the exhibit. “The florescent lights not only transfer the exhibit information, but they also represent the force of the young designers in the show through bright and pure light,” says Hei Yiyang, creative director, SenseTeam.
Judge Sheri L Koetting appreciated the innovative use of light and type, as well as the way luminosity engages viewers throughout the project—from the exhibit’s interior to posters and lights mounted on outdoor fences. “It’s not just one piece like an annual report,” says judge John Clifford. “It’s this well thought out identity for the entire exhibit that gets used in all these different forms.” Plus, it’s a perfect example of China’s rising presence in the design world.
Project website: www.sensebrand.com/blog/default.asp?cat=19
Description: We created a unique system of typeface—characters of light—by choosing modulating tubes to be in the whole exhibition.
Creative director: Hei Yiyang
Website: www.senseteam.org
Designers: Hei Yiyang, Liu Zhao, Zhao Meng, Wang Xiaomeng, Huang Muqiu, Liu Fuyu, Zhan Ting
Photographer: Zhang Qing
Client: SGDA (Shenzhen Graphic Design Association)
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Defying Gravity
The We Choose the Moon site is part time machine, part space travel simulator. This envy worthy web project let people re-live the moon landing in real-time exactly 40 years after the original mission. The four-day event was a feat of both mad tech skills and engaging storytelling. People could listen to the original NASA audio while experiencing animations that re-created each important stage of the mission and enjoying a host of other rich content.
“It’s an amazing play by play recreation of the lunar landing mission that grabbed me through sight, sound and intellectual means,” says judge Ron Thompson. “I could seriously listen to just the radio transmissions for hours, probably my favorite thing about the site amongst all the other wonderful content.” Judge Drew Ungvarsky says his whole office tuned in for the live event and felt like they were taking part in something special. “This was an ambitious idea with an execution to back it up,” he says.
Project website: www.wechoosethemoon.org
Advertising agency: The Martin Agency and Domani Studios
Creative directors: Joe Alexander, Jonathan Hills
Art directors: Brian Williams, Ben Tricklebank
Technical director: Oscar Trelles
Copy writer: Wade Alger
Interactive designers: Justin Young, Saulo Rodrigues
Animator: Peter Safwenberg
Agency producers: Darbi Fretwell, Norma Kwee
Account handlers: Carrie Bird, Jarrod Bull
Director of innovation: Mark Pavia
Art producer: Cindy Hicks
Interactive producer: Steven Hubert
Senior developer: Mark Llobrera
Flash developer: Chris Wise
Editors: Rick Lawley, Jim Vaile
Assistant editor: Shang Gao
Composer: Chip Jenkins
Note: Brian Williams did not participate in judging this entry. The other two judges unanimously chose it as Best of Category.
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Package Perfect
“You know when you’re so excited to get something in the mail and you turn around and there’s this mountain of trash,” says Chris Green, Lab 126 for Amazon. “What do you do with it?” Well, one option is to order a Kindle and let Amazon’s frustration-free packaging eliminate most of that over-packaging guilt. The e-reader comes in a small, simple box that’s easy to open, so you can spend your time reading a favorite book instead of searching for the scissors.
This environmentally minded solution quickly caught the attention of packaging jurors. “Finally! Amazon abandoned their over-packaged, wasteful shipping boxes,” says judge Debbie Millman. “This is so beautiful, elegant and minimal, it made me reconsider my decision to purchase an iPad.” And for design-philes, this spare package isn’t short on details. An aqueous spot varnish, for instance, portrays a glyph for just about every written and spoken language.
Project website: Amazon.com/kindledx
Design: Lab 126 Industrial Design Team
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Blossoming Talent
Most student design work is for an imaginary client, but this wide-reaching project shows the power of real world collaboration. The challenge: Convince underserved Latinas in Los Angeles to go for their annual pap tests. Students chose the yearly blooming of the jacaranda tree as a reminder to schedule your appointment. Then they created a campaign around this symbol called “Es Tiempo” (It’s Time) that proposes a range of awareness drivers and incentives to help break down the barriers to care. The bright purple blooms quickly drew judges to this project, but it was the breadth and depth of the effort that kept them looking. “It’s a model for what students should be doing,” says judge Manuel Miranda. “Immersing themselves in the real world instead of re-doing an existing logo.” He and fellow judge, Niklas Gustafsson, admired the multi-disciplinary approach—the student team spanned advertising, art, design and more—and comprehensive solution.
Project website: www.designmatters.artcenter.edu/index.php/projects/es-tiempo/es-tiempo.html http://www.designmatters.artcenter.edu/index.php/projects/es-tiempo/es-tiempo.html
Description: Students were challenged to create communications to persuade Latinas in Los Angeles’ underserved communities to comply with clinical guidelines for cervical-cancer screening.
School: Art Center College of Design – Designmatters Department
Designer’s website: www.designmatters.artcenter.edu
Illustration: Phillip An
Graphic design: Mark Brinn, Tracy Hung, Chris Lack
Motion design: HaeLee Kang
Photography: Lucia Loiso
Fine art: Camille Onteveros
Lead faculty, advertising: Elena Salij
Adjunct faculty, advertising and graphic design: Maria Moon
Vice president and director, Designmatters: Mariana Amatullo
Senior associate director, producer, Designmatters: Elisa Ruffino
Client: University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center
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Swiss Luxury
For most people, flying ranks only slightly above a trip to the dentist. But Swiss International Air Line’s first class seats put the friendly—actually, let’s make that luxury—back into the skies. “Swiss is a very, very strong brand,” says Ben Rowan, senior designer at Priestmangoode. “The idea was to translate that to a plane environment.”
"This approach is evident in the clarity, simplicity and quality of detail in the new first-class environment. It actually looks like someplace you might voluntarily spend time—and even be able to relax. “Everything is done in a very sophisticated way,” says judge Gary Braddock. “Everything is very appropriate to a first-class experience.” If you’re lucky enough to score an upgrade, be sure to enjoy the air-cushion comfort system, which lets you adjust the softness of your seat through a touch screen.
Project websites: www.swiss.com and www.priestmangoode.com
Description: The vision outlined to Priestmangoode was to design a first class seat that would be unmistakably Swiss. We created a product that aligns with the brand, which has been developed uniformly across all other mediums, to create a consistent passenger experience.Design firm: PriestmangoodeClient: Swiss International Air Lines LtdDirector: Nigel GoodeSenior designer: Ben Rowan
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