» Jul.21.2010
What is Pantone?
If you’ve ever held color-printed piece in your hands, there’s a good chance you’ve been touched by Pantone. The self-described “authority on color”, Pantone has become an integral part of graphic design and printing, greatly influencing the color of our world. Since 1963, Pantone has been the force behind the printing industry’s color standard, the Pantone Matching System (PMS). PMS is a standardized color reproduction system whereby different manufacturers and printers can accurately reproduce the same set of colors without direct contact with one another. This is significant for brands, because of the importance that consistent color reproduction has on brand identity and packaging. Color plays such a crucial role in brand association that some companies even commission their own colors. (Tiffany’s, well-known for its signature teal blue, actually has its own custom, trademarked Pantone color, PMS 1837.)
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Tags: branding, color, color matching, design, Goe, graphic design, pantone, Pantone Goe, PMS, printing
Posted by Tim Lapetino // Filed under Case Study, Interview, Recommended, Tool Tip // 1 Comment »
» Jul.19.2010
Here at Hexanine, we are passionate about helping raise up the next generation of designers and design thinkers. This is why, as a firm, we seek to pass along what we’ve learned by teaching, mentoring, and instructing.
We gain at least as much inspiration and encouragement from the work of our students as they receive from our instruction, so we’d like to pass it along by showcasing some of their impressive student projects. Periodically, we’ll highlight great work coming out of our classrooms on this blog.
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Tags: brands, chicago porfolio school, design education, identity manual, logo redesign, logos, spotlight, student work, tic tac
Posted by Tim Lapetino // Filed under News, Student Spotlight // No Comments »
» Jul.9.2010
As the recent Tropicana packaging redesign fiasco shows, our perceptions of the products we choose are often made up of much more than the items themselves. But where do these brand perceptions come from, and how are they made? If designers are brand anthropologists, as Erin recently touched on, then consumers should be considered explorers, traversing shelf and window in search of that perfect bottle of tea or pair of shoes. And as in person-to-person interaction, in the branding world, first impressions are everything.
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Posted by Jason Adam // Filed under Musings // No Comments »
» Jun.28.2010
Our copy of LogoLounge: Master Library, Volume 2: 3000 Animal and Mythology Logos has arrived! Ever a great source of inspiration, research, and insight, this new volume includes our work for Ocean Dawn, an upscale set of oceanfront luxury suites. Thanks to Rockport, Bill Gardner, Catharine Fishel, and the whole LogoLounge team for our inclusion, and for putting out such a great resource.
Posted by Tim Lapetino // Filed under Announcements, News // No Comments »
» Jun.24.2010
Yesterday we had a parting lunch with our Hexanine interns and Tim and I shared about our own experiences in teaching. One thing I had wished I had brought to the conversation: this notion of brand gap.
What’s brand gap? It’s taking a walk through Macy’s and missing Marshall Field’s. It’s trying to find something quickly at Babies “R” Us. It’s staying at a Westin and having a dirty pillow case. A brand’s identity must culminate at the level where the user experiences the product or service. If this fails, then all of our work in design and branding and marketing is for nothing.
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Posted by Erin Huizenga // Filed under Musings // 3 Comments »
» Jun.17.2010
We’re covering a very familiar topic — the design process. We went back and forth answering each other’s questions, describing the process for our last project at Hexanine, a logo for BevReview. Think of it as the teaser before the big reveal of the final design. Brigid and I each took turns asking the other questions, and responding in turn. Read on to find out what our process was and what we learned along the way.
Can you explain the brief for this project?
Chris: BevReview is a beverage blog ran by Steve Tanner. His blog discusses everything from taste and nutrition facts, to the packaging of the drinks. All of the BevReview posts focus on non-alcoholic beverages. Brigid and I took on the task to create a logo that shows BevReview as a fun and credible resource in the beverage industry. The goal was to give BevReview a logo that will stay true to it’s brand.
Would you like to talk about what kind or research we did for the project?
Brigid: I researched the company, industry, and their competitors to find out who they are and their target audience. From our initial meeting with BevReview, I was handed the task of focusing on the concept of rating. So, I began by writing words that could be used to describe or symbolize rating, such as, checks, thumbs up and down, scale, arrows, ranking using bottles or caps, etc.
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Posted by Brigid Eduarte // Filed under Case Study, News, Tales from the Interns // 1 Comment »
» Jun.9.2010
It’s been hyped as “magic”, “revolutionary” and the potential salvation of the publishing industry. A little thing called the iPad. Yes, it’s beautifully designed by Jonathan Ive. Yes, it’s simple to use. But why do people seem more willing to pay for news, magazines, and content when it’s delivered as an iPad app, when the same basic content has been on the boring, old Internet for years?
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Posted by Tim Lapetino // Filed under Musings, News, Obsessions // 1 Comment »
» Jun.4.2010
“In order to cement your status in the cultural elite, you want to be already sick of everything no one else has even heard of.”
—David Brooks, NY Times Op Ed columnist
This has, in my ten years of experience, been the prevailing attitude and general temperment in business, amidst a set of people who are constantly standing on the forefront of culture and gleaning bits for their work. I might be bold enough to say that attitude will soon be falling out of fashion. In a post-Obama victory, in an empathy-filled set of hard luck headlines, it’s time for optimism and promise to make a comeback. What can we offer in hope? Are our uncertain times a clarion call for a newer, more hopeful way of thinking and presenting real problem-solving solutions?
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Posted by Erin Huizenga // Filed under For Clients, Musings, Obsessions // 2 Comments »
» May.26.2010
Last week we participated in the first-ever AIGA Chicago Design Week, five days of great events aimed squarely at the Chicago design scene. Crowd-juried design shows, panels, studio walks, art shows and our annual member meeting. It was an amazing whirlwind of events, inspiration, design and celebratory drinks in a great community of creative professionals.
Some of our work was included in the 2009-2010 Snapshot publication, seen below. Can’t wait for next year!
UPDATE: You can now see the Snapshot in all its glory as a PDF, courtesy of AIGA Chicago.
Posted by Tim Lapetino // Filed under Announcements, News // No Comments »
» May.20.2010
Last week Erin and Tim participated in a panel discussion at North Park University’s 2010 Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management Symposium, to discuss some of the issues nonprofit organizations face in branding themselves. The event was sponsored by EPIC, and Erin (founder of EPIC) moderated a panel of experts from some of Chicago’s best creative agencies and companies, including Gravity Tank, Museum of Contemporary Art, Threadless, Simple Truth, Critical Mass, Synthetic Infatuation, and others. Some of the comments overheard during the Q&A and one-on-one sessions:
“Creating a brand is about trust.” “Branding is who you are, and marketing is what you say to different audiences.”
And finally,
“An organization’s visual language organically comes out of the brand story.”
Posted by Tim Lapetino // Filed under News, Uncategorized // No Comments »
