Color My World: A Designer’s Guide To Pantone, Part 2

Color My World: A Designer's Guide To Pantone Part 2: Plus

Note: In our last installment we walked through the release of Pantone’s Goe system, and the lessons learned from that product’s lackluster launch. Those insights fed directly into changes to the Pantone Matching System (PMS) that culminated in this year’s launch of Pantone Plus. Now, we’ll dig into the details of the this brand new system, and what it means for designers, printers, and anyone else involved in laying ink on paper.

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Color My World: A Designer’s Guide To Pantone, Part 1

Color My World: A Designer's Guide To Pantone Part 1: Goe

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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A Celebration of Process

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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Jun 17 2010

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It’s part of the Process(ed)

A detailed case study of our work for Shevet Achim is now being featured at the design website Processed Identity.

Processed Identity is the brainchild of identity designer Steve Zelle, who envisions PI as a place to illustrate the many benefits of custom, strategic identity design for clients. He explained:

“Too often we get so caught up in ranting about how spec work, crowdsourcing, etc. may hurt us as designers that we forget to communicate the potential pitfalls for our clients and their businesses. We need to communicate that design is not just making pretty pictures, but rather a strategic process that can have a significant impact on the success of a business.”

PI looks to be full of promise, with information for clients, inspiration for identity designers, and a home for targeted design discussion.

Feb 1 2010

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Zombie Brands Part 2: Five signs of a Zombie Brand

This is the second of two parts on Zombie Brand. If you haven’t, check out yesterday’s Part 1.

While it’s impossible to hard-wire the possibility for resurrection into a brand or product, there are lessons to be learned from the best Undead Brands. So, let’s do a brand autopsy of Atari to discover the signs that might have led to its second and third lives. These characteristics are also good checklists for new, growing companies, as well as those looking for some supernatural longevity.

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Oct 29 2009

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Zombie Brands Part 1: How love can bring a brand back from the dead

Sometimes a company taps into an existing ethos so deeply that nothing–irrelevance, poor management or even lack of product–can keep it from rising again. Today in part 1, we’ll look at the story of one such zombie brand. In part 2 we will find out if there’s a magical ingredient that allows brands to crawl back from death.

There’s no silver bullet to fend off death in the marketplace. Brands cease to innovate, fail to evolve, or simply meet the end of a natural life cycle. But looking at the story of one particular brand’s resurrection might provide clues to the ingredients for a Lazarus-like return.

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Oct 28 2009

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