The Story of Cosmetics

After a week of nonstop internet chatter about (and with) the Old Spice Man, we get this great video firing back at the makers of our personal care products.

This is the fourth installment of a terrific video series which began with the must-see Story of Stuff. With these videos, Annie Leonard and Free Range Studios have done an amazing job of taking big complex issues and explaining them in a way that even a child could understand.

For whatever reason, the first thing that popped in my head when I saw this design work was a Steve Martin quote from The Jerk:

I’m gonna buy you a diamond so big it’s gonna make you puke.

Of course this identity design for Johnson’s Backyard Garden has nothing to do with buying diamonds. And “puke” probably isn’t the best word to use when you’re talking about the healthy and delicious foods you’d get from an organic vegetable farm. But every once in a while you see someone’s work that’s so impressive, it makes you just a little sick to your stomach.

If JBG’s goal was to compete at farmers markets, all they would have needed is a nice typeface to stand out among the sea of Papyrus. But instead, they were lucky enough to have Austin’s Ryan Rhodes on the job, who clearly went above and beyond. The identity he created would stand out anywhere, even on a blog dedicated to identity design.

I made the lettering using pieces of wood that had been inked and printed. So I tried to do some illustrations or beets and carrots and making the letters JBG with those pieces. It felt right. It reminded me of plotted farm land, or crop circles, or quilts. It was very elementary to a degree, a back to basics, building block exercise for me.

This kind of creative exploration and thorough artistry should be every designer’s goal with every project: Give ‘em something so amazing it’ll make them puke.

More images below…

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Nasty water makes for effective marketing. Donations to UNICEF’s Tap Project help provide untainted water to those in need.

(via Denver Egotist)

Best Buy, the Mecca of electronic doodads and thingamabobs, is ramping up its sustainability initiatives with an ambitious plan to collect one billion pounds of e-waste over the next five years.

It’s a clever marketing move—as consumers become more aware of the issues surrounding e-waste, they will increasingly want to shop at responsible electronics retailers. And Best Buy is firmly establishing itself as the easiest retailer for e-waste recycling.

Accepting responsibility for old stuff in order to sell more new stuff. Not exactly a wash, but it’s a huge step in the right direction.

(via bmdesign)

Grass is dumb

Continuing with the water conservation theme is this ad from Denver Water. They say that a reduction of just 2 minutes of watering would save the city nearly 1 million gallons of water each summer. You can learn more fun water facts here… and if you live in Denver, you can win some free schwag!

It’s all part of a great campaign by Sukle Advertising & Design.

This is some top-notch brand identity work for Transportation Alternatives, a New York City based advocate for biking, walking, and public transit. With the nonstop barrage of car advertising we’re subjected to, it’s nice to see some thoughtful marketing and design going into these other ways of gettin’ around town. Well done, Doyle Partners.

(via Brand New)

This new interactive data visualization for GE is a pretty neat way to calculate which household items are most costly in terms of watts, dollars, or gallons of gas. By clicking on and off the icons, you can customize it for your own home. Apparently heating and cooling appliances (central air, water heater, furnace) are the biggest hogs in your house, so they should get the most attention. The site also shows how long it would take for a new Energy Star appliance to pay for itself in savings.

The design of the site is by none other than Pentagram. Check out some of the nice icons they made below.

(via swissmiss)

Give a hoot! Don’t pollute

Listen to Woodsy Owl, kids.

Annoying yet captivating. This could just as easily be the internet talking.

(via)

Want to cut down on oil? You might want to start with the way you drink water. According to these ads from a 2008 Brita water filter campaign,

Last year 16 million gallons of oil were consumed to make plastic water bottles.

More recent figures suggest that bottled water wastes 50 million BARRELS of oil a year. I’m not sure which number is more accurate, but either way, you should really think about ditching the bottled water.