If you’re not Australian you probably didn’t get the Mr. Squiggle reference in the title, but who can pass up an opportunity to relive their childhood. Sorry.

Back to business though, shown here is a line of food packaging for hot air balloon company Reve by Laura Berglund. Laura explains;

I discovered during my research of hot air balloons that the first balloon to take flight landed in an angry farmer’s field, who came running out of his house with a pitchfork ready to attack the intruders. The flyers appeased him with the champagne they brought along, and ever since, it has become a tradition to drink champagne after every balloon excursion.

Thus, I created a line of food packaging, including champagne of course, which was designed upside down to reference the shape of the hot air balloon.

While the whole line of packaging is great, I particular like upside down reference used for the beer and champagne bottles. Continue reading...

I was interested today to read about Harvey Ball, the graphic artist credited with designing the smiley face logo in 1963. No disrespect to Harvey but I couldn’t help think that some 5 year old girl a millennium ago was more likely to have created the first smiley.

Credit to Harvey though, he put his name to it first.

Taken from Wikipedia, “the use of the smiley face was part of the company’s friendship campaign whereby State Mutual handed out 100 smiley pins to employees. The aim was to get employees to smile while using the phone and doing other tasks.

The buttons were highly popular, with orders in lots of 10,000. More than 50 million Smiley Face buttons were sold by 1971, and the smiley has been described as an international icon.”

The punchline to the article was that although the buttons the logo was designed for had sold more than 50 million units in the following 8 years, Harvey never trademarked his logo and so received only the initial $45 dollars ( about $300 by today’s standards ) for the design.

Doh!

Wouldn’t you just be kicking yourself?

Like any form of self employment, freelance graphic design has it’s pros and cons. More often than not pro #1 is managing your own time and working the hours that are most productive for you.

We’ve all had bouts of creative block, you can waste hours trying to force an idea with little progress. I often find myself wandering through the day only to turn out my best ideas at 1:00 in the morning. Hardly office hours.

Obviously some work has to get done during conventional hours, I doubt too many clients would be as excited as I am about a design idea if I were to call them at 1:00 in the morning for feedback. But hey, you’ve got to work when your muse is willing.

When’s your “9 to 5″?

Do you try and work to a conventional time table? Or are you a night owl like me?

While the bulk of most graphic designers work is destined for paper there’s a whole world of substrates out there. ( substrate is fancy design talk for stuff to stick your design on. )

Gathered from the excellent packaging design site, The Dieline, here is an interesting collection of packaging substrates and designs applied to them, starting with the above conceptual colourless Coke can by Harc Lee.

I’m not sure how pleasant the tactile element of this design would be, 10 points for originality though. Nothing says a masculine cologne like a block of concrete. Continue reading...

Now I know everyone in the world has seen the movie Crocodile Dundee and that it’s the greatest movie ever. However I thought I’d take this opportunity to answer a few questions I’ve been asked more than once when speaking with people overseas.

Believe it or not…

• I have never ridden a Kangaroo.
• Nor has anyone else, and they do not have parking spots.
• I do not have a pet Koala.
• Wild Koalas, a.k.a. drop bears, do not dive from trees to attack people.
• Yes I like vegemite. No you probably won’t.

I have never used the following phrases;

• Lets throw another shrimp on the barbie.
• G’day Mate! ( without having a laugh … )
• She’ll be apples.

Good old television.

It’s disappointing I know, but TV and movies do exaggerate some times.
Oh well, until next time, hooroo*.

*Hooroo means see you later. No I’ve never said it.