Opinion BY Armin

Home is where the Pattern is

Led by the National NeighborWorks Association — an organization that “unites housing and community development practitioners to advocate for affordable housing and economic opportunities” — and supported by over 190 housing and community development organizations at the national and local level, Home Matters is a new national initiative launched yesterday on Capitol Hill that “aims to unite America around the essential role that Home plays as the bedrock for thriving lives, families, and a stronger nation.” Its goal is to raise awareness of the importance of “Home” by educating, bringing disparate organizations and industries together, rallying local leaders and mobilizing the public, encouraging policymakers to protect and support Home and related initiatives, raising funds and increasing investments to sustain the work that makes Home a reality for more Americans, and promoting and honoring the extraordinary impact of Home. All in all, a good thing, considering how screwed up some homes — of all economic and social classes — can be. The initiative’s identity has been designed by Brooklyn, NY-based OrangeYouGlad working under the direction and coordination of New York-based Ideon who set the branding strategy and story.

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Opinion BY Armin

Hawaiian Airlines Exteeeends its Service

Announced this month by Hawaiian Airlines, Ohana by Hawaiian will be a new über regional airline between the islands of Moloka‘i and Lana‘i flying in adorable-looking, 48-passenger ATR42 turboprop aircrafts. The new name — the Hawaiian word for “family” — logo, and livery have been designed by renown textile and apparel designer Sig Zane (and son). Before we get to the rest of the post: my apologies for the crappy logo image above; there is no clean image anywhere of it.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 27

One might deduce that I have a thing for patterned and textural identities. One might be right. Work spanning bread, shoes and apparel, and design and architecture all get a sophisticated-over-the-top treatment in this week’s Likes.

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Opinion BY Armin

IC, UC, We all C for California

Established in 1868, the University of California (UC) is the public university system of the state of California that encompasses ten campuses: Berkeley, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Davis, San Diego, Irvine, Santa Cruz, and Merced. Rarely will people say they attend or teach (past or present) at “UC” or “University of California”, they are usually very specific as to which campus — its most well known probably being Berkeley and UCLA — so UC and University of California are more of a parent company. UC “includes more than 220,000 students and more than 170,000 faculty and staff, with more than 1.5 million alumni living and working around the world.” So, it’s big. Starting in September, UC introduced a new logo and identity. No design credit given. And no specifications shared as to how, or if at all, this logo affects the unique logos of each of the ten campuses. Currently, the identity has been rolled out in an admissions website separate from the main site, a campaign website for an initiative called Onward California, and on another (see Stanford) very nice brand mini site.

Update: It has been confirmed that the design — everything from the logo to the video to the applications — was carried in-house, by an 11-person creative team formed about three and a half years ago. The post has also been updated with quotes from the team. (Full credits at the end.)

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In Brief BY Armin

In Brief: 2014 Winter Olympic Games Pictograms

Last month the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee unveiled the pictograms of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The pictograms are based on those of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow and, as the press release states, “taking into account modern views.” The release does not mention if elementary school children were used as models for each pictogram, removing their lunchbox and backpack in post-production but it does continue, “The understated quality and visual simplicity, the combination of smooth and straight lines, the lack of sharp corners, all of this helped to give a sense of purpose and dynamism to the Sochi 2014 pictograms.” The pictograms come in two flavors: (1) the usual single-color application and (2) a quilted version based on the Look of the Sochi 2014 Games, the patchwork quilt of Russia (which we reviewed here). I wish the pictograms hadn’t turned out so “cute” and toddlerish because the versions with the patchwork look great. A few samples below (or after the jump) and you can see all pictograms here.

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Opinion BY Armin

Follow-up: Fiji Airways

Back in August of this year we reported on the new logo for Fiji Airways, the national carrier airline of Fiji that is completing a full rebrand to be set in motion in 2013. At the time of the logo reveal, Fiji Airways preemptively announced that its livery would be introduced on October 10, Fiji Day. Here it is.

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Opinion BY Armin

A Vortex of Groovy

Located in London’s Islington neighborhood and housed in an 18,000-square-foot Victorian property that was, in 1855, a post office and, later in 1911, a cinema, The Halcyon is a new retail development that will be “highlighting the best of British retail, creativity and artisan dining,” and will include a restaurant (The Thunderbolt), bar (The Sundower), artisan food hall, gallery, and a coffee house. The Halcyon’s identity has been designed by London-based SomeOne.

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Opinion BY Armin

Sharapova’s Gummies

Launched last week, Sugarpova is a new line of twelve premium gummy candies in different, self-described “fun, unexpected” types and shapes imagined and “sold” by tennis superstar Maria Sharapova — hence, the product’s name — who is not just one of the great women tennis players of our time winning 27 WTA singles titles that include four Grand Slam singles titles but, at 25 years old, she is also a very astute business person, ranking 26 in Forbes’ World’s Highest Paid Athletes list that shows that $22 million of her total $27.9M earnings to date come from endorsements. Sugarpova will be sold at fashion store Henri Bendel in New York, available at hotel minibars, and at their own website. The new logo and packaging was designed by Brooklyn, NY-based Red Antler.

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