Brands from the Mouths of Babes

Consumer research doesn’t get much more real than a five-year-old and a mic.

Or so learned brand identity guru Adam Lind when he asked his young daughter to name — as best she could — several market-leading marks.

It’s also interesting to note that this is just about the age that sociologists say we first start interacting with brands and assigning them values — sometimes values that hardly waver over the course of our lives.

I, for one, have always continued to associate Republicans with parade elephants. And I always will. Hmpf.

 

Shout out to Brand New.

Flicks to the Future

It’s a scientific fact: everything was better back in the day.

To put that maxim to the test, designer Peter Stults has created vintage movie poster mashups that combine today’s hottest box office hits (read: crap) with yesteryear’s coolest actors and designs. Consider it blockbusters from a bygone era.

Hell, before it just felt as if the plot of “Avatar” had been done a million times before — now here’s the proof.

Photoshop Panacea

The billion-dollar beauty industry is about to bite the dust. And it looks like the wunderdrug that will put it out of its glossy, glitzy misery has been under the nose of every graphic designer for years.

This great mock ad from Jesse Rosten gives beauty advertising — and the unrealistic, unrelenting image of the “ideal woman” that it promotes — a taste of its own medicine.

The Bee’s Knees — 2011 in Review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Haute Art in the Hood

There are a few things I love: original art deco designs, iconic Chicago landmarks and blue collar Northside neighborhoods.

And now you can add the visionary work of local Chi-town artist StudioChris to the list, thanks to a series of pieces dedicated to the legendary landmarks of some of Chicago’s Northside ‘hoods.

Grab a piece of Windy City architecture for yourself at StudioChris.com.