Hi, catty catty!

Posted on by Zack Chia

Did someone say designing calendars are the most daunting tasks ever? Designers often dread doing this because they easily stereotyped it as both dull and staid in execution. To me that is pretty much dried juice in my opinion. See, if you actually pay enough attention to pop culture and trends, you could inject some amazing fun into it. Kate Funk, a Milwaukee-based cat photographer had just launched a cute calendar featuring her cat AC in several quirky and provocative attires. This is the fruition of her collaboration with her roommate, Brendan Groh. What we have here in the pictures are snapshots from what she called ‘The World’s Most Super Amazing 100% Awesome Cat Calendar. Yes, that’s a mouthful. But i assured you this is probably the most interesting calendar that doesn’t feature holidays or boring post it columns. Love it!

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Happy CNY from Coca-Cola

Posted on by Zack Chia

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If you recall, I have stressed the importance of packaging and how crucial it is to actually have your product projecting its voice well over your competitors. And, that cannot be achieved through creative mediocrity nor bad judgement on marketing foresight. In this festive occasion, the chinese believed a lot in prosperity, the idea of gifting and staying auspicious becomes integral in the chinese custom. Understanding geographical cultures is also an imperative process in branding. Coca-Cola, has created gorgeous looking packing this new year with interesting can design and carton packaging. In Vietnam, Tết (Lunar New Year), is where Coke is widely consumed. Simply because of the overtly well received ‘red’ symbolizes prosperity, Coke is one of the most preferred drink. This packaging design by Vietnamese design agency Rice Creative, made use of heritage Coca-Cola as the basis of their design. Leveraging on red as the foundation of design, the agency created swallows that were hand illustrated. The result was an amazingly crafted graphic work: ‘The Swallow Bird’, which is what you see in the design, a symbolic meaning of the Tết icon, while An meaning peace, Tài meaning success and Lộc meaning prosperity. Very nice.

Digital spreadsheet art

Posted on by Zack Chia

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This post reminds me when I was a designer. Back in those days, I would slog in office the entire night with my face glued to the mac while I craft my visuals diligently, working towards the client’s deadline. Being a designer has never been an easy job. The idea of being helmed a master of art and one having the eye of an artist is not a simple task. Discerning as a photomaker, the photoshop software is a designer’s best friend. Today, we have Mr Tatsuo Horiuchi who have proven this wrong by using what most people would be surprised – the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software. He creates beautiful traditional Japanese paintings alike its original copies, natural landscapes that are so amazingly detailed. All so full of its cultural richness.

“I never used Excel at work but I saw other people making pretty graphs and thought, ‘I could probably draw with that. Graphics software is expensive but Excel comes pre-installed in most computers… And it has more functions and is easier to use than [Microsoft] Paint.”

The man has since went forward to champ a few more compeitions with the work he created. He has even won first at the Excel AutoShape Art Contest in 2006. Kudos. Check him out here.

The school of life

Posted on by Zack Chia

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The School Of Life had this really cool set of corporate identity which caught my attention. There is a nice touch of minimalist design and I personally loved the bright colors and how it matches so well. As you can see there is a variety of styles as well as the materials used. Another interesting design to go into my pinterest!

Fly with that app!

Posted on by Zack Chia

Are you a frequent traveler? If you are one who travels often, then having a mobile app that enables you to evade the turmoils of last minute plane delays, wrong check-in points or hours of boring inflight entertainment would absolutely make your entire flight experience extremely enjoyable. Flying, a mobile app designed to make flight experience more fun and aims to provide entertaining yet useful information pertaining to all your travels.

The app aims to provide users with interesting features like the tracking of your flight schedule, delays, cancellations as well as gate changes. What is most interesting is how it incorporates social media into the entire user experience. It is now possible to share your flight experience, details and status with your friends. That includes the friends who are waiting for you upon your arrival or those sending you off. With cool graphical interfaces and interactive visual elements, the app boosts a very rich design aesthetic.

“Air travel has become cold and impersonal, and we think it’s really important to bring in something that is not only useful but which also helps better the experience,” co-founder tells Co.Design.

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On top of all the mentioned features, Flying also has it’s own set of unique “stamps” which aims to simulate real stamps that gets chomped on your passport as you travel. A great way to bring the real life experience online. Apart from all the available features, there is however a lack of interpersonal connectivity with strangers. Assuming you could get to know someone on the same flight as you? Could that possibly spark some kind of romance? Wouldn’t it be great to know who is sitting beside you before you board the plane? And possibly start some form of conversation with the person even before flight day? It would be so much more fun and exciting!