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Casting Call Leads to Passionate Packaging

Oak Brook IL

Sports and music stars like Yao Ming and Destiny's Child have long appeared alongside Ronald McDonald in promotions for McDonald's. But new packaging for the fast-food king features an array of lesser-known "Citizen Celebrities." Two dozen lucky folks were chosen in an online global casting call held last year, in which everyday people submitted photos and essays based on the McDonald's tagline "I'm lovin' it." Portraits of the winners engaged in their passions — such as Lesley Dahl, a 50+-year-old hiker from Canada, and Xavier Cotto Bartolomei, a 20-year-old drummer from Puerto Rico — now grace the restaurant chain's cups and bags. An estimated 52 million people see the packaging graphics daily.

IOP Fights TB wIth Next Steps Annual

New York NY:

The latest result of the five-year partnership between the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development and the branding firm Ideas on Purpose is the TB Alliance's 2005-2006 Annual Report. The TB Alliance is a public-private collaboration that fights the spread of tuberculosis. Through bold, simple graphics, provocative copy and the theme "Next Steps Now," the annual highlights the TB Alliances's recent achievements, like receiving a Gates Foundation grant, and builds momentum for ongoing fundraising activity. IoP's John Connolly served as creative director and designer on the project.

Red Palette Seduces Mexican Audience

New York NY

"Open your world." That's the tagline and organizing theme of Steinbranding's rebrand of Azteca 7, one of the major channels of Mexico's renowned TV Azteca network. The design team is especially proud of the new color palette, which gives programs and movies targeted identities. The red palette for "Martes de tentacion" (Tempting Tuesday) leverages romanticism for a largely female audience. "Jueves de kaos" (Chaotic Thursdays) draws in urban viewers through the use of black and orange. Creative credits go to General Creative Director Guillermo Stein and Art Director Juana Irigoyen. Steinbranding has offices in New York, Miami and Buenos Aires.

Bold Colors Give Tea Bad-Ass Attitude

Vancouver, British Columbia

FullyLoadedTea tapped Subplot Design to create a complete brand identity and packaging system for the company's North American rollout. Subplot crafted the mantra "FullyLoadedTea. For a watered-down world" and the challenge to other teas that FullyLoadedTea is a "bold, opinionated, full-flavor, big attitude line." The packaging features a unique drop-front drawer system that offers better access to the tea bags and uses bold colors to suggest bold flavors within. Subplot also contributed tradeshow booths, a frosted cafe display, an e-commerce website and the like. Matthew Clark, a Subplot principal, served as lead designer.

First Class Brand Experience for Low-Fare Flyers

Columbus, OH

Skybus Airlines, a new low-fare carrier, has unveiled a unique "branded" airplane. The Airbus A319 displays a large Nationwide logo and the tagline "Nationwide is On Your Side" on the exterior of its fuselage. Bill Diffenderffer, Skybus CEO, says he intends to keep fares low by such "traditional and nontraditional marketing opportunities." Nationwide is also placing branded images inside the planes, on tray tables, overhead bins and rest-room doors, to create an entire "brand experience."

Novacent Catalog Plays in the Big Leagues

Succasunna, NJ

Novocent Partners designed and produced the 2007 catalog for Robert Edward Auctions, an auction company that specializes in sports memorabilia. The 680-page piece features more than 1,500 items and was distributed to more than 10,000 collectors and hobbyists. Given the size of the project, as Novacent president Al Crisfulli notes, the client "not only drew upon our design skills but also our ability to develop customized, automated processes to streamline the information and image-sharing process with the client." Creative credits go to Dan Arabia and Jessica Van Embden.

Type and Texture and All That Jazz

Madison WI

Planet Propaganda designed the packaging and an 80-page booklet for "Talking Jazz," a limited edition CD box set of rare interviews with jazz legends. The 24-disc set, compiled by NPR deejay Ben Sidran, features conversations with 60 jazz stars, including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis and Sonny Rollins. Planet's packaging design presents a visually-coded system for easily identifying the artists and their instruments. The package is unified through typography, texture and images from the noted jazz photographer Lee Tanner. "Talking Jazz" is produced by Nardis Music and distributed through Mosaic Records and CDBaby.com.

Do These Jeans Make Me Look Jung?

Seattle WA

The Seattle branding and design firm Girvin recently completed a new website for the apparel company Unionbay. Girvin creatives utilized the system of archetypes developed by the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung in order to discover and communicate Unionbay's distinct place among apparel brands. Tim Girvin, chief creative leader on the project, says, "By exploring the Unionbay brand positioning based on Jungian archetypes, we built a new way to measure the classic mythical relationships between the person and the brand and between the psyche and the audience." The result: a site with visuals that emphasize honest, hardworking craftsmanship. Virginia Sabado was project manager, and Sean Jones served as interactive producer.