Mind Design are a London based creative agency that challenge the restrictions of print based design with subtle variations.
In total contrast to a corporate studio set-up, Mind operates a small creative team, which benefit from individually & spontaneity through out each project that they are a part of.
Founder Holger Jacobs, who accepted a job opportunity to work in Japan, says that the different cultural perspective he gained from that experience influences the he handles western typography. When he returned to London back in 1999 he single handedly started up Mind Design. Since then the collective has grown steadily and operates with only a further five designer maintaining their intimacy as a company.
Back in 2006, Tom Dixon collaborated with Lacoste and is recognized figure as a product designer especially for his use of raw and recycled materials.
The exploration of the tension of between ecology & technology, clarifies the parallels between Lacoste’s heritage and Dixon’s own influences.
Out of this collaboration two shirts were produced: Eco Polo & Techno Polo.
It seems that both Mind & Dixon share a mutual interest in incorporating the actual process of production as part of the finished design, and whilst the packaging is so different conveying these two separate ideas, the near symmetrical typography treatment clarifies the similarity of the shirts.
Since these were limited edition pieces, it would seem that any concerns over the longevity of this concept or Lacoste’s intermigration where not relevant.
The collaboration also covered labels and tags using the same materials and following the same set of design rules used on the packaging for the shirts.
“Tom had a large influence on the design of the packaging but gave us total freedom in the actual graphics & typography. For the Eco Polo we did not want to use any printing on the packaging at all, so the design was embossed into recycled, egg carton-like material. For the Techno Polo Tom suggested a silver, vacuum packed foil packaging that was screen-printed. On the matching labels we worked with silver foil blocking. Originally we wanted to produce a talking electronic price tag, which became too difficult to realize.” Holger, J
When Johnny founded his company back in 2001, he probably wouldn’t believe that ten years later ‘Johnny Cupcakes’ would be a multi-million dollar company.
One of the reasons for the Cupcakes success is creating a personal relationship with their customers. Whether that is in store events, store movie nights, or Johnny personally talking to his customers, all of this is in place to facilitate a personal connection with the brand. It projects Cupcakes as a brand full of energy & trust, which is lost in more of the commercial retailers.
I’ve recently being emailing the brand’s sales representative Katie Bolger who is based out in Los Angeles, enquiring about some of the Cupcakes’ brand materials: badges, periodicals, stickers, gift boxes things that you can’t buy on their own, but come with an order from their site or shop.
Just as I expected the emails sent between us where relatively informal, asking how each others day was going in-between trying to organize a package for me to be shipped out to London.
Anyway this is what she sent me:
So most of the company’s publicity is based on viral branding such as video blogging, facebook updates, tweets etc.
But what money they do spend is on creating limited edition flyers for upcoming collections or press days, or these beautifully designed gift boxes that play up to the ‘Cupcake’ brand name.
It’s refreshing to see a commercial brand like this on a low budget striving for creative innovations not just to create new customer relationships, but also build on existing ones too.
When I was walking to work in Spitalfields one morning last week, I noticed Dr Marten’s had found a new E1 base on the outside of Spitalfields Market. Needs to say I was excited to see the brand making a come back in the area after an abrupt departure of their store from another part of the market back in late 2010.
With their shiny new store came an inviting set of promotional materials including: A S/S 12 lookbook, a map to their store, a invitation to a dr marten’s party, a loyalty card, a key ring, a box of matches & a iPhone case.
Their S/S 12 lookbook titled ‘First & Forever’ fronted by models Agyness Deyn & Ash Stymest, styled like a still taken straight from Shane Meadow’s ‘This is England’ set in 1980’s northen England. And like Meadow’s film the new Marten’s campaign is very much reminiscent of the heritage of British skinhead culture.
The new campaign invites people to share their first experiences of doing something new - be it discovering a crush, going to a gig for the first time, or, the moment they bought their first pair of 'DM's'. Dr Martens will collate a social map of 'Firsts' in a digital setting to bring the campaign and experiences to life.
