McMillan Ranch Company

McMillan Ranch Company is a ranch out in west Texas that provides not only  the best meat in the state, but the best marinades and seasonings to go with your meat too. The mission is simple, to make you the best grill master around. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!”

Designed by Addison Ragsdale, Auburn University 

WOW.. WANT

The Fox with the Golden Fur

Designed by Ultra Creative

Love the logo

Molly’s Milk Truck

“The logos already printed on the cup however, several stickers were designed to add a customized/personalized appeal to each package. They can be placed on the entire range of packaging from the cups, to sandwich boxes to bags.”

Designed by Imagemme Packaging Design

Blood

Bloodrive

“Solution: The idea was to give away free USB’s in blood bag packaging to anyone on campus willing to donate blood. The campaign featured eye catching packaging, that quickly helped us spread the idea that you can always make time to give. Also, the USB’s came equipped with a promotional video entitled, “Blood Circulation: The Story of Where Your Blood Goes From Here.” This video serves the Red Cross as an educational tool for those wanting to know where their donation is going. After the video, the students were able to share their donation experience online and become part of a special group on facebook.”

Designed by Robert Williams.

Not Sure that I like this

Midnight in the Garden of Type and Image

Before moving to a 20-acre lot in 2006, Johnson’s Backyard Garden (JBG) was literally just a garden for, well, the Johnsons, Beth and Brenton in Austin, TX. Today JBG is a 70-acre certified organic farm that functions through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, meaning that members buy a “share” in JBG’s crop and in return they get delicious boxes every week of whatever the hard-working people have harvested. JBG counts with over 1,000 members making it the biggest CSA farm in Texas. Earlier this year, JBG started using a new logo created by fellow Austinite Ryan Rhodes who happened to end up living in the Johnsons’ old house.

There’s no deep philosophy behind it really. There’s just that gut feeling you get when you see something and it just feels right. Hard to put in words I think without sounding really silly. When I started exploring designs for JBG, I had just finished a poster of a quote my dad said to me as a kid all the time, “Can’t never could.” [Shown above]. Always stuck with me. I made the lettering using pieces of wood that had been inked and printed. So I tried to do some illustrations of beets and carrots and making the letters JBG with those pieces. It felt right. It reminded me of plotted farm land, or crop circles, or quilts. It was very elementary to a degree, a back to basics, building block exercise for me. And then I realized that a farm is very much like that. Using what you have… the land, the equipment, your hands, hard work, different people from different backgrounds… and putting those pieces in action to produce something that changes seasonally. Much like the boxes of produce, you never get the same thing twice. There’s a system, but it’s a very organic one, pardon the pun.
— JBG’s blog

Beyond being cool, and I’ll get to that in a second, the new logo replaces the previous logo which was the result of a $300 design contest back in 2008, so right off the bat, the new identity is a winner.

Tomato box in use, above, along with side and top views, below.

As mentioned in the opening quote, the new logo and identity revolve around inked pieces of wood that are then arranged quite organically to make up letters that then make words, or shapes like roosters and beets. For an organic farm, its seems like there couldn’t be a better fit than this identity. Granted, it could be applied to any organic farm in the world but, let’s face it: cool, weird, funky things like these tend to grow better in places like Austin. Some might remember this work from London-based Airside in January of 2009 — I have nothing else to add on that, just wanted to note it. What I like about the JBG work is that has an interesting balance between the woodsy and organic with something almost mechanical and early bitmap. Plus, those tomatoes look amazing. They need to be eaten, pronto.

Rebrand

If this Chicken’s a Kickin’ don’t Come a Cluckin’

With the first location opened in 1997, The Kickin’ Chicken is a full service, full bar, full menu restaurant featuring chicken wings, tenders, wraps, sandwiches and burgers. (Hungry and thirsty yet?). The Kickin’ Chicken now has seven locations in North and South Carolina and is revving up their franchising business so they needed an overhaul to their identity to attract franchisers. The new look has been designed by Charleston, SC-based Fuzzco.

The old was pretty hilarious. I mean, a chicken, kicking Hobo? And Hobo is all, like, “don’t kick me”? I love it. Of course, it was bad. Not bad a for a one-locale small restaurant but with great franchising comes great responsibility and the old one would have had a hard time portraying a solid business model. In contrast, the new logo is really great. It reduces the chicken to just the head, not just saving significantly on space used but in creating something much more iconic and on par with franchise restaurants — its red crest rivals the pigtails of Wendy (who’s been on this site too much this week already). The rendering of the chicken is spot on. It’s energetic and concise. I also very much enjoy the type lock-up with the “N”s lining up on the right and the “K” and “C” on the left, leaving a little nook for the “The”, and major bonus points for the hanging apostrophe.

The rest of the identity comes very nicely together and what makes it work above all else is the color palette. It’s chicken-ey, it’s sophisticated, and it’s fun. Even the website — where usually good identities go to die — is perfectly aligned with the visual punch and tone of voice. Plus, an icon of a chicken leg with phone sticking out of it? Awesome. Entrepreneurs: Someone get a franchise here in Austin. Now

Miller Rebrand

Miller High Life Overhaul

First brewed in the mid nineteenth century by Frederick Miller in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Miller High Life — well, to be clear, Miller High Life wasn’t introduced until 1903 — is one of most well known American beer brands. I have never had a Miller High Life so I can’t attest to its flavor, and it’s probably for the better, so that I don’t derail into a diatribe about my preferred beers. Earlier this year, Miller High Life introduced a whole new look for all of its packaging and graphics designed by the San Francisco office of Landor, with illustration assistance by Chris Mitchell.

Comparison of old (blue-hued) and new (red-hued) logos. 2 second delay between images.

There are various elements that come together for this redesign. First, the updated logo, which is a major improvement, losing the unnecessary shading and bevels of the old one, while cleaning up the typography and balancing the contents within the holding shape. The curves have also been accentuated a little more and it gives it a nicer flow.

A new Lucy, or The Girl in the Moon, which legend has it is a drawing of Miller’s granddaughter. Better cleavage, hearts on her blouse, smaller nose and no bangs.

Samples of previous packaging, above. New packaging, below.

The new packaging is undeniably more sophisticated and follows suit with the 2000s redesign of the Coca-Cola packaging, that stripped away all extraneous visuals. We will see if this holds on for enough time, before the sales people at Miller start asking for bubbles, ribbons and other nuisances. For now, it’s a breath of fresh air.

Bottles with the inside labels alluding to its “Champagne of Bottle Beer” nickname.

These brand patterns are very cool too, bold and understated, they capture a nice American spirit, and they look great on the sides of the cartons below. A pretty great update all around.

Liverpool english pub by Reynolds and Reyner

reynoldsandreyner.com

Love the layout

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Art Direction & Graphic Design for the new identity and typography system of Under The Influence Magazine
— Magazine, Business Card, Correspondence Card & Postcard

undertheinfluencemagazine.com

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Design Direction for Under The Influence Magazine, an independently published, art & fashion magazine bringing together collected works from established and emerging photographers, stylists, artists and writers to create a visually beautiful, distinct publication.

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Art Direction & Graphic Design for Seattle based photographer James Moes identity & stationery
— Business Card, Letterhead, Postard & Wrapping Paper

jamesmoes.com

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Design Direction for Under The Influence Magazine, an independently published, art & fashion magazine bringing together collected works from established and emerging photographers, stylists, artists and writers to create a visually beautiful, distinct publication.

Park House Box & Brochures