Can a beer be good design?

From Adweek and Fast Company.

Danish brewer Carlsberg is getting set to unveil a new beer called Copenhagen, which is already turning heads for the minimal, stylish design of its bottles and other packaging. The message is unmistakable: In a category almost complete geared toward men, Copenhagen can also attract women, who make up one-quarter of the beer market. "We can see that there are a number of consumers, especially women, who are very aware of design when they choose beverage products," Jeanette Elgaard Carlsson, international innovation director at Carlsberg, says on the brewer's website. "There may be situations where they are standing in a bar and want their drinks to match their style. In this case, they may well reject a beer if the design does not appeal to them.

The consumer surveys that we have conducted in Denmark show that 98% of the target group finds Copenhagen exciting." Of course, women presumably don't just choose a beer as a fashion accessory. But there isn't much mention of the taste, beyond it being "light" and "refreshing." The brew hits the market in Denmark this year and the rest of Europe and parts of Asia next year. 

35 Years - 100,000 Toothpicks

aSaigon/CreativeMorning welcomes The Propeller Group - 15 April, 8:30am

The Propeller Group is an art collaborative that specializes in media production, using popular culture, cinema, television, advertising, the web, galleries, museums, writings, interviews and conversation to distribute and disseminate art projects. The Propeller Group’s projects have been about collapsing media strategies of power, distribution, and access to information as well as issues of public vs. private space within the development of sub-cultures and popular cultures.

"In many of our projects, we try to create disorder, hoping that disorder in such particular instances can become another "sense of order" to an audience that may be all too afraid of change, or unaccepting of other possible ways of engaging with their current cultural/social structures. We like to play. We align ourselves with different cultural producers. We like to let ourselves get ingested into the bellies of big social beasts such as television or the various manifestations of pop-culture. We feel that true criticality comes from the change that can happen from the inside of a system, and not from analytical discourse posited from external positions."

The Propeller Group is comprised of Phunam Thuc Ha, Matt Lucero, and Tuan Andrew Nguyen.

Based in Los Angeles and Ho Chi Minh City, The Propeller Group doesn't want you to view art in the way that one might have been taught to view art. And The Propeller Group doesn't want you to see television or any other medium for that matter for what you might believe it to be - rather they seek to be deconstructivist in any variety of media and have you put things back together in any way that you like. With the blurring of lines between television, telephones, computers and the next big mobile bling to hit the market, it only makes sense to begin to re-examine our relationship with media and recreate it for a new means of consumption. Come join us on April 15th as we explore disparate and ever changing creative horizons with The Propeller Group.

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Does this design sound good?

Learning to play an instrument no longer has to be a great expense.  With the help of Victor Scott and some old cereal boxes you could be the next Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton. Sort of.

Taking rubbish and turning it into instruments is a passion for Junk 4 Funk creator, Victor. A musician and music tutor for over 30 years, Victor now helps the general public to get into music through being green. Old bottles, cereals boxes, frying pans and dustbin lids are all recycled into instruments. Becoming a rock star has never been so accessible.

What type are you?

Helvetica? Times Roman? Courier? Verdana? Georgia? Trebuchet? Pentagram design has the answer here. Find out from a trained Phrenologist, just exactly what type you are.

The Dieline, a great packaging design site.

Today, this site sent from Mads Monsen. The Dieline is a website dedicated to the best in packaging design. Here are a few samples from this year's student competition. Check out the site for more.

"This is a brief that required us to create a cooperate identity for the Dairy company, including the brand name and a whole range of packaging."

"In this packaging class students were instructed to either redesign an existing architectural paint line or choose a brand or designer and invent a paint line for them."

"This beer brand concept was born on a sunday night at school were we were supposed to make a brand for a micro-brewery. The name is traditional Icelandic name that could be loosely translated into "thirsty one"."