P&Wig Day

Things got a little spooky today in our Los Angeles studio. Halloween is such a big holiday here in the US - costumes aren't just for kids! So we thought we'd give our UK studio a good scare by wearing ridiculous wigs during the morning Skype call. Pretty terrifying right?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM TEAM P&W

Kitchen TO GO | Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

 We have designed the Kitchen TO GO branding for Tesco’s US chain Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. The new branding solution was implemented on their private label packaging, advertising and point of sale materials.

Organic Branding | Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, USA

We have re-designed the organic branding for Tesco’s US chain Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. The new branding solution was implemented on their private label packaging, advertising and point of sale materials.

A-Z | Giving back

P&W LA were invited to volunteer with Fresh and Easy “Fighting hunger & giving hope” at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
 

A-Z | Coney Island

Michael Doret, Graphic Designer, Illustrator and now font designer shared his inspiration at a seminar at the Art Institute of California "It Began in Brooklyn" (photo: Heather, Danielle, Michael & Lyndsay)

Growing up in New York, he spent much of his childhood at Coney Island (an outdoor amusement park by the sea), unbeknown to him this would become a subliminal source of inspiration throughout his life's work. The bright neon signs, the flashing lights, the fonts and styles, the Steeplechase face.

Myfonts.com article

These are a selection of Michael's logos, print work and a very famous record cover for the band KISS.  Can you see the Coney island influence?

 

 For most of his career, he designed one off solutions to the design brief he received, but in recent years has branched out to font design. Inspired by the old metal Gevaert photo sign Michael saw in a Paris flea market, he created his first font "Orion" with an Art Deco, geometric style.

 The quirkiness appealed to him and that was the main challenge to create a font whose letters joined seamlessly with it's strict angular connectors yet the outcome remained unique, like a commissioned logo.

 
"Metroscript" was inspired by scripts and hand lettering between 1920s and 1950s and vintage sport memorabilia. 

 

Although he didn't want it to be only referred to as a baseball font, the launch poster for "metroscript" ironically featured a baseball player. With Michael's love and passion for Brooklyn Baseball, was baseball his inspiration? What do you think? 

We used Michael's "powerstation" font for our blog title, Michael was inspired by a piece of work he did for Hershey's Time's Square Flagship store in NYC.
 

 

If you still haven't seen anything you recognize.... here is a very famous logo, designed by Michael for the NY Knicks basketball team.

Inspiration for design comes from anything and everything, you may have been influenced by things you've seen and you don't even realise it, just like Michael.

Read Michael's blog 

A-Z | Inspires

Jonathan Adler is a colorful thinker and interior innovator. Design comes in all sizes, shapes and colors in this case it comes as a prescription. “My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living” By Jonathan Adler.

 

In the book Jonathan boasts “Layer, layer, layer. Unexpected touches are the soul of the MAXIMALIST HOME: A painting hung on a bookcase, a chandelier in a closet, a brass lion’s-head door knocker in a modern apartment.” 

 

Having things in your home that brighten your mood and make you smile should be a way of life.

Love or hate the things he creates, he truly inspires his followers to enjoy and embrace the things they love and encourages them to bring them into their homes and showcase them! 

Adler inspires people to embrace their own style through his beautifully kitschy styled rooms and in your face glam-fab accessories.

 

Giraffe Lamps- High fired stoneware with a matte white glaze and hand made paper shade

  

Some exclusive items for Barnes & Noble, typographic umbrella.

Premium Belgian Cookies | Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, USA

We have designed a range of premium imported Belgian cookies for Tesco’s US chain Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. These imported cookies are covered in rich Belgian chocolate with various fillings such as coconut, caramel, hazelnut and orange.

The dark luxurious photography screams indulgence whilst ensuring the product is the hero of the pack. The photography is enhanced with a backdrop of its ingredients communicating high quality. Premium cues are delivered through minimal contemporary type in zingy colors balanced with a warm metallic silver for a luxury boost.
 



“The design treatment required for this range was that of indulgence. These products were selected as best in class and we feel our design communicated that with elegance. Merchandised in store, these would be identifiable as a top tier choice with the dark background blocking them out as a group and the matt varnish eliminating any glare from store lighting. The design solution utilizes the entire pack showcasing the cookies and through romance copy, describes what makes these the finest choice”.

Plantain Snack | Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, USA

We have designed Plantain chip packaging for Fresh & Easy, which lauched in stores this week. In Southwest regions of the world, plantains are a staple and are treated much like a potato, making this lightly salted crisp a great alternative to the ordinary potato chip.

Containing only three ingredients, Plantains, Sunflower Oil and Salt, this simple snack is free of artificial ingredients, unlike the leading chip brands. We decided to emphasize the simplicity through a clean honest design solution. The hand-painted playful typography and exotic shades of green applied to a wood-textured background helped us to achieve a design suggestive of a tropical fruit stand. Offering this unique product in an appropriately skinny bag will hopefully peak the interest of consumers, and secure it’s spot as a highly marketable item.

“The unusual nature of plantain crisps required a novel design treatment that would differentiate it from more conventional snacking products, while giving strong provenance cues. We were really pleased with the solution, which is simple, original and eye catching. The structure of the design offers plenty of scope for range extensions if it is decided to expand into flavored SKUs”.

Around the world simmer sauce- Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA

We have designed a range of cooking sauces for Fresh & Easy. Inspired by recipes from around the world, the range offers diverse and authentic sauces, perfect for introducing the inexperienced chef to easy ethnic cuisine. The vivid imagery and design details make each pack unique, allowing you to travel the world without leaving the kitchen!

The design emphasizes the use of quality ingredients through colorful ingredients based photography. By using a crystal label on an elegant glass jar; we convey honesty and belief in the product allowing the consumer to see the sauce they are purchasing. Incorporating hits of silver metallic, bright color combinations and easy-to-follow 1,2,3, cooking instructions on the back, the results are a product that will be a strong competitor within a small but growing category.

“We are very proud of the new Fresh & Easy Simmer Sauce range. This is a fairly new category in the USA, so it was important to convey the convenience and ease of cooking using a simple 3 step process on the back. Our work with Fresh & Easy has been all about helping US consumers to choose top-quality products. To come up with a elegant solution that not only stands out at the fixture but also uses the whole of the pack to communicate the quality of ingredients and ease of use, is testament to the insight and ability of our design team.”

P&W Los Angeles | Lomography

After hearing all about the London studio’s Lomography workshop and seeing their fantastic shots, we eagerly awaited our turn at the Los Angeles Lomography gallery in West Hollywood.

We signed up for the ‘lubitel lovers’ workshop, little did we know that this is the most advanced and most expensive piece of Lomography kit. It’s twin lens, fully manual, manual focus, exposures and apertures, with a waist level view finder and can shoot flexible 120 or 35mm format.

We were briefed on the basics and the features and off we went walking the streets of West Hollywood. Part of our shooting was the busy streets of Santa Monica Boulevard and part venturing into the quieter residential neighborhoods. The double exposure feature was our favorite.

Our anticipation built before seeing the results once our film was developed.......let us know what you think of our efforts.

This style of photography is so different to our digital age and is wildly fun, not knowing what you will end up getting when the film is developed is strangely wonderful! Not being able to use any special digital color or light effects gives you an uneasy feeling but also pumps you full of creative ideas, its just a good old glass camera lens working hard for you.

A manual for the manual camera would have been nice, I don’t know if I used any of the settings correctly? I don’t think any of us did.

But that’s what Lomography is all about ... NO RULES, NO GUIDELINES TO FOLLOW, NO WRONG AND NO RIGHT, right?

*Just a hunch, but I think the LA shots might have a bit more SUNLIGHT in them, and might be great as a slide show streaming to the song “California Girls” by Katy Perry. :) 

Lubitel Ladies - lubitel-workshop

Lyndsay's 120 format shots

Heather's 120 format shots

Danielle's 35mm format shots (with exposed sprockets)