Candy

Conduit...

Wrap your head around this one

I originally posted this rant on NYC GRID. It seemed appropriate for here...



Now, I have no major qualms with Duane Reade. Sure, they probably aren't the most-loved business around. But when I need Advil, pencils and a 99 cent can of fruit juice (for entirely separate reasons), I can rest assured I'm only a few blocks away from fulfilling those needs, regardless of the time of day. I think just about everyone can get on the same page about DR being a fairly mediocre shopping experience. The harsh (often dirty) environment, the ugly (old) logo, the inattentive staff- they all add up to your typical Duane Reade experience. And that's fine. We've come to expect it, we live in New York. But now they go and throw us a curve ball like this.

This is not a defense of the old logo, and I also don't expect Duane Reade to push the boundaries of modern identity design and come up with something that makes us rethink our life direction. In fact, I applaud their decision to freshen up their image. But this damn thing is a mess. This mixture of sans and serif faces, complete with upper and lowercase confusion all wrapped up in a nice cliché circle create for a critics dream.

Let's start with the "DR" mark. Two capital letters in a circle. Fine. It's nothing new, but it normally wont offend anyone. Except what the hell is with how the "D" intersects with the circle? Of ALL the ways one could choose the execute that, they pick the one that creates a plethora of uncomfortable angles and flat edges. To make matters worse, the leg of the R is free to escape the tyranny of said circle. Why? Don't even get me started with the thicks and thins of all the lines in the mark. It's so wishy-washy.

Then, of course, we have the written out "Duane Reade" text, which is stylized as one word (no spaces) with DUANE in all sans caps and reade all serif lowercase. It's a messy execution simply to remove a space, but OK, I'll bite. Except for one issue: why do they allow the "R" in the previously-mentioned logo mark exist as uppercase, while in the written out logo, the word is rendered in lower? No clue.

All that being said, the store itself was quite nice. Roomy layout, well-stocked, clean, and a great pharmacy section near the front.

The Wave of the future

I had seen this a while ago and although I do not know who's rendition this is... it is from the original print of Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

Miss Tea

Ambitions

So when I was younger I had a love for photography and while my love of photography remained the same, my passion for taking photos dissipated, until recently. I'm interested in taking a photography course in the near future (a focus on 35mm film) and wanted critiques on some of my work to get started. So I ask the peanut gallery...what do you think?

Sigh

Oh god it's happening!

Seriously???

Yay.

Nay.


Who ripped off who?

Addictive Game

'LOCK-UP' Preview

Hey everyone, it's been a while, but I've been tied up with the craziness of life. In addition, i've started working on a side project titled 'LOCK-UP', my first full fledged attempt at creating a graphic novel.

LOCK-UP, set in a distant future where Earth's resources and real-estate has been drawn to it's brink, centers around the estranged relationship between a father and his son. In this future, the government has opted to move prison facilities into space as a way of making more room on earth for new life. The story begins as a young, gay architect learns his father, housed on the first of 8 space-station prisons (Patria), is on death-row and has requested the presence of his son before he departs. But not all is what it seems and trust is broken, when a structural mishap causes a breach within the station. With all of the prisoners released from their cells, a father and son fighting against one another's intentions, and security personel unable to contact earth for help, lives are changed in unimaginable ways.

Here's a simple preview of the work i've been doing so far:

New Member

Well not THAT new. Since we know her. Most of the founders of this blog started off in one thing, and some how all ended up in advertising. So by bringing some one in with a Marketing and Advertising background, we also bring a little diversity into the fray. So, welcome Monica Garcia to PID.

:-)

Tropicana Fail.

This morning while waiting in the deli for my breakfast to be made, I strolled over to the cooler to grab some OJ. I instinctively reached for the small Tropicana carton, when next to my favorite orange juice I saw another brand of juice... no wait... its the same brand! This was when I remembered that the not-so highly anticipated new Tropicana packaging was already out there mingling with the beautiful packaging done by Sterling Brands a few years ago.

via Brand New

I remembered seeing renderings of the new packaging done by Pepsi (Lets not even get into that mess) on the popular branding blog Brand New, and pretty much hating everything about it.


Why do I hate it? It is such a massive departure from the trusted Tropicana brand, I feel like its a different juice all together, part of my brain thinks it even tastes different. But ofcourse I know that's just the fact that I brushed my teeth not too long ago. Still, you look at this above and think- "Well, it cant really get any worse." Unfortunately, you know it can, and this is what I ended up buying:



Ok. Wtf. I understand that they need to put all that information there. We need to know that its 100% Juice and that its squeezed from fresh oranges and that it is pure and natural and that it has no pulp and that its pure premium and that its pasteurized and that there are 14 fluid ounces... well you see where I am going with this. Do you even notice that there is a glass of orange juice on this carton? Does it even feel like orange juice anymore? There is so much clutter and text not to mention like 107 different font sizes. I did not miss the fact that since this carton is smaller everything is condensed, but still. Uhg! Please share your thoughts, rants, disagreements with us.

*editJust saw this on one of the comments on the Brand New blog, by a dude named Dave. Thanks Dave for making me giggle.

Word Doodles

I had a headache.



I was listening to Incubus.

Water in the Desert

Moebius' 40 Days Dan Le Désert (40 Days In The Desert for the non-French) has been a tremendous inspiraton to me while working on my comic Alien Raver, as well as my work in general. I became aware of Moebius (real name Jean Giraud) when my cousin got me his compilation book Fusion back in high school. Most of his comics are within the realm of fantastical and delirious science fiction, with a graphic style ranging from extreme realism to a more dream-like nature. Désert is a series of drawings that focuses on a priest/archer figure residing in the desert who witnesses magical occurrences while approached by other desert dwellers whose cities seemingly rise and fall around him (in a nutshell).

In Désert he draws all 70 pages in ink (either with a micron or dip pen, not entirely sure) and supposedly without preparatory pencil drawings. His line work is so clean (very steady hands) and the amount of detail really gives each drawing an amazing sense of depth. The characters that populate his world are distinctive and go about their daily routines even while observed; yet they live under a deep shroud of mystery.

Old Dreams

Hauling Ass

I just Found this coming down from the 14th Floor.

Priceless.

subway personas

from an old digital camera, taken a few years back, and the good old camera phone.

Mindless Self-Promotion

Just wanted to jump in and painfully spam everyone with my new venture: NYC GRID. I'm methodically walking down each block in Manhattan and documenting what I find. Will I go crazy? Will I find the perfect milkshake? Will I give up and buy a car? WHO KNOWS. There will be posts every weekday with plenty of photos, so visit or subscribe to discover my fate!

DavetheChimp / One Line

Via BOOOOOOOM!

The Doors - People Are Strange

Great band and an excellent piece by Violenn Simon for an art school project at ENSAAMA School of Visual Communication, Paris 2008. It inspires me to take a song and turn it into a sketchbook maddness piece as well.


People are strange from Denis Fongue on Vimeo.

CATS

.....started this series of CATS after watching "Who Is Bozo Texino?", a documentary I highly recommend. It's based on a wooden cat head I have from el estado de Guerrero in Mexico that I've been drawing for years. All CATS have found a home in the subway.