"design" news and stories

There's a new magazine out of France, and it's kinda cool in that weird, hipster-y PoMo sort of way. It's called Yummy, and its calling itself a "JunkFoodDesignMagazine" (because spaces between words are so passé).

The magazine - and web site - are mostly en Français, but obviously, art transcends language, and all that jazz, so your lack of French-speaking skills will not hinder your appreciation - or revulsion - from the site.

The featured art runs the gambit from Whodonut?, Virginia Barre's slightly disturbing illustrations of people living in a fast food nation, to Show Her, which seems to be a big excuse for the artist to show photos of a half-naked woman in a rainstorm, occasionally holding a soda bottle (hence, the food connection, I suppose).

Go check it out - you might just be inspired to make some food art of your own. Or just be really grossed out.

Designboom, a mod blog devoted to the latest and greatest in product design, recently came out with the winners of its 2006 Dining in 2015 contest. The challenge was exactly as it sounds: to design a food-related product that would be useful in 2015 at work, in travel, or at home.

Chefs and designers from Italy and Japan judged the entires and came up with the top three and an honorable mention.

Let's start from the bottom and work up. The honorable mention [ed. note: shown in photo] was an eco-friendly solution to dinner prep: silicone and nylon triangle-shaped buckets that allow the cook to boil three different foods all in one pot, thereby saving energy, time, and water. I totally expect it to be selling out on QVC in no time.

Third place? A creative ceramic salt and pepper shaker that forces you to physically break open the canister to access the spices inside. The goal of the project? There isn't any, really, but we bet it's really, really fun to break open. Save it for a day when you're really pissed off at someone, and then smash away. (But don't get carried away - - then you'll just have a mess of salt, pepper, and white ceramic shards to clean up).

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Have you ever had to quickly run to your computer to use google or had to search through the indices of a few cookbooks to look for equivalent measure conversions? If so, you'll probably like this idea from a practical standpoint, and if not, you might like it from an artistic one. This Equivalent Measure wall transfer is easily applied to a kitchen wall or cabinet by rubbing the design with the included burnishing tool. Once on, it is permanent and can easily be washed without rubbing off, although it won't damage the wall in any way. It lists common equivalencies that most cooks will need to reference from time to time and has a graphic of lightly colored measuring spoons in the background, which gives it a slightly "country" feel and prevents it from looking like you simply decided to write on your wall. It measures 14" x 19" and comes in light or dark brown.

If you have neat writing or are reasonably artistic, you might want to consider skipping the $70 expense and trying to do it yourself.

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When Allrecipes redid their layout back in October, the design was met with less than positive reviews from users, who complained about the readability of the text, the number of advertisements and the difficulty of actually locating the main recipe on the page. Epicurious, one of the other leading online recipe sites, is now testing out a new look for their recipe pages. Fortunately, they don't seem to be going to extremes with their makeover.

The old view had a banner ad at the top of the recipe and put the user ratings, menu suggestions and related links down the left-hand side of the page. The new layout eliminates the top banner ad and moves the user reviews onto the right-hand column. The ads that used to appear in the sidebar have been eliminated as well and that space is now occupied with links to reference guides and the Epicurious recipe feed link. Along the top of the recipe, there are several tabs that make it easy to switch between the photo, reviews and the recipe itself without relying on the browser's back button.

Overall? The changes look good and it probably won't be long before Epicurious switches over to the new layout completely.

[thanks, alanna!]

Pepsi is reworking their image and giving the look of their brand a total overhaul. The plan features a "360-degree marketing campaign", but the first thing that most consumers will notice is that their cans will look very different than before. Starting next month, the company will begin using more dramatic designs on their cans, bottles and branded cups and will be rotating the designs every few weeks to "reflect themes close to the hearts of teens and young adults." The theory is that younger consumers will be more interested in something more visually stimulating than their current design and that if there is a sports or music-themed can, a music fan might be more likely to purchase it. The logo itself will not change, but since Pepsi has only changed their can design 10 times in the 109 year history of the company, this new plan is quite a departure from tradition.

Also in pursuit of the drinking loyalties of the "millennial generation," the company will be running more contests, games and sweepstakes and will be sinking more money into merchandising (did you know that you can buy a Pepsi dress?) and advertising. Different contests and prize-winning opportunities will be associated with the different Pepsi products, giving consumers "different experience each time they buy a Pepsi" and "a passport to the things they enjoy most." Oh, and they'll be getting Pepsi, too.

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