I get asked this questions a lot “Where do you come up with all your design ideas?” It’s almost as if they expect I put on a medical patch like a nicatine addict that allows me to be creative for just 8 hrs on a time release dosage. If it were that easy, I’d certainly put a patent on it and would be living off it’s royalties by now. No it’s not that simple, creativity at it’s core is an influence of everything around us, our culture, our experiences, what we see in media, nature and most importantly the influence of other people.

I think some designers look for this pure creative aspiration in some sort of isolation bubble hoping the solution will suddenly appear on their screen like magic. In realty the design idea might come to when you’re out at the dentist while your getting your teeth cleaned. It might come to you right before you fall asleep (always good idea to have a notepad next to the bed for such occasions) or you might not think of anything for a couple of days and then it just suddenly hits you when you’re out at lunch. You may gain a whole new perspective from talking again to the client or to your co-workers. It’s not quantative process that will suddenly give you an amazing result each time. It’s more iterative process where you look to improve upon your smaller creative concepts.

Look at other great designs and artwork, don’t copy them but gain inspiration from them. Try to figure out what their though process was in why they did certain things and what it tried to accomplish. Why did they choose this particular font? Why did they layout the text in a certain way? Also see what others have done wrong and figure out how you might do it better. Learn from their history, those are some of the greatest moments of innovation that may cause your own creative chain reaction. Remember you’re not just an artist, you’re a problem solver whose weapon of choice is graphic design so do your research. Learn about the business, learn about your client, and learn about the world around you. You’ll have more to draw from and will be a less frustrated designer from doing so.

Some really cool bike designs and prototypes. Check them all out.

The Nerf N-Strike Vulcan ($43) is the mother of all Nerf guns. A belt fed-automatic dart gun that can fire 3 darts a second will strike fear into the hearts of your enemies. Finally you can take out that cubicle dweller without fear of imprisonment. It’s also called a Vulcan so you know it’s cold and calculating. Vulcan death grip not included.

I’m sorry but I do have another design rant. Pepsi spent nearly a million dollars on this new logo and I just don’t think they got their money’s worth. Was it even necessary to do a new rebrand anways, let alone the cost it’s going to be for changing all their vending machines, trucks, and marketing materials. Was their visual brand not currently successful for them? You need real communication justification to address a problem for such a massive marketing effort. So let’s start with the few positives. I like the idea of a simplified design approach but not sure if it fits for this product line. The darker blue in the background gives a nice contrast against the lighter blue in the swoosh with the subtle gradients at the base and top. There that sums up the positives. Now onto what needs some work.

Font choice…ugh…yeah another thin line web 2.0 font. It’s almost so subtle you don’t even see it and reading it on a vertical axis makes it that much more difficult. A cold and sterile choice. Hilarious that between the different versions of Pepsi the symbol mark actually changes it’s shape breaking the golden rule of branding consistency. It looks like a side profile of a plumbers butt crack. The more crack you can see the more calories you’re drinking. Unintentional humor by their designer? The zero cal,carb,sug almost looks like an design element as a giant letter “O” people might not get the cal,carb,sug. A little too minimalist in that regards.

And yet more abbreviations as Mountain Dew is changed to MTN Dew. That font choice is beyond me. It’s sort of 80’s bad vibe to it but it has a sense of rushed thought process to it. It doesn’t exude the energy and impact that traditional Mountain Dew has been associated with in their previous marketing efforts and simply using red as the complimentary contrast colors gives it too much of a Christmas vibe complete with pine trees in the background.
Sierra Mist. Oh it’s Mist…so let’s do the font as a mist. I already saw that movie…it didn’t end well. That redesign is probably the weakest of all the product lines.

Listen, if your going to spend huge amounts of money to redesign your brand, then really try to push past the envelope and then come back away from the edge a few steps and see where you are. This was a poor evolution for Pepsi and more tragic detours for Sierra Mist and Mountain Dew brands. I think a board of directors had a bit too much to say in these. “Well, we want a new brand but not too new, we want it high techy so it’s sort of futuristic. Oh we like that new Obama logo can we do something along those lines. Everyone’s is doing that social media style thing. Let’s get on that wagon.” You need to have a good reason to recreate your branding especially with the price tag that it comes with, and I just don’t see any clear justification of why this was done. Stop following generic aesthetics and design trends and set your branding apart so your identity can withstand the test of time.