Why is it that designers always use this style when things are supposed to look well designed? This is way to easy, it is photogenic but what does it say about coffee or the ritual of a cafe? Is everything made better by applying graphics better suited to an airports wayfinding?
Taxi eh? I would have expected more…
jerrigirl
October 13th 2009
This feels under researched. The package’s are pretty and clean, but are sterile and lack any emotion. Drinking coffee is about more than cool packaging.
j bowles
October 14th 2009
steve mkyolyn is a rip off artist
Dave
October 14th 2009
I don’t know…I think it is pretty good. But then I would as I was the CD. Oh well you can’t please everybody.
As designers, we try to do our best but ultimately we cannot please everyone. We all have different views on what makes “good” design, and in a positive way, that is what keeps the profession interesting…variance.
tf
Werk
October 14th 2009
To the first comment.
There may be an overuse of this Swiss style in design today. We see this so often, that it can appear to us like non-design. Used everywhere, on any product, the style exhausted. This is graphics design’s version of “beige” paint, it’s meaning understood as “design safe”.
But to the designer’s credit, they avoided the obvious coffee inspired themes (think Starbucks with Italian names, or current popular forms of coffee life at McDonald’s) running rampant in this market.
Brave design departure, not so much. But “design safe” used in this way, on objects that are ubiquitous, makes perfect sense. Good call Taxi, you may have reclaimed “beige” and made it work.
Well said @Werk – however I would also add that it’s far more difficult to create solid clean and simple work than it is to hide behind flourishes and ornament.
Justin
October 16th 2009
If this was really “Swiss”, there would be a powerful focal point or visual interest. Too often Swiss/Modernist is used interchangeably with boring as hell…which really shows a huge gap in knowledge of design history. This is just clean, safe, and very conventional.
I do like the gas gauge to represent the caffeine level, but one element doesn’t make a system. It almost succeeds on the bags of beans, but the water bottle and cup sleeve look like last minute additions that were not taken seriously at all.
8 comments — Leave a Comment
Why is it that designers always use this style when things are supposed to look well designed? This is way to easy, it is photogenic but what does it say about coffee or the ritual of a cafe? Is everything made better by applying graphics better suited to an airports wayfinding?
Taxi eh? I would have expected more…
This feels under researched. The package’s are pretty and clean, but are sterile and lack any emotion. Drinking coffee is about more than cool packaging.
steve mkyolyn is a rip off artist
I don’t know…I think it is pretty good. But then I would as I was the CD. Oh well you can’t please everybody.
Good point!
As designers, we try to do our best but ultimately we cannot please everyone. We all have different views on what makes “good” design, and in a positive way, that is what keeps the profession interesting…variance.
tf
To the first comment.
There may be an overuse of this Swiss style in design today. We see this so often, that it can appear to us like non-design. Used everywhere, on any product, the style exhausted. This is graphics design’s version of “beige” paint, it’s meaning understood as “design safe”.
But to the designer’s credit, they avoided the obvious coffee inspired themes (think Starbucks with Italian names, or current popular forms of coffee life at McDonald’s) running rampant in this market.
Brave design departure, not so much. But “design safe” used in this way, on objects that are ubiquitous, makes perfect sense. Good call Taxi, you may have reclaimed “beige” and made it work.
Well said @Werk – however I would also add that it’s far more difficult to create solid clean and simple work than it is to hide behind flourishes and ornament.
If this was really “Swiss”, there would be a powerful focal point or visual interest. Too often Swiss/Modernist is used interchangeably with boring as hell…which really shows a huge gap in knowledge of design history. This is just clean, safe, and very conventional.
I do like the gas gauge to represent the caffeine level, but one element doesn’t make a system. It almost succeeds on the bags of beans, but the water bottle and cup sleeve look like last minute additions that were not taken seriously at all.