Fun Pakaging Design

I found a great blog for packaging design inspiration: "The Dieline" (http://www.thedieline.com) posts all kinds of creative and awesome package designs, from wine labels, to soap dispensers, to kitchen supplies. The designs they show are such an inspiration for clever ideas, good typography, and visual aesthetic. Their post of the "Living Earth" designs was particularly interesting. Their packaging for composts contains beautifully simple typography with images made out of basic geometric shapes, and a limited palette of a couple of bright colors. The result is a clean yet cute design for a normally uninteresting product. 
I also loved the "Zing" designs for kitchen supplies. Brightly colored utensils are accompanied by a talk-bubble that states the item's name like "I'm a Spatula!".  I thought this personification was so clever! It shows that just the right phrase can really make your product design work.

Inspiration for Websites

Today, I found a fun site for inspirations for web design ideas. It's called "Web Creme" and contains links to various websites with fun and interesting designs. (to see it click here: http://www.webcreme.com/)
The first website I discovered was the portfolio site of Neil Judges (http://neil.judg.es/). As you navigate through this site, the character on the page stays in the same location while his clothing and backgrounds change, much like a paper doll. It's really quite hilarious, with funny outfits including jet-packs or hot tubs.  I love how he took something simple like paper dolls, and by applying it to a website, it became a really clever idea.
Another one i found was "Design and Code" by Nick Jones (http://www.narrowdesign.com/). This one has some interesting scrolling features. It starts as just a normal webpage, but as you scroll down, instead of the page scrolling a black rectangle appears and grows to show links to other parts of the websites. When clicked on, these links show up in their own rectangles that can be scrolled through. I liked it because it was a clever and unique way of scrolling through options on a site.
The final one I found was "My Dirty Desk" by the My Dirty Desk design studio (http://www.mydirtydesk.com/). I just love the overall design of this site. The fun cartoon-like characters, the simple shapes and color scheme, the nice typography, and the large diagonal shapes that continue as you scroll down all make for a site that is both simple and fun in it's design.

Amazing Toy Store Design

While shopping a few months ago, I discovered an amazing toy store, called JouJou. The entire store looked like it came out of a child's imagination. Brightly colored monsters, robots, fairies, and other fantastical creatures abounded in the environment. Modular, curvy furniture sits next to giant trees and robots. Two particularly fascinating areas were the wall of monsters and the candy organ. The monster wall contains frames, each playing an animation of unique and whimsical monsters.
The candy organ is a giant organ in the back of the store. Not only does it dispense colorful treats, but it is actually playable. By stepping on the colored tile in front you can play various instrument sounds. Overall, the design of the store is stunning. I love how they  thoroughly captured an imaginative playful tone, a perfect choice for a toy store.
Later, I discovered that is was designed by a local design firm, "Struck". On their website (struck.com) they describe JouJou as an environment that "provides a curious and whimsical escape from the humdrum adult world. It’s a realm where imagination takes flight." I'd say that sums it up quite well.

















images from struck.com

Fun Interactive Websites

 

While reading an article ("Creating a Lasting Impression") in the Smashing Magazine blog, I came across some  interactive websites. The first one,“Karlo Jurina Selbstgespräche” by Britzpetermann, is a site created for the musician, Karlo Jurina. It visualizes his music with an array of colorful icons that move and undulate to every note of the songs. It's mesmerizing to watch. It's like an orchestra of icons. I'm amazed that such simple icons were used in such a creative way.

Try it here: http://www.karlo-jurina.com/

Another website I found was the "Hidden Heroes" project by Grimm Gallun Holtappels. This site commemorates the simple things in life, from rubber bands to light bulbs. It has a beautifully simple design consisting of brightly color bars. When clicked, these bars reveal an object and a sound related to that objects. It's very entertaining to click around and hear the various sounds. Like the first website, simple shapes, bright colors, and interactive sound and movement combine to make an entertaining and beautiful website. 

Try it here: http://www.hidden-heroes.net/

references and images from http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/08/14/creating-lasting-impression/