Ikea Packaging

I was in Ikea at the weekend and I couldn’t help but buy loads of stuff I didn’t need from the food shop because the packaging was so good. This styling has been around for a while but great design is timeless. I've seen examples of it before in design press, but when you actually see it you really want to get a hold of it.



When you can reduce something down to it’s most simple form and still communicate it’s core values you have created something special. It’s simplicity is so refreshing. It is so honest, and honesty is really appetising in food retail.

I didn’t look at the price because I trusted it. I don’t know if I’ll like any of it, but who cares! It looks great sitting on my shelves and in my fridge. It stands out against everything.

It even has a sense of humour. Check out the ring pull on the Sardines…

www.stockholmdesignlab.se/ikea/food-packaging/

While you’re on these guys site check out their Ohmine Sake packaging. Lovely stuff!

Steve Oakey

Consistency is everything…

The BBC is having a tough time of it at the moment, which is rather unfortunate as it try’s hard to raise another record breaking sum for Children in Need and also celebrate 90 years of Radio Broadcasting.

Recently we were lucky enough to work at New Broadcasting House, the new home to all things BBC Radio in London, we developed a branded package for their new restaurant and café, which gave us an interesting insight to the BBC and it’s inner workings.

This lead me to reflect on the BBC National Radio Station identities. I’ve always admired a lot of BBC’s design output including the now iconic circle themed display idents:

BBC ONE circle idents.
 

Looking at the old identities as a group, they really were a confusion of designs being created at different times by different teams with different agendas. There wasn’t a common voice at all.

The new designs have far more structure.

The BBC Radio mark is now placed firmly on the top left in a consistent position. The station’s individual idents are all in circles, providing consistency with the TV idents mentioned above.

The individuality of each station however comes with the treatment of the numeric, casting an aspect of its personality or purpose. Some are clever, some subtle and others are just pleasing to the eye 3, 4 and 7 being my personal favorite’s with the clef, speech mark and smile on each summing up the stations primary objective.

These identities, old and new serve to demonstrate how important design, branding and consistency is across a manufacturers’ or service providers’ range of products, be it food packaging or portfolio of investment products online literature. A fact we are very aware of and consider everyday in our work here at Eat with Your Eyes.

If you need help in any of these areas, you know where we are!

Jason Beeby

Edible Art

Combining some of my favourite things, creativity, quirkiness, fun and FOOD! Who wouldn’t love to eat Luke Skywalker made out of icing?!



Now, playing with your food is nothing new but creating real masterpieces out of food is becoming more and more socially acceptable (sorry starving kids in Africa, it's not wastage – it's art!)
Whether it be a vegetable landscape, sushi Mona Lisa or beef burger trainers, edible art has moved on from the macaroni necklace I made my Mum as a child.



Edible art comes in many forms, take self proclaimed artistic chef Heston Blumenthal, he creates dishes he would describe as pieces of art. Edible alcoholic snow, parsnip cereal and snail porridge, but is it really 'art'? I like to see people who really think outside the box and take the idea of food as an art-form to a whole new level (and make it a lot more fun!). Take Bournemouth University, who ran TOAST earlier this year, the edible art exhibition inspired by the London 2012 games. Flaming Grill Pub Co restaurants also got involved, branding their steaks with the faces of Team GB - anyone hungry for a Bradley Grillins or Sir (loin) Chris Hoy?



Anyone can have a go at making their own masterpiece from Morrison's, literally anything is possible (if you have the talent, and the patience), as a modest master cake maker myself I got overexcited at the introduction of the airbrushing kit for cakes, enabling Cake-iteers to literally create works of real art using the icing as a canvas, with endless possibilities – see the Millennium Falcon cake below, amazing. My favourite edible art has to be food masquerading as other food - check out the steak cake!




Hungry for more? For more mouthwateringly good edible art check out http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/article/28-fascinating-food-art-photos.html

Helene Turner

11.06.12 – Election Day.

Today, Americans go to the polls to vote for their new President and in some people’s eyes, ours too. The Obama machine is well known for its PR campaigns and excellent marketing strategies (remember the Hope poster of 2008). So what better time to give the latest round of brands my eagle-eye critique;

Barack Obama Created by Sol Sender for the 2008 campaign, the Obama ‘O’ was a focal point of the Obama brand and has been retained again for the 2012 edition.

The latest ‘2012’ creation is bolder, featuring a blue background to the previous white. The Gotham font has also been retained, with aded serifs? Can we add serifs to Gotham – for the President of the United States, yes we can!

I like the rural connotations of the logo, it conveys a homely and very American feel – the red and white stripes instantly say to me ‘the land of the free’. One which Siegel and Gale’s New York based President Howard Belk believes too, “There’s a very strong simplicity to it. Visually it suggests a land of opportunity, the wide open country, and an inclusive circle, inviting people to step in”. Though some corners of the design world have criticised it for lacking emotion.

The ‘Forward’ strapline to Obama’s campaign is given its own ‘Google doodle’ in the header of the Obama website - http://www.barackobama.com/; really shows the attention to detail his party is giving it’s every message.

Mitt Romney Romney’s in comparison is quite poor. It’s a very ‘American’ design using a classical font and styling - basic requirement for any presidential candidate. The R’s icon illustrates quite crudely the president and vice-president elect Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, did anyone guess that!? The icon itself is quite crudely drawn, though you feel it could have been refined given a little more time.




Belk says, “It was originally a double R and now it’s a triple R but either way as a pure piece of graphic design it’s extraordinarily amateurish. The typography is unclear and squishy and there’s no clarity or crispness”, he adds. “The kerning is atrocious, and the letter spacing on the ‘ey’ is so weak,” he adds. Not one to sit on the fence!


It’s believed from various design sources that the Obama 2012 identity is the stronger of the two and some believing the Romney R’s were hastily designed in-house as opposed to Obama’s professionally designed brand. Just goes to show what you can achieve with an agency helping you. And to conclude, lets end with the latest TV ad by the Obama machine – Go Obama! Obama for America, Big Bird TV Advert
 
Or for more videos you can check out Obama’s YouTube page.

 Paolo Ventrone

Why thriving, vibrant creative communities matter to us all.

In the UK, the creative sector is currently growing faster then the economy as a whole, which in our current economic climate is a great driver for providing employment.

It's a real UK success story. According to the Creative Industries Economic Estimates report 2010 produced by DCMS, the creative industries in all their diverse forms represented 5.14% of the UK's employment total, 10.6% of exports and 2.89% of GVA (Gross Added Value). According to Wikipedia, the manufacturing sector accounted for 8.2% of the workforce and 12% of the national output. That's a pretty incredible statistic! In terms of the benefit to local communities, the creative sector firstly has a lot to offer local businesses. There's a creative heartbeat in every successful business – take Apple as the prime example. For creatives, taking risks and pushing boundaries are part of the norm, and this is what drives fresh new ideas and innovations.

Brands are now well established as a key component of a businesses ability to compete, and creatives are at the very centre of building successful brands. Secondly a thriving and vibrant local creative community enriches all our lives and makes our community a much more interesting place to live in and to experience. How can commercial creative businesses such as ours help? By giving our creative sector a Voice to the local business community and local community as a whole – commercial creative companies are in the business of effective communication. We also have a responsibility to help nurture the creative talent of tomorrow which keeps our sector strong and competitive.

Creative businesses can do this in many ways – engaging with art and design students on projects, mentoring, work experience, apprenticeships, part employment so they can afford to pursue university degrees in this difficult economic climate, etc… And we can build a clear and persuasive case for greater investment by Government and private business. We need to prove the indispensability of the creative and cultural industries to business and society as a whole.

However it seems clear that today the creative sector can no longer rely on Government for generous grants and subsidies alone to survive and flourish. It has to learn to operate commercially – and that's where commercial creative companies can provide direction. Mathew Taylor, CEO of the RSA says: "With substantial cuts in public funding and very little sign that private philanthropy is filling the gap we have no choice but to refresh the case for the importance of the arts and develop innovative business models which enable arts organisations to flourish in this difficult environment."

This can and should be a liberating experience – empowering artists, creative practitioners of all disciplines and non-commercial creative organisations to take financial control of their own destiny rather than relying on subsidy, through acquiring commercial business practice tools. I've recently been invited to join a steering group for the Creative Sector in Bedfordshire. I'm really looking forward to exploring how eat with your eyes can make a contribution as a commercial creative company to the Bedfordshire creative community sector.

The opportunity is to align the commercial and public arts scenes much more closely together, so the benefits to both can be reciprocated, and so we can speak more loudly and coherently as one strong voice.
I'll keep you posted on progress, and welcome any ideas anyone has as I undertake this journey.

Tony

Table Type Soy Sauce Bottle (1960)

Instantly recognisable and familiar to everyone, the classic soy sauce bottle is, or has been in everyone’s kitchen cupboard at sometime or another.

A simple study of form and function that works together, a perfect form that is both elegant and practical. The Table Type Soy Sauce Bottle is a great example of a creative modernist design that owes much to Raymond Loewy’s streamlined style.

As a form, the bottle designed by Kenji Ekuan is reassuringly familiar yet mildly exotic. The design was conceived in 1960 and was an immediate success. The design has practical and sturdy elements, such as a wide base for stability and the flowing tapering form suggests a teardrop and gives the bottle a soft organic shape. However this is sharply contrasted by the iconic red flat-topped cap, which has an ingenious double opening ensuring against drips when pouring.

It took three years for Ekuan and his team to arrive at the dispenser’s transparent teardrop shape. More than 100 prototypes were tested in the making of its innovative, dripless spout (based on a teapot’s, but inverted). The design proved to be an ideal ambassador. With its imperial red cap and industrial materials (glass and plastic), it helped timeless Japanese design values - elegance, simplicity and supreme functionality - infiltrate kitchens around the world.

Ekuan wanted a design that could be placed directly on the table and would make elegant centrepiece. Originally the Kikkoman Soy Sauce bottle was intended to be part of a table-top condiment set, but this never happened.

The successful design is made from dishwasher safe glass, it’s refillable and virtually unbreakable - an item intended to keep, re-use and enjoy.

More than 300 million dispensers have been sold, in more than 70 countries. In 2007, to mark its 50th year in the United States, Kikkoman issued a gold-capped version, and the company has also given souvenir bottles, bearing the image of Mickey Mouse, to groups of schoolchildren visiting the factory. But Ekuan’s original design persists.The Kikkoman Soy Sauce bottle may be just a sauce bottle but it shows that simple design principles mixed with functionality can have a longevity and become true design classics, everything has been considered even it’s re-use, quite futuristic thinking in the 1960’s and it still looks as contemporary and modern as it did when it launched 50 years ago.

Frazer Morgan

Food Sells

Now I may be showing my age here, but back in the day everything from cars to chocolate bars were being sold with some oozing sexual undertone.



But gone are the days of a seductively bitten chocolate bar or a bikini clad girl draped over a bonnet. Food is the new sex that sells. Car manufactuars are making cars out of cakes in the television adverts, rather then showing their latest gas guzzler speeding round a coastal road driven by some chiseled chin Lothario, accompanied by a panting, pout lipped companion.



Even the press adverts extol the benefits of writing on fruit, rather then displaying the retaining skills of their models bikini. But this shift isn’t just the provenance of the motor industry, even the media are using food to capture their audiences attention with this latest advert from Sky.

So why this shift? I think it’s because food appeals, it makes your mouth water! Food can offer an experience that is achievable to everyone. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy working here so much, we understand the power of the food experience.

Steve Humber

Brand Building - Off the Wall Thinking

Offices were once designed to keep people apart and controlled. Partitioning, deliberate hierarchy and closed private meeting rooms. At EWYE we work as far from that concept as we can push it, to stimulate creativity and the flow of new ideas.

Open desks, open meetings, open everything. Everyone knows every project here and that’s how we like it. That’s how we get deep into a concept quickly. We all collaborate, share thoughts, stick our noses right in and we question and challenge everything to stimulate creativity and discussion. We do this as a team, because we are a team. It’s what any good agency does to be honest, but we go a little further in our own unique way. We’ve gone beyond our sketch pads and flip charts, and our strategy now adorns our office walls. We are literally immersed in our food ideas and strategy. Surrounded by seasonal references, examples of every food retail concept. Every creative benchmark, everything that takes branding and marketing for food retail to the next level. Our offices are now a physical example of our collective approach and passion for what we do. The really nice thing is our space constantly evolves with new influences. It’s really organic – like the seasons. Our offices have become who we are and what we stand for. Take a peek in to our home of work… 

Steve Oakey

Born Again.

Being of a certain age, and possibly at risk of showing signs of a mid life crisis I find myself embracing the world of motorcycling again.

Latterly owning sports bikes I found myself longing for the adventure of enduro. No doubt inspired by Mr Boorman’s and McGregor’s adventures I found myself exploring the world of BMW’s aptly named range of GS adventure bikes.

This bike is fast becoming a modern design classic. The BMW GS series of dual purpose off-road/on-road motorcycles have been produced since 1980, when the R80G/S was launched. The GS refers to either Gelände/Straße (German: off-road/road) or Gelände Sport.

BMW R80G/S

The most valued version at the time was the R80G/S-PD "Paris-Dakar" model featuring a larger tank, which was launched in celebration of the R80G/S wins in the Paris Dakar Rally.

BMW R80G/S-PD



The horizontally opposed two-cylinder "boxer" engine provides a comparatively low centre of gravity compared to other configurations. This contributes to the ability of these machines to travel on both dirt roads and trails.

In 2004 Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman rode GS’s in their journey Long Way Round, riding from London to New York via Europe, central Asia, Alaska and Canada.

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman | Long Way Round

For a more foodie connection the R1200GS has also featured in the BBC TV series The Hairy Bikers' Cookbook.

Hairy Bikers | GS in action

Sales of adventure bikes in the UK are booming, and who can argue when these bikes offer such flexibility to cover mile after mile either on or off road.

The latest figures show motorcycle sales are in a sorry state apart from adventure bikes, with year-to-date UK sales up 36 %. The GS even formed part of the official 2012 Olympic fleet.

Handling so well, loving fast bends, and yet offering enough storage to take you around the world, you certainly wouldn’t take the short route.
 

My GS

Jason Beeby

Paws for thought... or maybe I’m just barking mad?

Wondering how to boost staff morale, encourage more team work and limit stress in the workplace? Maybe its time you got yourself an office dog.

Far from being a distraction, apparently pets, mainly dogs – can help colleagues get along better, reduce stress and raise efficiency! We thought we’d put the theory to the test by introducing design dog Dexter to the EWYE team. 

Mans best friend has long been deployed for their therapeutic value in rest homes, hospices, shelters, children’s hospitals, even disaster zones! In the US they are allowed into court to help calm witnesses giving potentially traumatizing testimony.

So apparently pets at work can help employees relax, reduce heart rates and lower blood pressure, which can decrease absenteeism and improve staff morale – now that’s pooch power!

The appropriately named Professor Barker carried out a recent study “pet presence may serve as a low-cost, wellness intervention, readily available to many organisations and may enhance organisational satisfaction and perceptions of support. The differences in perceived stress between days dogs were present and absent were significant. The employees as a whole had higher job satisfaction than industry norms”.

Consequently dogs can be an important marketing tool, one architectural firm in London swears by their dog for winning over new clients! It’s hard not to be positive when a dog is smiling at you!

So, did bring your dog to work day increase productivity in the EWYE office…probably not. Did he share his creative insight with the team – of course he did!

Helene Turner

The Word of ‘G’

No it’s not the word of ‘God’, but the inspired learnings of Gordon Ramsay – chef, TV icon, empire… whatever you want to call him, he’s been an inspiration to us all. If any of you have watched his ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ programmes, you’ll also know that the guy speaks a lot of sense. From a business perspective, he radically changes the fortunes of seemingly lost restaurateurs with drastically failing cafés and restaurants, with an all too similar set of criteria.

Here’s a snapshot of 10 key rules from the series for running a successful food business;

1. Research – know your local community. Where are the trendiest places, what are people talking about and why? Look at your pricing compared to local competition and keep reviewing everything. When in doubt ask the experts! We’re here to help you at every step of the way, even before you open.

2. Menu – don’t make it too big, keep it manageable and cost efficient. The menu is possibly the most important factor in your restaurant; it’s what sets you apart from everyone else. If possible try and be known for something great. Succulent steak dishes, longest spaghetti, the creamiest mash!

3. Seasonality – keep costs down and customers coming back for more by updating your menu along with the seasons. Keeping quality produce fresh all year round. Customers will also enjoy coming back and trying something new each time.

4. Suppliers – customers do enjoy the fact that their food is made up of ingredients from their local area. It gives them a sense of pride that the area is doing well, and that the food is the freshest possible. But don’t let this go to your head. Local suppliers, although ‘local’, may be more expensive than their counterparts so try to haggle wherever possible.

 
5. Décor – suit your environment to your food and style, keep it fresh and when in doubt ask Eat With Your Eyes! We work with award winning interior designers to help enhance your environment.

6. Local community and PR- embrace the local community as they’re your number one customers, especially if you are situated in a town or village with no great tourist traffic.

7. Customer is always king – treat your customers as if they were your family. You have to earn that service charge. 

8. Treat your staff well – they are your eyes, ears and hands on deck. Don’t let them down and they wont let you down.

9. Government positives – Some businesses, depending on the rateable value of their building, could receive some much needed reductions in their taxes. Just enquire with your local MP; & Government negatives - Secret ‘stealth’ taxes are crippling smaller businesses meaning ½ of all new businesses close after just one year. Be aware of all your local taxes. 

10. Marketing – always be aware of what your competitors are doing but don’t be afraid to be bold and do something different. That’s where we come in! Contact us on 01234 838 932 for more info.

Paolo Ventrone

Inspirational People

So have you been left completely inspired by The Olympics? 2 weeks of incredible drama, human endeavour and remarkable individual achievements. And now we have the quite amazing and provoking Paralymics. Between them, the most moving and humbling moments mixed in with the grand spectacle of it all.



One great event which reminds us why sport at its finest can really inspire our lives. I'd love to build the Olympic Ethos as expressed so powerfully at London 2012 into our company and the way we perform as individuals and a unit. The wonderful affirming team ethos as expressed by Team GB throughout  - no individual was greater than this. To have a dream and care so much over such a long lead up period just to deliver that one final brilliant performance. The pure and uncontrollable outpour of emotion at the moment of success and realisation of a dream achieved (I'm thinking in particular of Alexis Sanchez), and the humility and grace at the end of an incredible feat – Mo Farah.

The stories of personal endurance, gruelling day to day routines, pain, tragedy, overcoming adversity. Coming to terms with defeat on the day. Pride, determination, total conviction and belief. The ability to do amazing things which leave us in awe.

For some the dream was to be the very best. For others it was PB – to deliver a personal best performance. Now that's something our whole team here can strive to achieve, every day and on every project. I'm a great believer in the human spirit and the capacity of every unique individual to surprise and excel, and I'm a great believer in the great team of individuals we have here. Can we all be everyday Heroes? Olympians? Now wouldn't that be a wonderful legacy?


Tony Chambers

A British Design Classic!

This year has been the year of the Union Jack, or Union Flag as it is officially known. It's everywhere from cushions to malt loaf, chapsticks to peoples faces. The Queen's Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympics have fuelled the wave of National pride across the country and what better way to show it than with the good old Union Jack. It's instantly recognisable and involves the whole of the British Isles - so why not plaster it over everything possible and grab a bit of Britishness for your product.

During the Second World War it was a potent symbol of a nations fight for survival. Later it moved into popular culture and became a fashion icon for the swinging sixties - Pete Townshend's Union Flag blazer typified this new attitude. "He went to Saville Row to get it done, but all the tailors said it would be sacrilege so he had to go to the East End instead," says Paolo Hewitt, co-author of The A to Z of Mod, "It wasn't being disrespectful, but saying that the new era was upon us and it was time to lighten the load of symbols like the target and the Union Jack."

The image also appealed to the early punk movement in the 1970s, during which a whole new crowd was donning the Union Jack. Even Vivienne Westwood, widely regarded as the mother of Punk fashions, incorporated the flag into many classic collections. Then there was Brit Pop, and the ahem... Spice Girls.

But interestingly, now the Union Flag can be seen on every street corner in China, thanks to both the fashion world's ongoing love affair with the Union Jack, and the London Olympic Games. The combination of red, blue and white together with the crisscrossing of the patron saints' totems makes the flag both simple and aesthetically pleasing, easily lending itself to trends of fashion.

"Nearly all of my T-shirts have the Union Flag on them," Jiang Junyi, a high school student in Fujua Province, China, told the Global Times. As a fanatical devotee of the flag since 2010, she has bought lots of Union Flag products. "I love the red, blue and white colours together. The first time I saw the flag on clothing, I fell in love with it."

So it seems now there is a fresh resurgence in the cult of the Union Jack with the world looking at us in detail. After the success of the 2012 Olympic Games and the groundswell of patriotic fever expect to see plenty more of the Union Jack on just about everything possible.

Frazer Morgan

The Great Taste Awards

Britain’s speciality food and drink sector is alive and thriving if the number of products entered into this year’s Great Taste Awards is anything to go on. The country’s largest speciality food and drink awards scheme, organised by the Guild of Fine Food - The Great Taste scheme has become known for launching little-known artisan producers into the big time of the fine food world, whilst occasionally discovering the odd mainstream surprise. The number of products entered has risen by a fifth, with nearly 7,200 foods, ranging from olive oils to farmhouse ciders, put forward for judging.

The Great Taste Awards is the biggest independent benchmarking scheme for local, regional and speciality foods in Britain. Over 350 professional foodies are brought together each year to take part in 45 days of judging, deciding which foods deserve one-star, two-star or the ultimate three-star awards. Judges this year included Masterchef winner and restaurateur Mat Follas, restaurant critic and Masterchef judge Charles Campion, food writers Lucas Hollweg  and Xanthe Clay and over 300 food buyers from leading food halls, delicatessens including Harrods, Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason.

Now why would I be telling you all this? Well it’s just for shameless bragging rights really. For a second year in a row my wife's Jam & chutney business has won gold stars for her products. This year saw a gold star awarded for her Raspberry Jam, which now sits alongside gold stars for her Very Berry Jam & Bedfordshire Rhubarb. Her products are available at farmers markets throughout Herts, Beds & Bucks and also local farms shops and delicatessens.

www.greattasteawards.co.uk
www.humbershomemade.co.uk

Steve Humber

Morgan's Old Fashioned

Here's how to stir up an 'Old Fashioned'. The manliest drink to order, what grandma used to drink between shifts at the tank factory. Traditionally made with American Bourbon whiskey, sugar, ice, water, bitters, orange peel and cherry. You'll like this drink if you're into rap music, pointy shoes or breathing oxygen.

Fact: It's called on Old Fashioned because it's served in an old fashioned glass.

Get these things: 

• Whiskey (American Bourbon) or whatever you can find

• Sugar (I'm using maple syrup)

• Ice

• Bitters

• Orange 

If you don't keep a stock of poison and oranges, improvise and use whatever you can find - you'll probably get lucky and make your old fashioned even more awesome by using weird ingredients. I've replaced the sugar with maple syrup and the water with not water (more whiskey). The orange peel is important, it adds a delicate zesty aroma.

The better the whiskey - the less stuff you need to add. I've got a nice expensive one so I'm going to keep it minimal and let the whiskey do the talking.

Do this with the things:

• Muddle together ice and a mouse face sized amount of bitters and maple syrup in an old fashioned glass.

• Peel an orange from top to bottom and slice thin. For style points you can put your peel in a bowl of ice water which fixes your posing peel into a screw.

• Pour in whiskey, stir lots, stick in your orange peel and serve.

When you're done, you should smoke that cigar you've been saving for a special occasion and leave everything out because you'll be making yourself another one.

Morgan Musselle