Spotted on a local chemist’s counter:

At a quick glance, the following information stood out:

Yes!
Contains Alcohol, Nicotine and Caffeine.

Hmmm…

Since buying the Thinkpad line of products from IBM a few years ago, Lenovo has been busy transitioning the product line branding.

The Same Product, Different Stickers blog post on Lenovo blogs provides an interesting insight into the transition process from a product badging viewpoint.

The lessons are:

Consistency is important, but not a blind rule to be followed.
Consistency goes beyond mere badges and logos.
Transitions must be given time …

A sign spotted in Perth recently:

Got this via email today (thanks Sandra!):

I can just see how this would have happened.

The brief comes into the graphic design studio. “We need a graphic that is X wide and Y high.”
The designers slave away for a while, working to the stated proportions. The designers may not know, or even care, what the display context of the graphic is. Hey, a graphic is a …

Two classic packaging/communications boo boo in one:

On the bottom left:
“Premium Quality” - says the manufacturer.
“NEW IMPROVED” - in what way? For whom? (Is there talc in it?)
“PACKED IN BOX” - this is the punch line. It has to be!

The whole design is already extremely busy. It would not hurt to simply leave out these three lines. What purpose do they serve? Other than to …

Here’s an interesting case of saying just that bit too much on the packaging:

“US #1″ - so, who gives?
“Extra fancy” - the manufacturer would say that of course.
“No talc” - WTF?!!!

Now, I did not know that in some part of the world, coating rice with talc - yes, the very stuff you powder your sweaty bits with - is part of the manufacturing process. To …

I had to ring my mobile phone insurer recently to make a claim when I lost my phone. The introductory recording struck me as particularly well done.

This was the sequence of information presented by the recording:

Identity confirmation – yes indeed I have reached the mobile insurer.

This phone call may be recorded. This is probably the unavoidable piece of redundant info to comply wit the privacy act.

It clearly …

I caught the tail end of this commercial a few times before finally figuring out that it was not for a new mobile phone/phone plan.

Spotted on the fridge at my local Nando’s charcoal chicken shop. It took me a split second to get what was on the sticker - it was a great bit of entertainment whilst I was waiting for my food.

The sticker was discreet; almost like an after thought. It is part of the integrated Nando’s branding/advertising approach which I reckon works quite well. Their …

This is a great little keyboard I spotted on an online shop. It’d be perfect if not for the large and utterly pointless badge.

Was this the designer’s need (must fill up that empty spot)?
Was this the manufacturer’s need (must have a badge)?
Or was it for the sake of customers (they may forget what this thing is)?

The Keep It Simple Stupid approach would be to dump …