Design Nuggets October - spoooky edition

Looking out for spooooky trends

October is here and that means Halloween! The only time of year you can munch snack size Mars bars in a Witch hat all day and not be judged. Plus this year is the first Halloween in 19 years with a full moon, so it’s going to be extra spooky.

I’m definitely going to be on the lookout for creative Halloween campaigns by fun brands looking to lighten everyone’s mood with the current pandemic sitch. 

Not design related, but here are some predictions for Halloween 2020:

• People will get creative with socially safe ways to trick or treat
• Zoom backgrounds get crazier
• People will dress up their top half for meetings with extra effort
• We’ll see some super fun Halloween campaigns by creative brands

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Opal Fruits came back? And I missed it?

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Ok, so this is from wayy back in January (how did I miss it)? I found out about it listening to an older episode of Overtime with Meg lewis (episode 65: Put a Label On It (Or Don’t), if you’re interested). But I thought it was a cool project, with an interesting approach.

Design agency Straight Forward were challenged with bringing back the Opal Fruit logo for a limited edition run of Starburst. But they didn’t just raid the archives for the old logo, tidy it up and set it on its way on the packaging. They decided to take a trip down memory lane, asking how people remembered the Opal Fruit brand to be.

Creative Director Mike said:

“Nostalgia is interesting, because perceived and actual memories are two different things, and people are drawn to one particular iteration. The task for the designer is to marry all these factors and come up with a brand and packaging identity that works for today and is universally reminiscent of the past,”

The design they come up with feels really familiar, I was surprised to realise that it wasn’t the actual design from back in the day.

Nostalgia and design is a fascinating topic, I’m definitely going to look out for more cases like this!

BNCONF2020 (sad)

We’re a bit bummed because BNCONF2020 was supposed to be held this month at The Long Center for the Performing Arts, in Austin Texas. But for obvious reasons, it had to be postponed. Last year’s conference was super inspiring and we met so many amazing people there.

But, not to be too negative about it! BNCONF2021 has been rescheduled for next year and we’re pumped to attend then.