A united Europe.

I'm glad that these are not sold in clamshells/blister packs, but they still get thrown away. Would it not have been a better idea to use molded paperboard for some kind of semi-permanent toolbox? Or even a conventional metal or plastic toolbox? Still seems like a lot of bulk to get rid of just to get your hands on some pliers.

This feels like a step backward from the recently-redesigned brand. Very medical, very plain. I know type-only packaging is becoming more powerful, but this just doesn't look very appealing to me.

Wait, are we commenting on the not-shy nature of the ad, or the fact that this isn't the typical rail-thin model? Either way, TV execs are a bunch of tight asses. Considering how they dress up their "news" women, they should allow straight porn on the ads. Who's the pimp in this equation anyway?

I imagine this will be a nightmare for table-top photographers. From any angle, under any lighting, it just looks like a free-form mass of fried shit. Then again, there's a certain target market that loves just that. Stay classy, America.

Email me, lemme know what you're working on. prescott@perezfox.com

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that these abstract drawings made me blush a little. I wonder what would happen if I were asked to work on a project like this. Awkward levels would be off the chart.

While I enjoy the sharpness of these packages, taking advantage of that whole gunmetal aesthetic, I do much wonder if the Dove brand can transcend femininity. The same Dove mark, and especially the dove silhouette logo, give it a decidedly soft and womanly feel. In this case, I would have advised the brand to launch a spin-off for men, rather than keeping it within the same branded family. Maybe this would be more effective if it were called "Hawk" instead of Dove. Or just "Men+Care by Dove." We'll seen.

I love the artwork, but they should have kept the typography consistent for these modern times. Very cool, but not quite an A+

As much as I love book cover design, I wouldn't categorise books with packaging. The 3-dimensional nature of packaging is lost on book covers, which are essentially 2D. There are similarities, of course, I think it would be unwise to expand the Dieline to include books and book covers. The exception, of course, would be for true book packaging — box sets, for example. CD packaging is more like packaging because CDs are often considered for more than the cover and spine. At least where the CD is arranged in a manner outside of the conventional jewel case. Multi-disc albums and box sets offer unique opportunities for packaging design, and room for design innovation, as we saw last year with Turner Duckworth's Metallica CD, for example.

It's often not relevant or appropriate, but if the two clients are in similar sectors, I'd say go for it. But it might be a good idea to call the lawyers first. If the first group gets huffy to see their rejected work in the marketplace, you better have a very clean answer prepared. I always say castaways and concepts for creative purposes. Often _those_, and not the final deliverable, are what ends up in my portfolio.

Another thing (sorry to be annoying) regards the time commitment required to find gigs online. Browsing the sites, contacting the client, and arranging the project, can add to dozens of hours before you even get to do any work! In the end, for a small paying job especially, it hardly seems worth it. And that's saying nothing of the work you don't win. Unless you can, somehow, win 90% of the jobs you bid on, and turn them around in serious time, I don't see how this is viable economically.

That's funny because I think RFPs/Proposals are a total waste of time. Both parties will have a better sense of the potential business relationship from a 15 minute meeting (or phone call) than from the dozens of hours required to produce/revise/deliver/read the mountains of paper. Chances are that the potential client has requested several proposals, and thus the one you've spent hours on will likely not even be read. I've heard that one-page proposals are the new thing. It's the gesture more than the artifact that matters — if you are serious about working together, your communication and professionalism will be evaluated. Freelance job sites are crap because the all fundamentally devalue designers as businesspeople. If a business owner can't get a referral from a friend, he should do his own research and contact a firm/practitioner directly. Sending a project out for bids demotes the entire project to a commodity, not a professional service. I often compare design to the professions of law and accounting, which are respected professional services. While parts of those professions can be outsourced to cheaper markets, most business owners will acknowledge the need to have a good lawyer or accountant in your back pocket for the "real" stuff.

My thoughts exactly! THESE are how you make a Halloween version of your packaging. That Pepsi stuff was weak.

These are impossibly lame. Choosing to go with a type-and-logo-only approach to a can design usually means that your typography is gorgeous and your logo is sharp; in this case both fall flat. While I can see that Pepsi is going for the Snickers approach — bastardising the wordmark for the sake of spoof-related brand association — their latest design scheme is too new, and too awkward to stand by itself in such a way. Also, with ZERO icons usually associated with Halloween, it makes us wonder if it was all worth the effort. (I know I haven't posted in ages, so sorry for chiming in solely to snipe. I understand that's not very good Internet empathy)

Ha, great. After the first sentence, the second sentence seems vaguely metaphorical. "Departing the Hyatt" is the new euphemism.

If anyone's interested, I wrote a review. In short, I was unimpressed by the movie, but always impressed by the ads. http://www.perezfox.com/2009/08/22/art-copy-a-review/

@Phil, I have the feeling you'll either love it or you'll hate it. Let's not forget a previous line extension, the Guinness Marmite for St. Patrick's Day. http://www.perezfox.com/2007/02/20/marmite-guinness/

I'm going to see it in NYC this Friday. I guess I'll formulate a more informed opinion this weekend.

Everyone in that trailer seems to be very, um, distinguished. Does this mean it's a film about advertising's history? Is it wrong that I only half care about why the 70s sucked, and the rise of fast food culture?

Great translation. I would have called it pretty much the same way. Don't you think there's also something between the lines there about how sales are slipping and they're going to the mainstream out of fear? I love that Cabrio spot! Definitely one of my favs from, what, 1997? VW had some great ones in the late 90s. But weren't those W+K?

WOW! Is this for real? After a while you don't even know what you're clicking on. Doesn't that violate the first rule of advertising? How effective is advertising that fundamentally misleads?

Wrote about this yesterday for my WTF Wednesday series. I suppose the packaging fits right in line with the overall craziness of the product itself. http://www.perezfox.com/2009/07/29/wtf-wednesday-coke-introduces-fizzy-milk/

I agree that the identity is cohesive, and the multiple parts do work together, but it's still fucking wacky. I still don't 'get' it, and I have yet to read a compelling reason on how this reflects Britain (past, present, or future.) Being wildly different is sometimes an advantage in design, and can earn some nicely deserved attention. But in this case, it [still] fails to abide by the first rule of identity design: be appropriate.