Along with the concepts of sustainability and value that designs and the designers have to facilitate, those that design in the food industry are also burdened with the task of these two concepts as well as the concept of promotion of health. Kullture, is one of the few shops / food disturbers that handle this task very well.
http://www.kuulture.com/
In a world off loud and abrasive marketing Kuulture stands out as that quiet kid in the corner that doesn’t bother anyone. The colors and general layout of its brand are visually appeasing and have the idea of Easter egg hunts or backyard gatherings with friends and family. While similar to other health vendors such as Jamba Juice, instead of relying on graphics or statistics it lets its simple design appeal the consumer as something that would catch the corner of there eye from there it’s a matter of solid product and word of mouth. The final touch of design and reference is in choice of color selections and the similarities to the actual color of the yogurt itself, and with the toppings themselves.
While at the time of its creation I don’t think the connection between its brand and the sub-culture of “hipsters” was ever proposed, not withstanding it is there. This connection between the two, creates a bond from this social clique to the vendor to even further the word of mouth.
From a pure sustainability point Kullture excels as a self-sustained environment. Serving frozen yogurt, they are able to recycle the product that they do not sell in a given period due to the nature of the yogurt itself.
http://www.kuulture.com/nutrition/
This cycle limits the amount of dependence they have on vendors for their primary product, and are only dependent on vendors for toppings and flavoring agents. The products they pass on to the consumer (cups / bowls / spoons) are all 100% bio degradable and made up originally of recycled plastics and papers.
To say that Kullture is a eco-friendly location would be a stretch though, while they are at this moment a eco vendor I don’t’ know if that was ever the intention. Instead I would think they had the means of people friendly in mind and the natural evolution of the market and of the goods they are offering paved the way towards there green efforts.
BP Gas & Oil
The two major concepts that I took from both of the readings and have been seeing over and over these last few years in design is the ideas of sustainability and eco-friendly actions / appearances. With that said cue in:
http://www.bp.com/bodycopyarticle.do?categoryId=1&contentId=7052055
For the most part the general opinion of oil and gas companies is that they are a means to the end of planetary destruction. Conoco, Shell, Dynaco, Shamrock and other companies all share this stigma. BP gas and Oil in the last 5 years have managed to turn this opinion about them as a company and partially the entire industry slightly askew. The new design of BP has replaced its standard logo with a symbol / figure similar to a giant sunflower Replacing their logo with an environmentally friendly / iconic image replaces there position as just another gas station / oil company but as the first (and only at the time) gas station / oil company that actually cared about the environment they were reaping there product from. The choice of colors supports there new eco friendly branding, the bright green and yellow reflect the iconic colors of the earth (green) and the life giving rays of sunlight (yellow), the shape of the sunflower as well can be suggested as a metaphor for the sun passing out rays.
http://www.bp.com/iframe.do?categoryId=9030821&contentId=7056949
There adapting to a semi eco-company has allowed for them to both publicly as well as psychically generate interest as a self – sustained company. By promotion green technology in their products they leave a lighter impact on the earth which in turn gives them a better placement in a PR sense and may help the natural resources last long thus keeping them as a business together longer then say Conoco who hasn’t really adapted the eco mentality other then in press releases.
This replacement of their logo can be summed up with the rationasiiance verbiage. They have taken a blend of multiple subjects (iconinogphy, geology, color theory, business) and have merged them into the new logo which is as iconic as the sunflower it is based off of.
Valve
While Valve as a company isn’t any more eco-friendly or less then other gaming companies the products the company itself as well as its communications with the company and its adaption of its brand according to its consumers demands / requests I think warrant it a spot for this blog.
From a product standpoint Valve is known for its quality of games and its Steam service (downloadable and purchasable PC games that the user downloads directly). For the most part all of Valves direct products involve some form of a first person shooter then has a retro / art deco feel or belong directly into the sci-fi genre. What makes this unique is that valves branding as a whole reflects both these genres. From the homepage, its implemention of watermarks and its trademarked logos they all reflect a some form of these two genres. The valve logo is taken directly from its most popular game series and even if you didn’t’ know who valve was directly, if you knew the game you know the company that owned it by this simple symbol. The general feeling of everything that valve touches and produces is cycled through its design process and vice versa. With nearly every game and product that is released by Valves production studios there brand assimilates some iconic imagery. Not only does this create a loyal fan base and communicates a mutual love for there product that the fans have, it also shows a loyalty to the staff that produce the games because what work they did will always live on with the Valve brand.
For connections to the PDFs Valve fallows the concepts of Sensuctive and Responsibiz completely. All of there products and the means that they produce the products are created in a fair sense of labor quality for the staff and the expectations that the consumers may not have a completely powerhouse computer or a console, so everything they make is well rounded to the largest market possible. In a gaming sense all of their games are made with intention that one day the users themselves will adapt and modify them to their own liking, and depending on the status of the game and the mods (modification) popularity the company may officially adopt this mod and market it freely its consumer base.
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