On these pics you can see a banana leaf used as a take-away pack. The leaf is, on one hand, flexible and can take shapes, roll, bend and stuff. On the other hand, the leaves last long after they are cut from the trees. I am not sure how long, but taking a piece of food on the go looks like a perfect idea.

The idea has been in use for ages in the South East Asia area (see examples here, for example), but never got any development in the western culture. I guess, there is a reason for that. We don’t grow banana trees here in the Russian freezers, for example, and how many efforts it should take to bring the leaves all the way here. Suppose, you have started bringing the leaves, and you are ready to cover all the costs of using this eco-friendly packaging. How friendly this eco-friendly idea will become after it is put to practice everywhere? So, the idea is just great, but as long as it used where it is supposed to be used…

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Simple as that. But see how nicely it works: you can make words of the cups. No use? See this: You can use each cup for a person whose name starts with the letter. No fun? Oh, come on The idea comes from Koresa, Seoul based IamDesign.

But this doesn’t have much with art, you would say. Which reminds me of what has made me come back to this news I had earlier skipped. Cheeming Boey took the idea further on to create a piece of art on a cup, reports The Dieline. There are no two identical cups in the collection, and they look just awesome!

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1. People of business talk about flexibility and its importance in proper responding to the market needs. With the constantly increasing speed of life, this thesis proves to be more true every day.
2. When you stick to traditions, you tend to repeat your behaviour. This makes you a very good and easy target for the guys that confront you in the market competition. So, it’s better if you should that target first and do something they’d never expect.
3. If being conservative means doing things you always do, you’ll never create anything really new. Think out of the box, do some brainstorming, hire people from outside, break some of your rules and you’ll find yourself a creative inventor you never were.

You can come up with many more examples that would prove the point I am trying to make. You can come up with as many that would fairly contradict these. Both ways are true, you just need to start thinking from the position you are in at a certain moment. You just need to think. Instead of blindly sticking to rules…

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The ad was claimed “ad of the month” in January by Awards for National Newspaper Advertising (the ANNAs) in the British media. The ads feature two images contradicting to one another, thus telling two sides of the story.

The question are used to put a doubt on seemingly obvious facts, thus claiming the viewer to think more and question more to get a clear and true picture of what is going on around the world.

Among the most impressive image oppositions are Barack Obama vs Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Question: Who Poses Greater Nuclear Threat?), Terrorist vs NATO Soldier (Question: Is Terror Only Inflicted By Terrorists?).

Here are the ads:

It turns out that major airports in the USA refused to display the ads, which has led to another smart idea from Russia Today: “politically correct ad” leads you to original ad on the RT website.

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The idea is that the packs are placed one into another, just like with the famous Russian doll, until, finally, you reach a free Big Mac coupon. To make it even more like at home, the coupon is made in Russian. With the failures of the Russian sportsmen, this move might warm them up a little

The team working on the project:
Advertising Agency: Cossette, Vancouver, Canada
Creative Director: Bryan Collins
Creative Director: Rob Sweetman
Art Director: Scott Schneider
Copywriter: Jeff Shorkey
Designer: Rob Horsman

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But looking back to the past, do you always remember to actually see the mistakes you “have made” in the future? The marketing experience of the past helps us not just avoid repeating the same mistakes, but rather map the future happenings, see the trends and shifts. Keeping this in mind does the real work of learning: mind it and you win…

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Now, there’s another interesting design from Karim Rashid.

PSFK reports about Water Bobble:

Water Bobble, an inexpensive bottle with a replaceable carbon filter. With a simple design for filtering tap water, the bottle offers a reusable and environmentally-friendly alternative to the increasingly damaging consumption of bottled water.

Luxist.com adds some more light on the product:

what makes it tap friendly is a carbon filter that meets or exceeds NSF International Standard 42, the standard that governs public and private drinking water. The filter should be replaced every two months or after filtering around 40 gallons of water. It sells for $9.95 and will be available from March 1 in multiple retail outlets, including Bed Bath & Beyond, JC Penney, Whole Foods and many others.

A great idea, well done for the designer…

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Cool device from Japan. Coke vending machine is actually a robot, says Stan Lee at Brand DNA.

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BestBuy have installed a billboard on the Times Square advertising the E-cycling program. The program says that you can bring the hardware that you were going to throw away and have it recycled by paying $10. But you are not losing that money – it is transferred to you BestBuy gift card.

The smartness of the ad is that the e-cycle text is written with the old used hardware. Not a good way to recycle the equipment but very clever move to stand out. Hope this serves its goal in the end.

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