Around the Net

The Secret Design History of 12 Famous Brands

Husband and wife design team/bloggers/authors Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio offer the "juicy" stories behind the design of a dozen brands.

Sure, there's the Coca-Cola and FedEx labels, the Playboy Bunny and Campbell's Soup can. But there are some pleasant surprises, too, such as the 500 covers that Reid Miles designed for Blue Note jazz albums in the Fifties and Sixties. Also notable is the Penguin paperback line designed by a 21-year-old employee in 1935. Part of the charm is the penguin at the bottom, inspired by a trip to the London Zoo, that remains endearingly incongruous today.

There's also the blue Tiffany box and white ribbon, about which the New York Sun had the following to say in 1906: "Charles Lewis Tiffany has one thing in stock that you cannot buy of him for as much money as you may offer. He will only give it to you. And that is one of his boxes." (Every once in a while I run across a box that contains a Tiffany's $100 redeemable coin that my wife won in a photography contest years ago. Clearly the inherent beauty and meaning of both objects outweigh whatever jewelry she could get in redeeming them.)

advertisement

advertisement

Read the whole story at Fast Company »

Next story loading loading..