Reality Rebranding: Corporate Logos Get Brutally Honest

Reality Rebranding: Corporate Logos Get Brutally Honest: [ By Delana in Design & Graphics & Branding. ]


The average American child can recognize popular brand logos long before learning to read. Viktor Hertz is a Swedish artist who takes the most recognizable corporate logos and turns them into something a little more honest.



Using the same color schemes, fonts and graphics as the originals, Hertz rethinks logos. He turns them from tools of corporate deception into tools of honest communication.



How many of us would still buy these products and shop at these establishments if their logos were more truthful? A dinner out at McDiabetes seems a little less wholesome and American than a meal at McDonalds, after all.



Part of Hertz’ intention is obviously to be funny, but there is a lot of accuracy in this series – albeit very cynical accuracy. The humorous rebrandings tell the true story of what each company is actually all about.

A’ Design Award: 10 Worthy Winners from Around the World

A’ Design Award: 10 Worthy Winners from Around the World:

Each year, thousands of designers from over one hundred countries submit works of architecture, furniture, packaging and more to be considered for A’ Design Award. From the past two years of winning projects featured on DesignMag, WebUrbanist is pleased to present ten of the most compelling designs.

Starting small: the pencil sharpener is perhaps one of the most significant inventions by and for designers of the 20th Century. In a new age where manual writing implements are rapidly becoming retro chic, the Acutor by Jaeryong Lee highlights the cool chaotic remnants of each act of sharpening in a classic scientific flask.

Sizing things up, designers are famously workaholic by nature, so it only makes sense that one inspired insomniac – Athanasia Leivaditou – would craf the Life Desk, an intentional solution for sleeping where you work without simply drifting off while you sit at your desk.

Chateau D’eau House by Mauro Brigham is an exemplary real-life adaptive reuse project. The stunning cylindrical shape once housed a water tower, and now contains six stories of rounded residential and community space.

Office 04 by I29 Interior Architects addresses traditional problems of an office – privacy versus community, quiet versus communication – and solves them with an effective-yet-minimalist palette of unusual designs and materials, including suspended-wall seating stations and sound-absorbing fabric finishes.

Trying to get the public to the library can be a tricky proposition, which is why the Robi Rolling Library by Claudia Miller brings books and reading spaces right to your doorstep. Built-in furniture manages both to save space and provide neat reading nooks in which to sit and watch the world go by.

Chairs and ottomans go together like horses and carriages, but few fit quite as snugly as the Gibbous by Nanu Al-Hamad. In his transforming furniture piece, the two pieces actually become one whole.

Another seating surprise, the Cloche Chair by Carlo Sampietro hides inside a safety barrel, turning “symbols of caution into objects of comfort” with a whimsically-upcycled twist. In a traffic-rerouting protest or public gathering, these could really come in handy.

The Sensei Transformable Chairs/Coffee Table set by Claudio Sibille turns a literal interpretation of the Yin/Yang symbol combination and makes it into a functional piece of convertible furniture, as clever as it is plain.

The Kitchen Train series of accessories by Ahmad Abedini shows that even everyday appliances have room left for creative expression – the potential to be integrated elements as well as modular accent pieces.

A bit of a spin on your standard sink, the Vortex washbasin by Deniz Karasahin gives solid shape to the spiral form of water winding its way toward and down the drain – an elegant solution to spice up an otherwise-ordinary bathroom or kitchen fixture.

Stay tuned: in the upcoming weeks we will give you the inside scoop on what A’ Design Award is all about, how to submit your own designs for consideration, expanding your audience of clients and employers in the process.

Digital Retro: 10 Sundial & Hourglass Clocks & Watches

Digital Retro: 10 Sundial & Hourglass Clocks & Watches:

Sundials and hourglasses were two of the earliest ways humans developed to mark the passage of time. As better technology has emerged, we’ve all but dropped these reliable gadgets in favor of fancier, more accurate timepieces. But some designers are bringing back the old standbys in unusual and impressive ways – these are hourglasses and sundials with a 21st century twist.

(images via: Walyou)

The hourglass goes digital in the SandTime wristwatch, a very stylish timepiece that displays either numbers or a digital representation of falling sand on its face. And unlike strapping an actual hourglass to your wrist, this option actually looks quite cool.

(image via: Technabob)

The same concept is at work in the KWID watch, but this one is aimed at keeping kids aware of the passage of time. By giving a graphic representation of time passing (i.e. falling sand) and including the option to view the time in number format as well, the watch teaches kids how to tell time on their own.

(images via: Digital Sundials International)

Old-fashioned sundials display the time by casting a shadow on a number. These elegant digital sundials display the time by letting the sun shine through two specially-designed filters which result in numbers being displayed on the sundials’ faces. The brilliant designs are sold in both northern and southern hemisphere varieties to give accurate time readings no matter where you are in the world.

(images via: Amazon, Amazon, Yanko Design)

Using a small hourglass to tell you how much time is left until that pot roast can come out of the roasting pan is cute and everything, but it won’t exactly shake you from your TV-induced reverie. For that, you need these digital hourglass timers, all of which combine the aesthetic of an hourglass with the convenience (and sound capabilities) of a digital timer. The next time you’re baking cookies and the bottoms get a little blackened, you won’t be able to blame it on not hearing the timer.

(images via: Yanko Design)

The Hourglass Lantern is a rather abstract version of the 21st century hourglass idea. It is a lamp that starts out lit on the top half and the light “trickles” to the bottom. Although it probably won’t help you keep track of time in any precise kind of way, it is a lovely rethinking of the ancient design, recasting it into a different type of role in the home.

(image via: Dornob)

The Digital Sundial is a wall clock that strays from the expected hands-inside-the-frame configuration of a clock. Instead of a face with numbers and hands pointing to those numbers, the clock displays a plain face and projects bright red laser beams onto the flat wall around it to show time, temperature, date and a slew of other data. The Digital Sundial goes centuries beyond the basic single function of the traditional sundial.

(image via: Gearfuse)

The brilliant LED Hourglass is a student project that uses a 3D array of LEDs to simulate the falling of sand from top to bottom. An integrated accelerometer tells the device which end is on top and the red lights reset themselves accordingly, then begin to “fall” slowly.

(image via: Engadget)

Although a full-scale overhaul of the traffic light system may not take place in our lifetimes, this Hourglass Traffic Light concept seems like it would be ideal for just such an overhaul. The tri-color system tells you just how long you have to wait for every phase of the light: how long you have to get through the green and yellow lights, and just how many more seconds you can fiddle with your phone before the red light changes back to green.

Kitchen Porn: 17 Delicious Rooms Feed Your Need for Design

Kitchen Porn: 17 Delicious Rooms Feed Your Need for Design:

The kitchen is known as the heart of the home – it’s where we nourish ourselves, our families and our guests. It also presents some design challenges and opportunities that you won’t find in any other room of the home.



Italian kitchen designers Tecnocucina are experts at overcoming those unique challenges and creating some of the most beautiful and memorable kitchens ever.



Their line of kitchen designs run the range from ultra-modern – clean and sleek with bold lines – to traditional Italian opulence. In every Tecnocucina kitchen, small touches of style make the difference between regular kitchen design and stunning rooms in which we wouldn’t mind cooking hundreds of meals.





The kitchen interiors from Tecnocucina are all designed from a functional as well as aesthetic standpoint. Their team includes architects and engineers who ensure that each design is as usable as it is beautiful.





Of course, no matter how well-designed the kitchen, it is the personal touches that make the room truly the heart of every home. These contemporary kitchen designs are a jumping-off point for the personalized rooms that draw in your family and friends and set the stage for memorable moments.