we’ve all heard the common plight of how valentine’s day is a hallmark holiday. there are several industries who’s primary profit is made by holiday sales, and many of them are food or candy related. unreal candy issued the “easter bunny apology tour,” created by crunch brands, in an effort to market their product for easter basket stuffing. while the candy only makes subtle cameos throughout the tour, this feel-good campaign does more than just push their product. unreal teams up with celebrities to show the lighter-side of the candy aisle in it’s unjunk candy movement. follow the easter bunny on his quest for redemption and sweet-tooth salvation.

march 2013 will mark the introduction of duke energy’s new logo launch. the new look comes as a result of the merger with progress energy inc. jim rogers, chairman, president and chief executive officer of duke energy notes “the new duke energy will be better able to serve our 7.1 million customers’ energy needs in a safe, reliable, affordable and increasingly clean manner,” which seemingly informs the new look and feel of the logo.

the new logo was an in-house creation that replaces the italicized red “d” issued in 1997. the charlotte observer reports that the intention of the logo was to: “‘capture the idea of forward motion and what energy means in the future,’ said duke chief communications officer ginny mackin. ‘The coloring is more in line with values, moving away from the more industrial look,’” and incorporates the abstracted star icon from progress energy. there is a fine line to walk when merging two existing brands into one. it’s crucial to know what brand elements are essential to each, how to fuse those pieces together and most importantly recognizing when to bring something new to the table.

when you think of any brand or company that consistently offers a user experience that fosters a cult-like following, apple or target might come to mind. what do they have that other groups can’t seem to capture? well google seems to be the most recently initiated member of this club, and they believe that it is a unified design culture that informs the entire brand.

here the verge addresses google’s attitude adjustment that is bringing them rave reviews:

and here allan peters [a senior art director at target] features designer, clesete prevost’s work that illustrates google’s new direction:

have you ever found yourself in a target store or viewing an advertisement for the iconic chain and thought to yourself: it would be awesome to design for target? their love of simplicity and affection for the power of white space nearly makes me giddy. not to mention their collaboration with great designers and brands of varying disciplines, like the new shops concept and the recent campbell’s warhol soup cans. target inhouse, target’s “internal creative studio” is behind much of this eye candy, and they have launched a new website that features the work of their “collective of designers, copywriters, art directors, developers, information architects, production designers, account executives, art buyers and producers.” they also have a blog where you can follow the development of many of their creative wonders.

The Iranian Internet – An Infographic by Maral Pourkazemi from Gestalten on Vimeo.

for infographics to be successful they must distill complex facts into manageable and meaningful visuals that tell a specific story. maral porkazemi has created a six-piece series of infographics that do just that, which is made all the more impressive that she was able to access facts at all. her subject: the iraninan internet. the notoriously isolated country provides very little information and statistics to it’s own citizens, and further censors and or manipulates any information accessed by the outside world. with such a sprawling subject as the internet, which in and of itself is difficult to visualize, these beautiful circuits of statistics depict in detail how iranians are harnessing the power of the internet and social media to access uncensored information.

the key to making a house a home is a little typography. webdesigner depot is featuring a collection of typographic furniture that will have any typophile salivating. hide your wallet… seriously.

the annual report has officially been inducted into the digital era. companies are not only offering a downloadable pdf version of their printed annual report, they are all together abandoning the annual printed tome of business practice past. shareholders are now able to access the usually dry data in the dynamic form of websites. here are a few organizations embracing the future of the annual report.

warby parker

mailchimp

at&t

ge

consumerism has consumed our culture, raising package to an art form. here is a selection of art that only a designer could love: elevating the common container from the retail shelf.

jonpaul smith’s consumer trends // bill barminski’s cardboard spray cans // ecoist

last week we caught a glimpse of neenah’s newest environment’s paper promotion, designed by chen design associates, on their blog. we knew we couldn’t live without this paper sample and contacted our local neenah rep, john ewalt. he kindly came to our office to not only to bestow an updated selection of paper samples, but also brought the [un]block piece. it was like christmas morning.  we were trying to contain our excitement, and keep our paper sniffing to a minimum, as john walked us through the package detailing some of the awesome features.

within the folder you will find pages that have an exposed, perfect binding on both spines. to access the individual books or “blocks,” you tear them apart along the perforations, ending up with a series of four booklets. each book’s content is meant to facilitate the creative process. the booklets, of course, also demonstrate the environment’s paper in all of its glory. within you will find full floods, foils, metallic inks, and embossing.

over the last several years a web trend has emerged, as they do with such an ever-evolving entity. wordpress has increasingly become the platform of choice. even large entities are opting to stick with the basic architecture to cultivate their customer relationships, despite being able to afford and access systems unique to them. so is wordpress living dieter rams design philosophy, in that good design is unobtrusive and is as little design as possible? here are some corporate giants incorporating wordpress into their brand: