Design Evaluation Presentations: Good Design Bad Design

Bad Design

2010 Cleaning Line Released by Colgate Palmolive Corp.

http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/HC/Products/HouseholdCleaners/Fabuloso

      This new Fabuloso product line by Colgate Palmolive looks delicious. The fruit and colored rainbow remind the customer of traditional snow cone flavors, however these are household cleaning products. The design of the bottles resemble traditional beverage containers from the reinforced hand grip to the tapering at the base. The ripples and ribbing of the bottle reinforce the traditional water bottle look and feel. Using a clear container draws attention to the coloring dyes used in the product subconsciously triggering anxieties of spilt Cool-aid on a light carpet.  Only the context of product placement could trigger curiosity, but in the design closure is created before education, and sugar is my final feeling.

      Because of the its packaging design, there is so much noise the product is confusing and awkward.  The product name stamped into the top of the container looks like a Snapple or Sprit bottle, and the yellow cap resembles many Pepsi drinks, and the rainbow resembles Skittles and Luck Charms.   But worst yet, the underline of the female fonted brand pushes your eyes upward and to the left toward the fruit and rainbow, and the products type and purpose is lost in lower righthand corner.


Good Design

2011 iQ Cleaning line by Planet People

www.iqclean.com

      iQ cleaning products are all natural, non toxic cleaners that have no harsh chemicals.  Their product line also use color but in a sophisticated interactive way.  The colors are very vibrent, yet light and silky. Traditional packaging companies cover the front of a bottle with advertising, and the back with product warnings and ingredients. This innovative packaging is simplistic and effectively imprints nothing but the trademark and products purpose on the bottle.  The customers daily experience of the bottle reinforces a familiarity with a companies trademark, which establishes trust in the company and its products.

      The studio lighting highlights the sexy curves of the bottles shape, and the high gloss finish reflects and bends the light to create a shimmer or sparkle much like glass.  The container looks more like a fine bottle of wine that a cheap sports drink.  The unique spray nozzle continues the curvy look and caries many of the same curves as the bottle.

      Unlike most cleaning products that are packaged in white bottles, on a shelf, the iQ cleaning bottles stand out because they are clear and empty.  The product line uses the customers tap water and small cleaner refills so it uses 80% less plastic that tradition cleaning products, and dosent have to ship the main ingredient of all cleaners, water.  The concentrated cleaner refills contain all the legal information and the ingredients so that the customers everyday experience with the product is just the trademark and product type.

     In this case of design, less is more.  The iQ slogan:  "...because you shouldn’t have to choose between a clean home and a clean planet."

Visceral Response

 I have a visceral response to the Cloud Gate sculpture at millennial part in downtown Chicago. Nicknamed the “Chicago Bean”, Cloud Gate offers many amazing photo opportunities with an infinite number of shooting angles. The sculpture has become more of a destination than a work of art, and has been described as a transformative, iconic work.

It creates in me a feeling of wonder and amazement. It's a surreal experience. As it distorts reflected images the viewer becomes a piece of the art. Like watching yourself on television, the audience becomes a part of the Chicago skyline. A deconstruction of empirical space makes the bean seem light and almost weightless.

All of the Gestalt principles become warped and distorted, which is where my fascination comes in.

Pragnanz - As the viewer approaches, they physically enter the art. When one walks underneath it into its "navel", the experience is described as a displaced or virtual depth that is composed of multiplied surfaces.

Continuity - The spherical shape interrupts closure at almost every angle. In order for the reflections to make sense, people have to look behind them to assess the reflections continuity. On the underside of the sculpture is the omphalos, an indentation whose mirrored surface provides multiple reflections of any subject situated beneath it. The omphalos is a "warped dimension of fluid space". In this dimension, solid is transformed into fluid in a disorienting multiplicative manner that intensifies the experience.

Closure - Closure is the challenge. The reflected images continually wrap around the sphere pulling the viewers eyes from the edges outward to identify the source of the reflections.

Figure/Ground Relationship - The landscape on which the sphere rests is in stark contrast to the futuristic science-fiction feel of the sculpture. Yet because it reflects its surroundings, the sphere becomes a chameleon, absorbing the environment. It becomes the background or landscape on which the figures rest.

(This Picture was taken by a great photographer fabio celeita)