A kind of amazing new rebrand for ESPNEWS by Trollback. “The package builds on the notion of ESPNEWS as the center of the sports information universe; the nucleus for news, statistics, scores and opinions of athletes, experts of fans.” More details as well as the quicktime movie after the jump.

The exceptional Isklar bottle, inspired by the diamond like qualities of a glacier, mirrors nature by refracting light through its facets. The bottle’s multifaceted shape demanded Sidel, the beverage supplier’s, know how in design, blow molding and labeling. “Sidel played a major role in validating this bottle’s technical performance and in guaranteeing the bottle’s mass production at high speeds.”

Designers Blue Marlin comment on the project: “We took inspiration from the beauty and folklore of the Hardanger source region to devise the brand’s core concepts – sparkling ideas that went on to inform all aspects of the brand: the name, brand identity, product portfolio structure, and crystalline bottle structure”.

Via popsop.com

“Vincent Connare designed the ubiquitous, bubbly Comic Sans typeface, but he sympathizes with the world-wide movement to ban it.

Mr. Connare has looked on, alternately amused and mortified, as Comic Sans has spread from a software project at Microsoft Corp. 15 years ago to grade-school fliers and holiday newsletters, Disney ads and Beanie Baby tags, business emails, street signs, Bibles, porn sites, gravestones and hospital posters about bowel cancer.”

Wall Street Journal Online

“When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”

Buckminster Fuller

Somehow during 2007 I missed the news that Robert Brunner (former Design Director at Apple) left the Pentagram/SF office to open his own design studio called Ammunition Group with Brett Wickens and Matt Rolandson of Metadesign. They’re responsible for some great identity, product and packaging work.

Where do designers go after they leave Apple? This Businessweek article from 2007 tracked the experience of a few notable Apple employees after they left the company. Recent headlines regarding the health of Steve Jobs again bring to mind questions on the success of a Job-less Apple.

“The design team behind Apple’s great products and experiences is basically the same one that created all the merely average designs under John Sculley and Gil Amelio. After the board of Apple fired Steve Jobs in 1985, neither John Sculley nor Jean-Louis Gassee showed the same passion for design. Ultimately, they left it to cultureless middle management. As design is one of the most honest emotional and visual indicators of the state of a company or a brand, the following ‘dire years’ of design at Apple actually were the logical result of bad leadership.”

My alma mater, the MFA Designer as Author program at SVA, invites you to the new SVA Visual Arts Theater for the first annual Thesis Forum, April 22, 2009. During this innovative daylong event MFAD thesis students will present their products on one of SVA’s new stages. Designers, industry leaders and the public are welcome.

Moderated by guest hosts, Milton Glaser, Scott Stowell, Brian Collins, and Allan Chochinov, the day will be divided into three sessions that will showcase the variety and creativity of the Class of 2009. Under the glare of stage lights, MFAD candidates will pitch their wares, show their applications and field questions from the audience.

To find out more information or to RSVP, visit the Thesis website.

Considering purchasing a smaller, lighter car for fuel economy? You may want to consider the trade-offs when it comes to safety. The Institute for Highway Safety recently conducted a series of crash tests on how smaller cars like the Honda Fit and the “Smart” car fare against their mid-sized counter parts. The results illustrate the laws of physics at work.