Heart Wood

Communication Arts, Sept/Oct 2010 Design Annual; p.150

Heart Wood is a South African based company which delivers attractively packaged saplings as an alternative to giving cut flowers.  The concept appeals to me, but if you're the sort that gets flowers a lot then you might end up with a small forest! The brown and green packaging is both natualistic, and reflects the colors of the trees they deliver.

Arroz Sivaris Rice Tubes

New Packaging Design, p. 29
Janice Kirkpatrick / Graven Images

Yes, I am kind of recycling this from my Project 3 research, but I really like the look of these. I love the bold typeface, and the unusual package shape (tube rather than box). The cardboard material is left more or less au naturale, which gives it a nice "handmade" sort of feel.

Breast Cancer Awareness T-Shirt

Graphis 2010 Design Annual, p.163

This would've been better posted in October for Breast Cancer Awareness month, but it's still fun. I like the use of typography as a graphical element here. It reminds me a bit of the "henohenomoheji" illustration in Japan, which uses hiragana characters to make a face.

Canadian Beaver Postage Stamp

Communication Arts, 2007 Sept/Oct Interactive Annual; p.93

The layers of design in this stamp are impressive.Designed for the 50th anniversary of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, the beaver's body is made from the group's acronym (GDC), with '50' nestled inside the G. The choice of the beaver is a nod back to Canada's first postage stamp, designed by Sir Sanford Fleming, and the typeface, Cartier, was designed by Carl Dair, a GDC member, as a gift to Canada on its centenary.