Art and design inspiration from around the world – CreativeRoots

Pagoda food packaging

Most take-away food containers are more practical than aesthetically pleasing to the eye. In addition, the packaging often don’t reflect the cultural origins and the possible quality of the product which is carried around. German design büro Jo’s-buero and Conrad Gerlach wanted to reflect these cultural values and thus developed a Chinese food packaging.

The two were inspired by traditional Asian architecture and created a multi-storey box resembling a Pagoda building, which is especially common in China. Up to six boxes can be stacked up with this carrying system, making it easy to separate the different dishes so that eg. the vegetables don’t mix with the rice, fish or meat.

Each box is folded so that it doesn’t require glue, staples or other extra elements to hold it together. As soon as the lid of the box comes off the bottom part unfolds into a bowl. The bottom part is coated with a special wax so that any sauces or oils won’t leak through the paper. The chopsticks that come with the meal serve as a handle for the Pagoda when carried. Not only does the the Pagoda packaging look good but it is also made of 100% recyclable material. The packaging design is similar to another posts which I wrote about on Eco-Friendly Chinese Take-away packaging which is wroth a look at.

 What do you think about the design?

via dmig

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Bali art merged into advert

Indonesian chocolate producer Fullo is giving away a Honda Scoopy. To promote this gift Fullo commissioned Indonesian advertising agency Creative Juice to design their advert. The advert is inspired by Balinese painting which is also know as the Kamasan or Wayang style. If you love the Wayang style but want to see a modern version, check out the Wayang Pop Art

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Chinese Restaurant brand identity

From all the brand identities of Chinese Restaurants I’ve seeing thoughout the years the Wo Hing restaurant identity is one which really stands out. The inspiration for the restaurant logo emerged from chinese street food stales which often feature tubular neon signs. The logo also reminds me of  the Japanese Torotor restaurant identity.

In addition to the logo San Francisco visual communication studio Manual created a strong visual language using noodles. Manual used a scanner to experiment with raw and cooked noodles to create a number of flowing, abstract images.

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Old Hong Kong

Travel around Hong Kong through this 1930′s vintage film. 
Hong Kong: Gateway to China is the title of the movie which has amazing footage of the island’s people, architecture, and views of the surrounding bay and mountains. If you love your vintage films this one could be right for you. via theatlantic

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Japanese food packaging by Akaoni

I love japanese packaging design, from traditional japanese packaging, sake barrel packaging to the famous Kikkoman soya sauce. Tokyo design agency Akaoni created some beautiful designs. I especially like the packaging designs with the simple prints on the brown paper. via iainclaridge

What do you think about the designs?

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Japanese Yebisu beer packaging design

Yebisu beer is on of Japan’s oldest beer brands, first brewed in Tokyo in 1890. Yebisu represents the Japanese god of Happiness, luck and fisherman.

Created by design student Jin Fujiwara at the Academy of Art. Jin wanted to redesign Yebisu because it wasn’t a popular japanese beer brand such as its competitors Asahi and Kirin.

The main characteristic of the beer label is the smiling Yebisu who hopefully will stick in people minds. The secondary design elements such as the fishing rod and fish have become less prominent, which I feel are important elements to tell the brand story of Yebisu brand.

What do you think about the Yebisu beer packaging?

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24 hours in Hanoi, Vietnam

If you want to travel to Hanoi, Vietnam this lovely piece of art and design could inspire a trip to this vibrant South East Asian country.

Hanoi is a bustling city which is famous for many reasons such as its food, bicycles, Pagoda di tran quoc, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, and others.

Brazilian illustrator Fernando Volken Togni extended the Qatar Airlines inflight magazine 24 hours series with this beautiful illustration of 24 hours in Hanoi, Vietnam. Worth having a look at is his Ho Chi Minh illustration and his other 24 hours in… designs which you can see below.

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Street film posters of Bangalore, India

A neat project by British born, Bangalore based illustrator Matt Lee who is documenting South Indian movie posters.

“Local language, hand drawn lithographic film posters, and the larger, glossier offset film posters contribute largely to the visual culture and character of the streets of Bangalore, India.

This ongoing photographic series explores the roles and relationships of men and women in contemporary Indian cinema through the disjointed, layered and torn fragments that these film posters create.

‘Ink’ is a short film shot at Balaji Lithographers who produce a large amount of these posters. The video was made in collaboration with artist Smriti Mehra for the City One Minutes foundation and Holland Doc 24/ VPRO. From 25 May – 19 September 2011 this film is a part of ‘Paris-Delhi-Bombay’; an exhibition of French and Indian contemporary art at Centre Pompidou, Paris.”

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Singapore Airlines pop up map

One of Singapore’s national identities and brand ambassadors is the Singapore Airlines girl. She’s been around since 1972 promoting the airline and Singapore. TBWA Singapore designed a pop up map of Singapore which presents the diversity and multiculturalism of the island for the airline. via sokkuan

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Free font – Bilingual typeface Collator

Designing a bilingual typeface is not an easy task especially when the two have no similarities in common. Communication designer Vince Lotook on the challenge challenge to designed the cross cultural, sans serif, latin and chinese charters font Collator.

Designing such a typeface comes with some design challenges such as the differences of height and with but also contrasting in character weight/density.

Collator is a sans serif, modern typeface designed to achieve great harmony between Chinese characters and latin letterforms when set together. Drawing inspiration from the two traditions of type design, Collator aims to be a contemporary, balanced expression of both Western and Asian cultures. The free font can be downloaded here.

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India International Jewelry Show

India’s romance with jewellery is a story of unbroken tradition of personal adornment since the last 5000 years. Many ethnicities have drawn inspiration from the jewels of Maharajas and Maharanis to create contemporary ornaments that are reminiscent of the country’s heritage and riches.

GJEPC’s India International Jewelry Show (IIJS) Signature showcases the world’s best and finest gems and jewelery. Signature IIJS has been conceptualized to represent and showcase the best that India has to offer in design, craftsmanship and quality. This exclusive platform sees participation from India’s as well as international companies who display the choicest in products and design.

The IIJS Signature 2012 exhibition has been designed by Pune based agency Lemon Design Pvt. Ltd, to showcase India’s romance with jewelery since the ancient times. The design language for the exhibition comprised Indian motifs depicting the essential “Rasas” or Emotions mentioned in the transcripts of Indian literature. These were brought out with illustrations inspired from Indian paintings to translate the experience of Royal Indian Courtyards.

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Chinese inspired summer soups

Who eats soups during the summer months? Not to many people. Therefor Nusa Kitchen developed a range of Chinese soup recipes that are lighter and fresher.

The soups are served in limited edition paper cups. As with the soups themselves British design agency thirdperson was inspired by traditional Chinese pots and patterns, and added their own design flavor to them.

Personally I like the left paper cup design best. What’s your favorite design?

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Introducing China through infographics

This 10 minute video introduces Chinese culture and history through infographics. Created by Eno Jin who’s illustrations and simple animations make it easy to understand. For much of the content on culture and society, he adapted “Chinese Culture 101″, an eight-part series on Randomwire. via http://visual.ly

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Proposal for a new Australian Flag

Russell Kennedy designed a proposal for a new Australia Flag which he hops will replace the current Australian Flag by the year 2020. Not only did he design the new national flag but he also thought of the wider use, such as representing unity thought the design and diversity thought colour.

Russell says that: “Australians should respect the current flag whether we like its colonial design or not. It has served the country well over the years through both time of adversity and triumph, however it has become clear that as a nation we have outgrown it. Australian has reached a point in time where a change is not only necessary but also long overdue.”

A blue Kangarroo is the main distinctive feature on the Advance Australia National Flag and is one of Australia’s most recoginsable symbols. The yellow area represents the sun and is a link to the Aboriginal Flag. One particular feature was taken over from the current flag and that is the Southern hemisphere symbol of the Southern Cross which are the 5 white stars on the blue area.

Dr. Denis Whitehouse says that: “Instantly recognisable as Australian, this flag has the potential to present a positive and distinctive image internationally and nationally. Open to multiple applications by different interest groups, it is a flag that speaks of the power of the rich diversity and questioning that constitutes Australian culture.”

As you can see above, different colours can be applied to the flag to represent different organisations and state territories. One important part of this new design is the advance Australia reconciliation ensign which shares the design of the Advance Australia National Flag but features the colours of the Australian Aboriginal Flag (red, black, yellow), which was designed by Harold Thomas in 1972.

 What do you think, should Australia change their national flag?

For more information visit the new australia flag website.

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Kushi – Indian packaging design for Waitrose

Irish design student Paul Rice developed the Indian Kushi range for Waitrose. The range consists of Samosa, Kadhi curry, Jalebi, and Mango lassi. Illustrated folk patterns and the large type make up the Indian gourmet packaging.

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4 cultures and holidays celebrated in Singapore

This is a set of company email sign off’s, illustrated and designed by Angela Bartlett they were designed to depict the four cultures and holidays celebrated in Singapore, by the various races and religions.

Namely Christmas – celebrated by Christians and the Western, Eurasian and some of the Chinese community
Chinese New Year -celebrated by the Chinese community
Hari Raya- celebrated by the Muslims and the Malay community
and Lastly Deepavali- celebrated by the Indian community

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Taiwan Tourism illustration

These are lovely tourism illustrations for Taiwan. The illustrations capture the essence of  Taiwan’s landscape, culture, architecture, people and food. British illustrator Adrian Johnson created them. If you are interesting in more Taiwanese inspired branding, design and illustrations you should check out these two posts:

Taiwan Branding Campaign
Branding Taiwan illustrations

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Photographing North Korea

Award winning British photographer Charlie Crane had the chance to take some photos of North Korea, one of the world’s most closed off countries. The photos above are all taken in the capital city Pyongyang.

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