Nike Logo

Did the designer of the Nike logo get rich?

Hardly -- The Nike "swoosh" logo was designed by University of Oregon student Carolyn Davidson in 1964 - four years after business undergrad Phil Knight and track coach Bill Bowerman founded the company they originally called Blue Ribbon Sports. Ms. Davidson was paid $35 dollars for her design.

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The Swoosh

"The SWOOSH logo is a graphic design created by Caroline Davidson in
1971. It represents the wing of the Greek Goddess NIKE. Caroline
Davidson was a student at Portland State University in advertising.
She met Phil Knight while he was teaching accounting classes and she
started doing some freelance work for his company. Phil Knight asked
Caroline to design a logo that could be placed on the side of a shoe.
She handed him the SWOOSH, he handed her $35.00. In spring of 1972,
the first shoe with the NIKE SWOOSH was introduced.....the rest is
history! (from Nike Consumer Affairs packet, 1996)

Mattel vs. Bratz Dolls

Barbie vs. Bratz: Opening arguments begin in doll dispute

Mattel says that the creator of the Bratz dolls was its employee when he came up with the drawings for the toy, which brings in billions for MGA Entertainment.

May 28, 2008

It was tastefully attired Barbie vs. streetwise Bratz in federal court in Riverside today as opening arguments began in a copyright infringement case potentially worth billions of dollars.

The big issues: When were the Bratz dolls created? And was it in Barbie’s own house?

Mattel Inc., the El Segundo owner of the long-reigning Barbie empire, charges in a lawsuit that the creator of the upstart Bratz was in Mattel’s employ as a Barbie designer when he secretly made drawings crucial to the new doll’s concept.

The designer, Carter Bryant, defected in 2000 to MGA Entertainment Inc., a Van Nuys company that introduced Bratz in 2001.

MGA, according to analysts, makes as much as $2 billion a year from Bratz.

Mattel attorney John Quinn told a packed courtroom that MGA, which didn’t have a fashion doll in its lineup before Bratz, couldn’t have come up with the phenomenally successful product on its own.

How did it “suddenly, overnight become one of the innovative toy companies in the world?” Quinn asked.

“Simple. They took the designs from a Mattel designer.”

Mattel owns those drawings, Quinn said, and therefore a stake in Bratz, because Bryant had a contractual agreement to turn over any design “inventions” to the company while he was working there. Quinn charged that MGA knew of the contract and went to great lengths to cover up the true origins of the doll line.

MGA’s lawyers will make their opening argument in the civil trial this afternoon.

Mattel won a significant court victory in April when Judge Stephen Larson ruled that an agreement Bryant signed while at that company gives it the right to claim “ideas, concepts and copyrightable subject” he came up with during his employment.

Last week, Mattel said it had reached a settlement in its suit against Bryant. Terms weren’t disclosed, and it’s unclear what effect that settlement will have on Mattel vs. MGA.

Barbie, born in 1959, has fallen on hard times of late. In discussing first-quarter earnings last month, Mattel executives said that Barbie sales slipped 12% in comparison with the same period last year.

MGA is privately owned and doesn’t disclose its earnings. Judge Larson made it clear that Chief Executive Isaac Larian, who was in the courtroom for Mattel’s opening argument, would have to at least reveal figures for Bratz earnings.

“The bottom line is that information has to come out,” Larson said to MGA’s attorneys before the jury was seated.

Beautiful and Expressive Packaging

Packaging design has the primary goal to attract customers’ attention. For this purpose, package designs can not simply inform the customers, but also provoke feelings and communicate emotions. An effective packaging looks attractive, impresses with its creativity and is just nice to have on the shelf.

Typographic Packaging
Another example with typography in use. Sometimes all you need is just a title of what is inside the package.

Steampunk Packaging
According to designer, the task for this design was to pick a subculture and design a series of pictograms/logos & etc for it, and then apply said logo(s) to a package for a set of information cards about that subculture. Designed by Rovina Cai from Australia.

Brad Surcey (site is currently offline)
Strong colors and beautiful compositions. Notice how well the title of the product is emphasized, it strongly and clearly communicates what is inside without revealing too much unnecessary information.

Warming Little
Designed by Thirdperson, comprising a range of special winter soups with promotional heat resistant cardboard sleeves that slotted onto the existing cups. They’ve scooped a few awards, including Design Week 2008.

Ferrarelle
Clean minimalism at its best. Excellent packaging of a mineral water bottle.

Typography
Nothing can beat the old school typography.

Remarkable Pencils
Apparently, the 10 pencils packaged into this box are 100% remarkable. Well, at least they have a remarkable packaging.

Askinosie Chocolate
When it comes to the design of chocolate packaging, there are a number of options available. For instance, you can provide the package with some further information about the chocolate and give it a more traditional, historic and authentic look.

WH Smith
“Our brief was to create a compelling and inspirational solution. Because of copyright issues regarding artist’s work was a problem, our solution was to take inspiration from the though process behind how one paints and draws and to convey famous artists thoughts by choosing relevant quotes that captured the spirit of the product. We achieved this by commissioning different illustrators to recreate these quotes with the relevant use of materials.” Designed by R Design.

Askul
Original geometric forms can also be used for product packaging. And they are attractive, too!

Visualization of CI
Clean and slick design by Martin Zampach.

Food Packaging
Nice old times strike back. Louise Fili with a traditional, old-times food packaging.

Before Grain Dog & Cat Food
Well, it is the packaging for dog and cat food, but it just look good. Notice how interesting the typography is used — the letters are building a pyramid.

Vintage Packaging
This design is more than 20 years, but it still looks very impressive. Beautiful color scheme for a vintage t-shirt packaging.

Fuelosophy
Fruit drinks designed by Templin Brink Design combine beautiful illustration and an interesting form of the bottle.

Banana Juice
Well, that’s an original design. Banana juice package in form of a banana! Designed by Naoto Fukasawa.

Infuzions
Creative packaging by Parker Williams Design.

Equal Exchange
Designed by Good Digital Agency.

Typographic Packaging
Here the typography is pretty loud.

Tea packaging
Experimenting with typography.

Beck 8-Bit
One more time experimental packaging.

Fruits Packaging
Original packaging which may surprise and attract customer’s attention.

Afro Coffee Packaging
Afro by Dalla Cia: a Wine Box radio. Who thought that a radio on a wine label could actually work…

Chocolate Scrabble
Unfortunately, this item is no longer available.

Coke Vintage Packaging
Old times, old times. We really miss packaging like this.

Japanese packaging
Really original design.

Last Click

Package design for Turkish Delight
Sometimes packages can really communicate emotions. The intention of the design below was to attract children and provide sustainability instead of throwing it away after consuming this product. For this reason the package can turn into a paper toy. The children can put together the body which is inside the package, and the face.

Pio Pio Cheep Cheep
A sweet paper toy one more time.

Milk Boxes in Love
Yeeeah! He found her! Or she found him! In any case, these milk boxes are now together. When buying a next milk package make sure to buy two — for Mr. Milky and his lady. Milky has a sad history. It is nice to know that everything is fine now.