CBX Refashions Tampon Packaging

Black packaging accented with bright colors presents new look for U by Kotex, a brand of feminine products that recently hit store shelves. With CBX at the design helm, tge product line, which includes tampons, liners and pads for 14-22 year olds, banishes staid floral patterns and pastel hues. "The black package is attention-grabbing on the shelf, yet discreet when sitting in the shopping cart, purse or home," says Rick Barrack, Chief Creative Officer at CBX. The letter "U" stands out on the box, he says, as an icon for the brand. "Contemporary, straightforward, clean fonts are used to call out brand, product type and form," Barrack continues. He says CBX drastically altered the visual landscape of the feminine health aisle by "creating a graphic vocabulary for U by Kotex that leverages color palettes and abstract patterns from the fashion world.

SOURCE: GD USA

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Protect Your Health

Try to find health insurance. I know that, depending on where you live, health insurance might be hard to find. Freelancers are notorious for not having health coverage. But, if you don’t have adequate coverage, you’re more likely to avoid getting the treatment that you really need when you’re sick.

Get enough rest. It’s important to schedule regular breaks and time off. While working lots of hours may seem like a really good idea at first and may even lead to more income at first, no one can sustain a crazy pace forever. Eventually all of those extra hours will lead to stress, burnout, or illness.

Eat properly. Business Owners often take trips to the local coffee shop to provide them with a change of pace, meet a client, etc. While getting out and about from time to time is a good idea, unfortunately the fare found at your local coffee shop is not always the healthiest. If this is a problem for you, try to identify a few healthy food choices at your coffee shop and stick to those.

Engage in exercise. Most business owners work on the computer to provide some sort of service to their clients. This means that most of us are fairly sedentary. Unless we make a special effort, we won’t get any exercise. Unfortunately, studies have shown that a sedentary lifestyle is not healthy, so make that effort to get enough exercise.

Take steps to manage your stress. Owning your own business can be stressful, and continued stress can leave you feeling run down and make you more susceptible to illnesses. Take the time to identify what causes stress for you. Find ways to reduce your stressors.

SOURCE: Freelance Folder

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Starbucks BYOC

Bring your own cup. This concept was the big winner of a competition sponsored by Starbucks to gather ideas for reducing non-recyclable paper cup. The idea, using an in store chalkboard, would encourage customers to bring their own cups for possible free drinks. The three honorable mentions are also ideas that encourage customer reuse, but one did includes a rice-based reusable cup, and the five "community picks" are a mix of biodegradable, recyclable and collapsible cups.

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The Green Cup

The Brazilian President Lula, upon unveiling 2014 World Cup Logo, stated that the games will be dedicated to the environment: "We will make a green World Cup, green as our forests. Environmental sustainability will be a trademark of Brazil and the next World Cup. We want to leave a legacy to improve the quality of life of our people. We are sure that we will charm the world, like South Africa charmed us this year."

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UPS Green Label

Companies that meet UPS standards can now ship their goods with a label that attests to their "greenness." Called the Eco Responsible Packaging Program, UPS evaluates a customer's shipment packaging processes on three levels — damage prevention, right-sizing, and packaging materials — and authorizes the UPS logo use when approved. The company uses the Sustainable Packaging Coalition Compass software in its new program to evaluate the life cycle impacts of package design.

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Mapquest Seeks New Logo

Wolff Olins has developed a new logo and identity for MapQuest. It's clean and modern and was designed to take the emphasis off of simple online mapping. Instead, the new identity is meant to stress the service as an integral part of your life.

People see different things in the new logo—a little animal, map–to–the–power–of –your–quest, or simply a much–needed modern revamp. The purple and bright green mark is just part of the revamp: The site itself is more user–friendly and certainly more flexible.

new.mapquest.com

SOURCE: Logo Lounge

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PUMA thinks out of the {shoe}box

PUMA has unveiled the next step in its long-term sustainability program, introducing a sustainable packaging and distribution system by renowned industrial designer Yves Behar. Behar, of San Francisco based fuseproject, designed a "Clever Little Bag" to replace the ever present cardboard shoebox with a reusable shoe bag that protects each pair from damage. As a result of the 65% paper reduction though the "Clever Little Bag" concept, PUMA claims it will cut water, energy and diesel consumption on the manufacturing level by more than 60% a year.

SOURCE: www.fuseproject.com

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