Design approaches to mass market COVID test packaging
Plus: No one’s very excited by the Washington Commander’s new branding
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Hello, in this week’s issue we’ll look at…
Design approaches to mass market COVID test packaging
No one’s very excited about the Washington Commanders’ new branding
The gold cube in Central Park was hollow and worth more than $10 million
Here’s the artwork for Gwen Stefani and Gaga at Interscope’s big art show
Design approaches to mass market COVID test packaging
My household’s four free COVID tests from the federal government arrived the other day in a nondescript, white mailer containing two two-packs of iHealth Lab’s antigen rapid tests.
Tests are an important tool in our fight against COVID, and manufacturers have different approaches to packaging them. The iHealth test’s white-and-orange packaging is designed around a check mark that gives off voter registration flyer energy, and the box is smooth like an iPhone box. Though the lowercase i in the company’s name is unrelated to Apple, Apple’s logo appears on the box as part of a notice that users can download the test’s app on Apple’s App Store. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., iHealth gives some Silicon Valley sheen to mass market COVID testing.
On/Go uses the bright, Instagrammable visual language of direct-to-consumer brands like Warby Parker or Hims. “The team behind On/Go created tests that patients not only need but want,” Rob Schutz, chief growth officer of Ro, a telehealth platform, told AIGA’s Eye on Design for a story about COVID tests having a design moment.
Among the other FDA authorized at-home tests, BD Veritor comes in soft gradient packaging that also appeals to Millennial consumer design sensibilities. But not all packaging is as visually appealing.
The box for Abbott’s BinaxNOW — the tests that look like a lollipop — reminds me of sleep aid medication. And what exactly is a Binax and why would I want one now? In a pandemic that’s already made us learn new words like omicron, I’d opt for simple, clear language every time.
Quidel’s QuickVue test showed what looks like a grandfather and his grandson on the front of its box, and it’s surprising that images of family don’t appear on packaging more often. While most of these tests are nasal swabs (DxTerity is saliva, if you’d prefer that), the swab is just the product. The promise the product offers is safety and togetherness.
The most important thing is that these tests work and that people can get them when they need them. Still, design can play a role in conveying what these tests really represent. Knowing your COVID status if you think you’ve been exposed is how to live responsibly post-vaccine, and tests are one part of our path out of the pandemic.
No one’s very excited about the Washington Commanders’ new branding
Washington D.C.’s NFL team unveiled their new mascot, logo, and branding last Wednesday, and they ended up using the president’s dog’s name.
The Washington Commanders will keep the team’s longtime burgundy-and-gold color scheme, and the W logo introduced in 2020 got a slight facelift, but it’s keeping the angled serifs at the top. There’s also a Commanders word mark, and a crest, which feels very Euro, no?
Reaction to the rebrand was meh. Todd Radom, who designed graphic identities for the Washington Nationals and Super Bowl XXXVIII, told Print it “seems lacking,” and sports design agency co-founder Britt Davis said “it feels like it could be uprooted and used anywhere.”
A rebrand is the chance to tell a new story, and the Commanders don’t feel like they have much to say. A sizzle reel for the new uniforms opened with a generic straight-men-sports-talk-style voiceover saying “We are… the Commanders,” yet at no point in the rebrand did they show what being a Washington Commander means to them. Like, bro, you just finally got rid of a team name a lot of people thought was hella racist (not to mention the font sucked), and you play for one of the most dynamic metro regions in the U.S. Step up your game, honey.
The gold cube in Central Park was hollow and worth more than $10 million
German artist Niclas Castello’s 400-pound, 24-karat gold cube in Central Park last week brought to mind the Utah monolith without any of the whimsy or mystery, and it felt vaguely reminiscent of the stunt-art-as-promo of “Fearless Girl,” but for a cryptocurrency instead of corporate feminism.
“The Castello Cube” appeared imposing on social media until seeing Castello posing next to it. It comes up to his knees, and also, it’s hollow. Still, the gold used to make the cube is worth more than $10 million, according to the New York Times. Castello won’t sell it, though, and the piece was on view for just one day.
Expensive stunt art has a tendency to rub people the wrong way (see: NFTs generally, and “Comedian” (2019), the taped-up banana by Maurizio Cattelan). Combine that with crypto — Castello is launching his own Castello Coin — and you have a guaranteed recipe for social media blowback.
Castello previously worked with cubes for his Cube-Painting-Sculpture series of paintings crumpled into clear acrylic boxes.
Here’s the artwork for Gwen Stefani and Gaga at Interscope’s big art show
New art is out from Interscope’s Artists Inspired By Music exhibition to celebrate the record label’s 30th anniversary, and I was most excited to see what artists would do with two of Interscope’s top pop stars. Here are four piece from the show about Gwen Stefani and Lady Gaga:
“Dessert” (2021) by Anna Weyant, inspired by Gwen Stefani’s The Sweet Escape
“Gwen with All the Obstacles” (2021) by Issy Wood, inspired by Gwen Stefani’s “Cool”
“Mandalora Squeeze” (2019) by Loie Hollowell, inspired by Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster
“Portrait with a Parrot” (2021) by Nicolas Party, inspired by Lady Gaga’s Joanne
Now do Chromatica. You can see more art from the show here.
Never forget
Elizabeth Swaney was an American who competed for Hungary at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, because her grandparents were from Hungary and apparently their team wasn’t that hard to make.
I wrote about Team USA’s uniforms for the 2022 Games. Official outfitters include Ralph Lauren, Volcom, and Kim Kardashian’s Skims. You can read the full story here. — Hunter
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