Results matching “Christmas”

Peppermint and candy canes are one of my favourite Christmas items. I have discovered a world of peppermint, and the photographs are below. 

1) http://www.etsy.com/shop/theblacksheepsoapco

This peppermint bath bomb has tiny red candy canes on top, perfect for the bath.

2) http://www.etsy.com/shop/soradesigns

Don't try to eat this ring, even though it looks like peppermint

3) http://www.etsy.com/shop/LemonCitrus

Perfect for this time of year when the weather dries out skin and lips - lip balm flavoured like peppermint bark.

4) http://www.etsy.com/shop/NakedMoonSoap

This peppermint bath bomb doubles up as bubble bath or a sugar scrub.

5) http://www.etsy.com/shop/BodyBloomsSkinCare

How cute are these peppermint body butters?

6) http://www.etsy.com/shop/ButterBlossoms

Another food item I love - shortbread. Even better as it is 'Candy Cane peppermint' shortbread.

7) http://www.etsy.com/shop/NimbuRu

A Peppermint Swirl cozy is perfect for the holidays and keeping your drinks warm.

8) http://www.etsy.com/shop/soapcafe

Peppermint bark soap sounds delicious for the bath.

9) A chocolate and peppermint cookie (not Etsy).

1) http://www.grandinroad.com

Peppermint candles would brighten up any house.

2) http://www.bhg.com/christmas/indoor-decorating/deck-the-halls-with-interior-designer-kenneth-brown/

These table decorations are made from peppermint candy pieces.

3) http://www.williams-sonoma.com

Yummy peppermint candy from Williams-Sonoma; I love the design of this jar.

4) http://shaunayounge.blogspot.com/2011/12/dessert-table-peppermint-party.html

Nice peppermint-coloured cupcakes are featured in this peppermint party.

5) http://www.thewhitelibrary.com/design-by-holiday/christmas/our-peppermint-candy-cane-inspired-dessert-table/

Red and white candies feature in this dessert table.

The above pictures are of a peppermint Christmas party, using peppermint and red and white in the design of the sweets and the cards and table decorations. To see more photographs, follow the link below.

http://blowoutparty.com/blog/2010/11/christmas-candy-cane-party/

 

The gingerbread house decorating party, above, uses a lot of peppermint and red and white colours. I love this idea.

http://wantsandwishesdesign.blogspot.com/2011/12/gingerbread-decorating-party.html

Thanks to the good people at "Cooking Gorgeous", sellers of designer kitchen accessories, I won two free tickets to "A Taste of Christmas" food festival in London at the beginning of December. I had a wonderful time trying new foods and spending a lot of money on some of the best finds. The festival had everything, from areas dedicated to chocolate, wine/alcohol to baked goods, meats, dips/sauces, and kitchenware/accessories.

Part of my adventure was enjoying the Jamie Oliver restaurant, which was set up in the middle of the venue. This included being seated in the middle of a rectangular table with about  forty strangers and sharing good food and wine.

Some of my buys included gold-flaked alcohol, crackers from East India company, sausages, crackers for cheese, ginger wine, a cupcake, and curry sauce. The curry sauce is possibly the best gem of the day, (though, that said, I have yet to open the alcohol) and it has a lovely flavour. Although the curry range from this particular brand features mild to spicy curry, and I love spicy curry, I am proud to say that the curry lived up to my demands and love of spicy hot food, unlike most pre-made curry sauces. (Do not worry; the spice is not over-powering, but it uses an excellent blend of spices for the flavour.) The company is called "Heavenly Curry" (www.heavenlycurry.co.uk), and I suggest that you check them out if you love curry, particularly if you enjoy a blend of spice and gravitate toward the hotter varieties, which are so difficult to come by.

And lastly, one of my other buys was from the company that gave me the two winning tickets, "Cooking Gorgeous" (http://www.cookinggorgeous.com). The company sell everything from aprons to potholders to tea towels to cake stands. I fell in love with their tea towels, featuring Queen Anne's Lace and wheat designs. I bought one of these, and it came wrapped in a little tin with a bow, gift-wrapped for Christmas. The only problem is, I do not want to use it because it is too pretty. (The below images are of the tea towels, taken from their website.)

Perfect for the graphic designer, web designer, or design geek are these colourful Pantone Christmas ornaments. However, these will not be available until 2012, but they will be available next year from: http://www.seletti.it/pantone/pantone_xmas_ball.htm

I also thought that the following little gift box ornaments were cute. These ornaments could work well as little gift boxes or advent calendars to hang on the tree. The boxes can hold a bit of chocolate or a surprise. These were initially designed by Purpose (www.purpose.co.uk) for Greenford Printing to give to their clients with a panettone cake. 

In addition to the Christmas ornaments, there are Pantone-inspired cards and gift bags. 

Last year, Raw Design Studio (www.weareraw.co.uk/) created a project (Christmas by Colour) for people to associate new colours for the holiday season, other than the greens and reds and whites of Christmas. These were sold as posters and Christmas cards to benefit charity. Some of the names, associated with a colour, include: 

• Mince pies
• Sprouts
• Mulled Wine
• Batteries Not Included
• Nan's eggnog
• After Eights
• Bank balance
• Yellow snow
• End of the sellotape

A photograph of all of the colours is below.

Gift bags, gift boxes, and Christmas cards for this year can be found at: http://www.colloco.co.uk/

Note there is a plain, solid colour style, and there is another style with a snowflake pattern.

I've always enjoyed the Lush packaging and brand. However, they have really inspired me this Christmas with their new packaging. For the Christmas season, Lush have switched their trademark yellow bags (for putting bath bombs or bubble bath bombs into) for Christmas-styled bags that double-up as gift bags. That way, the items do not need to be wrapped with Christmas wrapping paper. The little bags include the "To/From" gift tag, which is printed directly onto the bag. This saves paper (and time), so it was a great idea to introduce this, and it is also in line with their Earth-friendly theme.

What inspired me the most about the new Lush design for the packaging is the paper gift bag. The gift bag features a candy cane printed onto the bag, and the handle completes the candy cane design. I love it.

On another note, the candy cane stick seems to be popular in England at the moment; a couple of years ago, candy canes were nearly impossible to find in England. This year, I have seen them for sale in shops and many other places, including Starbucks. Starbucks sell individual candy canes at the moment. I love peppermint and candy canes, so it is good to see them widely-adopted by England now.

The popular search engine, Google, is known for creating specialised logos for popular holidays or events to showcase them on the special day. The simple and clean website features its logo as one of the primary elements, along with the search field, so when the logo changes, it is noticed and appreciated. Over time, the logo has evolved and gained in popularity and dubbed "Google Doodle", and the logos themselves have become more complex and, at times, interactive. Google is the most popular search engine in most countries of the world, so word is quickly spread when a new "Google Doodle" is displayed. Some of the doodles are displayed globally, and others are displayed within the particular country.

Years ago, before Google (can anyone else remember the pre-Google days?) was launched, other search engines had developed varying (mainly seasonal) themes for their websites. I remember that Yahoo! created a Halloween version of its website with animated ghosts, and they made changes to their logo and the colours of their website during the Christmas season. It is no doubt that Google's founders were probably first inspired by these.

Google's first "Google Doodle" was launched in August of 1998 with its "Burning Man Festival" logo, which was created to let users know that the founders were going to the festival. The next logo was made to celebrate Thanksgiving (United States) in November of that year, before introducing its BETA logo. Since then, it has produced hundreds of other variations of its logo for events and holidays worldwide. The first several years of the "Google Doodle" were minimal illustrations, and these evolved with some reuse in illustrations. The doodles for the first few years were focused around public holidays, apart from the BETA verison of the logo.

The year 2000 was a major year for the "Google Doodle". Dennis Hwang was asked to create one for Bastille Day, which was popular; as a result, he was asked to head up the "Google Doodle" department, which now includes four doodlers (1). By looking at the evolution of these doodles, one can see that the quality improved in the year 2000, and illustrations were used to enhance the logo; the primary colours of Google (primary yellow, blue, red, and green) were kept consistent in most doodles. (In 1999, several of the doodles used colours popularly associated with the holiday.) Christmas of 2000 was also the first year in which several variations of the logo were created to celebrate the holiday, and these logos showed illustrations of a family of polar bears. (Since then, there have been a Dilbert comic series, Olympics series, and seasonal series, to name a few.)

In the past three years, Google has been experimenting more with highly interactive logos, such as the PacMan game, the Jules Verne submarine, the Les Paul Guitar, and, more recently, one with muppets that animate and follow the mouse. The drawings have also become less crude, and in the past year or two, the logo is worked into the illustration. (Sometimes it takes imagination to see it.)

The below images illustrate this evolution, though many more and a complete history can be viewed on Google's website (linked at the bottom of this article).

1) November 1998: Thanksgiving (US)

2) March, 1999: St. Patrick's Day

3) October 2001: Halloween (US)

4) October 2002: Picasso's birthday (Global)

5) September 2003: Google's 5th Birthday (Global)

6) April 2005: Leonardo Da Vinci's Birthday (Global)

7) January 2006: Braille's Birthday (Global)

8) January 2008: Lego Brick anniversary (Global)

9) May 2009: Big Ben's 150 years (UK)

10) February 2010: Winter Olympics

11) May 2010: PacMan 30th anniversary

12) April 2011: Earth Day

13) September 2011: Jim Henson Muppets

Although many companies ensure that their logo and branding adheres to strict guidelines (changing the consistency of the branding could disassociate the product or service with the company and cause the consumer confusion), Google gets away changing its logo and claims that this is a part of its corporate culture. According to Google, changing the logo is a part of the company's culture and branding, and it "illustrates the creative and innovative personality of the company itself" (2). Google have even patented the idea of these slight changes to branding (3). However, I am not sure that this patent would certainly hold up in any argument because other brands have been doing this for years, before the search engine existed. For example, Absolut Vodka have various implementations of their logo. Yahoo! and Excite.com (pre-Google search engines) used varying themes and slight changes to their logo during the holidays.

Google has kept a history of all of its doodles on its website, and these can be viewed here: http://www.google.co.uk/logos/

The artist who created those cool vases/sculptures in Selfridges is Julian Bond. (His work can be found on his website: http://www.julianfbond.co.uk.) Another artist inspired by pixels is Shawn Smith, and examples of his sculptures is located at http://www.shawnsmithart.com. Christian Zuzunaga creates pixels designs on furnishings (furniture, rugs, wallpaper, etc), and his work can be found here: http://www.cristianzuzunaga.com.

Another site showcases lamps (made out of recycled material) that light up with a pixel-ly glow when turned on; these were designed by various artists and can be seen here: http://www.techfemina.com/entry/banners-turned-into-stunning-pixelated-lamps/. And the following website displays pixel-inspired products - from jewellery to handbags to clothing to sunglasses: http://www.techfemina.com/entry/sexy-pixels-little-graphic-dots-making-maddening-fashion-buzz/. With all of these cool designs in the art and fashion world, it seems like a lot of people are pixel-mad at the moment. Embrace the pixel!

The primary colour scheme for cupcake websites and logos tends to be muted pink and rich brown. Some well-designed websites and creative logos are below.

A simple layout is all that is needed with excellent photos to sell cupcakes. I also really like the logo; the colours in the logo change depending on what page you are on. The colours go well together, and it's a nice touch.

After leaving Selfridges, I took a short walk (in the snow and cold) down to Marble Arch to Hyde Park to visit the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland. Although very cold and snowy, the winter-themed entertainment (amusements, funfair rides, ice skating rink) and Christmas market was nice to visit to take in the sights and the smells (mulled wine, cooking sausages, etc). The weather added the extra 'winter wonderland' feeling.