Yellow Car Design: The Blog » product design

What was your Christmas day wine?

ycd — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:54:06 +0000

That was ours, a Narcissist Riesling from the wine collection Megalomaniac which we of course bought because we really liked the label, not because of our inflated sense of self-esteem and the overestimation of our powers and beliefs… or was that the reason why we liked it?! Who knows! In any case, here’s a little unpretentious review of both the designers and wine lovers’ perspectives:

THE DESIGNERS’ PERSPECTIVE:

The label comprises many of our favourite design elements: an embossed name (for a subtle 3D effect), minimal colours that are used intelligently to highlight a few details (tie + corsage), fancy metallic ink (our photo isn’t of the best quality, check out the LCBO website to see a studio picture that shows the reflection better), it’s printed on a thick, off-white, cool died-cut paper, it uses a black, sans-serif font in various weights for the hierarchy of text… In other words, it’s simple, minimalist and it works. More importantly, it really communicates the idea behind the product’s name. After all, megalomania is all about one’s self-absorbency, and what’s better to illustrate that than a mirror!? And that’s exactly the effect produced by the metallic ink; it sorts of lets you see your own reflection in the label. We wonder if the metallic ink could have been used in a way that it’s located at the place where the head should be, so that when you hold the bottle your own face appears on it? That would have certainly been top megalomaniac! It might even have been a bit creepy, so another way the designers conveyed the mirror idea is by playing with the typography so that “2009 Narcissist Riesling” is reflected on the label, as if we were reading it in a mirror. Very cool.

In regards to the wine’s name, a quote from the maker on the back of the bottle explains it:

What’s with the name? I originally wanted to christen these wines in my name, John Howard, …and then my good friends accused me of being yet another “[profanity withheld] megalomaniac”. Regrettably, the name stuck.

For the rest, design-wise the bottle is pretty plain – in a good way of course. It has a nice smooth shape and shade of green. It’s a screw-top (silver; it goes well with the label) so no fancy cork to describe, and no difficulty to open the bottle, which takes us to…

THE WINE LOVERS’ PERSPECTIVE:

Okay, so let’s make something clear: we are not wine connoisseurs, and we are far from pretending to be. Having both worked at Starbucks when we were students and being put through “coffee tastings” way too many times, we have a very cynical view of all “tastings”. Back then, we knew than describing Espresso roast using the terms “earthy mushrooms”, “burned sundried tomatoes”, and Marc’s all-times favourite “tastes like a forest after the rain” was just an easy way to make our manager happy and that happy manager = easy work shift. So when we read the wine’s reviews on the LCBO website that says: Juicy-terrific! Lovely melon and peach fruit unfold in waves of flavour. Love this style. Slightly off-dry so it is incredibly food-friendly and light-bodied - well we take it with a pinch of salt. Did we taste melon and peach fruit? Not really. Was it good? YES! It was really delicious! Did we pair it with chicken salad, crab salad, shellfish like recommended? Nope, we had it with chicken madras curry, our Christmas dinner. Did it work? Yep. It was a very good match – we think – as the sweetness of the wine soothed the spiciness of the curry. It’s a light and refreshing wine for sure, a wine that would also have been great on its own during a warm summer afternoon. Versatile, but far from bland. We recommend it for sure. It’s an VQA Ontario wine from the Niagara peninsula, region known for the quality of the Riesling wine it produces. It’s reasonably-priced ($17.95) and can be found in the Vintage section of certain LCBO locations. It would make a perfect gift – especially if you’re trying to get a message through to that big-headed friend of yours. You can even order a custom gift box from their [profanity withheld] flash website (it’s a nice, interesting site, but we just can’t stand flash – it wouldn’t even open in Firefox so we had to use Safari. Effort.). Anyways, make sure your Flash is up-to-date and visit their site at http://www.megalomaniacwine.com

Once you’ve tried Narcissist Riesling let’s compare tasting notes!

Russian Tools in the Kitchen

ycd — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:25:21 +0000

Measuring Dolls

Latest addition to Yellow Car Design‘s kitchen. Those pretty little things are actually measuring cups (each body and head is a different quantity, see here) and they stack up so don’t take much place. Great example of simple design allying form, function and fun!

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Cuisine Russe

En direct de la cuisine de Yellow Car Design, ces belles petites poupées russes sont en fait des tasses à mesurer (chaque corps et tête est une tasse de grosseur différente, cliquez sur ce lien pour plus de détails). Elles entrent l’une dans l’autre donc ne prennent pas beaucoup d’espace. Parfait exemple de design alliant forme, fonction et originalité!

Alessi – Kitchenware too pretty to use!

ycd — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:21:26 +0000

Mr. & Mrs. Chin - Alessi Brook Street (London)

Alessi is an Italian kitchenware/houseware company that we first discovered while browsing among the million of nicely designed kitchen items sold at John Lewis (yes, browsing through the kitchenware aisles of big department stores is one of our cherished pastimes). We fell in love with their ‘plastic’ stuff, such as the Mr & Mrs Chin shakers that are proudly displayed on our counter top. This particular line was created in collaboration with the National Palace Museum of Taiwan and, as you would expect, they are way too nice to be used for condiments!

The company is divided into three brands: the fun and playful Alessi (includes the Chin line), the ‘good design at affordable price’ diAlessi and finally the posh, refined and very expensive Officina Alessi. Talking about posh stuff, we once went into the Alessi flagship store in London… That was an interesting experience! We felt very… hum… poor! So, if like us you’re from a ‘more modest’ background you might prefer to order their products on Amazon.

To conclude, here is a picture of what our cats would really like to buy from Alessi:

Tigrito - Cat Bowl

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Alessi – Trop beaux pour être utilisés!

Alessi est une compagnie italienne se spécialisant dans le design d’accessoires de cuisine et de décoration. Nous adorons particulièrement leur collection “plastique” dont fait partie la salière et poivrière de Mr Chin présentées ci-haut. Cette collection a été créée en collaboration avec le Musée du Palais National de Taiwan, et comme vous vous en doutez sûrement, c’est beaucoup trop beau pour être utilisé!

La companie se divise en trois marques: Alessi, la joyeuse et colorée; diAlessi, le design à bon prix; et Officina Alessi, sophistiquée et très dispendieuse. Parlant de choses sophistiquées et dispendieuses, nous sommes allés une fois au magasin Alessi à Londres…Ce fut une expérience intéressante: nous ne nous étions jamais sentis si… pauvres!

En conclusion, voici ce que nos chatons aiment vraiment chez Alessi:

Tigrito - Cat Bowl