VW Buzz camper - a launch with cuteness overload

So, very soon, the redesigned Volkswagen Buzz camper will be among us. For its launch the company opted - very understandably due to the product's design - to a cute campaign. Above is a sample. Again, it has been a while since VW issued a product that is designed in a such a way. And considering the legacy of the camper itself and how it is related to the hippie-carefree life, the Buzz ticks all boxes in its design, and therefore presentation.

However, I kept thinking that this is very close to the last time VW issued one such cute product. Namely? The redesigned VW Beetle/Bug which was also accompanied by a campaign that focused on the cute (sample lines "Hug it? Drive it?" or "less flower, more power" or "the engine's in the front, but the heart is in the right place").

Below are several executions, which some of them - it was fashionable back then - issued as postcards.

ecom48 - sustainable luxury for the well-to-do

For some odd reason I was targeted with an ad for ecom48. Perhaps they knew I was an environmentalist even before the word. Interesting considering I was speaking about the environment long before it became a trend to do so (my first conference dates back to 1995!). Still, ecom48 promises to be an ecosystem all to its own. Heck, it even promises a free 2023 electric Wolkswagen for every villa (that's 48 villas as the name implies and eco is for ecology and m for "mustaqbal" or future in Arabic - in case you want to dissect the name).

I think there is a mistake in the website - on the free VW section the title reads "this is the heading" which presumably should have been something else. The villas however offer the usual amalgam of eco options - composting cans, solar panels, biophilic design, solar water heaters, charging stations (yes, for the VW!), an organic garden, waste water recycling, ... Yet oddly it also offers a shooting range and a private pool for every villa? Which I believe are a bit against the concept.

Do note that the villas are not for your average "Dwell" magazine reader (which I am) - in case you do not know, Dwell is focused on all those microhousing, off-the-grid places or completely reusing materials kind of projects (turning a shed into a mixed housing or such projects for example).

 So who is the target audience for such villas? Well-to-do families wishing to invest their hoarded Dollars into a new real estate. The villas are located in Ouyoun Broumana and are supposed to be part of a gated community. Again, not your run-of-the-mill eco housing, but am sure it is targeted to a specific audience.

Car companies new logos: rebranding away from 3D

Well, when everyone does it, it is no longer a novelty. But it seems everyone is doing it out of necessity. After the bigtime fad of the 3D quasi-airbrushed logos for car brands, in the last few months, no less than 10 different brands have announced new logos (Volvo, Nissan, BMW, Mini, Dacia, Renault, Kia, Peugeot, VolksWagen, and Fiat have all went this route).

Actually, I also read somewhere that Audi has filed papers for a new logo very much in line with the ones presented in the image above. What is interesting is that in all cases, suddenly a new 2D logo has appeared. Truth be told, there are many elements of similarity with these brands' old logos from the 60s/70s. However, nostalgia is certainly not the driving element to be sure. Rather, it is the new social media. 

Let me give you this design secret, long time ago (that would be till 2010 or so), to make sure a logo worked, we used to put it on the smallest surface on which it will be printed - namely the business card, if the logo was still visible then it was acceptable. Today, the smallest surface on which the logo will be displayed is no longer the business card but your Instagram handle. And the less complicated the logo, the more streamlined, simple, 2-Dimentional, the more you have the possibility of being immediately seen by your audience as everyone is competing for eyeballs. 

However, in defense of the car brands, each one tried to keep its own identity separate as opposed to clothing brands who went almost anonymous with their new logos (for some odd reason major luxury houses have decided to go the let-us-all-look-the-same route). If you do not believe me look at the image below.