HBO Promotes True Blood With A Beverage

To hype up this season's June 13th premier of the HBO series True Blood, a blood orange carbonated drink inspired by character Bill's favorite synthetic blood nourishment beverage, has been launched via promotional tv spots, print ads, downloadable posters, and online ads.

TV promo:



Print ads:

  

Posters (available for download here):
   
Tart and slightly sweet, Tru Blood pours like a regular soda but appears stormy and mysterious when poured into a glass. The Tru Blood beverage features: •Stunning bottle design is exact replica of bottles featured on show: stained in rich red with raised English lettering and matching Japanese Kanji! •14 ounce per bottle • sold in 4 packs and 24 packs. A matching bottle opener and Party set (which includes opener and glasses) are also available:

      
Drink Menu:
The Fangbanger - Tru Blood, Vodka Death on the Beach - Tru Blood, Peach Schnapps, Pineapple Juice, Vodka Plasmapolitan - Tru Blood, Citron, Cointreau, Fresh Lime Juice  

Ingredients:
Carbonated Water, Cane Sugar, Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, Potassium Citrate, Carmine Coloring, Potassium Sorbate, Sucralose, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Benzoate, Caffeine, Niacin (Vitamin B3), Caramel Coloring, Red 40, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin B6, Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12), Folic Acid, Gum Accacia, Ester Gum.

 HBO's True Blood Homepage

Nike World Cup Players Carved In Crayons By Diem Chau

Our favorite crayon carver and artist, Diem Chau, about whose unusual art I have blogged before here and here, just had a super cool assignment from ad agency Wieden + Kennedy.

She was commissioned by them to carve 66 crayons for this year's Nike World Cup press kits. "This project was a welcomed challenge" says Chau, "I definitely pushed my physical limits. I had 18 days to make around 70 crayons! There was a week I slept 3 hours a night."

Using metallic crayons and white for the first time, Chau immortalized six footballers in Crayola for 11 Nike press kits. Here are the results.

The design team at Wieden Kennedy made the box, base and contents, while Diem Chau made the crayons for the press kits from Nike for World Cup 2010. W+K also chose the colors, a metallic/stone theme. Diem had never worked with metallics or white before and now is a big fan of the silver and white crayons.

The Nike Press Kit

The press kit contains each of the six carved figures, a wooden box that also serves as a display stand, a colored brochure and all are in a clamshell presentation box.





The 6 figures that are in each kit.


In the final version Robinho (far left in Silver) sticks his tongue out slightly and Rooney (Grey) has his arm folded instead of raised above his head. Diem says she wishes she could have captured Rooney's signature pose, but it was impossible considering the form of a crayon.

Fabio Cannavaro in Antique Brass from Crayola. This color was introduced in 1998 in the 120 box set:



Didier Drogba in Copper from Crayola. This color was introduced in 1957 and is Charles Schulz's favorite color from Crayola:



Franck Ribery in Gold from Crayola. The color was introduced in 1949 in the 48 box set:



Robinho in Silver from Crayola. This color was introduced with Gold in 1949 in the 48 box set:



Cristiano Ronaldo in White from Crayola. Introduced in the Studio & School 12 box in 1903:



Wanye Rooney in Timberwolf from Crayola. Introduced in 1993 in the Big Box of 96:


Press kit photos courtesy of Wieden + Kennedy, individual crayon carvings courtesy of Diem Chau.

Now, if you haven't seen the Nike Ballman for the 2010 World Cup, learn about him here.

Modern Meyerhoffer Surfboard Wins Prestigious Design Award

above photo by Daniella Zalcman for NY Times

American Thomas Meyerhoffer has won Australia's 2010 International Design Award for his groundbreaking surfboard design.