Vanity Barcodes

Payette Brewing Company

VanityBarcodes — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 19:20:37 +0000

Working with marketing/advertising agency, Drake Cooper in Idaho, we designed a unique Vanity™ barcode incorporating the State of Idaho for Payette Brewing Company. The barcodes appear on two beers – Payette Pale Ale and Mutton Buster Brown Ale. Feedback since these have hit shelves was 100% positive, with perfect scan results at point of sale.

Payette

VanityBarcodes — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:10:07 +0000

Gorilla Coffee

VanityBarcodes — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:54:31 +0000

Gorilla Coffee worked with Vanity Barcodes to create a custom barcode of a gorilla fist gripping a coffee mug. The tight space required working in close cooperation with the brand’s design agency to work it into the package design.

Chia\Vie

VanityBarcodes — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:50:38 +0000

Chia\Vie is a natural chia-based beverage based in Salinas, California. Their bottles feature a custom Vanity Barcode. The code runs vertically (ladder-style) for better scanning on a curved surface.

Wall Street Journal “Art in Aisle 5: Barcodes Enter Expressionist Period”

VanityBarcodes — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 05:09:48 +0000

“Food manufacturer GLK Foods LLC had initial concerns that tinkering with its barcodes could interfere with their ability to scan, says Ryan Downs, vice president of the Bear Creek, Wisc.-based company. Ms. Miller of Vanity Barcodes, who is also a principal at branding and design firm Miller Creative LLC, suggested GLK add an olive tree to the barcode of its Verdi Italian-food line. After testing, the olive-tree-adorned barcodes scanned properly.

Since then, GLK has also added olives to the design of its mobile barcode, a different type of ID increasingly being used on consumer products. Shoppers are able to snap a picture of the code with a smartphone and automatically be directed to a website about the product, a coupon or a marketing campaign.

Breaking Out of the Box

On a barcode, “there are certain things you can change, certain things you can’t and then there is sort of a gray area,” says Ms. Miller. For a scanner to read a barcode it usually needs to be about a half inch high, blank space is needed on either side, and the lines can’t be made out of some colors the scanner can’t see, like red, yellow or orange, she says.”

Original Article

Reuters “Product barcodes get creative upgrade”

VanityBarcodes — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 04:09:31 +0000

June 30 – A subtle change is emerging in the often overlooked barcodes used on retail items. Bobbi Rebell reports.

Original Article

Food Network Magazine “Some Barcodes Are Out of Line”

VanityBarcodes — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 18:09:07 +0000

“Not much has changed in the world of barcode design since the first one, printed on a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit, was scanned at an Ohio grocery store in 1974. But artists are finally having a little fun, turning out barcodes in the shape of popcorn, pizza, bread and more. Most national companies are hesitant to use the dressed up barcodes for fear they won’t scan, says Yael Miller, whose New Jersey company, Vanity Barcodes, creates custom codes. Look for stylish barcodes on packages of Bear Naked granola (a wheat field), Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches (a cow spot) and Sixpoint beer (the New York City skyline).”

Original Article (PDF)

CNET “Humble bar code gets its art on”

VanityBarcodes — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 18:08:45 +0000

“The bar code, that strip of black-and-white stripes that adorns nearly everything you buy, has been an unchanging symbol of consumerism for decades. Lately, however, companies are starting to loosen up about the look of those parallel lines, and more playful product codes are starting to appear on the shelves.”

Original Article

Brand Packaging “Next + Now: U-P-C You on the Shelf”

VanityBarcodes — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 18:08:05 +0000

“The lowly UPC symbol is getting a makeover. A new service called Vanitybarcodes.com offers a library of stock, decorative barcodes that are fitted with unique product numbers and tested for scan compliance. The idea is to add a bit of personality to an otherwise overlooked packaging element. The service also offers custom designs, like the one created for Elyon Marshmallow packaging, which incorporates the brand’s “mallow” mascots into the barcode and is said to have captured the attention of national chain store buyers who are now carrying the product. Why brands should care: Are you overlooking any elements of your packaging?”

Mashable “10 Creative Barcode Designs”

VanityBarcodes — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:08:26 +0000

“On this day in 1974, Clyde Dawson made history as the first consumer to buy a product that had been scanned into a till by its Universal Product Code. The product was a $0.67 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum purchased at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio. The UPC went on to become more commonly known as a “bar code.”

Now ubiquitous in the U.S., UK, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere, the bar code has not changed visibly in the past three decades — a boring monotone patch around which packaging designers must maneuver. Many don’t realize, however, that as long as a bar code is still scannable, you can have tons of fun with creative designs. Although popular in Japan, custom bar codes for product packaging haven’t gone significantly mainstream in the west, except for a few notable examples, such as Amazon’s Kindle packaging.

We’d like to see more bar code creativity, so to celebrate the UPC’s birthday, we’re taking a look at 10 brilliant designs from experts in the designer bar code field — Japanese company Design Barcode and New Jersey-based branding and packaging design agency Miller Creative‘s Vanity Barcodes.”