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Nutella Used An Algorithm To Design 7 Million Unique Labels (inc.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Inc.
Millions of Italians can now say they own a one-of-a-kind Nutella jar. In February, 7 million jars appeared on shelves in Italy, all of them boasting a unique label design... "An algorithm has usurped the traditional role of a designer," writes design magazine Dezeen. There are jars with polka dots. Jars with zigzags. Jars with splotchy shapes. All sorts of other patterns, too... All 7 million jars sold out within a month... Due to the sell-out success of these jars, Nutella is reportedly launching the same campaign soon in other European countries, starting with France.
The article includes a video showing some of the labels. The algorithm always kept the original logo, but then "pulled from dozens of patterns and thousands of color combination."
The article includes a video showing some of the labels. The algorithm always kept the original logo, but then "pulled from dozens of patterns and thousands of color combination."
imagine the hours that designers could have put in had all 7 million of these labels been done by PEOPLE instead of a fucking computer.
Surely they mean "AI"??? Any algorithm is AI in 2017.
This is related to chocolate because it sold seven million units of sugar paste, with a touch of nuts and chocolate, in record time.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
That I find the stuff as tasty as a dog turd.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
They had a computer randomly segment a piece of paper, plug in a random sampling of patterns, and then wrap the paper around a jar. Not exactly "replacing a designer team" (then again it is Italy).
I think more credit is due to the Marketing team that realized this could sell jars. Job well done.
So they just randomized the colors on preexisting patterns? Not particularly impressive.
1677216 unique pixels. Colour me unimpressed.
What's the hex code for 'unimpressed' ?
What if the algorithm makes a copywritten artwork? Who do you sue?
The company that makes it. Of course, damages will be small, since there's only one jar for each pattern.
Any two-bit programmer can write a program to make 1677216 unique pixels.
Wait, wouldn't that require a 24-bit programmer?
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
"Italian firm runs software that produces permutations of the original input." News at 11.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
The problem is twofold:
1) The jars sold out in a month. That means that this information is at least a month old. Why would Nutella wait so long to publicize what they were doing?
2) They say that the 7 million jars sold out in a month. What is their usual rate of sale? If it's 10 Million in a month, then this is a flop.
t's pretty funny, depressing, expected ...what word to use? that many of the comments to date are "unimpressed". Hint: The article is lying when it says an algorithm replaced a designer.
This is obviously a piece of digital media art created by a media artist who has both artistic sense and a level of programming expertise, or possibly as a collaboration between an artist and a programmer. Every single variation I saw in the video looked fun and enjoyable, which is not what you would expect to achieve unless you have both sense and ability in both technical and artistic areas.
It is perhaps a different discussion if you want to ask is this art or commercial design, or can they be the same thing.
As another poster mentioned, procedural graphics can be cool. But also how to produce a certain feeling from it? What was the entire creative process? Did the creator(s) have to explore a huge space of outputted images, like in a fractal explorer? Did weeding out of unsuitable images happen? Was there a lot of experimentation with the design rules and types of patterns? Did it all start with someone drawing the kind of images he or she desired and then try to imagine how to achieve different kinds of variations (one image shows a portion of a swatch being composited on top of the same pattern in a different color, another image shows curving borders that clearly separate three different patterns, another image is very different showing a vertical uneven pattern of stripes that looks more hand drawn.. but also likely has many variations). Were off-the-shelf design programs used for the initial input or pattern generation, or was it all custom? How was the color palette decided? What language was it written in and how many lines of code? What percentage of the project was programming, or was it a constant programming and drawing and tweaking kind of intense operation? And did people at Nutella go over all 7 million images to make sure it didn't generate something scary like a skull or words? ;)
Collaborations between artists and programmers can be awesome and challenging. I've been in some where technical issues had to be resolved very quickly due to a fixed exhibition schedule. I remember an event 10 years ago. A famous media artist (Jeffrey Shaw) was giving a thank you speech when his work had won the top prize in a prestigious art museum's competition, which also meant it would go on permanent display. It was actually the work of a small team. He chose to emphasize before anything else that the programmer (Bernd Lintermann) he worked with in fact also had provided a great deal of creativity and was an artist in his own right. The work was for a CAVE environment (3 walls and floor were projectors) but the same can be true in many genres.
FWIW that was 1997, though it was still exhibited years later. http://www.ntticc.or.jp/en/arc...
Though I have not been following him, FYI that programmer's page is here: http://www.bernd-lintermann.de...
ZKM is a famous digital art museum in Karlsruhe, Germany.
He exhibited at the Nikola Tesla museum a couple of years ago.
I mention these things just because if there are any people here with whom this resonates, you might enjoy exploring possibilities.
I'd also be interested to hear more about the story and was it something developed in-house by Ogilvy creatives or someone from outside, in a small digital media studio. Perhaps one day that story about the people who actually created the digital art system will come to light.