Microwave with Pizza Drawer

No more soggy pizza. This microwave has a built in pizza drawer, which reheats a pizza to crisp perfection. It’s called the Stainless Steel Kenmore 1.1 cu. ft. Countertop Microwave & Pizza Oven. Other features as listed by Amazon.com include:

• Microwave-6 Auto One Touch Buttons: Reheat, Cook, Defrost, Express Defrost, Popcorn, Potato
• Oven-4 Auto Cooking Pizza Buttons: Frozen Rising Crust, Frozen Regular Crust, Fresh Regular Dough, Fresh Par-baked Crust
• Manual Bake Cook-Cookies & Biscuits, Breads, Pastry
• Temperature Control-350, 375, 400 & 425 degrees
• Main Usage: Pizza, Bake, Toast functions

While it may have a hefty price tag of around $270.00, it just might be worth saving counterspace. Check out what Craziest Gadgets has to say about this product.

Starbucks to Offer Instant Coffee

Rumor has it that Starbucks will be introducing instant coffee to its Seattle and Chicago stores on March 3rd, 2009 and its London stores on March 25th, 2009. In addition to these stores, it will also be available at Target and Costco with the end goal of having the instant coffee available in all 26,000 stores worldwide by Fall 2009.

Starbucks is calling it “Starbucks Via Ready Brew,” which has apparently been in development for 20 years. Starbucks’ chief executive, Bill Schultz hailed it as, “Everything about this coffee stands up to the test of time… This is not your mother’s instant coffee.” A pretty bold statement for a pretty bold company. I think with instant coffee being a 17 billion-dollar-a-year industry, it’s a wise business decision to tap into these markets.

A pilot program for Starbucks instant coffee is definitely the way to go. With their brand being so universally well-known, it’s important to approach marketing a product with caution. What do you think?

Find out more from:

The Consumerist “Starbucks Instant Coffee To Debut In Seattle, Chicago”

Wall Street Journal Market Watch: “Starbucks has high hopes for its instant coffee”

International Herald Tribune: “Starbucks Coffee now in an instant”

Food Bloggers

I’ve been noticing more and more food blogs out there in the Web sphere. Here are a few of my favorites:

Bread & Honey.

Bread & Honey is a cute, rustic type of blog that features food recipes with beautiful high-quality photos. It used to have two full-time authors, Summer and Alicia, however, it looks like Summer has moved on to different things. Great archive to dig through.

Foodess.

Foodess is one of the newest blogs out there that I’ve been following. The blog incorporates wonderful use of the latest web design trends (minus a favicon. okay, okay, I may be biased) and also features beautiful recipes with cook-as-you-go photography; always an added bonus. Side note: it appears that the awesome agency behind the design of this site is Pallian Creative of New York City.

JMUeats.

This foodie blog site is called “JMUeats” and features posts by some gals from my alma mater, JMU. I love what they are cooking up — only wish this was around while I was a student! Keep it up girls and go DUKES!

Have a favorite food blog that you’d like to share? Go ahead and leave a comment!

Construction Paper Art Like You’ve Never Seen Before

Construction art like you’ve never seen before. I wonder how many hours Jen Stark put into these creations? Check out more at PJ LightHouse’s blog.

Tropicana Orange Juice to Revert Back to Old Carton Design

GREAT news for the design world. After realizing the public uproar of defying its branding power with the new design, it appears that PepsiCo has announced the decision to revert back to the old carton design of Tropicana orange juice.

Read the New York Times article here.

Sexy & Functional Designer Desk

Can we say SOLD?! I’m so digging this designer’s workstation, called the “Novanta Designers Workstation” by Luke Riggall. It’s full of functional features, including:

• Speakers
• USB and Audio Hub
• Monitor Stand
• iPod Dock
• Power Strip
• Cable Channelling
• K/B & Mouse
• Drawing Utensil Drawer
• Electrical Equipment Drawer
• Laptop/A3 Paper Drawer

Check it out at YankoDesign.

Designer’s Tabletop Electric Stove

Came across this retro-looking table top stove that folds up and stows away easily. It’s called the “Cooka.” Here’s an excerpt from Yanko Design:

“Cooka takes away the theory that silver is only meant for cutlery and ornamental purposes. This unique tabletop electrical cooking device uses silver in its design quite generously. Banking on its thermal conductivity properties, the cooking plates use the metal effectively to heat up the utensils fast and cool down the unit even faster.

The distinctive design of Cooka makes it resemble a table mat and quite like it, you can fold it up and stow it away, till the next cooking session. The silver plates are surrounded by tiny holes that constantly blow out a stream of hot air around the utensil, so that excess heat is not lost during cooking”

Read more at YankoDesign.

How to be a Rockstar Freelancer

Has anyone read “How to be a Rockstar Freelancer,” the Official book of FreelanceSwitch? If so, what are your thoughts? Is it worth checking out?

Check out the book at Rockablepress.com.

Pepsi and Sierra Mist get new look

Here is another example of a company trying too hard to be modern and hip. The design agency that created this look clearly took direction from the PepsiCola company who probably told them to put a fresh spin on a dated company. Don’t get me wrong, I love Pepsi’s product. Just not loving the new product packaging. Fair enough, right?

I will say that I like the Pepsi can better than the Sierra Mist can and here’s why. The use of white space was executed well in the Pepsi design. However, the tree silhouette in the Sierra Mist design seems to have no relevance. Also don’t think that “mist” looks misty, if that is the effect it is intended to give.

What are your thoughts? Love or hate the new look?

Kraft Foods unveils new Logo

Kraft foods unveiled a new logo on Tuesday, February 17th.

Believe it or not, this new logo is intended for corporate use, meaning the existing Kraft logo shown below will still be used on their product line.

I’m not sure how I feel about the design. While effective logos are simple and should visually convey the mission of the company, I’m not loving this logo. Simply putting “Kraft Foods” in lowercase letters does not mean that the company is modern and hip. As a corporate logo, I think it counters my chosen adjectives for the word “corporate:” grand and macho. Puny, lowercase letters do not work well here. Overall, this new design fails to deliver for its intended use.

If anything, I would have kept the old Kraft logo for corporate use and used the new logo for product use. What are your thoughts?

For a deeper design assessment, check out Brand New’s article.