To celebrate the opening of his documentary premiere in SF last month, a number of  Banksy murals popped up throughout San Francisco. The simple and poetic  stencil-based images combined with the surprise and accessibility that comes from the public context make for a powerful visual delivery.

These are some of my favorites from the BAGP mural walk. Check out this map for a complete list of Banksy murals in San Francisco. (courtesy of Graffiti Photostroll)

I wear contact lenses. I also design medical products from time to time. A theme that comes up over and over again with clients is the customer desire for products that feel less ‘medical’.

If you have to have corrective lenses, for example, it shouldn’t feel like a blemish or a disorder. Related products, from saline solution to lens cases, should feel like they’re part of a healthy, positive lifestyle. We’re all different, and none of our bodies are perfect. Rather than make products that call out imperfections and feel clinical, the best medical products should propose a healthy relationship between you and your body.

Check out the revamp of the Bausch & Lomb ReNu multipurpose contact lens solution below. When I unboxed the new version, it felt like a bottle of Vitamin Water, not like something I’d find in a doctor’s office.

Above: The old ReNu contact solution packaging.

Above: The new ReNu contact solution packaging.

To learn more about the rebrand, check out Pentagram’s entry.

A while back, I read an article in the NY Times about how fickle we are when it comes to consumption, especially when it comes to something as elusive and subjective as wine. Cliff notes version: Most people can’t tell the difference between $10 and $80 wine. Connoisseurs train themselves to learn what $80 wine is supposed to taste like. For the rest of us, ignorance is bliss.

Now I’ve had an $80 bottle a countable number of times in my life, and of course there’s a difference when it’s a great wine. I’ve also had $80 wine that’s terrible. So for the 95% of us that need some guidance, the role that emotion plays in the decision making process (especially when we have little else to go on) is incredibly powerful.

This is one of my favorite wine labels, a $4 Trader Joe’s special. The wine is nothing special - the identity is iconic. The symbolism itself is fantastic: Fuerza, “force” or “strength” in Spanish, represented by a little red man peeling back the paper label. Clever. I’ve probably bought over a dozen bottles of this stuff when I’m looking for “nothing special” wine.

Compare this to the $160,000 1787 Chateau Lafitte. I suppose you could call this the “Anti-label” - it feels like it’s from a case of one-offs. It’s initialed “Th.J.” because it was part of Thomas Jefferson’s own wine collection. The thing feels personal, above all - unique, precious, valuable.

When I went wine tasting in Baja California’s wine country, I found a small-batch producer that had a small sample run labeled with duct tape and the initials of the owner. To this day it’s probably the best and most memorable wine I’ve ever had. Orange peels, cloves, pepper. The mental image of this rustic bottle had something to do with that, or maybe it had everything to do with that.

I gave a talk about emotional design at a Microsoft-sponsored event themed “Designing for a Sustainable World” in November 2009.