This business card is a lovely example of blind embossing – the process by which the embossing itself create the word of shape with no ink usage. There is a beautiful and elegant simplicity to this card with the embossing creating the logo on the front face of the card but still working as a graphic element on the reverse (something you always have to take into account when embossing).

Designer: unknown

Don’t you just love an innovative dieline? This apple-shaped box is a masterpiece of folding and just begs the viewer to pick the apple up, hold it and examine it. I’d very much like to see what the dieline looks like when flat, but in true eco-concious fashion it seems to require no gluing as the box is held in shape by the stalk.

I can’t remember where I found this image or who created the design and dieline – so if anyone knows please post credits!

I thought I would start off this design critique blog with a rather beautiful selection of wine labels featuring birds – this is the Black Robin blog after all!

I found these on another design site and I believe they were created by ‘War Design’ for Logan Wines, Australia. I was immediately taken by the effective simplicity of the line drawings. The use of only black and white gives the range a modern yet classic tone and the fluid movement of the illustrated birds makes the wine handcrafted – plus I like the device created by the twig that each bird is sitting on cutting through the label and separating the illustration from the text in a natural manner.