Who knew something so small could attract such attention. We’ve all done it one time or another, chosen a bunch of bananas because of the funny labels that are adorning that particular one. Now Chiquita is giving the public the opportunity to customize their own labels, and submit them. The submitted customized labels will be entered into a competition that will award the top 18 designs by producing the labels and sticking them on actual bananas. The website eatachiquita.com has already garnered more than 25,000 custom stickers in less than five months, and 1,355 of them have been entered into the contest. Voting began Tuesday and continues through September 12.

Chiquita reps were quoted using the word “emotional” several times to describe the popularity of the stunt, referring to the emotional connection consumers had with the stickers. Design:Related put it best when they said the stickers “just look cool.”

Whether it’s emotional relevance or just looks cool, the contest is still a great way for Chiquita to attract attention to its brand and minimalist packaging, and inadvertently promote heathy eating.

Last month, David McCandless, author of Information is Beautiful, came up with yet another gorgeous infographic. This one delves into 13 colors and their emotional representation across the span of 10 cultures. The 84 emotions range from Anger to Joy to Success to Wisdom and how various cultures express that emotion with a particular color. It’s interesting to see the overlap. For example, the color Red is used a lot to represent Excitement, Love, Danger, Heat and Anger. At the same time, Love is also represented by Green, Yellow and Blue in other cultures.

These are just interesting things to take into consideration when dealing with, and designing for, global clients. For example, while Black might represent Death in Western / American, Japanese and Native American cultures, the Hindu and Chinese use White, South Americans use Green and Muslims use Silver. It’s interesting to see the spectrum of colors and how they’re used throughout a spectrum of emotions.

Blog post from graphic designer Kate:

The difference between a job and a career is that your career is driven by a passion for a particular subject. As many of my coworkers will tell you, I’m passionate about many design-related subjects, particularly typography. And I’m not alone – look no further than this guy’s rant against Arial for proof (disclosure: clip contains some profanity).

Those of us who have successfully turned graphic design into a career are afflicted with what GOOD’s Eric Wicks dubs obsessive-compulsive design disorder. Designers, by and large, are a passionate, persistent, motivated, and – yes – obsessed bunch. It takes a certain obsession, Wicks argues, to draw inspiration from the art and nature and stories all around us that enable us to transcend the everyday in our work. Whether it’s through taking walks downtown or scrolling through countless subscriptions on Google Reader, designers can find their inspiration just about anywhere – but we have to actively seek it out. After all, to quote Edison, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Every designer has his or her way of tackling the task at hand, finding the motivation, inspiration, persistence and just a hint of passionate craziness to deliver a successful design. Is your designer obsessed? Well he or she should be!

How many of you can say you’ve sold artwork by age 14? After tonight, twenty middle school students from North Philadelphia’s Young Scholars Charter School will add this credential to their growing resume of academic and personal achievements. Their work is being showcased at the 3rd annual Young Scholars Student Silent Art Auction held at Studio Incamminati in Center City. Braithwaite is proud to support Young Scholars in their efforts to close the achievement gap for low-income, minority students and instill a culture of creative and academic excellence at their school.

In an effort to alleviate some of the approximate 23.8 billion pounds of clothing and textiles that end up in a landfill each year, Levi Strauss & Co is making a change to their clothing tags. They hope to achieve this by adding a simple “donate to Goodwill” icon to the set of instructions, in addition to encouraging cold water washes, and line drys when possible to reduce energy usage.

Goodwill Industries International CEO & President Jim Gibbons was quoted as saying, “In addition to funding community-based services, these landfill diversion programs create job-training opportunities for more than 1.5 million people a year.”

It’s a simple effort with great effect.