Nutella Used An Algorithm To Design 7 Million Unique Labels (inc.com) 95
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."
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This is related to chocolate because it sold seven million units of sugar paste, with a touch of nuts and chocolate, in record time.
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I bet you're a real hoot at parties.
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Procedural graphics and processed food go well together.
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Because both make me puke?
so AI has claimed yet more jobs.. (Score:3, Funny)
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.
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"It pulled from dozens of patterns and thousands of color combinations."
So, human designer(s) made those dozens of patterns and a computer simply picked colours at random.
I'm sorry but even the random dungeons of Diablo 1 (1996) are a more impressive feat than this marketing stunt.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: so AI has claimed yet more jobs.. (Score:1)
I'd be more interested of the ingredients were subject to randomness: "Maybe *you* will be the one in seven million where the randomly-chosen-balance of ingredients provide health benefits! Buy now to take your chances!"
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I'm sorry but even the random dungeons of Diablo 1 (1996) are a more impressive feat than this marketing stunt.
If all you focus on is looks, then you miss the big picture. They just registered 7 million more trademark looks. They are the only company that will get to do this from now on. they can sue everyone else for copying them now. Brilliant marketing strategy.
Algorithm? (Score:5, Funny)
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His name kinda gave it away.
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That's very interesting, actually. They've created a micro-level of scarcity that does not exist on the macro scale.
People respond to scarcity, and they've just proven it again.
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They're as unique as fingerprints. So does that make them valuable? Probably not.
What would make some of them valuable is if there were many identical ones and only a select few that are special. Because despite being unique, none of them is special.
And what people want is special, not unique.
Genuine one-of-a-kind US one dollar bill (Score:1)
for sale.
Authentic series 2013 United States Federal Reserve Note in good condition with serial number. Face value $1.00.
Only $19.95 plus shipping.
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I'm pretty sure that notes with numerologically interesting serial numbers do get sold on auction sites for more than face value though.
Quick google search confirms [philly.com]
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We had a black girl named Asthma, also true story. Why not just name your kid Gonorrhea or something?
Only 7 million? (Score:2)
Any two-bit programmer can write a program to make 1677216 unique pixels. Colour me unimpressed.
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1677216 unique pixels. Colour me unimpressed.
What's the hex code for 'unimpressed' ?
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0x000000 (or #000000 for the web-heads), obviously.
Re:Only 7 million? (Score:5, Funny)
Any two-bit programmer can write a program to make 1677216 unique pixels.
Wait, wouldn't that require a 24-bit programmer?
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Any two-bit programmer can write a program to make 1677216 unique pixels. Colour me unimpressed.
You should be much more impressed.
Any 2-bit programmer will know their powers of 2, so they can easily create 16777216 colors.
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Damn you, evil Dr. Typo! You got me again!
Re: Only 7 million? (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure that more than two bit.
So glad... (Score:4, Funny)
That I find the stuff as tasty as a dog turd.
Re: (Score:2)
One student prank later and yes I did taste it once.
So? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
If anything, this just shows how flexible their printers can be on a commercial scale.
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It was black and white, dot matrix printer with some misalignment. But that was 15 years ago. Should be surprised only if commercial scale printers can't take a new image for every label.
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But we're talking about commercial scale. If you only want 50 copies of a book, then sure, you could use inkjet technologies to print 50 books with unique features. We're talking about 7 million unique items, though, and in four-color process, too. I doubt it would have been possible 5-7 years ago.
what if (Score:2)
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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.
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Scene setting. [purrsia.com]
The scope of the problem and first proposed solution. [purrsia.com]
The second proposal. [purrsia.com]
We're gonna need a bigger universe. [purrsia.com]
I like "Freefall". It asks all sorts of interesting questions, like this recent sub-theme [purrsia.com].
"Dozens of patterns" (Score:4, Insightful)
So they just randomized the colors on preexisting patterns? Not particularly impressive.
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7 million combinations ; "dozens of patterns", thousands of colour combinations.
Let's guess at 2.5 dozen = 30 patterns. A nice round number. And the same palettes for "first" and "second" colours. I make that around 484 colours in the palette. If there are three variable colours, the palette goes down to a mere 62 colours.
It's amusing, but not particularly impressive. You know, if I have a mere 10 variable elements in a design (say
And yet.. (Score:2)
... the ingredients list on all of them starts with sugar and vegetable oil.
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And the veg' oil is no doubt palm oil, the cheapest nastiest oil.
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I'm pretty sure they're not talking about the "palm oil" that's left in your hands after a "workout session". Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.
The algorithm knows people! (Score:2)
Algorithm: "Me smarter than people. Me know people don't like colour of shit. Me take shit colour off all labels."
But the problem is... (Score:2)
...they all have Nutella in them.
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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.
Alternate headline (Score:4, Insightful)
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It's not amazing that Italians could do that. it's amazing that they could do that when they weren't trying to do something completely different.
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These randomly generated patterns are not designs, by definition.
Design has principals and elements that are chosen specifically for a reason. They are carefully planned and revised in order to evoke an emotion, to guide the reader's eye with a hierarchy, etc...
Not OMFG look how many different colors we can randomly mash together. Ohhh pretty!
Well it is design. The colours used, are not entirely random. If you look at the video they all blend well. Obviously the algorithm uses features from the colour wheel to ensure a pleasing look. Also, the patterns are a mix of patterns designed by humans to be pleasant and to coordinate well.
There is design principals and elements at work. This isn't 100% random colours and isn't just random dots on a jar. This is picking coordinating colours and coordinating patterns to make pleasing arrangements.
Tha
I wish there was (Score:1)
less sugar, and more nuts and chocolate in Nutella.
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I don't have a breakdown of ingredients to hand, but Cote d'Or used to do a black chocolate spread that was bordering on bitter.
Might be hard finding outside the Francosphere though.
A beautiful artwork (Score:3)
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... [ntticc.or.jp]
Though I have not been following him, FYI that programmer's page is here: http://www.bernd-lintermann.de... [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.
Omg (Score:1)
I'm rushing out to buy hazelnut flavoured sugar (really, check the ingredients) !
i made an algorithm too (Score:2)
printf("Nutella %i\n", i);
mine's better. 7 million and ONE unique labels
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Well... (Score:2)
Sweet! :-)
Probably a boatload of swastikas (Score:1)
Shiny beeds (Score:2)
Palm, meet face. (Score:2)
Not that unique? (Score:2)
From the video in the article (from their production facilities) it appears they are not really that unique. I saw a few duplicates:
http://screenshot.co/#!/57e0e9... [screenshot.co]
Another NSA Conspiracy (Score:1)
Apparently they think all leakers are a little bit nutty.