January 1994: Oh Snap!

Presenting: January 1994:

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In desiging January 1994, I tried to draw inspiration from consumer product design from the decade. Thanks to an excellent Imgur gallery by GlobalVillageCoffeehouse, there were many samples to follow.

A few common themes stand out in early 90’s product design:

• Vibrant colors used in packaging and logo design.

• Very flourished or stylized fonts.

• Distinctly “clipart” look to logos and images.

• Everything went through an orange filter.

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Following these examples, the January title is directly lifted from the unique Nike logo in the gallery above, while the center image was based on the tortilla package’s blend of clipart shapes. Each week is a colored stripe of a popular packaging color of the era.

The theme of the month comes from the biggest news story of the day: the infamous rivalry between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan that culimanted in Nancy Kerrigan being assaulted by Tonya Harding’s over-eager, but not sensible, boyfriend. You’re Wrong About has an excellent series on the spate that covers the story in great detail if you’re keen on knowing more.

The cover, thoroughly untasteful in design, features an ice skater whose leg has been shattered by a bludgeon. The clipart balloon floating nearby features the popular 90’s phrase “Oh snap!” Though apocryphal, Nancy Kerrigan has long been quoted as crying out, “Why me?!” after her attack

Featured Events of January 1994:

Jan 01 ) The establishment of the NAFTA was a big deal. It created a lot of buzz that a North American version of the EU and a standardized North American currency was soon to follow.

Jan 04) Yahoo!, a website whose name can only be read aloud in a hollaring yodel while playing a banjo, first went online. Though small fries these days, it used to be a major player alongside other heavy hitters like AOL, Ask Jeeves, and Alta-Vista.

Jan 06) Nancy Kerrigan attacked at an ice rink in Detroit, Michigan.

Jan 15) Snoop Dogg (whose name I egregiously allowed autocorrect to mispell in the calendar) releases the popular song Gin and Juice.

Jan 22) The world loses its lollipop loving detective, Kojak, when actor Telly Savalas passes.

Jan 25) The first major accusations against Michael Jackson of sexual misconduct with minors break headlines on the same day R. Kelly released Bump n’ Grind.

Jan 26) Sci-fi classic Babylon 5 debuts.

Worth Mentioning:
The #1 selling car in Germany during 1994 was the Volkswagen Golf, boasting 388,707 models sold and a 12% market share.