We've been reading a lot lately about how design research is becoming more and more common place in studios as they engage in exploration and play as a method for advancing the field and the work they do on a daily basis. Every month we see “findings” from these in-house explorations being released. Some of it is quite serious and some of it is just fun. W+Ks David Neevel and his email guitar fit soundly in the later category.

Wieden gave Neevel the opportunity to follow a passion of his and to create a guitar that produces characters based on the notes you play. The video above shows the results of his experiments and provides an introduction to becoming a Flying V playing, email writing badass. You can read more about Neevel's experiment on the W+K weblog.

We recently came across this nice packaging work from Oregon State University student, Maschell Cha. The branding work is a concept design for one of Maschell's classes. We like the succinct and descriptive nature of the logo and the artwork could solidly fit in the “cute” category. The packaging and logo work feels complete and would fit nicely into a bakery setting. Check out more of Maschell's work on her website. She will be graduating this June with her BFA in design.

It's funny how projects can come from some of the most expected places at times. This was the case for local designer, Michael J Lindsay who was having lunch with friends from the Portland Coast Guard base. After lamenting how they would miss the city when they were transferred after their tour was over. It was at that moment that Lindsay conceived (and based off a comment about parting gifts) of creating a custom gift for those who had served in Portland and were off to other posts.

This project was extensive and includes a bottle, label, custom tags, box and packaging. The result, though, is a completely custom, limited edition gift that the recipient will never forget. Lindsay did an amazing job of documenting the process as well. On his site alone there are 51 photos documenting the creation process. The best place to read more about this project, however, has to be on Michael's Behance project page, which features an extensive description of how the project came about and the construction process involved.