For over 70 years, the Campbell Soup Company has cultivated seeds that American farmers use to grow tomatoes for its soups. Believing that quality soups are grown from the ground up, Campbell launched the “Help Grow Your Soup” program, which offers free packs of seeds with the purchase of one can of soup, and donates seeds to plant gardens in urban communities and schools nationwide in support of the National FFA Organization (formerly known as the Future Farmers of America).

Campbell tapped Anthem Worldwide to design a compelling label for this special program. The design needed to maintain the soup company’s core message while sparking new interest in where quality food comes from and what consumers can do to participate.

Anthem engaged its own creative network around the world to quickly turn around a broad range of concepts to meet Campbell’s aggressive launch schedule. The final design has an honest, forward-looking approach, embracing simplicity to best express uncompromised, wholesome ingredients, while adding temporary new twists to Campbell’s iconic brand elements.

In line with Campbell’s mission to nourish people’s live everywhere, every day, the packaging highlights the quality taste in every can of Campbell’s condensed soup. It also reminds consumers of Campbell’s commitment to its ingredients and the farmers that provide them.

David Byrne and John Lennon attended art school and achieved success in the music business. What are other seemingly unrelated jobs are design school (not art school) grads doing by choice or happenstance? Temporarily or permanently? Related to design or completely different? What aspects of your or their design education or previous design career experience do you or they draw upon (pun not intended), regularly or never?

There is a theory among educators that when you teach the left brain, then only the left brain learns—teach the right brain and both of the brain’s hemispheres learn. If this is true, then formally trained designers (having combined art and academic studies) would be capable of doing many other things, bringing their creative problem solving into play.

Another question might be; how many successful design practitioners have academic training outside of design? I know of several that have no design training, other than on-the-job. Their backgrounds include degrees in journalism, business, English and architecture. Did these crossover designers receive more right brain stimulation in high school than others, of which helped them develop both sides of their brains? (Yet, another case for supporting the arts in our schools.)

I certainly hope that my design education results in a full-time paid design job, simply because it is what I love to do. However, with the state of the economy, what few design jobs are available are highly sought after and difficult to get. Some people, like myself, end up doing other things out of necessity, not choice.