An Old Michelin Ad

The message here, of course, is "if you don't lay out the extra cash for Michelin tires, you are going to kill your own child." A strong message which gets translated across through the imagery shown. The designers here have opted for a shock approach, trying to hit their consumers with a dose of reality which really works.

Marmite Ad

Advertiser: UNILEVER BESTFOODS
Product or Service: MARMITE SQUEEZY SPREAD
Entrant Company: DDB LONDON
Country: UNITED KINGDOM
Advertising Agency: DDB LONDON
Country: UNITED KINGDOM
Creative Director: Jeremy Craigen
Copywriter: Theirry Albert
Art Director: Damien Bellon
Photographer: Andy Rudak
Illustrator: Dermot Flynn @ Dutch Uncle
Account Supervisor: Tamsin Northridge/Jonathan Trimble

The series of ads shown above are great. They play on the marmites tagline of 'you love it or you hate it' well. Picking particular people or topics which are also a 'love them or hate them' character. This kind of advertising really appeals to me as they are using the product's key identity and adapting it to create a really clever ad, with a link thats clearly obvious.

Art For London Underground

Whilst on the topic of the "London Underground" I thought i'd post the famous advertising poster "The Tate Gallery by The Tube" by David Booth, 1987. (Agency: The Fine White Line)



The brief set for this work by 'London Underground' was to simply create something decorative to cover up the empty advertising spaces on the underground.
I like how they've created an advert for the gallery, which is designed by 'the tube' - which links in cleverly with the paint tube displayed and london underground tubes. The actual work is a photograph of real paint laid out in the style of the underground map using the correct colours for realism. Its very simple and I reckon the copy completes the the design, giving it that witty edge which makes people remember it. And remember it they did, hence it was nominated as one of the ten best posters in the world!

David Shrigley

I came across a last years free fold out tube map of the london underground the other day, noticing it was nicely illustrated by David Shrigley. The illustration follows the original design produced by Harry Beck, taking a comical or some may say an opposite perspective, displaying a present-day response to the rational certainties implied by Beck.
The design of the london underground tube map implies - "getting from A to B is a simple matter."
However as many personally know nowadays travelling via tube is not so simple, and the Shrigley's chaos probably portrays a picture closer to the truth.



When looking through his website I managed to find a small collection of work which personally appealed to me. I particulary like his style of simplistic monotone rough-edged illustrations.


The one above made me chuckle. Its so uncomplicated, almost effortless, yet witty at the same time. This particulary reminded me of the cards and products made by Edward Monkton, whos illustrations I also enjoy very much.



His illustrations certainly prove that colour and details aren't always a necessity to successful work.
Shrigley also takes photographs which can be easily viewed on his website, one which caught my eye labelled 'Giraffe', is shown below...

Halls 'Defense' Sweet

The general idea behind these outcomes is good, it clear that the illustrations fit in well with the copy "Protect Yourself", highlighting the fact that the cough sweets will protect you against illness. Even the idea behingd the illustrations is good - with the sweet steping into another defense/protect situation. I particulary like the the rollar blade one, maybe because the sweets' squareness suitably fits in. Hower one critism I would say is that maybe the style of the illustrations could be stronger, in an alternative way, something to give the idea a greater impact which it deserves.

Morrison's Revamp

Has anyone noticed the new Morrison's logo?

Apparently Morrison's is undergoing a revamp alongside getting a new chairman. So they've decided to declutter their stores (getting rid of all those market stalls), change their slogan from "More reason's to shop at Morrison's...." to "Fresh for you every day"/"Fresh choice for you" (bit confused which one is the slogan and which is for the ad campaign, anyone know?)
...They've taken away the only thing people really associate with Morrison's which is that slogan.

The actual logo on the other hand WAS awlful with the stark yellow and black M, but now with the change, its STILL alwful. Few commented it looks like the Somerfield logo a bit and I have to say that I agree. The money spent on such a drastic change in my opinion was not well spent! What do you think??

Nicholas Manion

www.nickolya.net

Nicholas Manion is a student at the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane. The work above is part of his collection "Works In Paper", which demonstrates aims "...to transform a commonplace material and create something extroadinary...".

The image shows sillohettes of cities made out of differnt currency notes.
On his website he comments... "Money circles the globe forming links between cities on opposite sides of the world. I must give them a voice and share the stories they tell..."
This line of copy is great! It has a powerful edge to it, maybe if there was a bigger link with this copy to the artwork the purpose of the work would be better defined??

Personally I wouldn't go as far as saying Manion has created something "extroadinary", but nevertheless he has discovered an interesting link between different currency and how it travels from country to country. Using a creative hand to display city outlines on different notes; I feel however something more could've been done to give it that finishing touch, what that is though i'm not sure.

Craig Ward

www.wordsarepictures.co.uk
Ward is a typographic designer and illustrator based in the Uk.

The three images above are a varied collection from his online porfolio "words are pictures", they reveal the wide range of his work.
The first called "Alphabet City// oo2 London" A typographic interpretation of London, on inspection you can notice how the arrangement of words spell out symbolic places which create the city. The vibrant use of colours and the varied sizes of the type shows creativity and adds interest to the work.

The second is a typeface called "Talking Heads". I picked this out because it amused me on first impression. The faces almost talk to one another but blend in well with the letters, creating a whole and not two parts as a letter and a face. The usability of this typeface is probably questionable, however it's evident that the pure design effect it has upon sight is worth it.

Thirdly, some protional artwork for six degrees album. This one takes a different approach to typography, using a hands on style with the rearrangemenrt of mathematical protractors. It works well with the name and is just about legible, giving the onlooker a slight challenge to discover the copys' content; however it's instantly recognisable once seen once.

Bookshelf

On the same website as below I discovered this splendid bookshelf design, which I thought looked great, very unique, obviously it comes with its problems - have to keep the same books there.
It has been designed by Mike and Maaike, the main idea is to create all the books at the same height, hence saying each book is just as important as the other, no one book reigns the shelf.

There are also more bookshelves produced by other designers including one made with a pogo stick and one that makes the books appear as if they are floating. Some great product design.

Judging Books By Their Covers

We all know we do it. Pick up a book because of its attractive, appealing cover. Assuming the contents will mirror the style of its outer self. But how often are we satifised?

Check out this nice book cover site
You can click on the covers which then leads to more details about the book's design. A great site if you were looking for book covers inspiration.

Disabled Banner

This is an internet banner produced by Mcaan Erickson (Brazil)
Can be found by clicking: Banner

Discovered this internet banner the other day, it objective is to show the difficulties disabled people have, in this case focusing on people in wheelchairs. The banner has been cleverly produced with a horizontal scroll bar, which makes a man in a wheelchair move across a pedestrian crossing, just over halfway it gets stuck trying to get over the curb. A message then comes up highlighting the charity it supports.

However would people actually be tempted to scroll along or would it be ignored? There also needs to be a call to action at the end like a phone number which people could donate too maybe to add more of a purpose to the banners' existence.

Overall though I think its a clever idea, taking a different perspective to get a cross an important message!