Went to Cardiff a little while ago and had a look inside the National Assembly for Wales aka The Senedd situated on the waterfront on Cardiff Bay. It's an amazing piece of architecture which was made to symbolize an open democracy. The building also represents sustainability, through the materials it uses (traditional Welsh materials such as slate and Welsh oak), to the way its heated and naturally ventilated. There's a lot of detailed information available online here; it seems a lot of time, money and effort was plowed into the creation of this building, and it shows.
Anyone interested in architecture, its worth a look.
Closely related to my recent post about the banned Heinz Ad. This advert promoting snickers was brought off air because of complaints that it was negatively targeting gays. Personally I think this ad is a lot less offensive, and the complaints surrounding it seem trivial. Created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO – (The same agency responsible for a Heinz Deli Mayo advert- withdrawn last month after showing two men kissing.) Includes Mr T, not my cup off tea, shouting ‘Speed walking. I pity you fool. You are a disgrace to the man race. It’s time to run like a real man.’ Apparently most of the complaints came from America, where it wasnt even showed. Really America's views shouldn't influence what occurs here in the UK. Humour is of course subjective, however i dont think this ad comes across as being targetly offensive. Seems that the view of a few are being portrayed as the view of the many. Surely shouldn't Mars stand their grounds over these minority complaints and ...GET SOME NUTS!
A Swedish ad firm, Publicis Stockholm, came up with a three ad campaign for Amnesty International against female genital mutilation. They appear beautifully illustrated and yet at the same time very clear in its symbolism, however nasty the topic is.
A Swedish telecom company called Tele2 use a hound dog as their company symbol, and have a website where you can make it beatbox to sounds. A little bit of interactive fun.
I must've completely missed this brilliant idea by Sony Ericsson when it came out in Madrid, as i've only just stubbled across it. Consisting of ultra-violet tennis court, a club, a top DJ, and when the tennis ends it becomes a dance floor.
It looks like so much fun; lets bring it to England! Night Tennis Anyone?
Illustrations from Bob London. He's particularly good at capturing people, and picking up on individual characteristics and bringing them to life in his work. I like his line drawing approach to his technique, a hand-done kind of style.
Marcus Walters is a UK illustrator and designer, who works with a variety of different media including collage to help create a unique effect. His work really appeals to me, the choice of alternative media, the vibrancy, the flat perspective along with its clever simpleness. Definitely worth checking out.
Liking the style of these illustrations by David Sparshott. Nice simple line drawing style, complements a clean page layout well. Have a rough earthy feel to them.
An example piece of work by Chimero called "Silhouettes", a small book comparing his silhouette to a bunch famous ones. However i chose this piece more so for the style and layout design used, which i thought was clean and precise yet interesting and carefully thought out too. And an inspirational design poster printed by Chimero: Frank Chimero is a graphic designer and illustrator from the USA, inspired by the mid-century aesthetic. I enjoy his playfulness style he manages to successfully incorporate into his work.
Skull With Cigarette, 2007 [based on a painting by Van Gogh] 72x98" Depicts 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months.
Just one part of a project titled Running The Numbers, An American Self Portrait, by Chris Jordan. It aims to visually examine the vast and bizarre measures of American society, through statistics. Each image porttrays a specific quantity of something, in the case above its, cigarette boxes, which then created a larger image through the numerous smaller photographs. This style of work creates a 'double-take' effect where viewers have to have a second look at the work in order to understand the full picture and the true meaning behind it. He explores lots of other materials too, quite interesting really.
This particular wayfinding project based in a carpark in Melbourne caught my attention. The distorted letters shown, display directions when standing or viewing from a specific direction. It comes across as quite a funky unique idea, definitley adds more interests to the car park. However you would wonder how efficient the signage is. As what happens to those who go the wrong way then can't make out where to go because they can't return to that one location where the word is visible?
Variations of the universal "we're number one" symbol made by Geral Fauss. The foam hand is one of the most popular pieces of US sports merchandising today.
I stumbled across this incredible building whilst walking around in Sans Francisco.
Upon some research i discovered that it has been there since 1997 produced by an artist called Brian Goggin. The art itself consists of a range of furniture hanging off the side of the building, the concept behind it being 'defenestration’ (a word meaning to throw out of a window). This kind of art really interests and inspires me, it's unexpected carrying an element of surprise which i think makes you appreciate the sculptural art even more. Overall this left a huge impression on me, and of Sans Francisco itself as a city. Along side this building there were many other sculptures and artistic points of interests scattered around the city, which made it such a great place to wander round. I'd definitely recommend a visit there to anyone.
You can see other interesting and strange works by Goggin at his website www.metaphorm.org/
Found this video the other day and fell in love with it, so cleverly created! Definitely worth a look. Like this? Check out more of their films at www.eatpes.com
A video by Matt Willey showing his decision making process for his page design for the Royal Academy Magazine. A well recognised procedure and a good insight to how the final project is achieved and what designers go through to get it.
Heinz Deli Server Mum : Banned Ad Agency: AMV BBDO
What is it exactly trying to advertise? - Heinz Deli style Mayo?! And why exactly was it taken off air? - Apparently it received over 200 complaints in the UK saying that it was offensive and inappropriate, so was removed after just less than a week on air.
The basic idea of the ad is that the mom is really a lady, but in the kids' eyes and her husband, she's a dude working in a New York deli, hence the American accent. The ad was meant to come across as a humorous metaphor for great tasting sandwiches. But it seems like the British public just didn't get it.
AMV BBDO say that the concept behind the campaign is that the product tastes so good, "It's as if you have your own New York deli man in your kitchen." (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/24/asa.advertising)
Is the advert too gay? - nowadays gay people can have families in todays modern society too; are people still shocked by this concept? The ads removal could be interpreted that Heinz is ashamed of their commercial and are taking a step backwards. Many might feel that this action shows an unsupportive view of gays hence reflecting a negative light on Heinz as a company. This also raises the question if we should fully inform children that there are both heterosexual and homosexual alternatives and let them see role models and examples of each in the media?
So are we all just looking a little too deeply into a commercial which is simply taking an alterative approach trying to to be original in order to capture people's attention. It just shows how sensitive todays public market is; however it must be worth taking the risk as the response to such adverts like this one is so unpredictable; and either way seems to generate enough media attention to the brand and the new product.
It is seemed that Heinz have managed to dig itself a hole with regards to the controversial issues surrounding gay rights. Personally I don't have a problem with the ad at all; and see no reason why it shouldn't be on air. However i did find the reaction to it very interesting.
What do you reckon - should it have been left on air?
The aim of this campaign is to try and tackle the growing problem of female binge drinking within the UK. The ad is based on the belief that women are more likely to change their drinking habits to preserve their looks rather than to maintain good health. This is a worryingly concept but entirely believable in todays society. TBWA discovered through research that weight gain is more likely to make women reconsider their drinking habits than heart disease.
The campaign chooses to use humour and vanity to communicate the dangers of alcohol rather than the usual shock factors or preaching tactics. (Will the humour backfire meaning the message isn't taken seriously and thus shrugged off and ignored??!) TBWA claim that through making people laugh the ad will triggers conversations between friends and drive talkability, firmly rooting the campaign in popular culture, helping the message spread amongst its target audience. How effective this campaign will be its hard to say, but personally i like the new angle they've taken on this current problem; however i feel the visuals could be even more realistic/shocking, maybe through using a younger model...
This website is amazing; it's a very complex way of telling a personal story through multiple photos ......definitely worth checking out! Produced to perfection. A brief explanatory extract about the purpose of the website below...
"...to experiment with a new interface for human storytelling. The photographs are presented in a framework that tells the moment-to-moment story of the whale hunt. The full sequence of images is represented as a medical heartbeat graph along the bottom edge of the screen, its magnitude at each point indicating the photographic frequency (and thus the level of excitement) at that moment in time. A series of filters can be used to restrict this heartbeat timeline, isolating the many sub-stories occurring within the larger narrative (the story of blood, the story of the captain, the story of the arctic ocean, etc.). Each viewer will experience the whale hunt narrative differently, and not necessarily in a linear fashion, constructing his or her own understanding of the experience."
Whilst working on a magazine project I came across the work of Scott King. He uses some really vibrant, impact making layouts which doesn't appear in your regular magazine. It creates a variety to the article. Perhaps a bit behind in todays magazine layouts though- personal preference though i suppose.
Whilst visiting Florence in Italy a few weeks ago I spotted these niffy outdoor boards which try to disguise the building work which is taking place. I've heard of this before but never actually seen it about so it was good to see in real use and see just how effective it really is. I particularly like how they've placed what would be there if building work wasn't going on; trying to make everything blend in; thus making the city more visually appealing.
