Spam Advert.

I felt i would finally talk about a design i didn't like. and judging by the google search about it not many other people do too, especially patriotic Americans.

The advert was created by the Brazilian branch of the WWF to encourage people to protect the earths natural resources. I discovered this while flicking through the latest Creative Review and noticed an article about 'spam advertising' - advertising for advertising sake. I think instead of just saying it out straight they were talking about a cross between unpopular adverts and shock advertising. The image shows a scene of Manhattan from above with the twin towers still there, with numerous planes heading for the city. The tagline is 'The Tsunami Killed 100 Times More People Than 9/11' the image is supposed to represent what 9/11 would have looked like had it have been as destructive as the tsunami. What i find questionable is how the two were related in order to compare? The Tsunami was a natural disaster and couldn't be stopped compared to 9/11 being human choices. I feel that there has been tonnes of support for each of the disasters and that to compare the human passion showed by millions of people to make them feel guilty for trying to help one maybe over the other is wrong.

From what i found out, this advert was never supposed to be released after being rejected by the Brazilians, and i'm sure they have deep regrets for the negative press they received after the accidental release. Rather than causing attention to ultimately give them more positive press.

Lasts that little bit longer.

What i like about condom advertising is when thinking of ideas, unlike normal products like bleaches or toothbrushes, you can let your imagination get carried away with you. Instead of giving the game away straight away, you can leave the viewer to think about what they're seeing and figure it out by themselves. I found these images from two condom campaigns, I think they're hilarious. It takes it a while to really click, but you can't help but at least smirk. Kind of typical condom adverts, but still, they're always so clever...

NASA

While watching the film sunshine with a friend the other day i remembered a very embarrassing fact about myself from childhood. Instead of aspiring to be a Britney Spears (Thank god) or a vet, i spent my childhood wanting to be an astronaut. In fact, i used to write to NASA frequently to get information on what space missions they were doing or new things they had discovered, to which they would reply very kindly with little information packs. I even used to collect the daily pictures from newspapers showing the shape of the crescent of moon that night. Well anyway, instead of droning on about how odd i was and how many friends i had, tonight I discovered these pictures taken of space by the Hubble Telescope.

The Hubble Telescope was put into orbit in 1990 and in its first 15 years it took around 700,000 images and has helped scientists around the world to understand 'space' more and more. It has helped with the understanding of the births of stars, the death of stars, black holes, and galaxies.

Not only has it helped with science and the understanding of whats beyond this world, but it has created some of the most beautiful and exotic pictures possible that we are unable to see from bare eyes.

Maybe i chose the wrong career path and should consider taking up my childhood dream...

The Cog

After being reminded by a very special advertising expert, i seemed to have forgotten one important Honda advert in a previous post... The Cog.

Perhaps i just looked over the advert as none spectacular, but this is the case, i probably just forgot.

The Cog was made with the tagline "Isn't it nice when things just... work." The whole 2 minute advert is a chain reaction of pieces of the Honda Accord, bouncing from one another to create a smooth and beautiful motion until the whole car moves from a see-saw and the voice over tells us the tagline. The advert is so simple and powerful, it looks like the parts were created just for the purpose of making this chain reaction and not a car. My favourite bit is definitely the windscreen wipers, it looks at though they come alive and show a great aspect of the car. I watched the making of the advert around the time it was released Weeden+Kennedy were the masterminds behind the 6 million pound contract that took months to create and film. The advert was aired during the Brazilian grand prix of 2003 and won a staggering 37 awards for the campaign.

This advert for me is absolute perfection in terms of engaging the audience, showcasing the product and creating hype. I hope you enjoy...

Thanks John

GaGa - McQueen

As controversial as this post may be I felt I needed to write about this combo before it becomes too old. Lady GaGa, the new pop queen, who seems to have the persona of marmite not only with her music but also her fashions has teamed up with Alexander McQueen to debut his spring/summer 2010 and her new music video. Lately, the new up and comer has collaborated with Beyonce, Gossip Girl and Alexander McQueen in her latest song, Bad Romance. It seems the typical GaGa song when listened to at first with the odd phrases and catchy pop; but the video helps to give the song a real personality. Francis Lawrence, who has worked on 'I am Legend' and with popstars such as Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and Ok Go, directed the video and helped to give it the edgy, asylum looking, and in my opinion modern re-take of thriller. The dance moves are twitchy, awkward and involve a lot of weird claw like motions.

The singer wears at least 10 different custom made outfits including lingerie, a polar bear skin robe, and a sequinned cupcake Alexander McQueen dress fitted with 10 inch stiletto hooves. It's no wonder the pair hooked up, Lady GaGa's sound and styles completely embody Alexander McQueen's range of outrageous designs.

The only trouble i have is the continuing style of GaGa, the constant attention seeking of GaGa's outfits and lifestyle is running slightly cold now. None die hard fans OR fashion followers may see this video as a gross replica of her other ones and could lose the respect and attention Alexander McQueen's work deserves. We can only see in the spring and summer of 2010...

Joe Mangrum

While in central park in New York, it's hard to not notice or constantly stop in the masses of crowds around the performers in all the beautiful spots. However, instead of the usual dancers or musicians that are usually found around the tourist destinations around the world, i spotted one artist attracting a small gathering of people and once i went over i discovered a really interesting form of art and mixed media from this artist. His name is Joe Mangrum and he travels around america making small art installations and living off the money he earns from donations. On days he will just choose a nice place to go and make art that will be destroyed at the end of the day, just to get attention form the public and hopefully some money.

These are a few of the photos i took of him when we has working...

I love how into his work he gets, he is obviously really passionate about his art and welcomes anybody to come watch and will talk to anybody who wants to ask, from foreign people to children and adults. During this piece he was using different coloured sand to create a pattern working outwards. He usually uses lots of natural materials to create his art, his website describes him as 'Joe's recurring themes explore our relationship to modern life juxtaposed with our organic natures and desires for freedom'. What i love about his work is that he lets his imagination go and creates really inspiring pieces that have a truly unique style.

Here are some more examples of his work, i hope you enjoy them as much as i did...

Bank Transfers?

Surprisingly, i have found an advertising campaign that may increase the credibility of banks amongst the public. After the past year and one of the worst recessions Britain has had, Saachi&Saachi have created this campaign for the bank Western Union.

I love the simplicity of these picture, at first its hard to make out there are two skylines because they are so beautiful. However, once you realise, its easy to spot the iconic skylines and start to realise the message behind the image. That with Western Union, transactions are made easier, especially between cities and around the world. My one problem with the collection of images is that without reading the tagline at the bottom, it's at first hard to tell what the message is. Even with this small problem, it is hard to not like this campaign and can possibly be the start to reinstalling some faith in the international banks.

Honda

I thought for my first none-me post i would write about one of my favourite brands for advertising. Honda has been revolutionary in their campaigns and have distinctly memorable adverts that people always talk about and recognise for long periods of times. Compared to other typical car adverts like BMW or Audi which show cars driving around, Honda have always stepped outside the box to create entertaining adverts.

One of their well known television adverts is the impossible dream, it has a man using all methods of transport travelling round beautiful scenes in New Zealand and finally end up in a hot air balloon sponsored by Honda. The backing track is 'The Impossible Dream' and the main man is miming the lyrics throughout. The lyrics are really appropriate, it is all about reaching your goals and dreams and is really inspirational and obviously how Honda are as a company.

Another advert of theirs is the impression of a car and driving, done by a choir. This advert is really clever with the tagline 'This is what it feels like to drive a Honda'. The sound effects are really realistic and although it is just simple filming of a car driving, it entrances the viewer. I love this advert, it is such a simple idea and really effective as every time i watch i have to see it to the end, unlike some other adverts.

One of Hondas most revolutionary adverts was their completely live skydivers fall, while writing in the sky. It was the first live advertisement on television ever, and made them a lot of attention from viewers. What I like about this advert is how they chose to not only do a live advert, which would be tricky anyway, but to do something really risky where loads of things could have gone wrong. It went really well and the advert was a complete success.

There are so many more Honda adverts that i could talk about but i think maybe three is enough for now. Maybe they'll make some even better ones that i can blog about in the future. For now anyway, even though they are not known for their huge advertising campaigns, you may all be able to notice one of their adverts and pay that little but more attention to their quirky ideas.

Hydrophobia

I had a brief last year, my first year of University, that was to choose a phobia and to represent it typographically. I chose Hydrophobia which could be conceived as aquaphobia, a fear of water, but Hydrophobia is a form of rabies. When a person has rabies it is physically impossible to swallow and the thirst overwhelms the person. I tried a few ideas and decided to go down the line of drinking and came up with my poster.

Ahimsa

During my A-Levels, one of my briefs was to design a brand identity for a vegetarian restaurant. These are 2 of my favourite designs from the brief. I chose the name Ahimsa, this means 'to do no harm' and is used in religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, which i thought went quite appropriately with the subject of vegetarian restaurants. I created the images with pictures of flowers found and vegetables all layered onto each other to make a kind of 'birds of paradise' setting.

The Fringe.

During my summer I also had the opportunity to go to the Edinburgh Fringe festival. It was my first time there and I absolutely loved it and am definitely planning on making it an annual occurrence. Edinburgh is a fascinating city and really pretty. It really reminds me of old england with cobbled streets, small alleys and cathedrals. The Fringe festival was really cool. We saw Loads of shows including comedy, improvisations and art installations.

Art in Manhattan

While on the topic of New York I thought I would finish it off talking about the art galleries I visited in New York. I went to a few small art dealer shops in Manhattan which were all unique and interesting. However the Art galleries were, although overcrowded, very impressive.

Firstly I visited the Guggenheim on 89th and Fifth (to talk the lingo) right opposite the Jaqueline Kennedy reservoir. The Guggenheim was built by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I hadn't heard too much about him before I went but luckily while we were there they had an exhibition of his work. I found his work absolutely amazing, his ideas and hopes were innovative and original. His work often promoted organic architecture and the American Institute of Architects named wright as "The greatest american architect of all time."

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim to have a spiral walkway around the building so that when going around the building you can view all of the artworks properly in the sequence intended by the artists.

There were so many interesting pieces of art work there which were all quite contemporary with a mix of modern and older styles. However the Wright exhibition was still my favourite. They had tonnes of information about his work including designs for heletaxi's, a mile high building, and a huge underground mall with an aquarium dome in the centre. Also included were circular environmentally friendly houses, perhaps from the same ideas as his Guggenheim designs. The Guggenheim left me wanting more and i cannot wait to return in the future to see what new exciting exhibitions they'll have on show.

Another gallery I visited, not surprisingly, was MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art). Automatically you can feel the difference from the Guggenheim when you walk into MOMA.

At the top of MOMA I was luck enough to see a special display of Ron Arad's work titled "No Discipline". An extremely famous designer, who's innovation and curiosity sets him aside from the rest. His work included a reversed pin hole camera reflecting dots of light around one corner of the room. Also his ideas for spinning restaurants at the top of mountains, a LED chandelier where you could text messages to appear through the spiral. He also had a huge shelf he had designed in an odd symmetrical style that allowed people to view all his different designs.

Also available at MOMA were iconic Andy Warhol pieces including Marylyn Monroe and Campbell's soup. I also had the opportunity to see Monet's Water Lillie's, up close I was rather disappointed by them. As much as they were beautiful I think the hype built up around such a big artist can either satisfy you or build you up for an even bigger let down , as happened with me. The Dance by Matisse was also on display at MOMA. This attracted a lot of attention from the crowds and I was not let down by the piece of art. I remember reading about it and getting a full appreciation for the painting as its smoothness and colours work so well.

The main exhibition that attracted the most attention at MOMA was a very unusual collection of items arranged around a small house looking thing titles "Waste Not". Once I worked my way down to its level I learnt that it was a Chinese artist called Song Dong that had used all of the items his mother, Zhao Xiangyan, had collected throughout her life. She has lived her life by way of a chinese tradition of keeping all possessions incase they were needed or could be used at a later date. The neatly lay out collection included toothbrushes, bottle tops, cardboard, shoes, kitchen utensils and every day junk things that this woman had collected. Usually this could have seemed slightly neurotic and odd but the lovely story behind it all added personality and character to each individual object and provided a nice way of looking at each piece of scrap.