Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Socialising
The most import aspect of being successful is socialising. Getting your name out there and known, constantly updating work and projects and talking to fellow communicators, gathering information and inspiration from their work and their points of view. I decided to join twitter, as it is a main network, that is constantly updated by millions of people every single day. After signing onto it, I soon started to follow major design companies such as D&AD, Hello Creatives and Graphic Trumpet, as well as my tutors, major graphic designers and fellow classmates. Disruption equals Success
When advertising and media is such an impacting part of everyday life, it is often difficult to create something that stands out and captures eyes. However, it is often more beneficial to break the boundaries and create something disruptive to the norm than to stay within the comfort zone. “Disruption is a tool for change and an agent of growth: a working methodology and a life view philosophy” – TBWA. Being disruptive with a design or a project is a big gamble, which means that many don’t take it; however, it could make or break a company. Being disruptive, creating something new and getting noticed, creates a stir, and gets word of mouth talking therefore making the campaign more effective. A classic example of the disruptive style is Brit Pop art, with artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin. Their work is controversial, with pieces such as Emin’s ‘My Bed’ and Hirst’s ‘Sheep’. The style of this work had never been seen before, and certainly caused controversy and made eyebrows rise. People were debating whether it was art, whether it was right, but even though alot of the debates were negative, it made these two artists become two household names.In advertising, it is easy to fall into the same categories as many of the competitors. For example, car advertising is a very big category of advertising with hundreds of cars being produced and bought out throughout the year. Getting an advert that is strong enough to promote the car to high sales is difficult, when all adverts look the same. Typically, cars are given the ‘sex’ factor, with close ups of the wheels, the body, the interiors, with a mysterious music. However, Wieden and Kennedy executed disruptive advertising ingeniously with their Honda ‘grrr’ advert, promoting the new Honda diesel engine. Never in the advert was there a car shown, but with the impact on the engine, different selling points and upbeat music, sales rocketed of the car, mainly because the advert was so addictive and eye catching.
However, disruption isn’t just with what is shown, it is also through the media platform that they chose to use. With so many media platforms to design for now, it is essential that the chosen one is executed to perfection whether it is a billboard advertisement, to a shopping centre installation. The Economist light bulb campaign directed by Abbott Mead Vickers, released in 2004, used today’s new technology with a simple media platform of a billboard caught attention, and was interactive with the public with interest and excitement. As the person walked underneath the light bulb, the sensor would pick up the movement and the light would switch on lighting the bulb up, imitating the comical idea of the light bulb above the head when the character gets an idea in their head. It is more exciting to look at, and look further into than a 2d billboard, with a few words and an image on.Being disruptive within design does not mean destructive, sabotaging design and creating a mess, it is creation, and is the means of creating something dynamic, to replace something that has become static and parity.
“Strive to do something different”
Bibliography
Monday, 28 March 2011
Glorophyl Advert
This was an experiment into stop motion graphics for a brief advertising Glorophyl Glue. I illustrated the images, took photos of them and put them together. The theme was getting your own back on a prank, with a twist of the girl getting her own back gluing her boyfriend to the wall using Glorophyl, showing its stregnth and durability.
The music is Hot Butter - Popcorn
The music is Hot Butter - Popcorn
Website Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee5NC24UM4o
Neville Brody
Neville Brody is an internationally notorious graphic designer, typographer, brand strategist and art director. He started out in the early 1980’s when he was art director of Fetish Records, which is when he started to experiment with a new graphic language informed by ideas from the subculture and alternative music scene. Brody consistently pushed the boundaries of visual communication in all media through his experimental and challenging work. He assorted typefaces with decorative details such as geometric elements, symbols and pictures. From 1981 to 1986, Brody was an art director of the magazine “The Face”, for which he designed a characteristic typographical appearance that inspired magazine designers and other designers worldwide. For example the cover for their 10th anniversary, featuring Madonna, he experimented with layouts of bulky text and strong contrasting imagery, with bold colouring. The cover had attitude and a grungy impact, which would appeal to it’s audience of alternative music fans and people of the alternative lifestyle. Other international magazine and newspaper directions have included the likes of City Limits, Lei, Per Lui, Actuel and Arena, as well as the radical new look for two leading British newspapers, The Guardian and the Observer. Brody found most of his fame with FontWorks, of which he was one of the founding members. FontWorks, based originally in London designed a number of notable typefaces, and was partly responsible for prompting the FUSE project, an influential fusion between magazine, graphic design and typefaces, which showcased new work from renowned designers and which has won several design awards. Brody's work and that of his company, Research Studios, has continued to evolve and expand into a bewildering range of different projects and innovative initiatives - many of them for international clients. His accomplishments include a set of postage stamps for the Nederland PTT, a signage system for the National Gallery of Germany, a set of posters for the Hayward Gallery's exhibition of Magnum photographers and a special design for the United Nations UK UN50 campaign. 
Brody is notably recognised for his exciting experimentation with typography, a direction he has devoted most of his life to. For example, in this piece of work for Nike, he has played with the size of the font, the layout and the alignment of it. Everything on the design is impacting and visually intriguing, because of the consideration for visual hierarchy. Instantly the eye is drawn to ‘bounce’, and then ‘just’ which is set within it, which also ties in with the Nike tag line of ‘Just Do It’. After that, the eye follows a mix match of words and images. The language is very strong as well, giving several sporting instructions and actions such as ‘dunk it’, typical basketball slang. The poster was a risk, from first glance you do not recognise it as a basketball shoe promotion, but this makes it very bold and noticeable, a typical Brody trait.
Now, Brody is working with his founded company Research Studios, a multi-disciplinary creative network, situated around the world from London to Tokyo, Berlin to New York, where he works on one-off commissions to comprehensive visual communication projects.
"An electrician isn’t an opinion former, but a graphic designer is. My argument is that all graphic designers hold high levels of responsibility in society. We take invisible ideas and make them tangible. That’s our job."
Fizzy Drinks Brief
The aim of this brief was to promote the sales of a Fizzy Drink, in which a competition was running by creating a viral ad. The task was to collect 6 ring pulls, send them off and win a speaker, to share music with friends at a party or gathering. I chose to aim it at a lot of different people, such as rave attenders, mosh pitters, and geeks, so that the ad would reach out to a large range. The music that I chose is Andrew W.K - Party Hard.
Link to Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNUpmRY18b0
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Look, Listen, Learn
In today’s modern society, information and design is bombarding every aspect of life. From the moment we wake up in the morning to the minute we fall asleep we are constantly being informed and reached out to by roughly 11,000 designs, but with the human mind being very selective of what we acknowledge and absorb, and the overly cluttered and crowded world of the media, performance recognition is decreased. Living in Birmingham, one of the UK’s largest cities, it is impossible to go anywhere without being bombarded with graphic information, even a short walk to the shop I am constantly being pushed to buy products, sign up to new contracts and go to different events and places, however, even though I am a very observant person, and am constantly absorbing information, it is still impossible to contain everything within myself. Very often we rarely recognise we are looking at design when it is not associated with any aspect of our lives. For example, a family car advert for me would not be distinguished whereas a family or a parent would associate it with their life, and even though we have both seen it, only they would take note of it. Whereas a poster for a local student night out, would be noted by for me and not necessarily by the parent or family.
As we are no longer able to find things out for ourselves, not through choice, but through the constant impact of unlimited streams of information through our mobile devices, internet, journeys we travel and products that we buy. We have developed into a society that no longer listen or look to learn, but instead to reply with answers. We can’t avoid not knowing all of this information; we now understand more subconsciously without even realising it. But has all of this added a negative impact on communities and societies? With constant streaming of information to nearly everyone around you, surely a lot more people will now know roughly the same information that you do. On the other hand, the negativity is that no longer are we able to teach in the same way and learn in the same way. Do we listen to people and what is being said, and understand it all, or do we wait for a presentation or a technology enhanced version of what was being taught to be processed, and then understand everything that was being taught. Sure, it is impossible to go through life now without using technology and sources such as the internet, but would it really hurt us to take a break away from it, for a day or two, giving us the chance to go and explore, hunt for the answers, track down the events and more importantly remind ourselves on how to listen, and learn.
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