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Wednesday 27 January 2010

TBWA Portfolio Visit




Today myself and James Clancy visited TBWA's agency in Didsbury, Manchester. They have 2 different sites in Didsbury which are about a mile apart. The site we visited today is a renovated traditional church building with an ultra modern design interior inside it. The interior is amazing to look at and uses the height of the original church to create numerous floors divided by spiral staircases.

We waited at the reception and watched through the Nissan showreel that TBWA had designed. This was on a screen behind the front desk and we sat on 2 big leather sofas with a TV in the corner. We then went into a conference room that had a very long table with lots of chairs round it. Light came into the room through the huge stained glass window at the other end of the room.

We went through our joint portfolio and were lucky enough to receive some great feedback. Some of what we spoke about was awards work so I cannot write about it her on my blog. He said our book was one of the best he had seen in a long time which is a nice compliment. However, he also said it was almost too good and very graphics based. As an advertising agency, they want to see more ideas based work and if this means that they are just sketches then that is not a problem. We have conformed to what briefs have said but some weren't relevant to what TBWA do and we have been asked to come up with more advertising based ideas for these briefs and go back in a couple of weeks.

He has also said that some of our work is too good in the way it is designed because we should never overestimate what the public will see. Our work was seen as quite implicit and needs to cut more to the chase.

Overall it was a brilliant place to see, we received some great advice and will be going back again soon hopefully.

Thursday 21 January 2010

SOYO






Recently noticed this identity on Lets Kiosk's website. It is not a logo, as such, it uses Scrabble style squares to make up the name. This look extends to the website, advertising and interior. This makes it a strong brand. It is modern and attractive. The identity also suits the type of place and make it inviting and trendy to visit.

There is also a feature of the site that I have never seen before but it looks and works brilliantly. When reading through the menu, instead of clicking next to move to the next page, you have to physically drag the page across the site. This gives it the feel of a real book and is much more interactive for the user. Making them stay on the site longer. To see their site visit here : http://www.soyo.me/

Craig Oldham - Ambient Media Campaign - Adidas






I am currently researching different ways of getting young people into playing sports as part of my Final Major Project. I was told to look at the ambient media campaign for Adidas to promote football ahead of the FIFA World Cup in 2006. This was designed by Craig Oldham from Music who came in to the college to give a lecture about design a while ago which I have previously written a post about. http://nick-entwistle.blogspot.com/2009/04/craig-oldham-lecture.html

The campaign provides great value for money as it is simply a roll of tape. This shows that the simplest ideas are the best. I can really relate to the campaign as me and my friends used to use walls, garages, car height barriers, trees etc... as football goals. Anything that resembled a goal and was reasonably sized we would use. If not we would put our jumpers down for goalposts. This tape allows you to make a goal anywhere you want and can turn any environment into a football pitch. It promotes street football and can bring communities together. With the rise in obesity and people staying in playing computer games, ideas like these are vital.

I like the posters as they are well art directed and the copywriting is great. They are not made too fussy and don't seem expensive, which is a good thing as it relates to the idea. I also like the way it gives football an importance over other things like cars. Humour is another aspect of the campaign and I feel that it is this that captures people's imaginations.

You can see this campaign at: http://craigoldham.co.uk/project/take-it-to-the-streets/

Sunday 17 January 2010

Browser Pong





Browser Pong is a traditional Pong game played not in a browser window, but with browser windows.

The typical browsing experience is conducted through a single application window. This is indeed a useful, practical thing. Browser Pong instead exists between a collection of windows. During play the negative space between windows is transformed into a playing field?the abstracted tennis court of Pong. The idea of thinking inside or outside some "box" is of course a dead and beaten horse. Browser Pong attempts to think with the boxes. The audio content was created by sound artist and musician Dominic Matar of Nine Cats Music specifically for this piece.

I love the idea of thinking 'inside the box' as the idea of thinking outside it is overused and contrived. This program, although fun, has the potential for many uses within other websites and applications. The thinking behind it is very clever and the technology matches this. It takes design as I know it to another level. Not just onto screen, it is a step above which means you can interact with it's content which grabs your attention.

The work is done by Stewdio and is well worth a look. http://stewdio.org

iQuit




When I first saw this application I thought it was just a joke application that wouldn't really work for real. I can't see many people having the bottle to use this program but it is really funny and could potentially help people get out of their jobs and relationships with ease if they are stuck with what to say.

iQuit generates a formal letter of resignation from its library of pointed, yet ambiguous, sentences.

You don't have to be a celebrity to quit with panache. With a few clicks iQuit will email your desired party an official letter, constructed on the fly just for you! No configuration necessary. Perfect for quitting any sticky situation.

If you want to use this technology go here: http://stewdio.org/work/iquit/

No Scale To Fit Logo and Stationery



I have never seen such an ill fitting, badly kerned, typographically incorrect logo that works so well. It does exactly what it is meant to do by promoting a Visual Arts profile for the Oslo National Academy.

It fits the name perfectly and I love its structure (or lack of it). It is an abstract logo and a refreshing change to the swooshing computerised logos that are getting tiresome and are overused.

These type of logo designs are very risky but more often than not they stand out which is what a logo should do. I aim to bring this way of working into my own work somehow.

See this work and other examples here : http://uglylogo.no/

Blogging with bar graphs






After looking through some great work by James Thompson I picked out these posters as my favourite.
They use real life objects to create graphs and visually represent data in a whole different way. They make the idea of data a lot more human and they are relative to the graph they are depicting. This makes the person interact with more and actually take notice of its content. A computerised graphical chart just does not have the same effect. You can see James site at:

http://www.james-thompson.co.uk/index.html

Below is how James described his own work.

A series of daily blog posts that explored the visual language of self–documentation. It was part of a larger project about the contrast between individual and group intentions on the internet and the rise of both the monologue and the conversation in the form of blogs and group applications respectively.

It was also an attempt to reduce my textual output into the blogosphere. The system for deciding the theme of the blog was such that I could decide at a whim in the same way that any blog author would.

Umbro HQ Interior Design






Umbro went to LOVE to redesign the interior of their HQ. They wanted to inject their strong traditional links with football into their offices to create a sense of occasion. I am not normally too interested in interior design. However this is an exception as it revolves around graphic design and ideas.

I found the imagery on Rory Sutherland's website http://rorysutherland.co.uk/index.php?/project/umbro-hq/ who I saw on a portfolio visit at LOVE last summer. He is now at Truth as Senior Designer.

LOVE's website can be seen here : http://www.lovecreative.com/

YOU ARE, WHAT YOU’RE SEEN TO BE.



Saw this great post on Truth Design's blog and it talks a lot of sense. It relates closely to what my critical journal was all about and explains how important branding is to a company and if it isn't done right, no matter how good you are, you could fail.

You can see what the post says below and the images accompanying the message are above.

So what does YOUR branding say about you, and is it appropriate?
YOU CANNOT NOT COMMUNICATE.
So it is very important that the message your branding is communicating is appropriate for the brand values you are trying to portray.

KEY POINTS
First impressions count, potential customers WILL judge your company on the image you portray.
GOOD DESIGN can help a one-man band look like an international corporation and equally vice versa.
BAD DESIGN is more expensive than good design.
Consumers ARE willing to pay more for branded goods than unbranded ones.
In today’s climate it’s important to make sure your brand is working hard and your money is well spent.

It is the most relevant post I've seen for a while especially in today's financial climate and you can see this post and more at:
http://truthdesign.typepad.com/truth_design/

Tokyo Motor Show









The Tokyo Auto Show showcases all of the year's best new automotive technology and design. A lot of the time I don't feel Japanese design lives up to the technology in their cars along with their reliability but some of the examples above that I picked out definitely do.

Car technology and design inspires me as I have a strong interest in it and can relate my work to it in the future. Especially as I my Final Major Project is linked to cars.

See the full show on http://www.tokyo-motorshow.com/en/index.html

IDEA 2009 Gold Award Winners






Over 30 products were given the top award in the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2009, organized by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). These ranged from innovative heavy-duty equipment to complex medical systems. The emphasis was on creating an appropriately user-friendly experience, whether that user is a veteran warehousing professional or a seasoned clinician. The Best in Show title was awarded to a company that is working hard to exorcise its past demons: Nike (NKE) won for its Trash Talk basketball shoe, made entirely from recycled materials.

Bad Car Design






As I am into car design I was interested in looking at a design article in Business Week highlighting the 50 worst car designs in the past 50 years. Some of the designs are funny and that bad that I can't understand how they got signed off for production in the first place.

Most of these cars saw sales figures drop due to their design which proves that bad design actually costs more than good design.

See all 50 here : http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/10/1028_50_ugliest_cars_of_past_50_years/index.htm