Vivienne Westwood Advert

I have noticed a lot over the past year how quirky and controversial the ad campaigns are for Vivienne Westwood clothing are. I really like them, like the one above. It does seem that however bizarre her clothes are the better, and this works well with the adverts and editorial she gets.

SoundHouse Sheffield University

This building was designed and built for the University of Sheffield music students. Designed by Carey Jones Architects and delivered by Jefferson Sheard Architects, the building is clad in sound insulating black rubber to prevent noise entering or escaping the building.

I think this is a great idea, and looks fantastic. Sheffield really suprised me when I went to visit last weekend. They have so many new buildings that break tradition, and this one is no exception.

Thirty Frames Per Second: The Visionary Art of Music Video

This book is basically a catologue of music videos and directors. Through it i've discovered more directors and videos that I had no idea about. Great book, I would recommend it.
I discovered Josh Taft with his video for Stone Temple Pilots "Lady Picture Show". I really like the way this had been made, very unusual, and highly contrasts with the bright colours of the more conventional music videos.

The Royal Tenenbaums, Directed by Wes Anderson

I watched this film this weekend, and loved the way it was filmed. I like films that don't follow the beggining-middle-end layout. Films like this where you piece it together are much more satisfying than the others.

The content is Black Comedy, it can be quite dark at times but generally its really funny and quirky.

Michel Gondry, Music Video Director

I have always been a fan of Michel Gondry's music videos so bought the DVD collection this summer. I found a lot of videos I was totally unaware of like Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water" video:

This video just boggles me, the 2 girls have been filmed separately both in one take doing similar things such as one in the shower, while other pours sugar on her head (sugar:water). while one of the girls is moving forwards normally, the other is mirrored and reversed, until they meet in the middle of the video where they switch over.







Gondry tries to explain it like this:

To be fair I can't get my head around it but love the concept, such a simple one take video can be completely changed in the editing.

Becks Bottle Artwork

Becks have brought out a limited edition range of bottle packaging for their bottled beer. Students from the Royal College of Arts have had their designs chosen to appear on the bottle instead of the usual labelling. Will Morris (Senior Brand Manager at Becks said it was to support up and coming artistic talent;"literally placing cutting-edge design into the hands of the public".

Apparently this is not unusual for Becks, they have released many collections of limited edition bottles using artist such as Tracy Emin. I think this is a great idea...a challenge to the stereotype that art should be on walls, and a great conversation starter.

La Machine Liverpool

During the Summer La Machine, a French Company, brought La Princess to Liverpool. I went to see it and was really impressed with it. The spider was controlled by about 13 people and interacted with the audience, there was also music, fireworks, artificial snow and lights. The whole show was really fun and especially good because it was free! I think this type of public event is a really good way to advertise, loads of people from all over the North West came to see it.

Animation Now; Anima Mundi/Ed Julius Wiedemann

I bought this book because I have a keen interest in animation, especially animation in film. It is written by the 4 animators who direct Anima Mundi-The International Animation Film Festival of Brazil. It provides an insight into the most diverse techniques, from simple graffiti on paper to sand on glass, to the generation of computer images.

It features animation companies such as “Aardman”, who predominantly use Plasticine animation. They are the makers behind some of my favourite animation, such as Wallace & Gromit, Creature Comforts, and Chicken Run. It goes on to discuss some of the largest animation companies like Walt Disney, which I have grown up watching, as well as Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks, all behind massive blockbusters. I have noticed from reading this book, that animation has gradually changed its audience from children to accommodating adults, not just in the humor and content, but with drawings becoming more realistic looking to be more believable.

This book also features many animators that I have never heard of. Some work is not what I would have related to “animation”, such as work by Joan C Gratz; understandably this is because I am looking at stills of the animations but the method surprises me as its coloured clay, but mixing it like it was paint or ink. However I suppose that I have realised that if it’s a moving image, anything can be animated.

New Facebook

The new facebook layout got many people riled, but personally I like it. People just don’t like change. The new layout is just more concise with tab points instead of scrolling down the page for 30 seconds to get to the wall because of all the ridiculous applications that are ruining Facebook. One comment about Facebook, is there colouring, its interesting that they chose a very similar colour scheme to Myspace their main competitor in the Social Networking business; blue background with white sans serif typeface in the foreground. It just seems bizarre to do that when they could have gone for a completely different look/brand. Its worked for them though I guess, which is something I will have to look in to more.

toyota website

I had to review this site for a survey. It needed a mention in my web section. I am shocked by how technical these car sights are (I had a look at Ford and Citroen also). Personally I don’t understand how you can buy a car online, as surely the decision is made upon the test drive. I found it really difficult to navigate my way around this website, so many tabs, buttons, very confusing. However there is an option to look at the car with an impressive CGI 360 degree simulator which I thought was very clever.


Colour-wise they have gone for a minimalist approach that I don’t think goes with the funky image they put across in the campaigns for the Aygo, and the Yaris.

Rock N Rolla, Guy Ritchie

Yet another London Gangster Film by Guy Ritchie, don’t get me wrong I really liked LockStock and Snatch, not so much Layer Cake and Revolver but this one really impressed me. The Storyline was good, but aesthetically I thought it was brilliant. The opening title sequence especially. Its like a modern Saul Bass, with CGI with a hint of Marvel Comics.

architecture-liverpool

Costa Coffee Building, Liverpool One. The architects were Marks Barfield, who have worked on projects such as The London Eye and the Spiral Cafe for Costa in Birmingham. I saw this in Liverpool and really liked the colours brightening up the high street. I was disappointed it was a Costa Coffee shop though, should be for a stationers as the pipes looks like pencils in a pencil case.

Leeds City Museum

I went to visit Leeds City Museum last week. I went to the "Leeds Story" exhibition. It was really interesting to learn about the history of Leeds. Apparently Leeds people are known as Loiners. I discovered Leeds was known for its abundance of Cinemas over the last century. I found the first posters really interesting because of the layout and use of typefaces.

Giorgio Armani "Diamonds for Men" Campaign

I thought this advert was part of the same campaign as this one:



But it turns out they're for two different Male Fragrances; Josh Hartnett for Giorgio Armani and Matthew McConaughey for Dolce and Gabbana. I assumed they were part of the same ad campaign because of the coincidence in starring a Hollywood Actor, filming in Black and White, having the Protagonist hounded by Paparazzi. Bad times for these two companies!

I prefer the Dolce & Gabbana advert, its more exiting with the music and the actor is more "current" and its just more exciting. I understand that the Armani advert is probably aiming at an older more sophisticated Male audience.

Band of Brothers: Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg

I know this doesn’t constitute as a film, more so a series of short films. I was particularly impressed with this series. The mix between interviews with the men who were Soldiers being portrayed, and the story itself really brings it to life. The aesthetics are reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan, being gritty looks, and shaky camera work. The Editing of this series is fantastic, cuts from machine guns noise as it fires bullets cut into the beats of fingers on a typewriter. I just don’t think you would expect beat-matching in a war film. Fantastic.

Graphic Design Since 1950, Alliance Graphique Internationale, Edited by Ben & Elly Bos

The AGI is a professional club that “unites the world’s leading graphic designers and artists of common interest and achievement”. This book references biographies of almost every AGI member to date, with plenty of illustrations.

This book has been really good for inspiration. It basically has a page for each artist/designer, with a short blurb about them.







Some of my favourite work is by Harry Pearce with his “Infantry”
Poster and “Witness”,







as well as U.G. Sato from Japan with his poster campaigns for “Preserve the Natural Heritage”,
“Animals and Human Being”, and “Peace”












and Armado Milani’s posters for “War/Peace” and “Smoke is Poison”.

Spirited Away : Studio Ghibli

I haven’t seen many anime films, I’d only really seen this kind of animation in cartoons like Pokemon. This is possibly one of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen, the storyline is chaotic, and random, and normally this wouldn’t work, but the anime style of drawing supports it. Definitely something to consider in design is your method of choice, to appropriately convey the message.

Look Magazine Advert

I really like this advert. I read Look every now and again but would normally go for Grazia to read about fashion as its quite a regular fashion glossy. This advert made me want to buy Look, it really did! I loved the song which I found out was commisioned for this exact advert (a grand total of 10 seconds!). I think that is also really impressive that they fit loads of information in to 1 seconds, approx 60 images are flashed in front of you. It glamorises Fashion and Indie which is similar to Grazia but then they whack a huge £1 sign on top...bargain!

Television Liberation: Virgin Media TV

I hate the company because they are a bunch of swindlers and I don't recommend them at all. Admittedly however, I do like this advert. I love the mixture of black and white film (Samuel L Jackson) on the background of illustration, its almost Pop Art-esq with gradiant. The message is effectively put across by combining the images in the background with the copy being said in the foreground (so to speak). Such as "Everyone's talking about it" is linked to images of Samuel repeated in loads of speech bubbles.

Morrisons Re-brand

I really like the new branding of Morrisons, its much more "Greener" and family oriented. Its slightly similar to Asda's Yellow and green, but different tones and obviously completely different Typeface and layout. Its much better than the old yellow and black branding, that was really dated.

Ana Maria Pacheco

Shadows of the Wanderer
Man and His Sheep

I like this artists Sculptures mainly, the content is quite dark and sinister with a black comedic edge. The people remind me of more childlike drawings/cartoons but mixed with the dark nature of the pieces it almost gives off a religious feel. Ana Maria is Brazillian and so I'm assuming she is Catholic which would explain the content. I do like controversial pieces, but sum of it is a bit too gruesome.

Pitts Rivers Museum

In June I went to the Pitts Rivers Museum in Oxford. Its the most random place I've ever been, rows and rows of glass cupboards, and draws you can open with Voodoo dolls stashed inside. It basically looks at art, design, culture, and religion from all over the world throughout history. I recommend this visit. The best thing I saw was the Shrunken Heads of the Jivaro Indians in South America...

You can just see them in the middle (things with the long hair).
Immediately following a battle, the head of the enemy would be taken as a "trophy", which indicated that the maker properly fulfilled the obligation to his lineage in taking blood revenge.

They basically boil them and sew things up, pretty disgusting. The funny thing is this was referred to as "Head Hunting" in Britain the heads of Traitors were put on posts in Medieval Times...We still use the ter "Head Hunting" in Business.

Tamara De Lempicka

I came across this artist in a shop that sold art prints for cheap. I liked the clean lines of her pieces, not something easily accomplished with paint. Despite the fact that these paintings are from the 1920s to 1940s the technique looks very modern. It is only the content that gives away the age. I included this in my blog because I thought it was interesting how this "modernity" was accomplished, not many designs and art work achieve this.








This piece is called "Portrait of Marjorie Ferry".

How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing your Soul

I got this book this summer, its by a Designer called Adrian Shaughnessy. In it he talks about his experiences of how to cope with certain situations and basically outlines what traits a designer should have to be successful. I've taken in to account now that I should always please the client but also satisfy myself as a designer (i'm not sure you can always do bothe though!). There are interviews included for inspiration with designers such as Neville Brody, Andy Cruz, and John Warwicker to name a few.

Its a very inspirational read.

Audi Avant Ad

Apparently this Ad has been out for a while but I only recently saw it up on a billboard in Manchester, it really caught my eye-which obviously means this advert works (well 50% of it does, I'm not going to go and buy an Audi A4 Avant just yet). The typeface has been constructed from Traffic Signs, which is what catches your eye and is very relevant to the message being put across. The top picture shows the animated advert, the signs appear foggy as you read them they become clearer, again very relevant to driving etc. Typefaces can be so hard to choose so its worth considering making your own when you do an advert (as long as its relevant).

Campaign to Proterct Rural England

This campaign is aimed at "Fly Tippers" and I presume Youths that drop litter around "Rural England". At the moment we are really focussing on the Environment and Global Warming, and this just doesn't live up to the otehr campaigns. I like the essential idea of "Pretty...Awful" and I see that they've taken a photograph that shows a divide, but the divide isn't clear enough. I also think that the type could stand out so much more, especially the word "Awful", this just gets lost in the litter.

Know Your Limits: Drink Aware Campaign

When I saw the "Girls" advert for this I was truly shocked. I really got lead in to it and the bit where she rubs sick in to her hair is really horrible. The "Boys" version is worse with the earring being pulled out and smacking his face into the door. I thought this was a really clear message, it depicts the Binge Drinking Teenagers as quite pitiful.

Manutd.com

The Manchester United Football Clubs website starts off promisingly with this opening page. Sophisticated, and minimalistic which I really like but not sure who they're aiming this at, the Footy "Lads" or the Businessmen. When you click "Enter Website" you're taken to a much more stereotypical football club website.

This is more like it, more masculine, with a cut of sophistication in the opaque images backgrounded. Its a good website to navigate around, and is very informative. I'd love it if they'd made the design more like the traditional red, white, and black stripes.

Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) Manchester

I went to see the Bodyworks exhibition, this was really interesting, though I am quite squeamish!







Walking around you could imagine the bodies to be artificial, but then when you saw dead baby foetus's you knew it couldn't be fake. The bodies were modelled in particular ways to show which muscles were being used etc during different activities. A lot of work had gone in to this, I was really impressed and came out with loads of facts and figures. They'd even used this process on animals (Gorilla, Chicken, Duck etc). Pretty gross, but really interesting.

bbc iplayer

I love the new BBC iPlayer! I don't need TV any more I have this. The website is really easy to navigate around, and the speed of stream is pretty much instantaneous, and allows you to download too. I like the colour scheme for this website, Black and Fuschia Pink, not very BBC but does blend with their new advert (central) campaign and combines all the BBC channels.

New UK Monopoly Here and Now

This is what the old Monopoly Board used to look like:
And this is what the new one looks like:

Obviously advances in Technology have improved the board dramatically, and as much as I like the cheesy patriotic approach with our massive flag and pictures of landmarks in these cities, I think its too garish. The old version (very old version) is bland and very minimalistic but I think with the mini photographs this could have been much more suited to the family board game. No one wants to have to pull out a pair of sunglasses before they play Monopoly at Christmas!

The Guggenheim NYC

This building is famous for it shapes that "catch the light" and I read that it was based about an Shell by Frank Gehry a Canadian-American architect. Its really an amazing building, I wish I could remember it (was very young when I went to NYC).

AlexandLiane - Music Video Directors

I've been looking in to Music Videos and Directors as part of my research for my dissertation, and came across 2 directors called "AlexandLiane", they've done videos for The Scissor Sisters ("Laura"), Bloc Party ("Banquet"), Sam Sparro ("Black and Gold") and The Ting Tings new video "Shut up and let me go". I was on their website http://www.alexandliane.co.uk/ looking through their work and found an old video called "Yougottahavefreak" :


A really effective way of producing a music video on a budget, costumes, masks, and random statues make it visually interesting and fun, tying in the playful remix of George Michaels "Faith" and Missy Elliots "Get ya freak on".

"Psycho" - Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock is famous for his use of psychology in creating fear in his horror films which was revolutionary at the time (1950s/60s). In the famous "shower scene" you don't actually see the blade penetrate the womans body but you as the audience know that this is happening because your mind fills in the blanks. In my opinion this is the best kind of horror, I hate new films like "Saw 1,2,3,and 4" because they're too gory (sp?)!

Some funny trivia about this shower scene is that the "blood" is actually chocolate sauce.













And although Hitchcock never showed the gore, there is actually a point where you can see the rubber knife slip on her stomach.