bad hair.

Here is an itsy bitsy post about a clever commercial I just saw. It is for Target but it is about bad haircuts which we can ALL relate to. Target takes a twist on a bad hair cut and turns it into a marketing opportunity! What can you do to cover up a bad hair cut? Styling gels, headbands and hats? You can buy all those at Target. Target, not only do I love you and think most of your commercials are nifty, I give you props for this one. Also, I think it is pretty cool how they have the guy as a story teller/navigator walking through the set and I feel like he is walking through a pop-up book which is moving while he tells the story. Take a look:

beach

Ok, so I guess I am longing for the warm days of summer during these frigid months we have been having. Anywho, I have SO many photos I have taken at the beach and I was quite in the mood to do some photoshopping. I decided to take a few of my beach shots and play around with them. Always feels good to be in PS :) especially when it is just for fun. Here is what I came up with:


"Dune Fence"



"Boat in the Waters"



"Up-Close Sand"



"Friends at the Beach"

Wayne Thiebaud

Hello, hello! I thought I would share one of my favorite artist with you.(just one for now :) Wayne Thiebaud is a pop artist who I came across a few years ago. I believe the first time I saw his work was at a museum in Washington D.C., but don't quote me on that. I think he uses interesting subjects- many sweet! I think what most attracts me to his painting style is the color usage and softness. Although the paintings are not extremely detailed or crisp, many of them have a realistic feel to them. He also uses a mix of colors (many different colors) next to each other that you may not naturally see in real-life, but he makes it work and it makes his subjects pop. His use of shadows also bring a liveliness to his paintings. Here are some of my favorite paintings of his:

color collection.

What girl doesn't love nail polish? The awesome thing about nail polish is that every different girl from any end of the spectrum can express themselves and their style through COLOR. And, nail polish can be found in almost any color these days. OPI is one of the leading nail polish brands used by nail artists and is available to purchase by normal folk like you and me!

While looking through a magazine recently, I came across this ad:



and on another page was a smaller companion ad:



I thought the marketing of this collection was quite creative, and it got me thinking. People (including myself) are often attracted to products that cross advertise. Another post on this subject is to come. For this ad though, OPI is advertising a new line of polish colors inspired by the new Alice In Wonderland movie. I think OPI does a nice job of creating collections that mean something and relate to a subject. Giving the colors a reason makes the polish more marketable. Since nail polish is like making your hands an accessory to your outfit, it starts to make you think what colors in which collections go with various pieces of clothing in your wardrobe or different events! Pretty clever and artsy fartsy if I do say so myself! Here are some other ads for other OPI collections I found in a google search of OPI nail polish collection advertisements:






And just a little side-note...you can now order Dell laptops with your favorite OPI color as the cover. Crazy? Cool? I haven't decided yet.

I want to live in Pandora.

My friend MW and I saw Avatar a few weeks ago. It is different than the kind of movie I would usually pick to see. However, I felt like the graphics looked beautiful and I really wanted to see it in theaters. We saw it 3D although we wanted to see it in IMAX 3D which was sold out. It was just as beautiful as it looked in previews. I also have to say that despite many reviews saying that the plot was boring or not interesting - I thought it was great. So, to my artsy take on the moview?...since this IS a design blog. The colors were amazing, The colors on the Navi people were awesome, brilliant blues. The whole movie gave a magical feel, especially in the night scences. I wish I could have found more images of the nights in Pandora, but the one out of the following was really all I could find. I guess you will have to watch it yourself to experience the beauty. But, I LOVED the glowing plants and creatures in the blueish purple atmosphere. I would do anything to walk through and experience what Pandora looks like in this movie! Pretty amazing - someone should take this idea for a themepark attraction or somethings. SO- Avatar is a must see, even if you are not interested in the story, at least see it for the beautiful graphics. AND, try to see it before it leaves theaters- I feel like it might lose some of its beauty once it goes to DVD :P

a taste of cake.

I am watching Cake Boss and thought I would share some cake inspiration since it is art after all! I found a few cakes I thought looked cool online a few weeks ago and the image below is a compilation of several cakes I have found...all tiered cakes that I thought looked cool! One of these days my friends MW, MF and I are going to take a cake decorating class. Until then, it is fun to experiment. I have watched my mom make awesome cakes over the years. One of these days I want to get pictures of all of them and put them together because she has made some beautiful cakes...so those may be to come in the future, until then - enjoy! ;)

nice package.

Ever since C.O. Bigelow products came to Bath and Body works I have been utterly obsessed with their Mentha Lip Shine's. So awesome! If you haven't tried them-try them. Anywhooo, that really isn't the point of this post on my DESIGN blog lol ;). I really think they make pretty awesome package designs as well. They are pretty simple, but I feel like the old-time medication kind-of look they express with their logo and type styling is really effective.

They definitely have a beautiful use of font combination's and colors. Just really sharp design I think:

roar.

Not like I haven't always liked leopard and cheetah print...I have been even way more in to it lately. I LOVE that the new AIM comes with a leopard print option. Please enjoy some animal inspiration.