Tiny Movies.

So, the next few posts will probably be short and sweet. I have been working a lot and feel like vegging out whenever I am not working. But I have still been looking through my blogs and design things - so of course I have things to share with you. Here is a series of ads I found on Ads of the World. I do not love the design with the red "area" - but it probably looks better in a magazine with the crease, since it looks like a 2 page spread. I really like the concepts and the irony of the images though. This is for a company that apparently makes movies scaled down to view on mobile phones, I believe? Check them out:





Ads of the World

City Nights.

I think cities are even more beautiful at night. I love to see photography of cities at night - the colors and lights are always brilliant against the stark, black sky and often give the buildings and monuments an edge. Here are some photos of cities at night I found online in a google image search:

"Natural" Text.

I was poking through Ads of the World Posts and found these two very creative, effective and relevant advertising campaigns. Both of them use just plain and simple test, using natural matters to convey their message.

The first is a "snow stamp" to created by a company in Poland who makes car heaters. I guess in that area snow is year round maybe? Either way, they must get a lot of snow, because I sure have never heard of a heater to leave in your car while it is off- although it would have been VERY helpful this winter. The stamp is in Polish, but from what I read about the campaign, the stamp basically is telling the people who own the cars that if they bought their heater they wouldn't have to scrape all the snow off their cars. Here is the ad for the Webasto Snow Stamp:



The second is an advertising campaign by a cancer center in Australia for I am assuming skin cancer. The "poster" is diecut letters upside down that when the sun shines through it spells out on the sand to take a break from the sun. Very creative. Here is the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre ad:

Human Fonts.

Hahaha I found this video today "If fonts were human". This is great:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Gawk.

I would like to share with you 3 websites I have been obsessed with recently. Someone suggested a great site to me called foodgawker.com for recipes a few weeks ago. I think the general layout is pretty awesome - when you are in the mood to browse online for things and "gawk", there is no better way than to just look through a bunch of images until you find something appealing to click on. I was always the kid who looked through books for the pictures - and being a designer I am now guilty of looking through magazines purely for design and ads. I guess that is how it goes ;) But I have also discovered that foodgawker has 2 sister sites - weddinggawker and craftgawker - uh oh. HAha, so you can only imagine where my time has been spent recently. All 3 sites click to links to other sites and blogs with awesome ideas and resources for so many things. I can see this growing into a whole "family" of sites for so may more subjects. Until then, these can keep you quite appetite and can definitely can wet your appetite on a day your creativity is feeling dry! This is what the sites look like and links to the sites (definitely check them out - good stuff!)

foodgawker.com



craftgawker.com



weddinggawker.com

Practice Safe...

I just saw this commercial and I think it is ironic and creative. I will let it speak for itself :). Here is the video:



If you are having trouble viewing the video, here is the link to the commercial on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPZuBNH6d00.

Princess Perfume.

I thought I would share with you an advertising campaign I like. Vera Wang has a perfume called "Princess", and although I have never smelled it to make a fair judgment on whether I actually like the product or not- I will share with you what I like about the advertising for it. First of all this is what the bottle and packaging look like:


I like the color purple a lot, so I could be biased. I really like that she didn't choose pink since that is such a cliche "princess color". Her choice of purple and gold are great since they are colors of royalty. In all the advertising for Vera Wang Princess, there is a rough around the edges, whimsical yet real-life feel. This can be seen in the outdoor scenes, messy rooms and wardrobe in the images. I think the scratchy, paint-like white font goes very well since it isn't too proper or modern - since that clearly is not the theme for Vera Wang Princess. Here are 3 ads:





I was reading in one of my design books the other night about brand recognition and I immediately thought of this commercial I saw for Vera Wang Princess. I saw this commercial for the first time this week. It is a 20 second commercial and you don't see the product or name until 5 seconds in. That is a quarter of the commercial, even though this is only seconds we are talking about. What I think is great about the commercial is that it flows so well with the rest of the advertising for Vera Wang Princess that I knew it was for this product immediately, even before seeing it 5 seconds in (which is a lot of time in commercial world LOL). Here is the commercial:

Travel Ad.

Below I am sharing with you a series of 3 ads for a Brazilian company for travel magazine/book/guides. I always like to see when people recreate common images in a new way in design. In these ads, it is obvious that the three are of famous monuments in the respective countries. I think it is very cool how they used the travel stamps to create the silhouettes and am also a fan of the real-paper look to the background. I love the font used, it also carries the stamp look to it. I would have to say that my least favorite part of these ads is the image of the magazine/book/guide itself. I realize they probably want you to see what it looks like so that when you are out looking for it, it will be recognizable. However, I feel like it is out of place in this design though since in a passport or whatever this is supposed to mimic - you usually wouldn't see an image like that. I know that is besides the point and I am sort-of anal about weird things like that in design, I just think they could have implemented the cover in a better way - if it is REALLY that necessary to show. But all in all, don't get me wrong - I think these ads are clever:





Check these out on Ads of the World.

Paint.

Who doesn't love paint chips? I do! So colorful, so fun, so FREE hahahah. Anywho that is beyond the point... here are a few ads I found in my creative explorations for Behr paint that I think are pretty cool.

Mixed Media Illustration.

I am a huge fan of mixed media. During a little creative exploration today I came across a new artist (for me at least) named Nikki Farquharson who does some cool mixed media art, some of which reminds me of Adhemas Batista (another artists I like a lot). Here are just a few I found that I liked from a series she did for a magazine I believe:

Art Store Artsy Ads.

Love these ads placed at bus stop booths for an art store called Deserres Art Store in Toronto, Canada. They were created by an ad agency in Canada, and each of them has a replica of a famous painting created with art supplies. Of the two shown below, the Lichtenstein one is created by 4,500 pastels and the Mondrian replica was created with 600 bottles of paint. Definitely click the links below to view the larger versions on Ads of the World.

Mondrian


Litchtenstein

Peony.

Thinking spring.
Some beautiful Peony wedding bouquets I found online, enjoy:

Jack Vettriano.

I LOVE JACK VETTRIANO PAINTINGS. Ok, have I caught your attention? Jack Vettriano is one of my favorite painters and UNLIKE most artists that are famous - he is still alive and painting which is an amazing thing (most artists get fame after they are gone!) He paints absolutely beautiful paintings. What I have noticed about my taste for paintings is that I either like sharp, colorful and pop art like Lichtenstein and Warhol or soft, happy paintings with awesome lighting and shadows like Hopper and Jack Vettriano. I also love the beach and many of his paintings are of people dressed up and walking or dancing on the beach. The first painting I ever saw of Vettriano's was The Singing Butler which is the painting he is probably the most popular for. Below are some of my favorites of his beach paintings. I will probably make another post of his paintings of different scenes in the future. Please check out these paintings, they melt my heart. I would love to have some of these hanging in my home some day.

OMG shoes.

OK, so Andy Warhol USED to be my favorite artist. Sad to say he is only ONE of my favorites now. But, I feel like everyone thinks of only certain pieces of art by Warhol, and he has done a lot of art that people don't know about. At a musuem a few years ago (sorry, don't remember which one - maybe National Gallery in DC??) my friend MW and I discovered Warhol's Shoes paintings. Very fun, very POP art and colorful. Here are a few:

Western Union.

Hello!
I thought I would share an ad series I found on Ads of the World recently. These ads are for Western Union. At the grocery store I work at part-time, I have been sending Western Union money transfers in customer service for years now - fun stuff haha. Anyways, I think this is a clever campaign that shows what Western Union does in a clear way. Although these are somewhat awkward body-shots, they catch your eye and merge the "person" from each country/location all in "one person" sending and receiving a money transfer. I like when photos mashups are used - I just simply think it is creative and gives it personality. Thats about all I have to say about it. Check them out:

Male
Female

Logos win an Oscar!

Not sure how long this video will be actively working, so check it out:



...so NOW, what this post is about. I watched the Oscars the other night...kind of, well you know I "watched" the oscars LOL. But I did happen to catch the short film oscar winner, this french dude for this film called "Logorama". It did grasp my attention, although I totally forgot to look it up as I had fully intended. Thankfully my friend MW and I think alike and she sent me this link to the video online. I think it is an extremely creative concept that was well drawn out, I do not love the plot but I "get it". I also read more about the concept on Brand New. It is amazing how many logos are in this world and the statistics of how many we see daily is astronomical! Anyone who says they are not wooed by "brands" must be blind. We are constantly being fed subliminal messaging through branding...AND that is the industry I am in after all, so I love it haha. Check it out. Hope you enjoy it.

Cupcake Photography.

I have been in to photography of little confectionery creations recently, also known as cupcakes :). It really is not a good habit. Once I make the cupcakes I actually don't really want to eat them (really I don't!) because I am eating healthier these days...but since they are there I do end up eating them. I brought the batch I made weeks ago to work, and I will need to do the same with this recent batch this week to get rid of them! But they are so cute to take pictures of! Anywho I did enjoy making the cupcakes especially with the new muffin pan my Aunt gave me for a housewarming gift :) Enjoy the pics! (PS: these were strawberry cupcakes - yummm)

You Don't Know Jaques!

Ok super short post to wet your whistle. Good weekend, and super tired. So here goes - I saw a lady while I was at work this weekend with nail polish that caught my eye. It was a grayish color and just assumed being a slightly off-the-usual nail color that it was OPI. However, I didn't think to ask her what it was until after she was gone. I went to ULTA Saturday night and found the color that I pretty sure was the exact color she had on. I really like it! It IS OPI and is called "You Don't Know Jaques!"...I got it in the glossy coat since I think their new matte colors are weird (why would you want your nails to look like a chalk board?). Although it is a dull color, I think it is a great neutral that would do with a variety of wardrobe colors - and I don't feel like it is very common either. It is a warm, dark gray with an almost purpley-brown tint to it. Check it out:

(photo found online.)