Advertising in of the year 2010

Felt I should do a quick round up of advertising this year. Except all the booze & mince pies has put me in a carb coma & I have definitely killed some brain cells. So my top ads to mention are those that sit at the front of my memory for now..


The year can't go by with out a mention of the use of technology brought to consumers outdoors. From digital posters, augmented reality, apps on the go, and gps technology, advertising found many new ways to speak to it's target audience. One of my favourite was the use of 3D & 4D projection mapping as hyped about by the Ralph Lauren launch and this visual spectacular for H & M Amsterdam. For me, it really presents the consumer with a piece of theatre so that the brand communication does not even feel like advertising. Here an old historic building was transformed into  a magical dolls house filled with surreal toys and fashion.

Another to mention was the very realistic creation of the Evian babies by Euro RSCG which had the viral hits reach millions.
I also have to mention the very real focus groups filmed for the Sony Xperia phonesets which I covered here. Still find the whole campaign very clever and funny.
But commercially, to top the year off would have to be the rap for Yeo Valley! with the hip owl rotating it's neck.
Happy New year peeps!

Making the invisible visible

Such a nice use of media here in a campaign for Amnesty international by Brothers and Sisters. Posters show the face of Troy Davis, a man who has been on death row in the USA for 19 years. But being displayed on railings, the poster is on visible from a certain angle : supporting the campaign line 'Making the invisible, visible'.

See it in action here.

A Monstrosity of a project

"Howl if you want to come in" says the sign by the doorbell of the new Hoxton Street Monster supplies everyone is talking about. The shop on the back streets of East London is now home to a vast collection of products such as tinned fears, fanged floss, Human not and zombie mints  - essential items for any monster.

But behind the bizarre facade lies an important and worthwhile project. The Ministry of Stories has been set up by Andrew Hinton, Lucy Macnab and Ben Payne along with the design skills of We Made This as part of the 826 literacy project, which now has eight centres around the world. The oraganisation aims to help young people from 6 - 18 unleash their creativity through writing and storytelling. At the back of the shop is a beautifully designed space where kids take part in short workshops, and are mentored by volunteers to create their own Monster inspired stories.

The project has so far been supported by the likes of Nick Hornby and Zadie smith, as well as numerous volunteers offering their time in many ways. I for one am hoping to jump on board and offer my monster claws.

Tweet it! iphone vs ipad

This is genius!

The Golden Stiletto 2010

Delayed report back from last week's Golden Stiletto Awards: An evening dedicated to recognising top female talent in the digital communications industry, organised by Shesays. Entries had been submitted by various individuals who work in agencies across the globe, showcasing their proudest and best work. The winner of the now coveted Golden Stiletto was a team at VML London who created a complete digital experience of A History of the World, in conjunction with the BBC and The British Museum's extensive collection of found objects spanning 2 million years: A complex yet vital project. Another runner up was the Chrome Fastball game created by BBH which allows users to to play whilst crossing the various platforms of google such as You tube, google maps, twitter - inviting the player to interact and learn about each service as they go along.


Yet for pure entertainment a brilliant expose of human behaviour, my favourite had to be Dare Digital's campaign for  Sony Xperia handsets. "The Product Institute" gathers together focus groups consisting of Glamrockers, Senior citizens to surfers and Models performing simple tasks on the phones. The actor conduting the groups is superb, with his non-plussed reactions and dry wit. I can't decide which is my favourite so here are the toddlers & Senior Citizens, but visit the mini site to see the whole lot.

I can draw the internet

If you don't know what this is all about, read more here. But it's all over the industry sites: Saint's competition pitching creatives against 10 year old's and their interpretation of what the internet is. Here's mine:

!!!!!VOTE FOR ME!!!!!!

I've bought Nothing

In these harsh times, and my female desire to continually purchase something for my own sense of self in the world, this was a particularly good purchase to make. Yes I bought Nothing. Nothing is a recent campaign by thegreenthing to highlight the fact that surplus consumption results in surplus production, and therefore results in a society of wasteful beings - we should "Stick with what we've got and be Happy". Playing along, I clicked on the amazon mock page and made my purchase, to be shortly followed by two amusing and well written emails:

Dear jodmd,
 
Your Nothing is now being hand-crafted by a dedicated team of Nobodies in our 
factory in Nada-nadaland.
 
ITEM DETAILS:
 
 - 1 x Nothing
 - Cost: £0.00
 - Delivery estimate: 08 November 2010 (Monday)
 - Dispatch estimate: 04 November 2010 (Thursday)
 - Sold by: Nothing Ventures, Nothing Gains Ltd.
 
Thank you for shopping with us. 

Dear jodmd,
 
I regret to inform you there has been a problem with your order (Reference: TH1NA1R-N4DA).
 
A disgruntled former employee of Nothing Ventures, Nothing Gains Ltd snuck into our Nada-nadaland
factory last week and tampered with the seals on all our Nothings.
 
We take non-product safety extremely seriously, and so have issued a worldwide product recall of
Nothing effective immediately.
 
We're afraid nobody will be getting Nothing for the immediate future.
 
Please bear with us at this difficult time - we will send Nothing to you as soon as possible.
 
Thank you for your understanding.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Jack Schitt
Junior Deputy Vice-manager-in-chief, Non-Product Safety Division, Nothing Ventures, Nothing Gains Ltd 
 

This was then followed up by my delivery of nothing ensuring me that "Nothing's gonna change your world".
I was relieved. 
 

Outside/Airside

A few things worth a mention at last week's Glug. The whole evening was presented by Airside who gathered together a mixture of designers, philosophers, illustrators and publishers to do quick talks about inspiring things.

Sean Griffiths from FAT architecture showcased some unusual projects, including my favourite: The celebrity couple bathroom suite. Pure kitsch.

Then the girls from Visual Editions talked about the interesting books they publish. They believe the visuals are as integral to the storytelling of a book, and so work on projects that are intellectually and visually interesting. Their latest collaboration is as much a work of art as it is a book. You can imagine the printer's nightmare at all those die cuts!

Lastly was Richard Hogg. An illustrator/designer who is a better speaker than he realises. He intrigued us all with his description of himself as a 'Contraryian'; (someone who always seems to hate everything that everyone likes), and the plus side to this: On the flipside, he usually finds he likes everything others hate, in an upside down kind of way and ultimately he reaches  his own contrarian utopia. Geddit? Interesting guy.

notanyoldorangead

Thought I'd pop this up here as I enjoyed creating my own mock ad of the familiar Orange 'I am' campaign that ran a few years back. I was sitting waiting to be briefed all morning at the agency I was freelancing, had researched all I could, and while I had access to all the lovely artwork, I decided to do my own 'I am'. It was my own little way of introducing myself & saying "I'm here". Made them smile anyway.

Really?

At first I really liked the new ad for Windows Phone 7  - it taps into the fact that all of us walk around mindlessly, engrossed in our phones, ignoring those around us. (not a new idea I know, but well executed). Then reading further I discovered that their strategy was intended to imply that the users of the phones in the ad were not in fact using Windows 7 phones, but other models, and Windows 7 will allow you to now 'Look Up'. This was only clear when the UK version changed the VO, adding: "Designed to get you in and out and back to life again". This is a pure example of the insightful thinking actually being lost on the public as I thin consumers always assume the company's product to be featured in the ad, unless it is made blindingly obvious. Not so in this case.
Anyway, we are to watch out - apparently, this is the operating system set to lead the way in a new generation of smartphones. Apple, hope you're working on the rival..

Cosy Car

I came across these on a piece about art installations being used more & more for brands. (Think BMW kinectic scuplture). And I have to say, if it produces creations such as these then bring it on!

Singing Fingers

So much fun I want it! Touch the screen, paint, record sound & playback - like a kid again!
Courtesy of Sell! Sell! blog

nice web design

Although it may give you an epileptic fit when it first loads, I love this site, it totally captures the fun and craziness of Camille Walala's designs. She is a fashion designer who creates her own patterns and textiles as well. As  you can see she uses bright, bold shapes, harking back to the nineties rave culture (very in now), and her clothes have a space age feel about them. I stumbled across her accessories at Netil market, but her full range can be found on her shop.

 Website by littlefong.

This photo was in the random section and caught my eyes as I love the observation of colour. There is a similar piece using photos of front doors, creating a whole swatch of colour hanging in On Broadway pub, Broadway market.

Bazooka

If you're wondering the back streets of Shoreditch, dip into this art exhibition at the Aubin gallery entitled 'Bazooka'. It showcases the work of two French punk artists, Kiki & Loulou Picasso, founders and radicalists of Bazooka in the late 70s.
Art directiong the French Left newspaper 'Libération', they created a storm amongst the war veterans of the time & created propaganda that is iconic and led to future commissions of Album covers, a magazine and currently, a collaboration with Neville Brody.

The mixture of fine art painting of Loulou, next to the cartoon, manga style (reminiscent of those felt
boards you used to colour in as a child), creates a very captivating combination. 

Microscopic Dot

Just watched this on Farm's blog - A stop frame animation shot on a Nokia N8 using CellScope technology and Carl Zeiss optics makes for the smallest animation in the world. Created by Sumo Science at Aardman, the short film shows Dot, the character as she struggles to survive the microscopic world - Amazing!

Eat your carrots to survive

You're lost, deep in the darkness of the land of the dead. It's pitch black. Only the use of your hearing can help you escape. You know you and a loved one are in grave danger...
You’re in Papa Sangre’s palace; an afterlife that takes the form of a malevolent, unpredictable carnival. Imagine a Mexican graveyard on the Day of the Dead. You’re the piñata for a host of partying monsters. Fortunately, you cannot see them.

Papa Sangre is a video game with no video. It’s a first-person thriller, done entirely in audio by an award-winning team of game designers, musicians, sound designers and developers at Somethin’ Else. They've created an entire world using the first ever real-time 3D audio engine implemented on a handheld device. The project is supported by 4iP (the paramilitary wing of the UK’s Channel 4). Illustration by Sofiski.Watch the amusing results here.

La la la

Simple & fun. Just like online should be.

Good ol fashioned Newspaper.

As someone who has spent most of the day trying to keep up with the latest trends in online & interactive media, this is a welcome idea to the web. The Newspaper Club, set up by Russell Davis and the great minds of the Really Interesting Group is a way of getting individuals, bloggers, and organisations to publish themselves in the form of newsprint. Content is uploaded via the site and a week later a bundle of papers is delivered to your desired location. I for one am relieved to hear of something like this, as an avid blog trawler, clicking from link to link ending up with about 18 tabs open to "come back to" because my eyes hurt from reading on screen, this could be a good way to summarise the best of the best for creative organisations in a cheap and simple way. (Could also be a good way to get started if you're thinking of starting a fanzine > see D&AD's Sharpener event for inspiration).
The site was created by 4iP who aim to bring the right people together by fusing digital platforms with good ideas that will ultimately help the public. They abide by their public purposes in order to make sure that the innovation fund is used wisely and the best ideas gain investment.


DIGITAL DEMOCRACY
New ways to let everyone keep an eye on money and power


"HIDDEN GEMS"
Helping people discover stuff which could change their lives


"AMPLIFYING VOICES"
New ways to empower those communities that media could never previously reach


"TOOLS TO MAKE TROUBLE"
Developing diruptive media tools, then putting them in the hands of the people that need them most


"WISE CROWDS"
Connecting people who need to know stuff with people who know it already

They have successfully worked on projects such as School of Everything, the facebook app Mirror Me and Chromaroma.

There. Have I given you enough interesting links to get sidetracked by? How irritating!

 

Big Bang Big Boom

The next amazing installation by wall animators Bluu. Creativity on the biggest scale. Watch the first one here.


BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Word Association Game, Everyone say Bleurgh!

WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.

As simple as the Timmy mallet game this film by production studio Everynone is a visual play on words. If I didn't tell you that, you may not get it straight away, but as the film unfolds, the 'aha' moment makes you smile. Nice.

Advertised by Cows

I realise this has been around for a while but my blog is my scrapbook so there! I love these billboards created for Anchor Butter by CHI. Done in the style of old painted ads that used to be seen on the side of brick buildings, they really convey the message that Anchor Butter has been 'Made by Cows' since 1886, the golden age of hand painted wall mural advertising. Authentic illustrations by Paul Slater and my favourite handwriting artist Alison Carmichael.

My Website

It struck me that while advertising everyone else's great work I have failed to post my own up here for a while. So here's a quick self promotional shout : MY WEBSITE IS LIVE! Go forth and take a look. Thank you.

www.cargocollective.com/notanyoldjo

Mail Me Art

I didn't manage to get a long to see this in time, but had to post it up here (no pun intended).

Organised by Darren di lieto of Hai! illustration agency, artists and illustrators from around the globe were asked to decorate an envelope with artwork and deliver to the same address over a period of a year and hope that it would arive entact. Entries were collected and put together at the Red Gate Gallery of all the unusal and varied pieces. Here's my favourites:

Flash! Aaaarr!

In the spirit of promotion & for my own selfish reasons Flash on the Beach is coming up - And I've never been so pull me out of the hat pleease! There we go. my work here is done.
(cross your fingers for me)

Salsa - Yaribaa!

A salsa takeover from Spanish Tostito's dips. If only salsa did this in my mouth.



“And Then There Was Salsa” from Frito Lay Dips on Vimeo.

More local art

More of pop up Art studios are around this summer in my neck of the woods so I'm making the most. The latest I went was the launch of the art concept galley, Towner and Hoxton. Set up by artists who share a love for tea and making things, the gallery combines socialising, showcasing and creation of artwork. My kinda place.
I went to the summer bbq and sat alongside the pop up doll, and the bass player as well as taking in these cool pieces of Art:

Loading bay coffee table decorated with postage stamps. By Johnny Hoxton

1940 Pinups by ??

More works by Johnny Hoxton

The Hendrix cassette piece is very similar to the work of American artist I posted here, but I still like them!