Colgate - Don't Forget!

Here is another extremely effective and clever use of ambient media. Every year Colgate holds events for ‘Oral Health Month’ and hands out free samples. This year instead of handing out free samples of toothpaste and brushes it decided to hand out chocolate ice cream and sweets. Why? You may ask. Well after you finish eating the confectionary a message reminding you not to forget to brush your teeth is revealed.

This message instantly resonates in the mind of the person reminding them of why they brush their teeth. It reminds us that in design it is always the simple messages that are the most effective.

This particular campaign was conducted by the creative agency Y&R in Thailand.

The Hours

‘The Hours’ is a film that follows the life of three women. Each character is connected by the novel ‘Mrs Dalloway’ by Virginia Woolf (who is featured as one of the characters).

The film is set over three-time periods (the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st centuries), as a result I thought the film would provide a good insight into understanding whether past issues, trends and culture still apply now.

Suppression, mental health and suicide are just a few of the dark issues covered by the film. It becomes evident that all are concerning issues in current society, but were also throughout history. Most problems caused by social expectations, especially amongst women.

As a man it is difficult for me to understand the suppression felt by women, however I feel this film gives a great insight into the struggle felt by women throughout the past few centuries.

North Kingdom - Coke Zero

The internet is no longer the static environment it used to be. Viral, video and interactive websites have been dominating advertising campaigns. North Kingdom is a design agency based in Sweden, it focuses on digital media and has won a D&AD black pencil for its work.

This website / interactive flash game was a promotion made for Coke Zero. The website brought together the brand values and essence of Coke Zero; aimed at young men. Campaigns like this are effective in drawing users back. Users also tend to email sites like this to friends creating further brand awareness.
You can try out the website by clicking here.

Ambient Advertising – Yellow Pages

In a world where you are bombarded daily with visual stimuli, it has become an increasingly difficult task for advertisers to get their message out to the public. One effective way to make your message stand out from the rest is the use of ambient media.

This particular campaign by Yellow Pages in Canada caught my eye. It was conducted by the agency Cossette Media and was very successful for Yellow Pages; with website hits up 18% and retailers contacting Yellow Pages requesting darts.

It is not the first time ambient media has been used, however I found it fascinating how they effectively merged a concept of pinpointing something on the internet and visually represented it in a non-virtual way.

Being John Malkovich

This maybe not an art-house film, but it is probably the most surreal Hollywood production I have seen in a while.

I knew nothing of the character or the synopsis of the film before I watched it recently. The film raises a number of questions, but only answers a few, making it confusing but still interesting.

The surreality begins with a puppeteer who finds a portal in his very low-ceiling office, which then transports him into the mind of an actor for fifteen minutes. Following this he is then shot out into a New Jersey road-side! Surreal indeed.

To critique the film without ruining it. In my opinion the film raises issues about morality and questions societies current attitudes towards sex, sexuality and living in a world submerged by celebrity culture. These are all issues that we deal with frequently in graphic design. The film uses a very creative approach to dealing with these issues, although not always direct and not always what you would expect. However these approaches could be applied in a design context.

Futurism - Tate Gallery

Futurism has been an art movement that I have always taken great interest in and that’s why I took the opportunity to visit the recent Tate Modern exhibition. Futurism shaped twentieth century art and contemporary art in general. Futurism was all about progression into the future and rejection of the past, however towards the end of the movement it unfortunately became coupled with fascism and war.

Before the unfortunate demise of the movement the surface appearance seemed to relate to cubism, but this was probably more coincidence than similar intentions, because the manifestos for each movement were different.

As can be seen in the work of Umberto Boccioni, futurism celebrated the movement of machinery and people, it seemed to capture and rejoice each frame. For a time when photography was not prevalent, a great job was done of imagining frames and the fluidity of movement.

I have taken inspiration from the initial futurist movement in its way of making observations of objects and presenting it in a conceptualised way. Although this is an old movement it is important to note its successes and indeed its downfall.

Yulia Brodskaya - Experimental Typography

Moscow born Yulia Brodskaya has recently become a well known name in the world of typography and illustration. She often incorporates and combines craft and intricate hand paper modelling into her designs.

A substantial part of Yulia’s work is made and finessed physically using paper and material which is later combined with digital (although not all).

This is a design which was conducted for the Guardian magazine 'G2':

I find Yulia's work insprirational and interesting in the way it challenges advances in technology and reverts to older, yet still very beautiful methods of presenting typography.

You can find more of Yulia's illustations and experiments with typography on her website here.