Posts filed under “Society”

When it comes to pop art, the following video is nothing short of astounding. It's the animated intro for the new video game The Beatles Rockband.

Pop artist extraordinaire, Banksy once said:

The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.

Hate it or not the central statement there is, and for the most part always has been, true. Art has always had patrons, whether it be The Vatican, a video game studio or Hollywood may or may not diminish the art your mind, but you can hardly argue with the pedigree of commercial artistry in the video above. Personally it's why I like advertising. Gorgeous art with a purpose becomes design in my eyes. It's communication backed by reason, which I love. Art with no purpose is lost on me.

Make sure you watch the high-quality version here at the official site. (Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with The Beatles Rockband in any way. Although I am now lusting after an Xbox 360.)

It's all too-easy to get tunnel-vision during a design project and screw it up with some piece of minutia that falls through the cracks because it lays outside your field of expertise. The more trivial mistakes end up being the wost, because they're so glaringly obvious to some subset of the population that does not include you. A subset like... astronomers. (Or 3rd graders in science class.)

Moon Movie Poster - Sam Rockwell

Duncan Jones' upcoming "Moon" is definitely on my must-see list this summer. It looks like a great Sci-Fi thriller. And the production and collateral design is tightly integrated. This gives the website, the trailer and the poster real power when it comes to creating a brand/identity. But... they screwed up on the poster when it comes to checking their facts. Whoever designed this did a fantastic job nailing a unique style that looks modern and classic at the same time; they also clearly had no idea how far the Moon was from Earth.

The tag line says "950,000 miles from home, the hardest thing to face... is yourself." That sounds great, it's intriguing, it even has a twist right at the end, but the moon is 240,000 miles from Earth. According to Bad Astronomy, the only thing 950,000 miles out is a telescope or two and maybe some space dust. Yikes. Considering the movie's tag-line is such a key element to the design, it certainly would've been worth vetting before going to print. A quick Google could've avoided the problem.

Having said that, they've already gone and done the next best thing besides getting right in the first place; they quickly corrected the poster and changed the tag line to "250,000 miles from home, the hardest thing to face... is yourself." You can check it out here in all it's glory: Ain't It Cool News - Moon Movie Poster.

Bravo! Admitting a mistake and moving to fix it immediately is the most sensible reaction to situations like this.

What do you get when you multiply psychedelic colors with contemporary shapes?

A one way ticket to a place called Awesome Town, that's what. See you there!

I once had the luxury of listening to a bright young speaker by the name of Christian Helms. He is a fantastic designer and President of The Decoder Ring Design Concern in Austin. With the energy of an Obama rally, his words inspired me to the core. This was the moment I fully realized that I was on the right path as far as my career choice was concerned. His main point was essentially this... Fear not, for in the beginning every designer feels like they suck. The struggles you endure early in your career, will fill you up with lessons learned, patience and more tools in your design tool box. Eventually, if you work your ass off, you will rock.

The following brief excerpt is just a taste of the same simple advice he offered then. I wanted to take these pearls of wisdom and "pay it forward" to all you starry eyed newbies out there. If you are hungry for more, go here and here.

First, work your ass off. I know that's a stock answer, but this is an amazing opportunity to grow and experiment, fail and get back up again. And don't be so concerned with execution— learn to think.

Second, take time away from "work" to relax and re-energize. That's a tough one for me, but I'm trying.

Third, surround yourself with people who inspire and challenge you. As for people who drain you or diminish your joi de vivre, walk in the other direction and don't look back. Life's too short to waste your time on those folks.

This post is dedicated to my dear friend and design mentor... the gorgeous, Huma Wadood.

Her parents came to the United States from Pakistan to pursue the American Dream. They worked hard to become successful, had three beautiful daughters and the rest is history. Because I'm obsessed with travel and exploring the world, I constantly ask Huma to tell me all about this far away place called Pakistan. One of the most striking things I've learned is that virtually every vehicle is completely covered with a kaleidoscope of color and design.

This decoration of vehicles is actually a common practice in a number of countries. Similar techniques are used in the Philippines, Indonesia, Central America, South America, India and Bangladesh. What makes Pakistan so unique, is the pervasiveness of this art. Colorful designs are heavily utilized on practically all private and commercial vehicles, from trucks and buses, to vans, taxis and even vendor's push carts. Discovering this gorgeous anomaly has totally inspired me to expirement with bright colors. I hope it stimulates creativity in you, too.

Photoshop Interface on an Ad in a Berlin Subway

Captured by flickr user epoxy_: massive stickers of the Adobe Photoshop user interface are being splashed across posters in Berlin's subways. The original ad's intended appeal is to associate these images of beautiful women with a product, in this case their respective music albums. This is almost always a false assumption when seen in the advertising world. (Yes they helped create the albums, but these images have little to do with the reality of the album or the artist.) The slapped on stickers remind the viewer that they should actually associate images like this with digital manipulation technology- not whatever widget they're hawking.

PETA Sea Kittens Campaign Image

No, this is not an Onion article...

A CAMPAIGN to rename fish as "sea kittens" in order to improve their image has been ridiculed by the Federal Opposition.

Outspoken animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is using the "sea kitten" name as part of its push to restrict fishing.

"Nobody would hurt a sea kitten!" the group says on its website.

"People don't seem to like fish.

"We're going to start by retiring the old name for good...

Link to full story.

Image from PETA website.

Illinois Senate Parody Furniture Ad

Leather Creations Furniture - Selling furniture (and chuckles) to a cynical market via a quarter-page ad in the Chicago Tribune on Christmas Day.

This (sensationally titled) presentation is really interesting. The 34-Slide deck on Google was prepared by French consulting firm FaberNovel. It's worth a quick flip-through if you have any interest in the most powerful force online.

There's not much I like more than a good info graphic. I'm of the school that thinks design should primarily be used to convey information in a way that's fast and pleases the eye.  With words like "billions" & "trillions" crowding the headlines lately, I thought it was time to whip one up.

Pie charts are to scale. Click for full-size image.

Numbers pulled from this BoingBoing article.