Funny Topical Virgin Advert

When I returned home to Merseyside last week an advert in the Liverpool Echo made me chuckle. To put the advert into perspective Robbie Keane was signed by Liverpool FC in the summer from Tottenham Hotspurs, only to be sold back to them in January at the first possible chance.

In a matter of days after the sale had gone through this very topical advert for Virgin trains' Liverpool to London service appeared...


...clever, witty and more importantly produced very fast so the event is fresh in the head of the reader.

And just one more thing...is the price a coincidence seeing as he was sold for £12million?

Barclaycard Waterslide Advert

Undoubtedly my favourite advert of the year and a great one to watch again and again. The concept of the advert is the idea of having a Barclaycard is like having no restrictions and offers smooth transactions. The advert itself is beautifully shot and has a really catchy soundtrack provided by the seventies song "Let You Love Flow" by The Bellamy Brothers. The shooting of the advert reminds me a lot of the Sony Bouncing Balls by Fallon London but unlike that advert the Barclaycard has managed to bring a personal feel to it by the use of it's feature character.

And now thanks to the clever people at Barclaycard setting themselves up with a youtube channel you can watch all the lovely edits and even the making of it...enjoy!


60 second original advert


Extended unseen advert


Behind the Scenes - Making Of...

Barclaycard YouTube Channel

Gaming Industry Beats The Credit Crunch

An interesting article from Design Week that illustrates how the growth of the gaming insustry is helping to develop more work for agencies.

Design Week - "Game boys try branding ploys"

The UK video games market, worth £3.2bn in 2007, is expected to have grown by another £1.4bn come the end of the year, according to research group Verdict Research. At the same time, design consultancies are seeing new opportunities for work in the sector, with in-game graphics work - previously the preserve of software companies' in-house teams - increasingly being outsourced to them.

Logo for Sony Playstation project Little Big Planet, which was developed

Electronic Arts’ Monopoly, with branding and animated gameplay graphics

Another EA game, Zubo, features an identity, packaging and GUI typography

Gaming giant Electronic Arts has turned to design groups in two separate projects recently, in what was an unprecedented move for the company. EA took on branding consultancies Lambie-Nairn and Sass to work on the graphical user interface for the Zubo and Monopoly games respectively.

Harvey Elliot, studio general manager for EA arm Bright Light Studio, says that, in both cases, external branding expertise was sought to help EA appeal to niche markets. 'By keeping things internal, the danger is that the whole look and feel can become very game-centric,' he says.

Elliot explains that Zubo targets younger consumers and Monopoly is aimed at families. 'We've got a keener eye on a broad audience now,' he says. 'These could be the first games that some people play. If we relied on our traditional methods, it could prove difficult.' He adds that EA would 'absolutely' be looking to design groups in the future.

Lambie-Nairn was originally briefed to create identity and packaging work on Zubo in February, although this was extended when the design group began to work with EA on typography for GUI in the game, instructed by its identity work. Sass was appointed to work on animated gameplay graphics in the Monopoly game, also after working on the branding.

Richard Wilson - chief executive of Tiga, a trade body which looks after the interests of games developers and lobbies Government - has recently commissioned a survey of 100 games developers, which shows that 16 per cent of games companies outsourced GUI design work over the past year.

As this is the first survey of its kind, it is impossible to compare results, but Wilson says he sees design consultancies working with gaming companies as a growing trend. 'We have noticed it before, but it's hard to quantify. My guess is it will be a rising thing,' he says.

Wilson adds that 'ongoing skills shortages' could mean that gaming companies are looking to design consultancies 'partly out of necessity'. He says, 'Design businesses have expertise. It makes sense to develop the relationship.'

Michael French, editor of games development trade magazine Develop, says of the trend of consultancies working with gaming groups, 'It does sound new to me, but it does not surprise me that these groups are influencing the games.'

He believes the trend is indicative of the financial muscle of companies in the booming games market.

French says, 'With games being what they are now, [the developers] look at the brand from day one. When they're using consultancies it means that they've got money to spend - and there are reports now about the games industry being recession-proof.

'The developers' willingness to take on [external] people is indicative of the growing professionalism of the publishing process.'

Most consultancies suggest that their brand knowledge gives them a perspective that gaming companies don't have - and it's this offer which is influencing GUI work.

Studio Output, which is currently working on a branding project for Sony Playstation, developed a logo for the game Little Big Planet in September 2007, which was then developed into the game. Ian Hambleton, Studio Output account director, says, 'We embrace this more holistic approach to branding.'

Studiospaceone rebranded and renamed gaming company Remode, which was previously a Web development firm. Ella Romanos, managing director of Remode, says, 'We'll definitely be looking to involve [Studiospaceone] in some capacity - whether that's for typography, or for GUI in the games.'

Lambie-Nairn senior client director Andy Hayes says, 'Companies like [us] are experts in branding and identity, in the same way that gaming companies are fantastic for games. That's why they should embrace using specialists.'

Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albom

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a literature fan. It takes a great book to get me early on and force me to not let go. The last book I read was Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. The book follows the journey of one man who finds out that an old lecturer of him is terminally ill and his time spent talking to him about life. It is a powerful book made more enchanting by the fact that it is based on a true story. I have recently been given the DVD of the film made from the book but have yet to watch it. I just hope that when I come to watch it they have managed to keep the power of he story but I don't expect it to be as good as the book. You never know I may be surprised!

The Advertsing Concept Book, Pete Barry

Last weekend I bought this book whilst at Salts Mill. The book interested me because it has no final artwork in it. Unlike the usual advertising publications that are jam packed with final, award winning artwork Pete Barry has tried to create a book that focuses on what he considers to be the most important feature of any campaign, the concept. As a result Pete Barry himself recreates the iconic adverts in layout form to try and express that the advert should be good before it goes onto the Mac. In other words the Mac should be used as a final tool and the pencil and layout pad is the designers best friend, not his Mac. I have not finished the book but from what I have read so far it is a fantastic buy and I would recommend giving it a browse.

Banksy

Banksy's work fascinates me. There was a time where I just saw his work as just well thought out graffiti. Only now after really starting to appreciate it I have begun to realise that a lot of his work is a statement on the world he lives in. If you take a look at Banksy's website he explains his work in New Orleans and I appreciate how much he values what graffiti actually means to inner city culture. I was particularly interested by his comments about New Orleans' phantom Grey Ghost (see below), "he's done more damage to the culture of the city than any section five hurricane." That's a very powerful statement in favour of graffiti.



I love some of the work and you have to think that a lot of planning goes into each and every one of his pieces. Something that you perhaps can't say of other graffiti artists who act upon instinct. I especially love his "Rat Girl" piece where Banksy has been opportunist in his creating of a rat out of cracked plaster on a wall. Brilliant.






This last piece is from back home in the UK and as a visual piece is so successful. You would stop and take notice of something like this just like the workmen in the photo.

Eagle Vs Shark

I saw this film a few months ago on the recommendation of a few people at work. It would not have been a film I would have gone to see and I was quite surprised that I enjoyed it. I still couldn't tell you what it is that makes it so compelling to watch but I would recommend it for those who haven't experienced it. There are some fantastic scenes and some are fantastically directed. Here below is the trailer, enjoy!

Battersea Power Station

This is the new design proposal for Battersea Power Station in London. The building itself is a listed building but has ran into a state of disrepair having not been in use for many decades. Strangely the new proposal includes relaunching the building as a steam power station.

'The four-chimney silhouette of the power station, which became an icon when it featured on Pink Floyd's 1977 Animals album, will be rivalled by a new, much taller chimney rising 300m as part of a vast plastic "eco-dome" covering a 19 acre office campus on neighbouring land.

A cross between a Centerparcs holiday resort and the Eden Project in Cornwall, the eco-dome aims to reduce energy consumption in the office buildings it contains by 67% compared to conventional offices. The chimney will draw cool air through the offices so there will be no energy hungry air-conditioning units.

On neighbouring sites there will be 3,200 new homes. The power station's twin turbine halls will become shopping arcades and the roofless boiler room will be planted as a park. The new power plant will be buried beneath a six-acre park and connected to two of the chimneys.

"This will be a power station for the 21st century sitting alongside Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's building and supporting a truly sustainable, zero-carbon development," said Rob Ticknell, who is managing the development for Treasury Holdings.

The developers claimed that once complete in 2020 around 7000 people will live on the site, some in apartments within the power station, others in neighbouring blocks of flats and a few in apartments wrapped around the eco-dome's chimney.

The designs have been masterminded by Uruguay-born architect Rafael Vinoly and are the third major attempt bring the Grade II*-listed power station back into use since the turbines stopped turning in 1983. A plan to turn it into an amusement park was launched by Margaret Thatcher but collapsed when the developer, Sir John Broome, ran out of funds. Between 1993 and 2006 the site was controlled by Parkview, a company owned by Hong Kong property tycoon Victor Hwang who envisaged shops, 40 restaurants and bars, thousands of apartments and a multiplex cinema. He sold the site largely untouched but at a profit.

Amid the failed plans, the building has fallen further into disrepair and is now listed as in "very bad" condition on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk register. The chimneys are in such bad condition that they must be demolished and rebuilt, the scheme's architects admit.

"Battersea Power Station needs to be saved," said Rafael Vinoly. "Buildings like this have a virtue of becoming part of the collective consciousness and this is very beloved in Britain. Our approach has to be to produce a development plan that can fund that."'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/jun/20/art.architecture

The plans look fantastic but perhaps in the current economic state this may not take shape for a long time. It would be a brilliant way of restoring such an iconic building and it would regenerate the area phenomenally. It remains to be seen whether these ambitious plans do go ahead.

Salts Mill, Saltaire

http://www.saltsmill.org.uk/

While in Saltaire last weekend I made sure to take a look inside Salts Mill. The Mill contains shops, galleries and a cafe for you to take time out and appreciate the art and design inside. The main attraction of the Mill is the work of David Hockney on display but there are other artists work on display and it's an enjoyable day out. There is also a fantastic shop where you can pick up any different art and design books.

Having just searched for the website I thought the design was pretty good, I liked the panoramic images of the mill but I found it hard to navigate and find out about what the mill has to offer. If I hadn't have been then I would have found it rather difficult to understand.

Headingley Triangle Arts Festival

http://www.triangle.org.uk/artday.htm

Last Sunday, after going to the Saltaire Arts Trail, I attended the Headingley/Cardigan Triangle Art Day. This day follows in a similar fashion to the Saltaire festival as residents open their houses up to the public to show off art work from local artists. It was again a nice chance to have a look at what was being produced locally and gave me some real ideas, especially when it comes to photography for my projects. Again I would recommend this annual event when it comes around again next year.

There poster could do with a rethink though...is it a Microsoft Word job?...

Saltaire Arts Festival

http://www.saltaireartstrail.co.uk/

Last week was the Saltaire Arts Trail in Saltaire, Bradford. As part of the annual Saltaire Festival the public are invited to walk around the streets, halls and houses of Saltaire which display the work of artists, photographers, sculptors and designers alike. The picturesque world heritage site Saltaire was the perfect backdrop for the event and the work on display was very impressive. It was a nice chance to take a look at the amateur work out there and it was a chance for them to display their work for free. There was the chance to purchase work but I found it nice to just walk around, take it all in and perhaps even take inspiration from some of the work on offer. It was my first experience of the festival and I look forward already to the event next year.

On another note I was very impressed by the brochure design (available on the website) and the website design, as you would expect from an arts festival. It did make me laugh that the arts festival falls under the main Saltaire festival and the website for that is awful...take a butchers...www.saltairefestival.co.uk

Some of the brochure pages are below...

Liverpool Skyline - Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/liverpoolcityscape/index.aspx

As part of the Liverpool Capital of Culture celebrations and events Ben Johnson has created an 8ft by 16ft painting of Liverpool's cityscape. It has taken him and his 11 assistants three years to paint.

The 8ft by 16ft canvas includes several thousand individual buildings from a vantage point high above the River Mersey.

Johnson took over 3000 reference photographs, consulted architects and historians and produced thousands of detailed drawings before undertaking the painting.

This is not the first cityscape that Johnson has created having already created them for Jerusalem, Zürich, Hong Kong, Chicago and Paris.

The paintings are unbelievably detailed and earlier in the year you could go to the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and watch Ben at work. The result now is fantastic and well worth seeing.

Burn After Reading Trailer

The new Coen Brothers film trailer was shown when I last went to the cinema. I loved the trailer but strangely not so much for the film content but the use of the bold typeface in it. The version above is the International Trailer which I saw and uses the very bold typeface. Below is an American version of the trailer I found on youtube that uses a completely different approach. I thought this was strange to market a film trailer in two different ways. If I'm honest I prefer the International one with strong copy, white on black that just says all it needs to say, the actor's surnames, directors and the title.

If anything this style means you can watch the clips of the films but all the information in the bold type really sticks in your head. I just wonder whether it will be a hit or whether the hype of such a strong cast will drag it down.

Family Guy presents Blue Harvest

Last week I saw the latest Family Guy movie 'Blue Harvest' which is basically Family Guy Does Star Wars. It's a very funny film but did lead me to judge just how far can people go when making spoof movies. The storyline was so similar, even scenes were done with so much attention to detail in terms of the original and I just wondered what the law is on things like this. Would the makers of Family Guy had to have paid for the rights or can they get away with it? It's not too dissimilar to spoof movies like 'Scary Movie' or 'Disaster Movie'. Does anyone know the law on this type of thing?

Design Museum, London

http://www.designmuseum.org/

Last December I visited the Design Museum in London and was disappointed with what I saw if I'm honest. I love the whole look and branding of the museum which was featured in Creative Review last year too and that article actually made me make sure to go when I was in London. When I visited there I was surprised how small it was. I expected a very big museum that would show the development of design over the years. Instead I found that the museums relevance to certain areas of design came down to what was being exhibited at the time. Unfortunately for me my visit was at a time of fashion exhibitions which if I'm honest doesn't excite me. This is not to say I would not recommend the museum, I would just advise people to check before they go...plus if nothing else the shop has every design book under the sun!