As I was scavenging for content, I came across with a cool post on webxpedition18.com featuring some ads Apple have published over the years. Sure, some are just plain hidious, but some, specially the later ones, are quite pleasing to the eye; but above all, a gasp of fresh air to the brain. Continue reading
Category Archives: Advertisement
The Archival Look
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As I looked at the portfolio of commercial photographer Michelangelo DiBatista, I began noticing that advertising photography is currently going through an interesting phase that’s reminiscent of the old, pre-digital days.
Another sample of that archival look,as I call it, can be found in the movie poster I posted above,
I particularly enjoy looking at warm over-toned photography that somehow remind me of old, archival images. To me, they communicate a certain sense of comfort and familiarity; and those are very strong points when it comes to brand promotion.
Al momento de mirar los trabajos que ha realizado Michelangelo DiBatista, me detuve con atención para detallar algunas de las fotos que le ha tomado a varias celebridades y campañas publicitarias, y caí en cuenta de lo común que se ha vuelto el ver imágenes con aspectos añejos, tal cual si hubieran sido archivadas por mucho tiempo… Curiosamente, el afiche de esta película de cine es otro ejemplo; en lo particular, me gusta este tipo de manipulaciones pues comunican familiaridad y añoranza, los cuales son elementos muy potentes a la hora de promover una marca.
Delta Ad
I was immediately impressed with this Ad when I saw it for the first time several weeks ago in the back of a popular magazine. I just enjoy it’s aesthetics so much, but above that, I appreciate the beautiful black and white photography in contrast to the strokes of color and intelligent layout. I also like the mood as it evokes a sense of 1960s nostalgia, which I’ve been noticiging for sometime in other forms of advertising these days.
Sin duda alguna, este anuncio es uno de los que mas me ha impresionado en los ultimos meses. Me gusta por su dinamismo y el ambiente que ejerce entre la foto a blanco y el contraste con la ejecusion dinamica que existe entre los elementos tipograficos. Es curioso, pero a medida que más atencion le doy a las grades campañas publicitarias, más descubro que existe una direccion hacia una estetica de tipo nostálgico que de alguna forma u otra me transporta a los inicios de los años 60.
April 4th, International Day for Mine Awareness: Colombian Campaign
I was instantly hooked with this campaign after one of my Facebook friends posted the above video on her wall. Sure, 97% of the people depicted on it are Colombian celebrities, and there may not be anything unusual or fresh about that, but the connection between that guitar riff in combination to their facial expressions really made a strong impact on me, and when I come to think of the reason why, I realize it’s probably because the way the message is transmitted. It’s always very engaging to see a very serious topic being addressed in a serene; almost friendly, fashion.
The video was a great call to action, it made me want to visit their website and learn more. Once in their website, I continued being impressed with its hybrid layout, and color treatment, but above all, I really enjoyed the experience. On their website, visitors are encouraged to upload their pictures and videos supporting the cause. Visitors can also download avatars they can use to post on their profiles in social media sites; being a Beatles Fan, I couldn’t help downloading one with a very fun version of their Abbey Road Album cover and tweak it my way.
The UN General Assembly has declared April 4th, the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. Events are planned around the world to raise awareness about landmines and progress toward their eradication. - un.org
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Me encanto esta campaña que una amiga en Facebook puso en su muro. Aunque a primera vista quizás no tenga nada inusual (Ya que la practica de ver celebridades en un video de tipo social se ha vuelto recurrente), creo que el merito estético de este vídeo se encuentra en los contrastes de la serenidad que transmite la música con la expresión facial de las personas retratadas en el mismo. Me parece que esta campaña es un buen ejemplo de que cada vez que un tema bastante serio se transmite con una metódica abundante en serenidad, el mensaje puede llegar con excelente proyección e impacto.
Obviamente, el video sirvio de enganche para visitar remangate.org, y saber mas sobre la campaña. Me gusto la estetica del portal; su formato híbrido en contraste con la gama de tonalidades sepia, pero sobretodo, me gusto la experiencia que recibí porque invita al publico a sentirse participativo al ver que pueden subir sus fotos y videos promoviendo la causa.
Vulnerable, Yet Strong
I love it when a design solution seems too obvious but then it isn’t. Take a look at this album’s title for instance, the phrase “Y Not” seems vulnerable and small, and yet it demands our complete attention by being in complete power, all thanks to the surrounding negative space framing it! …A clear sample that shows how bigger is not always better.
christinarosenvinge.com
It’s becoming kind of rare to find a musician’s website that it’s far from being another clone of myspace or facebook. Obviously, this site hasn’t been updated for a while, nonetheless, I really like its branding approach and how it remains fresh and engaging.
Check out www.christinarosenvinge.com
Picasso: Order in spite of Chaos
All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up
I love the design element on each of these paintings by Picasso; it’s quite interesting how they seem to project a strong sense of unintentional balance. They’re definitely done by someone who subconsciously had total control of his creative process.
The Ishirian Test:What do you see?
What follows, is a direct quote from Foundations of Graphic Design, an old Design text book I found recently, definitely an interesting exercise
The Ishirian test, developed in Japan, is administered internationally to determine colorblindness. If you read the number 74 in the above right circle, you have normal color vision, but if you see the number 21 you have a red green deficiency, the most common form of colorblindness. If you are colorblind, you will see the number 2 in the lefthand circle, and if you have normal vision, you will not be able to clearly distinguish any number.
Paul Outerbridge:Color Innovation
Paul Outerbridge started in photography later in life, but nonetheless, he became an accomplished photographer who mastered the ever complex tricolor carbon printing process. His abilities with the view finder were so strong that Vanity Fair published two of his photographs prior to his graduation from The Clarence H. White School of Photography. As a student, Paul Outerbridge was heavily influenced by art, both classical and modern. Always with a meticulous approach to photography, Outerbridge used to sketch his ideas before arranging objects or models in the studio. He was a photographer very sensitive to design fundamentals, which allowed him to explore his ideas similar to a modernist painter.
Outerbridge made a strong influence on the advertising industry of late 20s and 30s as he focused on the still life, the nude and stage photography. He worked for very well-known agencies and magazines of the time; while in Paris, he revitalized his bohemian life style and became a close friend to Man Ray, a Dadaist photographer who influenced his later work. Outerbridge was also well acquainted with Marcel Ducamp, a leading figure in modern art.
With the invention of kodachrome transparencies, Outerbridge saw his career as an active photographer suffer. He wrote several articles for photographic journals and even published a manual on color photography that became a must read for the serious photographer. What follows is a quote from Paul Outerbridge, Command Performance, a book written by Paul Martineau that motivated me to write this post, and is truly a delightful reading.
During the thirties and fourties, Paul Outerbridge was a famous and successful commercial photographer, noted especially for the high quality of his color illustrations, which were done in those years by means of an extremely complex and recalcitrant process called the carbo print. In all the arts, work that is praised when new because of its difficulty is often forgotten once the technical problem has been simplified. Such is the case with most color photography of a century ago, including that of Outerbridge.
Diego & Frida:Variations on a Theme
I was really impressed with these posters, my favorite being the one in the middle; I really like the duality played by the elements in the composition. The poster on top comes second; is amazing how the typographic treatment is reminiscence to Frida’s fashion style. The fluidity, childlike quality of the third poster is also quite striking. Overall, what I like most about these posters is how a simple message can be delivered in so many aesthetic forms. I found all these concepts in the current volume of Graphis Poster annual, they were done by different designers from around the world to honor Frida and Diego’s retrospective year long exhibition hosted at The Fine Arts National Institute of Mexico.