Controversial Copy Writing

This is an advert for an american teen drama Gossip Girl. It uses an adaption of the popular abbreviation OMG (Oh My God) to portray the steamy shocking story line of the show. It caused an uproar among many, as people were shocked of the insinuation of the word 'Fucking'! Although the words its self was never said it is amazing how much controversy it caused. Whilst in America I saw a news interview with the head of marketing for the channel it is shown on who said It could mean a number of things. This got me thinking if people are angered or upset by this shouldn't they be blaming themselves for assuming that 'Fucking' is what the F stands for, or at least just accept that today swearing is common language and although adverts like these are designed on a level for the younger generation, this age group swears more than any other!

Personally I think its a really clever idea which related to the target audience and got the exposure the show wanted! I'm sure they were aware when they came up with the idea that it would raise some eyebrows, but saw it as an opportunity to gain publicity.

Feltron Annual Report

This is the Annual report for Nicholas Feltron....This is not a big company but a person! It is the documentation of Feltron's Life in 2007.



Feltron is a Graphic Designer who has collected data from the last year and condensed it into an annual Report. It contains things like how many miles he travelled in the year, the percentage of actives making up an average day and many more unusual statistics!

This is a great and unusual concept which as a personal project has grown to a commercial success for Feltron as designers like myself can appreciate the graphical layout and transformation of brining the data to life. It is definitely worth checking out in print as the images on the web don't really do the whole thing justice!

Misprinted Type

www.misprintedtype.com

I stumbled across this website the other day and wanted to share it with everyone! I think this is a really nice example of mixed media. This guys uses retro images with hand rendered type and drawings. Some of his pieces have strong concepts behind them, others are more for fun. However the main reason for pointing this website out was how refreshing it was to see some graphic design that hasn't been churned out solely on a computer!

Jean Kilbourne

I saw this woman speak at UF and she touched on some really interesting stuff. She basically talks about women in the media and how they are objectified and the results this has on women in the real world. I'm really into this subject and looking into it for a potential dissertation topic. Sometime she comes across as a feminist and exaggerates her point a little but over all it worth taking notice.

Starbucks Logo

On my visit to a Starbucks in Orlando Florida this summer, I was surprised to see a new logo for the company. On inspection of this much more traditional take on the double tailed mermaid I could not understand how I had not heard about a possible rebrand for the Company. As it turns out there is no rebrand! Merely an attempt for Starbucks to get back to its roots and show it as a established Coffee brewer! This logo is an adaption of Starbucks first ever logo (not wanting to cause a commotion with the original logo as the mermaid bared her breasts) used to convey Starbucks as a more well rounded traditional company after over 35 years of success.

The logo is being placed on cups and cup holders for a limited period of time. I can only think that Starbucks is trying to shed its Image as the Big Greedy Corporate Coffee Making Machine that puts smaller privately owned Coffee shops out of business by opening a brach up on every corner! Whether or not it will convince the people who don't like to fund the big corporations is doubtful, it may however please its existing customers to think they aren't buying into the brand but in fact a 'Classic Coffee Maker'.

Inventive Billboard

This billboard is board is a great example of thinking of new ways to use an existing media! And consequently a great way to get peoples attention. Lets hope the drivers by didn't get too distracted!

The Cheese Monkeys

I have just finished reading The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd'. This novel is based on Kidd's real life experience of taking a Graphic Design class at university in the USA. It was a really good read and a must for and Graphic Design student.

It was easy to relate to on many levels...especially in the last chapter where Kidd and friends pulls several all nighters to try and finish his project on time, they are all so close but at the last minute someone cuts there finger with a craft knife causing blood to go everywhere, all over the work and causing a last minute rush to the hospital making them late for the last crit!

Kidd's determination for the class and underlying passion is admirable as the teacher is some what terrifying and destroys every ones work in crit, something that we can all relate to at some point or another!!!! Yet Kidd carries on as he begins to realize that Graphic Design is his calling, ironic seeing as though he only ended up in the class because there wasn't any space in the the classes he wanted to take!

Chip Kidd has also written a second book, about his first design job which I will definitely be checking out.