Hot Box Pizza

I enjoy the hotbox pizza logo a lot. Simply because it is a fairly simple logo. I like the fact that it is black and white I feel that they realize there is no need to have a complex logo. It is straight to the point. I'm sure that hot box does also have a colored version of their logo but I believe it is just the flames that are colored then. It is still a simple design but it gets it idea across very easily. A box around the lettering that is on fire, theres not much more that is needed to be said. I wanted to look and see if there were any other companies that use more plain colored logos and the only company logo I could find was a Canadian railway logo. I believe this is used as a type of postal service in Canada. I feel as if this logo if it had color could take away from the simple design of it. Obviously color makes logos more popping and catch your attention but, with these logos I feel as if they grab my attention just as well as if they had color because of the designs used.

The Cadillac of Ads

I am a big car hobbyist and fan. This probably will not be my only post pertaining to a car design or a website of an automotive manufacturer or even an advertisement of a car. This image is almost breathtaking as to how good it looks for as simplistic as it is. Its a Red CTS with a black background and the words "Cadillac" written behind it, add some lighting effects and you've got an astounding visual image of a car ad. The first thing that rings to mind is how classy the image looks as a whole, which in turn makes you think of how the car is a luxury car in the first place so you wouldn't expect any less. If they had added any more to the image like a background it would have ruined the design of the whole layout. Knowing when enough is enough (even when you didn't ad any other image) is probably one of the best things to learn as a designer. If you can get your design across and captivate everyone who sees it, without any kind of attention grabber besides that of the design of the whole or of the product itself, then you are doing a fantastic job.

Mini 9/16/09

I stumbled across this ad in a car forum that someone posted about it. I'm not sure where the origin of this advertisement is but it is catching. It seems like the basis of this advertisement is to "think outside the box" but while being in a box. The tagline "it's more fun in a mini" seems to imply that this car is somewhat of a toy (as does the rest of the packaging). This ad campaign could bring up a nostalgic feeling of when you're a kid and you remember going to the store to get a new toy of some sort and it came in packaging just as this mini does. The ad is a head turner but it is not very practical. I doubt you would see a mini in a toy package in every mall in every major city. Its not very economical and you're still not reaching that broad of a demographic. Unless you turned this ad in a television commercial you would have trouble reaching a lot of the public which is why the ad could fail. A for inginuity C for practicality.

3-D Ads 9/16/09

I found this billboard ad online because it reminded me of seeing 3-D billboards in my hometown. The one in my hometown is for an art center but the whole billboard looks like an easel and has a pallet and paintbrush extruding out of it. It seems that a lot more modern billboard ads tend to try to be in a 3-D form. I'm not exactly sure what this advertisement is trying to convey that perhaps it could be a lighter type of snack or that birds tend to love it also? I'm not sure but it is very eye catching because of the third dimension. As consumers we have almost seen it all as far as advertisements go. We've seen eye popping and catching commercials or ads that can say something raunchy to get our attention or that are just visually stimulating.

The new generation of 3-D billboards is what companies need to do to catch the consumers attention because it is simply more interesting than a plain billboard talking about a chocolate company.

Myspace 9/14/09

What can you say about myspace? Well for starts its an ugly website. Its not set up bad or anything, its just overcrowded and that is an understatement. The lay out and use of different shades of blue I actually like. I hate the huge banners in the main page. I feel they take up too much bandwith and are usually pointless. With the exception of all the ads myspace is an easy website to navigate through.

I feel if they put less of an emphasis on the size of the ads and the amount of them then this website would attract more visitors than it already does. I don't like to go to myspace anymore because I don't feel like taking the risk of accidentally clicking on an ad and it probably shutting my computer down. If they would have stayed more basic like they were in the beginning i'm not sure facebook would have caught on as well as it did. In summary, lose the ads.

Best Buy 9/11/09

The Best Buy website isn't a particular favorite website in my book. The design of it tries to be simplistic but it has a lot going on. I dislike sites that make it so you need to scroll down in the first place. I realize they are showing their "deals of the week" large enough to capture buyers but if you scroll down they also have more deals that you don't even see when you open the website. I feel like that is poor planning seeing as how people go to their website for specific needs and not "how am I going to spend money on electronics?"

If I were to redo their website I would keep the same theme with the deals of the week and what not but I'd try to fit them all in the main screen when you open the website. I would also try to update the Best Buy logo. I'm fairly certain its been the same since the stores opened. It just needs to looke more modern. I don't feel it fits with their website anymore. I'm not saying get rid of the price tag but, it looks flat compared to everything else on the website. Overall it is a very nice website that flows well together. I may have a few pet peeves with it but I feel it is a well done site.