3-D Billboards

I have a thing for 3-d billboard advertisements. This is the second one I have found and I think that they are fantastic. You can use simple colors and no backgrounds and if they are 3-d they are more eye catching than 2-d ones. This billboard for instance is a picture of a man biting off a section of the billboard itself. There is no background, no flashy eye popping colors. There is just a man and a white background and yet I still feel this is more distracting (in a good way) than perhaps a bright red billboard. As I have stated before I feel that humans or at least Americans can be bored with generic visual advertisements. It has been around for a long time and we have all seen everything that anyone can try. I thoroughly enjoy when advertisers break out of the mundane normal shell and create works of 3-d art to capture our attention, it is truely phenomenal.

Ultra Modern Sinks

The first glance of these pictres you may just want to keep staring and try to figure out what they are. It took me a few seconds to realize actually what I was looking at. If you haven't figured it out by now these are all ultra modern styled sinks designed by Bagno Bandini designs. I ,for one, am a fan of modern designs. I find them almost timeless. A lot of modern designs seem to be stemmed from designs of the 60s, because they are very curvacious and have basic solid colors. Some of these designs are referred to as retrofuturistic looks. Although aesthetically more pleasing than most sinks, the functionality of these sinks seems to be very limited. The shallow depth of the sinks seem as if they wouldn't keep higher pressure water from splashing out very well. I enjoy the looks of modern furniture as well as appliances and house wares but I enjoy function over form also. These sinks do look good but, I would be sure to try to test them before buying, in the event that there is more than one set and they are being sold to consumers. I have not found a pricetag for a set of sinks like the ones mentioned above but I'm assuming that they are going to be more for show than purpose anyway, considering those that could afford sinks like this, generally would put them in a bathroom not used for everyday needs. I'd give an A for design and a C for function.

I found these sinks here http://dornob.com/brilliant-curved-basins-and-super-smooth-sink-surfaces/

J. Bannon

This piece of artwork is titled "Jane Doe" it is by the artist Jacob Bannon. Jacob Bannon has been an artist since he was 13 years old and has designed and created many works of art for album covers and webpages for many bands. He is also the lead singer and founder of the band "Converge." More information on Jacob Bannon can be found on www.jacobbannon.com.

This piece of work is probably one of my favorite piece by Jacob Bannon. I love his use of many layers. I enjoy the dull color schemes behind the main focus of the image, which is the girl in the middle of the picture. Much of his art is comprised of many many layers of silk screens. This particular image is the cover of Converge's CD titled "Jane Doe." The best part of his artwork is that he manages to use many layers without the images looking cluttered, unless it is intentional. The style this image was created in makes it seem almost like an ancient picture. It almost looks like there is a sun behind her head. You notice design elements from perhaps ancient Egyptian era and styles. I encourage you to look at more of his designs because they are truly remarkable.

Tattoo Ads.

When you think about tattoos you simply think about works of art or memorials that have a symbolic meaning to the person that is getting the tattoo. How often do you think about permanent advertisements as tattoos? For me it was not at all, however, I do recall earlier in the decade people were starting to sell parts of their bodies on ebay for businesses to tattoo ads on them. I have researched a little bit and found websites like www.leaseyourbody.com who puts temporary tattoos on your for money and this article on "walking billboards" on msnbc http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21979076/.

The pictures I posted may not necessarily look like a traditional tattooed advertisement. It looks legitimately like a work of art that someone would have gotten tattooed on them because they could be in love with Volkswagen beetles. In all reality it is an ad for lo/jack. The security company that installs GPS devices on items to help track and find them. Usually used for automobiles. http://www.lojack.com/ is the website you can find out more information on them. They are taking advertising into a whole new level by not just creating a beautiful ad but, also by stepping over boundaries as where you can advertise. It is truly unique. They are one of the only mainstream companies I have seen with very artistic tattoos and all out great designs and that are utilizing the walking billboard. Dunlop tires also had a promotion that if you got a logo of their "D" tattooed on your body you would get a free set of tires. I'm not sure how much those that have the lo/jack tattoos were compensated for their "billboard space" but, I'm sure it was more than a set of new tires. Some people just love tattoos for the sake of having them and if you can get a free tattoo and some money out of it and do not really care what the tattoo is then why not?

The design itself I feel is beautiful, I am are car hobbyist so any type of artistic rendering of an automobile I usually love. I also enjoy tattoos and see most of them as works of art, at least custom drawn ones. I like the simplicity of just using a gray scale and not using any colors. I feel it stands out more that way rather than fading out.

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.