Creative Advertisements.

I think that the American public could be tired of boring advertisements. Ad agencies now more than ever need to go above and beyond to create a captivating advertisement. Most of the outrageous ads however, generally come from other countries. This Lego advertisement comes from Chile. The ad obviously represents real world building with the Lego blocks. This ad isn't necessarily to push a new product. It seems like the ad is a simple reminder. That Lego is still around. Sometimes those are the best kinds of ads. Everyday you see companies trying to push their newest product, while Lego is just pushing their company in general and a lot of times that is all it takes.

The Voodoo

This has got to be the most interesting knife block I have ever seen. The knife block titled 'The Voodoo' is a design by Raffaele Iannello. Raffaele Iannello is an industrial designer as well as furniture and graphic designer. Industrial design has to be one of my favorite types of designs. Industrial design is the combination of applied art and applied science, whereby the aesthetics and usability of mass-produced products may be improved for marketability and production. This design really jumps out at you. It is definitely different from any other knife block you've ever seen. Made of ABS plastic the knives are held in place by magnets, so this knife block is as functional as it is aesthetically pleasing. It comes in a number of different colors, from black to silver to pink. I chose to show you the red one because I feel it makes the most impact. The spin this designer took on a dull knife block is directed toward a younger demographic and I feel is a staple of a post-modernist movement that we are in today.

To see more designs from Raffeale Iannello go to his website at: http://www.dexigner.com/jump/directory/5718

Guitar Finishes

Guitar makers (luthiers if you will) will agree that for a guitar the best finish is no finish at all. Many musicians have either stripped their guitars down or have had their finish worn off with no intentions of refinishing it. The Beatles John Lennon stripped down an Epiphone Casino that was given to him because you get a more pure sound out of it. Rory Gallagher also carried a worn down to wood 61' Fender Stratocaster. Now how some people would like the look of a relic'd guitar or a bare wood one, they are suseptable to moisture, dirt, and oil. Now dirt and oil won't exactly break a guitar but, could hinder the natural beauty of the unfinished wood. There are also beautiful finishes from the "French Polish," which is where numerous coats of varnish are applied to the wood. There are also laquer finishes and more recently used a polyester resin finish. The polyester resin is the most inexpensive finish but, has probably the longest durability. So which one do you choose? The design aspects of these different finishes on guitars could be what you look for in your guitar. Do you choose one more for better sound? or for better looking? Personally, I like the unfinished guitars with perhaps a little bit of oil on them. I like the function of the better sound and I think that the bare wood is beautiful. Also I enjoy the look of an aged guitar, which a bare wood guitar looks more like. The more use and age your guitar has the more "you" it is and that is what I look for in a lot of designs. How can you make this design a part of you? I believe that designers that make their designs a part of them are some of the best designs. This could be as simple as the interior design of your house or as complex as a trying to find an automobile that speaks to you as an individual. Me? I'll take a worn guitar with chips and cracks and no paint.

Furniture, Bauhaus.

We've talked about the Bauhaus in class before so I figured I would look further into what they were and what they did. The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Groupier in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during the first years of its existence. Nonetheless it was founded with the idea of creating a 'total' work of art in which all arts, including architecture would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist Architecture and modern design. One of the most influential designers in the Modernist movement was a student and then teacher at the Bauhaus, Mercel Breuer. Mercel Breure designed the first bent steel chair later named the 'Wassily.' Part of the theory of the chair is the idea that as humans we should not conform to our furniture but, it should conform to us. The chair was fairly simple in form. It was merely straps of fabric stretched across the chair for the back, seat, and arms. The bent steel was hard to come by at the time of its conceptual design in the early 1920s because of how steel tubes had been manufactured up to that point. The chair which was created more than 90 years ago because of its design and modern appeal has been remanufactured by many different producers still this day. I believe this chair has lived on so well because of its timeless and simple design. The lack of fabric makes it easy to flow and fit with almost any decor. The functionality of the chair is what catches me. It is simple to clean, and looks fairly comfortable. You might not sink into the chair like a lazy boy but it also looks a lot better than one also.

For more information on the Bauhaus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus
Wassily Chair: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Chair
Mercel Breur: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Breuer

Automobile Design.

Carrying over from the last post on design, is form follows function. The design of automobiles is where this design philosophy is most apparent. There have been cars that have been marvelous (in a manner of speaking) to look at but the designs of the engine, suspension, and similar components were terrible. In automobile design is can be more apparent where the phrase "form follows function" is. Sports cars generally carry this trait better than most other cars. The way that Ferrari designs its cars, it does not just throw a large engine into whatever car they can create. The design of the looks of the car are engineered to conform to its function. They use aerodynamic shapes to create downforce to hold the car down on a track or they create a wide stance for better vehicle dynamics. Obviously there is a price involved for cars where form follows function. At least where every single aspect of the car revolves around eachother. Another good example to look at is hybrid electric cars like the Toyota Prius or Honda Insight. These cars are very aero dynamic to create as little wind resistance as possible. The original model of the Honda Insight covers the rear wheel wells to have less drag from wind catching in the back of the vehicle.

In my mind form should always follow function. Whatever product you create it should form to the original function of the product. The better the function of any product the greater its form will ultimately be. Even if it could look worse than a model along the similar lines of what it is.

To read more on form follows function here is the wiki article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_follows_function

Design.

According to Wikipedia, design is the planning that lays the basis for the making of every object or system. In the article it states that design has almost unlimited possibilities for what it can be. It is used in everyday life. Everything man made that we see, feel, smell, hear. It is all a concept of design. There are many different forms of design and ways to approach it. My favorite type of design is that function beats form. Simply meaning that a product should work as well or better than it looks. I realize that there is ,however, a place for more form than function, i.e. with art. In this day and age art's only purpose is to be aesthetically pleasing and used as a means for expression. Before art was mainly used to recreate history through the eyes that have seen it or as a visual representation of what some people imagine a scenario could have looked like throughout history. Most artwork that was pre american culture is almost all religious based. I was recently at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and they have an exhibit called "Sacred Spain" which is about Spanish art that was based around Jesus Christ. Art has always surrounded every single culture you can imagine. From cave drawings to multimedia masterpieces like the opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympics, art and design have been around and it always will be, that is as long as humans go on to exist.

Nissan 370z Webpage

As I have state before I am a car hobbyist and all around gear head in general. This is the title web page for building a 2010 Nissan 370z. I have scrolled through many car web pages and the designs of most of them are more interactive than this one. Generally the ads have a lot cleaner set ups than this website does. I like the use of the yellow 370z with a rather plain background. It makes the car the center of attention, which it needs to be. The text is all rather plain though, as well as the menu options. If you're showcasing one of your sports cars you would think you would want your web page to reflect what the sports car is, in the form of a website. I do not feel Nissan has accomplished this at all. I just feel the website is very plain and a leftover site in the sense that it doesn't look very new or updated for this new car. As I said before, the website should reflect the idea of an open road, fast, sexy, sleek but, it does not and this is why I feel the website fails as an advertisement for selling this car.