Headache

One of the ugliest websites I came across was Ling's Cars. This website is cluttered and annoying to look at. There are so many flashing lights and moving pictures that it could give you a headache. To me I cannot tell if this website is suppose to be a joke or if it is legit. The colors clash and all the boxes have no meaning to them. If this guy gets any customers I would be surprised.

Source: http://www.lingscars.com/

Swimmer

For this blog post I went with was the Moria Design, San Francisco 2012: US Olympic poster. It is a great example of a contemporary retro piece. I love the radiating lines and bright colors incorporated. The imagery within those lines is also are great because they are all pictures of different Olympic events. I also like the font, the black shadow is a good choice to have the white font pop over all the color. Another fun aspect of this poster is that the person’s face isn't the exact colors it would normally be; this made the image blend together better and be more consistent.

Dermody, Brenda and Breathnach, Tersea. New Retro Classic Graphics, Today’s Designs. Thames & Hudson Inc. New York, New York. 2009. Print page 233.

Doodle

The cutting edge contemporary design I chose was by Antoine Manuel. I was drawn to it because I liked all the sketches on it. The one I noticed first was the Gameboy. I also like the way some images are colored in and some are left transparent. It is simple, but fun because your eyes can explore the whole piece.

Source: Fiell, Charlotte and Peter. Contemporary Graphic Design. Taschen Cologne, Germany. 2007. Print Page 39.

Power!

I love this logo because of its simplicity, but it is still very successful! The fact that it is an electric outlet and that goes along with the Powerdesign. Also i like how it is clean with just using black and white. Overall great design using just simple geometric shapes to put it together.

Source: LogoDesign. New York : Graphis Inc., 1998. Print.

Treehouse

A unique and creative identity design I came across was the Treehouse Restaurant built by Peter Eising for Yellow Pages. The restaurant was built entirely out of Yellow Pages.  More than 65 companies helped build the treehouse restaurant in three months. When it opened more than 2000 people enjoyed dinner ten meters above ground in the first month. I find this so cool because it is literally a treehouse restaurant made out of nothing but paper. I would have never thought of making anything out of Yellow Pages; it’s just fascinating way of branding to me.

Source: D&AD and Taschen. Every Thing is Advertising and Design in the World. 9 Graphics Made: The Best Square, Vauxhall Walk, London. 2010. Print page 77.

Bottoms Up

A digital media design I really enjoyed was the Drinkspiration app by Ted Persson for Absolut Vodka. I really liked this app because it was designed perfectly so that the drinks were the main focus. By having the background and fonts black and white it leaves the drinks color to really stand out on the screen. I find alcohol to be a really fun product to work with when it comes with design because of all the colors and ingredients you can mess with when creating something. The app is also very organized; it has many recommendations for pretty much any drink taste you have. Overall great design and layout for an app.

Source: D&AD and Taschen. Every Thing is Advertising and Design in the World. 9 Graphics Made: The Best Square, Vauxhall Walk, London. 2010. Print page 325.

Brochure

I think this was a creative way to do a brochure because it obviously shows it's about color. Making this stand out draws peoples attention because they immanently know if it will interest them or not. Since brochures are pretty small a good design is most of the time necessary. I think "Color Origins" is a create print design because of the pop of color on white. Also the picture forms are great it allows the viewers eye to move about the page. The forms also turn into paint drops which is another creative aspect of this piece since it is for the paint company Benjamin Moore & Co. Color Marketing.

 Source: GD USA Magazine. American Graphic Design Awards. December 2005 issue. Page. 91.

Can't Live Without Music

A good print design I came across was The Earphones Note by Philipp Weber and Walter Ziegler for Panasonic. I was drawn to this piece because I love music. It gets me through the day and there is always something different for each mood I am in. This design is perfect because obviously the earphones play music so why not put it in the shape of a musical note…. I mean it’s genius.  I love the fact they kept the packaging simple because it lets the product speak for itself. It makes shopping as the customer a lot easier when it’s clearly right in your face what you are buying.

Source: D&AD and Taschen. Every Thing is Advertising and Design in the World. 9 Graphics Made: The Best Square, Vauxhall Walk, London. 2010. Print page 358.

Color Is Appealing

A design that has a creative visual concept is the IKEA Spectrum by Jessica Reynolds and Serena Wise. I was drawn to it because I loved how organized the colors were. I didn't know what it was at first, but I looked closer and noticed that each “color slice” was made up of furniture that was the same color. They made it this way because they observed customers in the store and noticed that they responded to different colors. With this organized wheel it will help costumers online find what they are looking for faster. I think this is smart because I am one of the customers that find certain colors more appealing than others when it comes to furniture.

Source: D&AD and Taschen. Every Thing is Advertising and Design in the World. 9 Graphics Made: The Best Square, Vauxhall Walk, London. 2010. Print page 19.

Clocks

Benjamin Le Breton came up with a creative way to use typography in his piece “Clocks” for The AIDS Africa Solidarity Fund. It is in an outdoor frame set up to alert Europeans walking by that every minute counts when it comes to finding a solution to AIDS. At a set time, twice a day, all the hands on these clocks align to form the sentence: “Every 12 hours in Africa, over 2,000 people die from AIDS because they have no access to care”. To me this is a very unique way to raise awareness because it is eye catching and makes those walking by stop to find out what it is about. It is also creative because he didn’t create a normal poster, the clocks do in fact work with the subject he was working with.

Source: D&AD and Taschen. Every Thing is Advertising and Design in the World. 9 Graphics Made: The Best Square, Vauxhall Walk, London. 2010. Print page 504.

Two In One

A great use of illustration is in Brian Steele’s piece for Turner Duckworth’s Holiday Card. I found this creative because it is two cities in one. If you are looking at it with the white buildings on the bottom you see London, but if flipped you see San Francisco. These two cities are used because this company has a studio in both places. Since this is a holiday card I love how he made it so London had snow covered buildings and San Francisco had a starry night. Also the colors used in this piece fit perfectly with the theme and imagery.

Source: D&AD and Taschen. Every Thing is Advertising and Design in the World. 9 Graphics Made: The Best Square, Vauxhall Walk, London. 2010. Print page 249.

WWF

Below is an image taken and created by Simon Harsent for The World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The image has a great use of photography by turning these animals into “ghosts”. This is powerful because it makes the viewer see that these animals that are endangered could be gone for good one day. As an animal lover myself, I hope more people realize that these animals need our help to survive, so we have to stop killing them and destroying their habitats. I love how Simon kept it clean and simple, so it doesn't steal the focus away from the animals.

Source: D&AD and Taschen. Every Thing is Advertising and Design in the World. 9 Graphics Made: The Best Square, Vauxhall Walk, London. 2010. Print page 375.

Staples

The image I chose was in D&AD’s 2010 annual, it was called “Staples” by Sarah Illenberger. It was created for Pro Wildlife out of 80,000 staples. I think it was a great idea to use an elephant as her animal choice because it goes with the gray color of the staple. The way she spaced it all out is perfect and the way she used more staples to create a darker value is awesome. The piece is put together so well that you may think at first that it was a photograph. I personally have never thought about using staples as a media choice, but it seems like fun I may just have to try it sometime.

Source: D&AD and Taschen. Every Thing is Advertising and Design in the World. 9 Graphics Made: The Best Square, Vauxhall Walk, London. 2010. Print page 237.

Cheers!

This is an image I found in D&AD 2010: The Best Advertising and Design In the World from Taschen. It is a book designed for Granta Books. I loved the way the artist created her design with common drinking items. The bubbles are amazing it makes your eye follow the text all the way down the page. The way the "o's" are incorporated with the bubbles is also another great design detail and very creative. I also find the glass with the lemon and ice cubes a wonderful idea because it is showing what the artist was describing in text into an image. The colors work very well together and make it look clean and professional, which I like a lot. With all of this in mind I believe this design is very successful.

Source: D&AD and Taschen. Every Thing is Made: The Best Advertising and Design in the World. 9 Graphics Square, Vauxhall Walk, London. 2010. Print page 72.

Designer - Carr, Sarah. Here Design

Driving My Inspiration

This is an advertisement for Pantone that I came across in HOW Magazine (July 2013 issue). Pantone is known worldwide as the standard language for color communication from designer to manufacture to retailer to customer.

I love the colors they chose to put in this ad. Also the fact that the top text kind of has a flowing motion like the eagle. They did an amazing job at keeping the text in front of the red background instead of multiple colors behind it. Doing this makes it clean and easy to read.