Design Debate

I have finally decided I can wait no longer and am going for a new phone. I have been waiting in the vain hope that Apple iphones will come down to a more realistic price, but now a mobile device with good quality internet access has become a necessity, not a luxury, forcing my hand. The technology in the iphone is very attractive, but cost has always been an issue, prompting me to examine different options. The souped-up standard mobiles initially looked a possible alternative, and as I already had a Samsung I took a look at the Samsung Soul. I also speculated that a Blackberry may supply the functionality that I needed, if not the brand name. The Storm jumped out as an option. But in the end, as a designer, I could not seperate the products from their marketing. The Samsung Soul for instance has been given a very feeble advertising campaign that absolutely baffled me as to the item itself. Take a look at the following spot: This was an advert designed for a pan European appeal, and ...

Pickle Design have launched their new website, and by all accounts are very proud. It has taken some time to get the look that they felt represented the company well, and also guarantee that the dynamic between company and client is clear. It was very much a team project, but Emma took on the task of realising the site, lending her unique style to a design that was a departure for her in some ways. "The new website was designed to make work for our clients the main focus, so we ensured the image dominated the page, with only minimal typography in a very structured format. The toolbar consists of swatch style colours, as a fun way to reflect the tools of our trade, these lent themselves successfully to forming categories and sub-categories using a hierarchy of tones. We also included our new, refreshed branding, consisting of a simplified hand-drawn logo to reflect our illustrative style." Emma Julian As Emma brings out, the toolbar was integral to the site's success. Whil...

Over the last month, the commercial breaks have been packed with adverts for perfume and cologne. There have been some dire offerings and a few great spots, the two that have really stuck with me have been for Dolce & Gabbana, advertising The One, male and female fragrances. They are both constructed in similar ways, shot in opulent black and white with a classic jazz record as a soundtrack. Both focus on one attractive celebrity, their exposure to the press as a sign of adoration and compliment, and each conclude with a transformation into colour with the flash bulbs. Matthew McConaughey and Gisele Bundchen star. McConaughey's follows him from the car as he looks weary (but still cool!), he enters his palacial apartment and, after removing his shirt, reclines on an expensive sofa. Colour floods the screen as suddenly he is photographed from what can only be a previously invisible group of paparazzi. His face breaks into a smile. It is as if he can only exist with the affirmati...

When planning our annual end of year project, we decided to focus on twelve influential aspects of the creative team's lives. We chose four items each to illustrate and print on badges. (They will be available for the beginning of January, feel free to request one). One of the four I selected was comic book art, a passion of mine since my teens, but I struggled to convince the other two designers in the team, Marie and Emma. There is undoubtedly prejudice against comic books from some demographic groups, and easy to see why. When trying to engender the same enthusiasm in the rest of the team, I was hard pressed to show good examples of the stunning art form without picking out blood spattered scenes in the more credible volumes, or stupidly revealing spandex outfits on female characters. There is a real need for graphic novels that bridge the gap between superhero books, full of characters that follow American foreign policy and resemble the Aryan ideal, and the direct antithesis i...

Fallon's recent advert for the Sony Bravia, Play Doh, has just won the British Television Advertising Craft Awards. In fact, they have been awarded a lot of well deserved awards for their television work this year. It just seems a shame that it was this advert that won them the award. Their previous two campaigns were outstanding, and altered way television advertising was formulated dramatically. The bouncing balls and exploding paint fireworks flowed seamlessly into the public consciousness, even spawning spoof campaigns by other companies such as this particularly well thought out homage: Those advertisements worked through their understated audacity and exceptional use of soundtrack, and their Play Doh piece started with as much promise, hinting that the initial concepts were being reworked with imagination. But then the Rolling Stones kicks in and lets everything following down. I happen to really like the track they chose, and it is very clear why "She's a Rainbow...

This week we put together an advertising campaign for a financial advisers, and purchased some stock photography as time was short and a deadline loomed. This has reminded me of all my concerns about using this service, yet again. The online image banks such as iStockphoto, are a useful resource, and when used selectively can produce excellent results. But the general standard of image is just shocking, take this shot for example: To find the shots we needed for the campaign, we had to trawl through countless poorly posed, generically composed shots such as this, and although we were able to find the image we were looking for, it was a depressing task. What compounded my irritation was the cost of the shots we wanted from such sites as Getty Images and Image Source. Both would have cost us around a thousand pounds for a single image, for the use we required. While the photograph in question was certainly of a high standard, and fitted the bill well, the cost made it unfeasible for the ...

As the downturn in the financial markets continues, and the media eagerly prophecies worse to come, we may see a worrying trend in graphic design. A few weeks ago, I saw an advert for Discount Brands at Tesco . What was significant was the packaging and style of direction, clearly aimed at rivals such as Lidl and Aldi . These two companies have branding that reflects their roots, distinctly German. After having visited my wife's family in what was East Germany, I was surprised to see the dramatic differences in marketing. We would consider them outdated, as is often the case when looking at such brands as Lidl. This is not to say these businesses are not valuable assets, not only are they well priced, but they offer products not available in many other stores. My concern is the style of package design. As I said, I was certain I was not watching a UK based supermarket's advert, especially not Tesco. This implies that they feel the British public associate cheap products with a...