Rant
Here we go again! that old industry chestnut, ripping off or simply inspired by? Where do you draw the line? it would appear once again that some in the world of advertising have trouble drawing that line at all! Remember the Honda Ad “Cog”, remember surprisingly similar Peter Fischli and David Weiss film “Der Lauf Der Dinge”, I believe they are still fighting their battle in court. It would appear that on a slightly less direct and obvious level it’s happened again here. Creators of the new Sony Bravia Ad look like they have a few questions to answer, failing to recognise and credit, indeed pay the source of their inspiration? the above pic is a section of a panoramic by illustrators Kozyndan. See the full panoramic of multicolured rabbits littering the streets of NYC here. So what should happen? Is this wrong? is it ok? is, like I once heard a disgusting Ad man say “Everythings up for grabs!” as a response to him blatently ripping off a very well know animators work. The new Sony Bravia ad is an amazing, superbly executed piece of work, why not involve the creatives with the original idea? I don’t get it, who’s to blame? Kozyndan claims Passion asked to see their work a few years back, work that included the above piece! they’ve heard nothing since! Read comments by Kozyndan and reactions here. Discuss…
Dave Brown
Posted on Tuesday, 9th of October 2007 Permalink
This Saturday saw me staying in for the first time in a ages mind you staying in is the new going out. Whilst watching the rubbish we pay for I’ve come to the conclusion that TV programme intos aren’t what they used to be. I spent time reflecting on some of the rich visual stuff I was exposed to when a kid watching Saturday TV. Just check out some of the logos above, absolutely amazing! In stark contrast to the depressing display today, XFactor and Strictly Come Dancing to name a few poor examples, yuk! - Note some of these also had killer soundtracks.
Vikesh Bhatt
Posted on Tuesday, 2nd of October 2007 Permalink
Adobe hasn’t missed a trick with their new logo for Photoshop. Let’s see… it’s a P for Photoshop, it’s a speech bubble and it’s an Apple Aqua interface button. It’s also carved rendered from the hardest plastic in the virtual world and refracts like a diamond. It’s reminiscent of the PBS logo, The Open University and half of E.T.’s head (?).
Unfortunately all this consideration has been a waste of time. Reading some of the 90+ comments on the blog of Adobe Photoshop’s Senior Product Manager, John Nack, there seems to be universal hatred for it:
“Um. Yeah. You know, the Dude abides and all that, but…that icon is poop. Plain, fly-drawing, stinking poop. And the flurry of trademark/registered symbols on it really does a lot to emphasize the poopitude. They should change the name to iPhotoshopChat™©® and throw in some pinstripes and an IM client to make the image complete. Cripes, to think this is the product of the company that actually develops Photoshop. Wow. Boil my eyes now, please.”
Um, boil mine too. Can anyone defend it?
David Rainbird
Posted on Wednesday, 19th of September 2007 Permalink
Amazingly this 240mph Formula 1 racing car is claiming pole position in the race to save the world.
The marketing angle on this is by making a donation to the myearthdream trust, will result in your name and pledge eventually appearing on the bodywork of the Honda Formula 1 racing car, there are 600,000 pixels per car. Ok, the non-logo car with a globe wrapping the entire bodywork makes a nice change from the archetypal Formula 1 car and thats pretty much it! What this evident marketing stunt can’t hide is the fact that it also drinks a gallon every five miles and pumps out 138 tonnes of carbon a year.
Vikesh Bhatt
Posted on Wednesday, 28th of February 2007 Permalink
Soho Grand, NYC. Bathroom floor. Room 1533.
I recently had the pleasure of staying at the Soho Grand in New York but I was piqued to discover one misplaced tile in a sea of uniformity on the hotel room’s bathroom floor. I wasted valuable hours of sleep pondering why, when laying the floor, did the mistake not get corrected, how much extra effort would it have taken to swap two tiles? Or was it the work of a mischievous tiler? (don’t tiles like these come in sheets?) Is it interior designer, William Sofield‘s signature? - a middle finger salute to the resident OCD (obsessive compulsive designer).
Like any good hotel guest I never mentioned the problem to the hotel staff, choosing instead to swipe as many free toiletries as my bag would hold and then blog about my experience from the comfort of my perfectly tessellated home.
Gary Butcher
Posted on Wednesday, 7th of February 2007 Permalink
Now before I continue, let me just say that this was my absolute favourite cartoon growing up, so it needed a write up. Thundercats is an American animated television series developed by Rankin/Bass in 1983 based on the characters created by Tobin “Ted” Wolf. The animation was provided by Topcraft, a Japanese group who would later go on to form Studio Ghibli. Now Thundercats looks to entertain a new generation. Modern tastes and specifications of what a hero should look like have evidently changed.
I see that the new look Liono (main character) has adopted a more skewed look and a bit younger may I add. The basic colour scheme is about the same (red hair, blue suit) but the costume has changed which to be honest with you I understand (it’s kind of tough to look at a hero in his underwear in this day and age) its amazing how times and tastes have changed - as its out with the 1980’s muscle middle age and in with the teen,slim Pokemon version. I dont mind the new interpretation of Liono. What do the other die hard Thundercats fans think?
Vikesh Bhatt
Posted on Monday, 8th of January 2007 Permalink
I love my mac. I wish it came in green! Greenpeace have launched a campaign calling for all Apple lovers and users to demand they start producing greener products. So go to the campaign site, sign up, and start spreading the word.
Dave Brown
Posted on Monday, 2nd of October 2006 Permalink
The new Conservative Party logo is exactly what David Cameron’s party deserves – predictable, trite and bland.
Out with the old fossil-fuel burning torch, in with the scribble tree – but don’t be green-washed into thinking this represents any real environmental credentials – if you look closely at the tree you can still see the road protesters that plagued the last Tory government.
The corporate scribble always amuses me – unless they are the untamed variety like Minale Tattersfield or truly spontaneous like Virgin then they end up being overworked to sterile perfection. The tree trunk slanting just so to the right and there’s a mixture of pen styles in the same flourish.
Inoffensive. Cuddly. It’s a focus group triumph. My sympathies go to Perfect Day – the agency involved.
David Rainbird
Posted on Monday, 18th of September 2006 Permalink
In response to Gary’s Own Goal post last week I would like to have a little rant at all those who have knocked the German 2006 World Cup identity. Having previously worked with FIFA on the 2002 World Cup event branding I know how difficult, complex, political and often frustrating the process of designing a World Cup emblem is.
What these 11 designers fail to take into account is a little thing called a BRIEF! I know how strict the FIFA briefs are and wouldn’t be surprised if all of these 11 alternative solutions failed to answer the 2006 brief. I’m sure there were probably countless more appealing, more creative, innovative, industry pleasing routes put forward as solutions for German emblem but they were probably thrown out due to cultural, legal, logistical, political, trademark issues. While I’m at it, in my opinion, apart from maybe 1, these 11 routes are obvious, bland, uninspiring, poorly crafted, naive solutions and they were all designed without any restrictions! I’d hate to see what they’d come up with if they did have a brief and a client to please!!
I have just returned from Germany having been lucky enough to get tickets for the England v Sweden game, the emblem is everywhere and surprisingly effective and totally in keeping with the mood and vision of the tournament. Therefore, whether you like it or not, it works The German public and global footballing community don’t seem to have a problem with it, I’m actually not overly keen on it myself but thats my personal opinion, there are hundreds of high profile creative jobs I don’t particually love but I don’t go round forming a gang of rebel designers to post alternative solutions on a website because I have more respect for the people involved.
The 2010 emblem for the South African World Cup will be launched very soon, let’s hope it doesn’t provoke another wave of whinging designer letters to Design Week claiming they could have done a better job!
Dave Brown
Posted on Friday, 23rd of June 2006 Permalink
