The Art of Splitting Up

A Donated Wedding Dress (above)
This is a particularly interesting exhibition, based on items being donated from the general public of varying countries that are momentos of past relationships, whether they be short term flings or divorces. The exhibition originated in Croatia, but wherever the exhibition goes, the public are able to bring their own memories to display, including a short description about what it means to them.


A Donated Pair of Handcuffs (above)
The artists behind the idea Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic infact were going through a split, and wanted to do something creative with the feelings they had. I think its a really nice idea, for its very simple idea that allows the public not only to be interactive, but also personal with the exhibition. Its almost like a support group for the wounded, each has a story that they want to share, and almost get comfort seeing as though they are not the only ones to ever get hurt. Donators often felt a very cathartic effect. One woman brought an axe that she used on her lovers furniture, when she found out she'd cheated on her.

"The more her room filled up with chopped up furniture, the more I started to feel better. Two weeks after she was kicked out she came to take the furniture. It was neatly arranged into small heaps and fragments of wood."

Greetings...

www.urbangraphic.co.uk

See The Light

Olivia Cheung, a student from Brighton University who studied a BA in Product design wanted to incorporate packaging into the selling of light bulbs avoiding excess waste of the earth’s resources. She managed to create these beautifully stylish and ecological lampshades (seen below).

“I began to explore the concept of 'reuse', as some objects take on other, more interesting and diverse roles. I then endeavored to make reusing packaging more appealing - due to the sheer amount that is thrown away.”
Olivia Chueng

She focused on creating packaging that had an added function, and complimented the product at hand as well as meeting standard packaging demands like protecting and keeping the product secure. With her designs, the packaging transforms on to a beautiful lampshade, not only re-suing the packaging, but also it means she no longer need to by addition products like a lampshade.

To see more images pf her work visit:
http://www.jointhemediacircus.co.uk/mediacircus/2007/09/student-gallery.html

The Celebrity Race

Face Look Familiar?

While researching for my dissertation, I came across this Ad campaign from 2001 by the Commission for Racial Equality. The campaign was trying to tackle issues such as racism and prejudices within society. Using the special effects team who also worked on the film “Gladiator”, well know celebrities were transformed into someone of a different race, whilst asking viewers questions such as, would Ken Livingstone really have been elected Mayor if he was Asian – really homing in on the issue at hand. This campaign also reminded me of a more recent advertising campaign to promote awareness over the issue of domestic violence, where images of well known women in British media were seen to be bruised and hurt, making the audience really take note that it can happen to anyone. Using celebrities to promote or make social causes more aware to the public is really successful concept, allowing the viewer to symapthise with someone who they “know” from the public eye, however advertisers could run the risk of playing it safe by using the same concept, whereby it will be bound to lose its appeal if repeated too many times.

"A Girl Like Me"

A Short Film By Kiri Davis

"For my high-school literature class I was constructing an anthology with a wide range of different stories that I believed reflected the black girl’s experience. For the different chapters, I conducted interviews with a variety of black girls in my high school, and a number of issues surfaced concerning the standards of beauty imposed on today’s black girls and how this affects their self-image."

This is a really interesting and thought provoking short film. It shows teenage African American girls talking about how they feel they are represented in today’s society. In the interviews, issues such as stereotyping in the media as well as cultural ideals, such as what is seen as beautiful are discussed. What is particularly prevalent, is that although when look at media today, it would seem that those of African origin are quite well represented (at least when compared to other ethnic minorities such as South Asians (Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan etc) and Oriental Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Korean etc), it would seem that this is still not enough in terms of creating a positive image for youth today.

Within her report, Davis also conducted the “doll test”, initially done by Dr. Kenneth Clark, where children were given a series of questions based on their perceptions of a black doll and a white doll. Questions such as “Which is the bad doll” and “Which doll would you most like to play with” were posed to the children, producing some astoundingly bad results about the perception that black children had of themselves and those of the same colour.

Here is one example of the answers given by a young black girl;

Davis: "Can you show me the doll that looks bad"
Girl: [Picks up black doll]
Davis: "And why does that look bad?"
Girl: "Because he's black"
Davis: "And why do you think this [white doll] is the nice doll" (answer established from earlier question)
Girl: "Because she's white"
Davis: "Can you give me the doll that looks like you?"
Girl: [She hesitates, and passes the black doll]

By recreating this experiment, Davis managed to show that actually very little has changed since the original test done in 1947, whilst highlighting the effect society and the media have on the self perception and opinion of what’s ‘right and wrong’ for black children today.

This film was very interesting to see, due to the up and coming dissertation project. With my dissertation focusing on the lack of Asian models used within advertising and marketing today, it would be interesting to see whether this has had an adverse affect on Asian children in the UK like the children Kiri Davis interviewed in the US. To watch 'A Girl Like Me' follow this link - http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/6/a_girl_like_me/index.php?fs=about

"Girls of Riyadah"

"Girls of Riyadh"
By Rajaa Alsanea

An anonymous writer began e-mailing those who joined her mailing list to listen to the true stories of 4 friends growing up in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. This book is the consolidation of all these e-mails that caused a national outcry in Saudi with its revelations, even causing the book to be banned.

We learn about the lives of 4 girls living in Riyadh, the real story. Women in Saudi Arabia are often seen as oppressed under the strict Islamic Law imposed, however through these memoirs we are opened up to a world, a secret world that, is not seen other that by those living in it. We see the world of boys, University, marriage, divorce – all common features of any young woman around the world, yet have such a different impact on these girls, not only based on their religion but the cultural boundaries and systems imposed on them. The book was written in third person, a format that does not particularly appeal to me, due to the way in which it inhibits getting into a persons head and the way in which you sympathise with a characters. However, this book is a way in which we can understand a culture, which is often seen as very closed to the outside world, and observe a the ways in which they deal with universal feelings such as love, and situations like divorce.

"Just say yes more."

"Yes Man"
By Danny Wallace

“Danny Wallace had been saying No. Far too much. No to his friends, colleagues, no to the pub and no to himself. And life was a little dull. Dumped by his girlfriend and on a road to nowhere, it was only when a mystery man on a late-night bus uttered three magic words that his whole worlds started to change… ‘Say yes more’”

I was recommended this book, and couldn’t help but be intrigued by the story of a man who said literally just said ‘yes’, to every single invitation, offer or demand posed in front of him. It certainly is one of my favourite books, sounding like a complete cliché when I admit is was without a doubt ‘laugh out loud funny’ and I just couldn’t put the book down. Danny takes us through the four, very long months and tells us about the crazy trails and tribulations he faced when you just say ‘yes’.

“In the months that followed, he won £25,000. He met Buddhist Monks, alien obsessives and the world’s only hypnotic dog. He became a Minister, and inventor, a minor television personality and an accidental peace activist. He ended up in Singapore, in Amsterdam and in a small mining town in South Wales. He lost £25,000.”

Hilariously written, you can almost hear him telling you the story – right from the horse’s mouth, allowing the happy, sad and most cringeful moments seem even more real. Even though Danny’s journey was ridiculously funny and really quite amazing, there was a bigger message he intended to spread, and that was the power of saying ‘yes’. Danny went from a single, lonely and negative person to a spontaneous, positive (most of the time…) and ultimately a happier person, and thus is living proof that his theory works. Overall the moral of the story is, in the most simplest terms, that everyone should just take a chance, say yes to something they usually would say no to and just see where it takes you. Whether it be winning £25,000 on a scratch card or saying yes to reading a new book that without a doubt brightened up a few slow days in your summer holidays and giving you a more that worthy topic to write about on your online blog … anything can happen when you just say, yes.

Personal Museum

Museum - “a place or building in which works of artistic, historical or scientific value are cared for and exhibited”.

When thinking what epitomises a museum, I concluded that it was a place in which things are exhibited for others to see varying in topics, whether the focus is a certain period of time, event, or person. When looking at my own world, I begun to realise that a lot, if not all of us have our very own ‘museum’ of our lives, through the use of social networking websites such as ‘Facebook’. When considering the elements, we have our own ‘place’ whereby our lives have been dictated. The day we were born, the school we went to our interests and social circles has all the exhibited for the public to see. Our online exhibitions are somewhat different to your average museum, not only in its medium, but also because we’re in control of what it seen, and also with its constant development and evolution due to its more autobiographical nature. A “museum” such as this allows a member to represent him or herself, (although in a somewhat bias nature) for others to see, and leaving an exhibition of evidence of their history and life was like at any given time for all to see…. until the website/museum shuts down that is.

Vaseline Intensive Care; TV Adverts

As mentioned before, the focus of my dissertation for the coming year will be on the
number, or lack of Asians used in advertising in the UK. I just wanted to mention the new Vaseline adverts, which however subtle in terms of all the models participation, they have been able to create a balanced advert using hundreds of people of different ethnicities which I think is fantastic. I would love to see more adverts like this in mainstream advertising and really does standout to someone is not used to seeing it.

"Rules Are Meant To Be Broken"

Last week I was lucky enough to have a portfolio viewing with the Creative Directors of Branding and Packaging Design Company, ‘Blue Marlin’. While providing me with priceless advice and information on the industry and my own work, what I found particularly interesting was their suggestion for changes within my own work. Both guys I spoke to were very much of the opinion that rules are meant to be broken, and that pieces of work shouldn’t necessarily be stuck to a grid or strict layout where everything should line up. I thought this was quite ironic, as in terms of my personal thinking, when designing a piece of word, grids and guides are one of the first things to be broken out n Illustrator and Photoshop. By speaking to them, they made it clear that maybe breaking out the grid (and I don’t mean in extremes) it would allow your work to stand out that much more and not seem so rigid and caged. Whether “breaking the rules” is something to take forward into our final year, it is nonetheless food for thought.

The images below are of one piece of work that I had done for the faculty brief and my development of this particular image based on the advice I was given at Blue Marlin. Apart from the colour change, they said to make more of a feature of the foetus, by increasing the size, and then join and re-size the faculty and university logo to make them a much smaller, key feature. This immediately meant that my initial thinking of separating the two logos to “balance” out the page and by having them larger so the viewer would know more immediately which University was being advertised, was what seemed to them what was holding the poster back.

Advertising Deconstructed

This is an article I saw recently, I suggest you read it and go on to click the link to view the slide show as it makes particularly fascinating viewing especially to young designers like ourselves!

"Title: There are 12 kinds of Ad's in the world; RESIST THEM ALL
By Seth Stevenson

In 1978, Donald Gunn was a creative director for the advertising agency Leo Burnett. Though his position implied expertise, Gunn felt he was often just throwing darts—relying on inspiration and luck (instead of proven formulas) to make great ads. So, he decided to inject some analytical rigor into the process: He took a yearlong sabbatical, studied the best TV ads he could find, and looked for elemental patterns. After much research, Gunn determined that nearly all good ads fall into one of 12 categories—or "master formats," in his words. At last year's Clio Awards, I saw Gunn give a lecture about these formats (using ads mostly from the '70s and '80s as examples), and I was fascinated by his theory. I soon found myself categorizing every ad I saw on TV. It was a revelation: The curtain had been pulled back on all those sly sales tactics at the heart of persuasive advertising. This slide show presents some recent ads exemplifying each of Gunn's 12 basic categories. With a little practice, you, too, will be ticking off the master formats during commercial breaks."


After viewing this slideshow, I mainly thought about how the “12 types of adverts” would be helpful to us, as it demonstrated the realm of possibilities of how to go about advertising a particular product or service. I know we should try and stay away from a standard formulae, but somewhere along the line, adverts we do create are likely to fit into, or be a hybrid of some of these sets. It is very easy to categorise adverts I now see on TV within Gunn’s observation, and here are a few examples I have found;

“Ongoing Character”;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEVjbosMqFM

“Exaggerated”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAjMpndZ9bA

“Parody”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsvoQtMUUgM


Seth Stevenson, the gentleman who wrote the article is an ad critic and actually encourages the general public to clock onto advertisers tactics, and in a sense become immune to the advertisements they see on TV, as he so articulately put it “It's like learning how a magic trick works: Once the secret's revealed, the trick loses all its power”. If Stevenson’s encouragement did take off on a massive scale, the outcome could potentially have disastrous consequences for companies, but more interestingly it would see if advertisers, such as ourselves could rise to the challenge.

Unimagined

By Imran Ahmad

“A Muslim Boy meet the West”

“Part White Teeth, part Adrian Mole, Unimagined is the hilarious and captivating memoir of a Muslim boy born in Pakistan, who moves to London aged one and grows up torn between his Islamic identity and his desire to embrace the West.”

This book is a year by year narration of the authors life, up until age 25. It was a beautifully written book, painfully honest and funny. One of the crucial reasons as to why I like this book so much is my ability to empathise with the author, for I too am an Asian, Muslim and growing up in the West. As a first generation Asian Muslim growing up in England during the 1970/80’s he discusses topics such as racism, cultural expectations and boundaries, and religious discovery. One of the key features of this book was his struggle with his Identity. Throughout his life, Ahmad sought to be the “quintessential English gentleman”, however could never fully assimilate into British culture. The author who is now 45 has left me wishing I could have Unimagined; Part2, filling me in on the next 20 years of his life. It is his unquestionable honesty that makes this book such a pleasure to read and I would love to have know his thoughts and feelings on topics such a arranged marriages, fatherhood and his job, which were beginning to be touched upon before the end of the book. I can only hope Imran Ahmad realises the art of blogging, if only for my own personal curiosity.

When returning to University in September we begin to research and write our dissertations. My chosen topic is to question the lack of Asian people used within the advertising and marketing. This book merely emphasises that even 30 years on, minority cultures are still, perhaps, are being ignored, or neglected somewhat in mainstream advertising, questioning further whether we are still not seen as fully integrated into British culture and society.

A Designers Dilema?

My brother found this postcard around Leeds University and gave it to me to add to the postcard museum, that is my room. I personally really like typography and was particularly intrigued by the wording in the left hand corner (shown above). The reason I do not want to write the word that is seems to have caused somewhat confusion amongst the masses. Take a moment to see if you can read it, and then scroll down to see if you are right.

Personally to me, it was as clear as day. The beautifully designed word read, “Be” (confirmed by the website name.) However, to others it wasn’t so obvious, as they read the word “Do”. I thought this was particularly interesting, and I began to ask random friends and family what they thought the word read, with distinct results. To put it bluntly the designers could read the word perfectly, everyone else couldn’t.

Undoubtedly this is a beautifully designed word, with the postcards pattern being incorporated into the text, a design in which anyone could, and did appreciate, however somewhere in the design process it would seem the aesthetics maybe have been more important than the readability of the actual word. I have begun to notice that this is maybe a huge flaw in graphics today. As designers we are trying to create work, which is “subtly genius”, simple yet send a clever message, but in the end the message is getting lost being the single graphical elements that make it up. This has only become clearer to me, when my own work has come under some scrutiny.

The images below are sections of my revised posters for our first year project based on promoting a 2 hour lunch break for city workers.




Several people have seen these posters, and again I have received a mixed reaction. As always the designers can understand and appreciate the movie concept although they are not alone as others, although it may take a little longer also “get it”. When showing my mum, doctors in the making and future economists, they just couldn’t grasp why I had turned a W side ways, but to my sister it was glaringly “obvious”, when clearly it wasn’t as obvious as I thought. These two examples have certainly made me more aware of a huge problem facing a designer. Now more and more we are trying to be clever in our designs, but it seems we are beginning to design work, perhaps not realising it, but for our fellow designers, rather than the people we are aiming for, a balance we need to regain before non-designers are completely left out the loop.