Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
MY FONT Analysis
****
FONT cont...
She may not be Die Neue Haas Grotesk, but she's mine and she's lovely enough.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
VISUAL COMM DESIGN PRESENTATION
Friday, September 18, 2009
Who is smashLAB?
"smashLAB is an interaction design firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia, founded in 2000 by Eric Karjaluoto and Eric Shelkie. The firm originally offered a wide range of design services, from identity to advertising. Now it focuses on interactive strategy. smashLAB has received industry recognition and awards from groups including the Advertising & Design Club of Canada, Lotus Awards, Graphis, and STEP Inside Design, particularly for their self-initiated projects."
smashLAB: our creative comes from within
YIKES!!!
For me, the biggest irony here is that the design team's own ads are the ones that simply don't meet any marketable standard - other than maybe the sniggering, middle school types. But how much can 13-year-old boys really spend on advertising? These guys took cutting edge and turned it into cutting the cheese.
Oh jeez, and all this time I thought Canadians were so mild mannered and conservative, aye.
******
While I can guess their aim was to be oulandishly imaginative and shockingly posh, all this campaign has done for me - aside from producing a tiny titter of my own, is disappoint. Once the shock wears off, something slightly unbelieveable sets in like, "is this for real??" This team has some brilliant fits and starts, but they seem to lack direction, cohesion and any semblance of marketability. The noise in my head keeps asking, "Who would hire these bozos?"
I get it that they are creative. I even love their tagline, "Our creative comes from within." (A little too literal in the 3rd ad) But from a marketablility standpoint they prove to be too juvenille to hire for even the simplest job. With these ads, the message they convey - whether intentional or otherwise - is that their best efforts equate to boogers and snot, sickening vomit, semen and poopy-turds.
For me, they just don't make that rainbow connection.
Tinactin: Root out disgusting Fungi
I was so excited when I found these! They grab your attention and make you ask, "What on earth are these ads for??!!" A good sign in the ad world. But then you look closer at the little blue unfolded medicine box in the corner and disappointment sets in...
this is an ad for Tinactin, all that imagination wasted on foot fungus.
While on some sort of visceral level I enjoy - or maybe even relish - the boldness involved in this ad campaign, for me, it doesn't actually work. It doesn't meet the standard necessary for me to have a psycho motor response, and therefore the ads do not motivate - nor anyone else I imagine.
*I would like to mention at this point that I've never had foot fungus*
For me, the failing occurs primarily on a cognitive level. While I love the slipper/rat thing, it does not connect me to foot fungus. Neither do the hairball on the mat "shoes" in the second ad... or is it swirly poop? I'm not sure - which is another failing. What is the gross stuff the shoes are made of? And who gets foot fungus at their front door? I don't know, but once again, the psychological vectors at work here don't point me to what little I know about foot fungus.
Now, the only details I do know about foot fungus are from the commercials I've seen other agencies do, and my own knowledge that a mushroom is a sort of fungus. In ads that work, I've seen damp and sweaty places with bare feet and little dancing flames between the toes with itchy scratchy "bad guys" running riot and posing as fungusy things or nasty biting-burning athletes foot. I understand that, but these ads miss the mark. This inconsistency created a noise in me that was at first difficult to identify. I was bothered by the ads, but as Eric said, "I didn't know why." It took awhile, but I finally figured out that the pictures simply didn't represent my preconceived notion of what a foot fungus is or does.
That said, I love the textures and contrasts involved in these ads. The stiff and bristly fur of the dead rats contrasting with their their delicate little pink fingers. EEW!
The welcome mat was a lovely touch, but I thought that ad was for some sort of hairball tonic for cats. Maybe I'm missing an obvious irony... I don't know (because I missed it). I did love the little movie that played in my head about the poor guy that had to lace those shoes, threading the laces through all that icky muck.
I loved the cool and simple logo and branding placed pertly in the corner. As catchy as these ads are, I was disappointed to learn what they were supposed to be for. This negated any affective response in me. My insides said, "WHAT??!! Foot Fungus? No..."
The slightly worn and creased blanket was even perfect. I don't think I've ever been on a sleepover to an Aunt, Uncle's or cousin's house where that kind of blanket wasn't on the bed. Its a Grandma or Grandpa blanket, both comforting in its familiarity and uncomfortable because it is too worn and has too many holes in it to provide sufficient warmth. An interesting juxtaposition.
Like everyone else, we have that same blanket in our home. Oddly enough and now that I think about it, we only use the blanket when we have company too. It is the comfortingly uncomfortable insufficient universal sleepover blanket.
The ads work, but not. I love them, but they should not have been for foot fungus.
PRO DOGS against dung
Analysis: Eventhough it's more poop, this one works! But its late, I'm going to bed. I'll have to tell you later...
Monday, August 31, 2009
NEW SEMESTER!!
I will be posting for both Visual Communication (4020) and Integrated Oral Presentations (3560).
This should be interesting...
It's good to be back.
Angie
Monday, April 27, 2009
Best of the Semester
I emailed this information yesterday to Eric on the blog.
Don Shelline's "Car Salesman's Got Da Blues" shot #4 is my pick.
It is a brilliant shot!
Whether or not Don meant to tell the story of these car dealerships closing, this one shot is perfect!
The angle of his blue man, almost leaning forward to grasp at you and beg or pressure you to buy. Everyone understands that. I could go on and on. This shot is so good. So simple, so telling and complete all "buy" itself.
"Enchanted Way" was my personal pic. By shooting tight, I was able to use the compression to capture that dirty ugly lane. I might be wrong, but I don't think it needs a caption. I like it.
Photojournalism Phinal
1. Should newspapers show us violent images from Iraq?
Newspapers should absolutely show the truth of what is really happening in our world, regardless of what it looks like.
As a journalist, I feel that my job is less about being your filter for the world – deciding what you can and cannot see or experience – and more about facilitating the story unfolding before me… whatever that story looks like. As I see it – and as I have been taught - anything less is editorializing, not journalism.
If meaning truly is in people (the receiver) then it would be up to the individual to decide the “violent-ness” of the images and/or their appropriateness. As a photojournalist, I am not responsible for your management of the message, nor should I be. If I do get in there and try and manipulate the story to that end, I am acting as noise. I am interrupting or impeding the truth of whatever story is unfolding. In that capacity I am seizing power over you and acting as another filter that restricts what is possible for you to experience as the truth, as your truth. Neither I, nor anyone else, should be given the power over you to decide what your truth will be.
I would much rather stand by as you winced while looking at honest pictures of what really happened than to pat your hand and say, “Oh dear, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you should have to deal with that. I decided (for your sake) that you shouldn’t be exposed to that. Let me hide that from you, it is just too unpalatable.”
I do not want that kind of power over (the universal) you, and I resent you when under the guise of “the greater good” you claim that power over me. Allow me the freedom to choose for myself what my experiences will be, and I will allow you the same courtesy. Lay bare the truth of what happened, and I will gleefully accept the responsibility of making the sense of it for myself.
And if you don’t like the pictures I take for the newspaper because you judge them to be too violent or graphic or in poor taste, then buy a different paper and we will agree to disagree. You have a mom, and I’m not her.
2. Should the photographer and editor be two separate people?
Yes! They should always be two separate people.
One of the most difficult things about this class is choosing which shots to post. I am steeped in the context of whatever I am shooting and usually unable to see the story (or lack of it) in any handful of my shots.
An independent third party, or editor, will be a fresh mind with a fresh perspective. He/she will be able to see the story more clearly because they are not married to the experience.
3. Given the power and contrast of black and white images, what argument is made that readers prefer color?
Kobre makes the argument that color is how we see the world and color is what we are used to. According to a study done by researchers and the Poynter Institute Color Project, readers prefer color and think that color photos are more realistic.
Personally, I seldom notice the difference. Variations of chrominance and luminance all have their unique purpose and merit. The question is, “did you find it?”
To me, each photograph just is, and in looking at someone else’s work, the artist has either found the photo’s potential or they have missed it. For whatever reason, each shot is supposed to be either in color… or black and white, and somewhere inside my heart, I just know.
This sounds hokey, but when I am working with my own photos, I feel more as if “the shot” already exists; it is simply my job to find it or uncover its truth. Whether it is inside the soul of my camera body or later on in Photoshop, I can almost hear the shot urging me, a little impatiently, as I learn. The end result – in those rare instances when I find it – is a satisfaction I’ve never known and seems to belong to some entity other than myself.
It is impossible to explain. What I can tell you about the experience is that when I find the voice of the photograph, the “it” that it is supposed to be, I just know. It resonates within me, and I can breathe again.
I don’t know how to pass that on to you as something besides a nebulous bit of fluff, but if you’ve been in that place where you find the soul of a photo, you will absolutely know what I’m talking about.
4. Discuss the photojournalistic ethics of honesty, decency and relevance.
What I found most interesting – or perhaps most disturbing – is the evolution/devolution of ethics in photojournalism: Why was staging a shot acceptable 30 years ago? Why is staging so taboo now?
The actions haven’t changed.
Have the people?
I see on TV, The Character Project. Twenty or so famous photographers were hired to capture “American Characters” on film, and during the commercial you can obviously see them staging some of their shots.
Is this the same behavior?
I remember our discussion in class about decency and relevance. We talked about the almost pornographic aspect of photos today, the gruesomeness and gore that is pervading our experience. We talked about the graphic photos that are leaping beyond a simply hideous shock value and into the realm of absolute disgustingness.
I struggle with this one. I don’t believe in censorship, and I do believe in the right to choose for myself. At the same time I weep for the depravity of our ‘civil’-ization. Where did decency go? Is it necessary to show in full blown graphic detail, the spilled innards of the latest auto fatality?
Maybe not. Probably not.
But… don’t take away my right to choose. And if I choose poorly and trip down the road of dishonesty, indecency or even irrelevancy, I take full responsibility for that choice. I will also continue to afford you the same courtesy.
Once we begin to act as censors, given enough time, we will rationalize anything… and bit by bit we will have given up everything. It is a place where one act of censorship is too many, and all of them no longer seem to be enough.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Enchanted Way...
This refuse rests on the cusp of a gulley. Much of the accumulated filth and garbage has fallen into it. Rain water and spring runoff wash down the hill behind it, through the collection of rusted out junk, and into a tiny valley or draw.Hundreds of people drive past this every day and still it persists...
The beauty of our fellows...
.JPG)
