Archive for September, 2009
September 15th, 2009
by Nick Cliffe
Want to own a piece of original art by the current enfants terribles of British Art, Jake and Dinos Chapman for £4.95? Then make haste to Liberty’s in London this week and buy a copy of AnOther Magazine’s Decade in Style Issue. Apparently each person buying a copy of the magazine from Liberty will be entered into a prize draw to win one of 5 banknotes illustrated by the Chapmans. And you get 5p change from a fiver for your fiver.
I like this cheeky little promotion. It’s a genuine chance to own a bit of the Chapman’s art without having the bank balance of Charles Saatchi. These naughty notes bear all the trademarks of the Chapman’s subversive wit (complete with Goya references) without living with the full horror of a Chapman installation in your front room.
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Tags: Artist, Bike, Brand, British Art, Charles Saatchi, controversial, Damien Hirst, Design, enfants terribles, Gavin Turk, Goya, Grayson Perry, illustrated, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Lance Armstrong, prize draw, promotion, Royal College of Art, Tate Modern, Tour de France, Trek
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September 14th, 2009
by Stuart Clark
I have a guilty secret. I am now, and have been for the last 5 years, a fully paid up member of the Pet Shop Boys fan club. I am, as my 2006 fanclub t-shirt states, a Pethead. And this book is one of my most treasured possessions.
Catalogue is exactly that: a definitive, visual retrospective cataloguing everything my favourite band have ever done. Literally EVERYTHING…
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Tags: Architecture Design, Art, Artwork & Print Production, Award-Winning Marketing and Design, Bruce Weber, Derek Jarman, Digital Design Agency, Direct Marketing Agency, Eric Watson, Es Devlin, format, Graphic Design, Interactive Design Agency, Mark Farrow, Pennie Smith, Pet Shop Boys, Photography, pop music, Sam Taylor-Wood, Typography, Wolfgang Tillmans, Zaha Hadid
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September 12th, 2009
by Julian Gratton
Exhibiting until January 2010 at the Manchester Art Gallery is a fabulous collection of Prints by the Spanish Painter and Printmaker, Francisco de Goya. Regarded as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the Moderns, Goya’s works combines his own extraordinary imagination together with a superb wit and quite a lot of satire… and some bizarreness.
But this is not just any exhibition of Goya’s work. What the Manchester Art Gallery has gathered together for us is a superb collection of Prints that were withdrawn from public viewing during his lifetime… largely due to how controversial they were perceived to be by the ruling class.
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Tags: Advertising Agency Blog, Art & Design, Award-Winning Advertising Agency, Direct Marketing Agency, Disasters of War, Francisco de Goya, Historical Illustration, Interactive Marketing & Design, Manchester Art Gallery, Marketing Agency Blog, Prints, The Fantasies, The Follies, The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters
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September 10th, 2009
by Julian Gratton
I like handy guides… especially ones that stay with you for years because of how incredibly useful they are. One such guide is Alan Rosenspan’s 101 ways to improve your response, which quite frankly borders on being invaluable!
In the guide, which you can download here, Mr Rosenspan shares with us little tips that prompt people to respond to Direct Marketing communications… thus increasing the effectiveness of marketing spend.
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Tags: Alan Rosenspan, Digital Response Agency, Direct Mail, Direct Marketing, Direct Marketing Best Practice, Direct Marketing that gets results, Direct Response, Direct Response Advertising, Effective Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Full Service Marketing Communications, Improve Response Rates, Internet Marketing and Advertising
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September 8th, 2009
by Julian Gratton
QR Codes. Great little invention… bloody boring to look at though. Well not any more thanks to the Tokyo based agency SET who have found a way to make these two dimensional barcodes visually more interesting.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with QR Codes. A QR Code (The QR standing for Quick Response) is a Japanese invention that was initially used for tracking vehicle parts in vehicle manufacturing. They are common in japan and with the rise in popularity in smart phones on these shores… we’re beginning to see a lot of them in adverts and magazines.
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Tags: Adidas, Art, Design, Designer QR Codes, Digital Media, Direct Response Advertising, Graphic Design, Interactive Agency, Interactive Design, Internet Marketing, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Marketing Innovations, Mobile Phone Advertising, Mobile Phone Marketing, QR Codes
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September 7th, 2009
by Julian Gratton
As I get older I’m finding my memory is starting to let me down. I rack my brain for hours on end, trying to remember things I used to be able to recall in a moment. It’s got to the point where I need to carry some form of notation equipment around with me everywhere… either a notepad and pen or my trusty iPhone for typing notes or recording voice memos.
Having lots of life experiences and memories is essential to becoming a great Creative. In my working life I have used memories from my childhood in adverts as well as experiences told to me by friends or colleagues in copy I have written or ideas I have concepted. Trouble is, as you get older the more you have to remember. And the more you have to remember, the more you find your brain lets you down.
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Tags: Advertising Concepts, B2B Marketing, B2C Marketing, Concepting, Creative Thinking, Digital Design and Marketing Thinking, Direct Marketing Agency, E-Memory, Effective Marketing Communications, Gordon Bell, Internet Advertising and Creative Thinking, Lifestream Backup, Marketing Services, MyLifeBits, Relationship Marketing and Creative Thinking, Strategic Marketing Thinking, Total Recall
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September 7th, 2009
by Julian Gratton
Shoes. Quite possibly the thing that women love the most. Which could quite possibly mean that Manolo Blahník has pleasured more women than any other man on Earth! For those of you who do not know the man who says that his shoes are not fashion… they are gestures… then pick up this week’s book in reception and discover the wonders that this man has created to grace the feet of wealthy women the world over.
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Tags: Design, fashion, Fashion Design, Illustration, Manolo Blahník Drawings, Manolo Shoes, Shoe Designer
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September 5th, 2009
by Jennie Ambrose
If someone said to me that I can use my phone to help me with my typography… I’d have assumed they were referring to the ability to call up a friend who was a typographer or who has a great deal of experience in crafting type.
What they’d really mean is that I could download the Typography App for the IPhone, which has has several useful features and resources for designers, including a visual type anatomy glossary, a font size ruler, an em calculator, and enough content to fill a 60-page book.
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Tags: Crafting Type, Design, Design Tool, Graphic Design, iPhone, Typography, Typography App
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Posted by
Liz Birchenough
September 1st, 2009
by Liz Birchenough
Behind the coffee addiction is a girl who came from a school of graphic design whose’ ethos was all based around creative thinking and the idea. The book I have chosen for this week’s book in reception was a staple must have from the courses reading list. I graduated in 2004 and it is still a firm favourite of mine today.
I’ve chosen ‘A Smile in the Mind’ as it’s about something I feel is very important within design and that is the use of wit and ideas when coming up with solutions. It is also a good read that gives many examples without going into too much detail which makes it a very good book that you can just pick up, have a look through, put down and come back to. It’s accessible to people who don’t work in the creative industries, is a great starting point for anyone wanting to find out more and is a great source of inspiration for those already working within the industry.
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Tags: A Smile in the Mind, Creative Thinking, Creativity, Design, Edward de Bono, Graphic Design, Intelligent Design
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