Ford Rear View Camera

The ad campaign below for Ford's rear view camera is very eye-catching. This campaign was created by JWT Mexico and features the Edge, Lobo, and Explorer and was included in the November/December 2012 issue of Communication Arts.  Even without reading the text, I suspected that the subject matter was a rear view camera.  Especially with the image of the dog laying on the driveway and the kid playing soccer, both common situations that may easily be missed in a driveway, especially with using only the vehicle's mirrors.  The middle image with the lady and her groceries had me a bit confused and might make more sense if there were other cars parked in the parking lot (like she was walking to her car).  The circular design of the image of the vehicles projects motion, almost like Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four.  The ads definitely caught my attention, however, I'm not sure why the text was so small.  I almost think it would have been more clear if the text was larger and spread across the entire bottom edge of the image.  Especially since each one is a different vehicle, it would highlight the vehicle model itself as well as the new feature.

 

Rivet Gallery

I recently browsed through a magazine called Hi-Fructose, looking for some blog inspiration. The images are very unique and there was some wild and unusual artwork.  The magazine contains a lot of ads for art gallery shows, so I pulled up some of the art gallery websites to see if they were as artistic as the art they display.  Surprisingly, they were not.  Most of the sites I viewed were very basic and seemed dated in terms of style.  I was really expecting more bold and interactive sites, but had trouble finding them.  Finally, there was a site that caught my attention, although it pales in comparison to the artwork displayed throughout the magazine.  The site is for the Rivet Designer Toy & Art Gallery.  The logo was very interesting and forms the upper left-hand cell of a lightly bordered table.  The other thing that caught my attention was the fact that the social networking links (in the form of app-like buttons) were above the website's navigation bar, all in the same color as the logo.  This almost draws your attention away from the site information below and may be a dated style.

Sans Cursive

The poster below entitled, "Sans Cursive," was designed by Cristina Vanko, student at Indiana University.  The poster was created for a campaign to support retaining cursive handwriting in the educational curriculum, as printed in issue #53 of CMYK.  The chalkboard backgrounds and white-chalk lettering represents the elementary classroom.  The bright pink color as the tips of the erasers brings attention to the piece and highlights key information.  It is also interesting that the artist uses several different styles of cursive script, some are thick lines, some are thin.  Some of the cursive lettering is very elaborate and decorative, other lettering is simple and clean, like the letters learned in school.  I really like the lower left-hand box because of the lines with dashes, just like elementary school writing paper.  Then, it states that "cursive will be replaced by the key" with the last three words as letters on a keyboard.  Very good use of imagery.  The poster is clearly a call to action.  The action words in the lower right-hand box are all in cursive, emphasizing the writing style.  I also liked how the artist included the pencils in the lower middle box as if someone just finished writing on the board.

Kohl's - Food Packaging

The following packaging design included in CMYK's issue #53 is very interesting.  The design was created by students of the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA for Kohl's Retail Store.  I was really drawn to the simple boxes with an almost chalky, powdery white color.  The lettering has a plain, but classic look, which makes the full-color images stand out even more.  The trick with this design is that the product images are not the product.  The images represent things you can make with the products.  When I first saw these boxes, I thought they were food products, not appliances.  Images of food, naturally draws your attention, especially when you are hungry.  The text is very simple and plain - telling you what is in the box, without embellishment - simply a convection oven, electric knife, etc.  However, the images of the food really draw you in and make you want to take notice and read more about it.  As a consumer, however, I would still want to see an image of the product itself before I bought it, maybe the image is on the back of the box.  Regardless, I thought this was a very interesting design that would definitely stand out on the shelf.

Box-Shadow Feature - Naomi Atkinson Design

The January 2011 issue of Practical Web Design featured the website below as an example of shadow effect features in CSS3, particularly the box-shadow and text-shadow features.  Although the site has changed a bit since this article, there are some very interesting features. There is no traditional navigation bar.  The work samples, about us information, and the contact us information is all on the home page.  All of this information is static, except for the work samples.  You can scroll down to access the about us and contact information, however, the work samples section is interactive in a very unique way.  The work samples section has left and right arrows that scroll a separate window built into the home page.  You can scroll left or right for examples of designs, which is only a portion of the entire design.  If you like a design, you can click the "Show More" button at the bottom to expand.  Although this design is simple and self-contained, there is a lot of scrolling just to access information.

One Trick Pony - Blueberry Contest

This website was featured in the January 2011 issue of Practical Web Design.  The site was featured because of its mobile functionality.  The article explains how the advertising and branding agency, One Trick Pony, hosts a blueberry pie eating contest each year, partly for self-promotion.  The company is located in Hammonton, New Jersey, which is known as the blueberry capital of the world.  The site caught my attention because of the realistic graphics of the field, the sign, and the ribbon.  However, I was in for quite a surprise when I accessed the site because it is full of catchy music and visual interest. By moving your mouse to the right (no clicking necessary), the entire screen scrolls to reveal a long line of pie-eating contestants in various costumes and poses.  Next to each person is a star that expands and contracts when you hover to choose your favorite.  The site is very stimulating and very funny.  It was a little glitchy at times, for example, I was not able to easily go back to the screen scrolling after clicking on a contestant to read more about them.  Also, sometimes when I accessed the site, it did not load completely, although the music continued to play.  The site is sound friendly so when you are tired of hearing the music, you can click the sound button.  Instead of shutting off abruptly, it gently fades into silence.  Very interesting!

Science Museum of Virginia

In the November/December issue of Communications Arts, the image below was one of the winners of the 53rd Annual Advertising Competition.  The image was created by the Siddall ad agency in Richmond, VA.  The image is so striking in its realism.  Not only do you feel like you are viewing a child on the beach, but, even against all reason, it appears very common sense to believe that a person could actually lift up the water like a blanket and peer underneath.  The child's shadow behind her gives it a realistic feel along with the motion of the waves.  At the top of the wave lifted into the air, it appears that the water is cascading down from its highest point.  The image speaks about curiosity and imagination.  The text at the bottom, "Question your world" is so small, it's almost a whisper, like a secret or mystery.  The action of the child holding up the water is large and center in frame and the very small and faint buildings in the background emphasize the closeness of the action to the viewer.  In fact, you almost feel like if you look close enough, you can see under the water to discover what's underneath.

Responsive is where it's at!

Looking around the internet gathering ideas, I stumbled on a site that I have visited before but I think it's been years. Web Designer Depot has regular posts and articles regarding web design.  They posted an article today that is a compilation of 10 jaw dropping responsive landing pages. The very first site that they list is a portfolio site of Stephen Caver. He is a web designer and it shows. His landing page is very bold and uses some really great tricks in it's design. I love the background of what looks similar to a brushed steel. It shows through huge transparent bold text and when the browser is resized it looks great while in motion. The blocks at the bottom scale with the resize and when you get to phone dimensions, the nav bar converts to blocks that would be easy enough to touch on your smart phone touch screen. The design is clean and relatively simple looking until you scroll down. Take a look!