Saturday, April 4, 2009

Your turn #9

For the subscription of Adbusters here (it's a little more expensive than I thought: $38, still a good deal).

16 comments:

scolbert said...

Ad Busters is a great publication. I was able to learn more about it in an international advertising class I took last year. Ad busters is a part of "culture jamming" or the individualistic turning away from all forms of herd mentality – including that of social movements. Culture jammers poke fun at the uniformity of popular culture and commercialism usually with guerilla tactics and amazing art work. This McDonalds “Big Mack Attack spoof is great. I love the implementation of the logo in the heart monitor reading. http://www.adbusters.org/node/672
Recently, the "blackspot campaign" which is a line of un-branded shoes with a white circle where the logo would normally be. This campaign promotes an earth friendly shoe made in a comfortable working environment and defies the multinational Nike Corporation’s brand idolatry and sweatshop production methods. Some other culture jamming orgs and artists are:

Billboard Liberation Front
Banksy
The Bubble Project
Whirl Mart
Stay Free!

Victoria S. said...

Ad Busters seems both tongue-in-cheek and socially aware. It is a publication that sees the evils of a capitalist/consumerist society and searches to change it. I love the image of the tattoed baby being breast fed by its mother. It is as if we are all born with the idea of logos ingrained into our skin permanently. Coca Cola, Miss Sixty...the names follow us around for the rest of our lives. Seeing this on a baby is sad, it makes us wonder if we're missing out on life by focusing on the importance of brands and branding. I think it's great that Adbusters advocates events like TV turnoff week, because they encourage society to go back to the basics. What would happen if we didn't watch TV for seven whole days? I guess I would just read a lot, but even that is like another version of television. It seems that today's society needs to always be occupied with some kind of media, otherwise we'll just implode. I like that Adbusters is making us aware of our need for media consumption. If it doesn't make us actually change our habits, at least it makes us think about how they may be negatively affecting us.

Annika said...

Of all of the posts uploaded since our last class meeting, I absolutely loved the one about Ad Busters. All of their pieces are both poignant and cleverly done as to keep the viewer's attention and remain in their minds long after seeing them. The image with the baby covered in other logos made me think strongly of the Entertainment Weekly cover from years ago with the Dixie Chicks naked with political messages written on their bodies, after their "scandal" regarding the war. Upon looking at that image again, the two are quite different but obviously means something by remaining in my mind for such a long period of time. On the other hand, the works by eBOY really don't do anything for me. They too are bright, busy and detailed... but in an excessive way. They look like a video game gone horribly wrong; instead of using their busy scenes to draw in the viewer, I simply lose interest in studying each section of the image. There's something to be said for the simple way in which Ad Busters creates images that are highly detailed and get their message across but without being visually overwhelming.

Ryan Eckert said...

Last class when we started talking about the Adbusters publication, I went to check it out in class. At just that first glance of the site, I liked what I saw. They have past magazine issues up for viewing; # 82 Endgame Strategies is the most current. I flipped through the magazine and noticed that it is dedicated to inform people about political and social causes. The issues discussed are presented in an anti-consumerist theme.
Also on the site is a social marketing campaign section. S Colbert mentioned the "blackspot campaign" in her post, one of the recent campaigns. There is another that caught my eye, the Buy Nothing Day (November 28). This campaign consists of different ideas to “opt out of consumer culture completely” for 24 hours. Over 65 countries celebrate and hold events to help convince others to join in the day of no purchasing. They have even made vouchers and cards to give out during Christmas.

Lauren Santa Cruz said...

Well, I also thought Ad Busters is a great publication and was very intrigued by the work shown on the website here and on their website as well. Because everyone seems to be commenting on Ad Busters though, I chose to go with Milton Glaser instead. He was a very interesting person to research and I have always really liked his Bob Dylan design which was why I chose to comment on him. While researching I found out that he was also the man to design the I heart NY slogan which is so simple but yet so popular. I see this design everywhere I go and it is now applied to other cities and thing apart from NY. The fact that a design has had so much impact on a general level of society is very interesting. His designs are also very relevant to the subject matter. For instance the Bob Dylan design where dylan's hair is painted with psychedelic colors and song lyrics. He also has parodys on designs such as the Ipod ad campaign where he replaces a dancing silhouette with an Iraqi prisoner of war. Overall very creative and smart design.

Anonymous said...

I’ve been thinking about what was said in class last Thursday. About the purpose that logo’s have fulfilled in the past, their creation in the present, and where they might be headed in the future.
I agree that logo recognition seems more difficult now than ever before. Everyday I open a magazine, see an ad in the newspaper or a poster on a wall, commercial on tv, trailer in a movie theatre, or brand at the mall, displaying a new logo I was previously unaware of. I try to remember as many as I can, but after a while, some of the ones that don’t catch my eye, or I don’t see enough of, begin to fade and are eventually forgotten. Credit must be given where credit is due, there are some new logo’s that arise that are modern, attention grabbing, and successful in the sense that the masses can easily recognize them and say what company it corresponds to.
I feel that currently you cannot have a recognizable mass media oriented business without an accompanying logo. Whether it is a graphic image, type, or combination of the two. I’m not sure what turn logo’s will take in the future but I have a feeling that its going to continue being a struggle of “survival of the fittest”, and that redesign of unsuccessful or “outdated” designs will continue to take place (Pepsi’s latest take on their logo for example.)

Unknown said...

I think the Ad Buster posters are great. I heard of them once before and I think the concept is very interesting. I love the baby with all the logos and the just do it posters on the website. I think these kinds of posters are great ways to get messages across to people about different concerns and causes. I also was very interested in eBOY’s work. I love the 3 dimensional cartoonish feel. These are definitely pictures you can get lost in. You feel like you are actually in the poster when looking at. I checked out some other pictures from the EBOYs and absolutely loved the picture of the Oscars this year that was in LA times magazine. The pictures almost seems like the sims but even better.
Below is the picture from outside the Oscars

http://www.puddleofred.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/eboy-oscars-1024x414.png

Kara D said...

I really liked George Lois' Esquire magazine covers. I love that they're highly conceptual without being overly complicated in form. He takes an idea and uses it as a launching point to create simple but unexpected imagery. Many of the covers are photo-driven, and they've all got the same style to them. A lot of the covers are cheeky (to use Lois' own words) but his design style lends itself to more serious and sad content as well. His 1965 cover of Virna Lisi shaving her face and his 1971 cover on Joe Banonno are examples of the spectrum of reactions his design style and concepts can invoke. You can look at two covers and know that the same man created them both. That's a huge compliment to him because he designed so many covers and they deal with such a wide range of topics from pop art to college students dealing with police enforcement to scathing commentary on the Vietnam war. I think partly what draws me to his designs is that I'm beginning to put my BFA show together, and the end result will be similar to Lois' technique in that it will be photo-driven, conceptual design. My project will focus on typography rather than people, but the process will be similar. I can only hope that my end result is as cohesive as his cover works are.

Nicole Severi said...

Johnathan Barnbrook's work was really interesting to me, especially his work with fonts, because I find typography fascinating. I really like that one piece with all the different fonts arranged around the page, going in different directions. I know that for basic design principles, it is usually best to stick to no more than maybe two fonts and they have to compliment each other well so the ad/logo/design isn't confusing. I much prefer, however, mixing types like Barnbrook does. It gives pieces more of a art slant than a corporate, boring, advertisement slant.

His website is amazing, especially the Virusfonts page. It shows all of his fonts and each individual character, much more detail than I've ever seen from a designer's webpage.

I also really liked his environmental design, especially the billboards. They were really inventive, because they're non-commercial. They almost remind me of those PostSecret postcards people send in, very collage-esque. I'd love to see one in person, because you don't normally see art for the sake of art in that form.

Tia said...

I like many of my classmates enjoyed the posters by Ad Busters. I think these pieces are quite clever and truly display and mock the way in which things are advertised today. Immediately when I saw these posters I thought of the artist Banksy. Bansky's artwork is fabulous, creative, and so unexpected. He is able to produce these huge pieces of art on random buildings all throughout the world displaying powerful and meaningful messages. He has even been able to sneak his pieces into museums and post them on the museum walls amongst other great pieces of work.

Ad busters send such a powerful message against consumer markets and capitalism. Although, they are sending a message against the various companies, it can still be seen as advertisement as these logo are quite recognizable and people will automatically think of the company, which in itself is advertisement whether good or bad. The image of the baby covered in logos is by far my favorite. It shows how we are subjected to advertisements and various marketing tactics from birth and how they can immediately become an influence in our lives.

pais said...

i agree as well. It seems that adbusters is a popular favorite amongst the class.
i am particulary interested in TV turnoff week and the black friday day of non shopping. i think it is ironic that they hold it on the most shopped day of the year.
TV turnoff week is coming up, and i think that i am going to participate in it.
the baby with the logos all over its body is genious. It really speaks to me, especially babies born in todays time . It seems that the world is mainly focussed on consumerism. There is a nonstop flow of images that hit childrens eyes every second of their lives, subconsciously effecting them and consciously as well. It is nice to see a change in opinion, one that actually opposes a capitalist/consumerist society.
I am defintaly going to subscribe to this magazine- I AM SOLD ON IT!
they should pay triff to be a spokesperson.

Magdalena said...
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Magdalena said...
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Magdalena said...

I really like the work made by Wieslaw Walkuski. I'm from Poland and honestly before I started being interested in graphics and being in the field I didn't really know much about the design in Poland. I love how his posters are really strong, the images are clear and you know what is he trying to say sometimes easily and sometimes after giving it a little bit of thought. I did a presentation in my typography class about another Polish poster designer Tomaszewski. His work is really interesting, however you need to know a little bit about Polish history to understand what is he trying to present. Some of his greatest work is about the political party who's leader was Lech Walesa, one of Polish presidents. He ended the communism in Poland so he was a pretty big deal for our country;-). I ecourage you guys to look up his work. It's realy great.

Taylor Palmer said...

Jonathan Ellery’s book designs are fascinating and inspirational. His style celebrates the principles of design in their most simplistic form, sometimes using a single black dot to create a compellingly bold visual. By stripping the complexity of design down to the bare minimum while still holding true to the integrity of line, form, color, etc. exposes an enticingly raw image. Looking through his line of books, there were times I thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?” but perhaps that’s the most engaging (and brilliant) aspect about his work.

Unknown said...

Of all of the pieces you've uploaded to the blog in the past few weeks, I've LOVED the Ad Busters the most. The photograph of the baby with the tattoos is very reminiscent of advertisements created by Oliviero Toscani for United Colors of Benneton so many years ago. While studying abroad in Florence last year, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Toscani and learning about his thought process on how such risque and thought-provoking advertisements are created. He is a photographer by nature but also a designer in the way he sets up the lighting in his shots, the emotions on the faces of his subjects, and the blatant and sometimes shocking subject matter to advertise for a company who's clothes tend to be colorful, yet somewhat bland. His advertisements, like Ad Busters, can be considered guerilla advertising. The work of creative people such as the people who put together Ad Busters and Mr. Toscani keep the advertising world interesting.

http://www.olivierotoscanistudio.com/