Brand’s brain-wash

Fortunately or unfortunately, the brands are part of our life and, even more, are set in our brain in an almost alarming way. We are able to identify more logos than featured works of art and to sing more jingles than songs that have sold thousands of albums around the world. Advertising is almost universal, timeless and, in some cases, when that advertising gets old, it becomes “art” (see Coca-Cola or Pepsi vintage posters).
Don’t you believe it? Well let’s do a test, how many brands can you  identify in the following pictures?

By the way is an initiative of Dorothy, a design studio in New York.

Creative challenge completed: the non traditional solution for a traditional print media

Sonera express the speed concept of its 4G technology through a mobile game in a traditional and static media. Great!
Agency: DDBHelsinky

The art of logo design, tips and tricks

We are back from our short vacation in Vienna with a very interesting video about how to design successful logos. Enjoy it!

Don’t give up, beginner! Inspiring visual advices for new creative professionals

More than once I cursed myself for not having another profession, “I should have been an accountant”, “Had to studied philosophy” “Must become a plumber” (and make a lot of money).  What? Impossible! I had to dedicate my youth to a profession in which a simple comment can strike down your motivation and mark you for life. All creative professionals remember a heartless teacher or a senseless criticism and  despite all, here we are! We can’t imagine ourselves in the shoes of any other professional, we love what we do and we don’t give up!

This is a message to all students and trainees: you are not as bad as they say, and not as good as you think. You can survive and, sometimes, even have fun! The secret? work, work work and work, and, after that, keep on working! And if even then you have “one of those days”, take a break, refresh your ideas and reinforce your motivation with these inspiring and beautiful posters.

NOTE: If you are not a beginner, you will surely encourage yourself too, life’s also hard out there…

The ten commandments of creativity

Even if you are an experienced creative, sometimes it’s good to look back and remember these sacred rules that all  trainees know by heart. Recall will give a bit of fresh air to your ideas and get you out of a mechanical method of work. I love going over and over again my books from college and challenge myself, looking for different creative techniques. I would say that, almost always, this helps me when I’m blank.

1. Stay engaged with the objectives

2. Open your mind, use the five senses

3. Separate the creation phase of the evaluation

4. Avoid the spoilers of ideas, surround yourself with a proactive team

5. Use sketches

6. Bring the product to the limit: do not stop picking up new ideas even if you have found a good one

7. Mistakes are good, can lead you to better ideas

8. The quantity (of ideas) leads to quality

9. Develop your sense of humor

10. When the brainstorming is finished do not test the ideas immediately, keep a safe distance, more objective.

Top 10 best slogans ever

Do these slogans sound familiar to you?

#10

#9

#8

#7

#6

#5

#4

#3

#2

#1

IKEA does Banksy

A few months ago, during the Fashion Week in Milan, IKEA launched a very interesting ad campaign. Ikea decided to sabotage its own posters around the city in the purest Banksy graffiti style. This is just an example of how, in advertising, something damaging can turn into an opportunity, and even we like it or not, Ikea has known how to take advantage of it.

That’s how they did it:

Banksy used the Ikea topic in one of his works. The graffiti shows a punk teenager reading the instructions to assembly a “Large Graffiti Slogan.”

This makes me think about the first Banksy’s film Exit through the gift shop, and the recommendation he gave to Thierry Guetta: “do some art”. Sometimes, this is a dangerous advice, but all’s fair in capitalism and advertising, isn’t it, Banksy?

Related articles:

• New Banksy artwork critiques London Olympics, perhaps(lostateminor.com)
• London’s latest Banksy: graffiti artist’s new work gets protection(thisislondon.co.uk)
• Banksy Jubilee graffiti springs up overnight on London street(telegraph.co.uk)
• Recreating iconic Banksy images as photos (boingboing.net)
• Banksy artwork destroyed by Melbourne builder (telegraph.co.uk)
• Guess What? Not All Street Art is Banksy (laist.com)
• ‘You Are Not Banksy’ photo series recreates Banksy’s satirical street art in real-life (deathandtaxesmag.com)
• Review: Banksy by Will Ellsworth-Jones (guardian.co.uk)
• Want a Banksy Temporary Tattoo? Here You Go (bellasugar.com)
• Banksy va alle Olimpiadi, con due nuovi graffiti (Cooked News)