Earlier today I was flicking through the News of the World Sunday magazine Fabulous and came across four advertisements for various products that stood out to me for a number of reasons. I’ve included the adverts with a little analysis as to why I was drawn to each image.

I can only apologise for the quality of the images. Trying to scan a flimsy magazine page is without getting the print from the other side showing through is no easy task.

All original images copyright their respective creators.

Ribena

This advert looks as though it was painstakingly made by hand (which it probably wasn’t), and the way the designers have constructed the product from items the product itself is made from is very clever. Recently I’ve developed an interest in typography created from real-life objects as oppose to computer graphics and I feel this image is a reflection of that style.

Elastoplast

I love the photo manipulation on this one. This advertisement visually demonstrates with great effect Elastoplast’s new range of plasters that include skin-healing cream (even if the ‘cream’ does look a little like ”Mr Whippy’ icecream).

Uncle Bens

This advert is my personal favourite because of it’s simplicity and bold colour. Using 5 grains of rice to symbolise a thumbs-up is genius. I’d like to imagine the idea coming from the designer spilling rice and having a ‘eureka’ moment.

Cathedral City

Again, this advert caught my eye due to the simplistic style of the illustration. Using the cute little cheese-grater as a jail cell to illustrate low fat cheese being ‘a crime against taste’ is quite clever

What do you think? Which was your favourite and why? Have you come across a stylish, eye-catching advert recently? Leave a comment and let me know.

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Inspired by my recent post regarding a series of book covers based on famous films, I decided to jump in and give it a go myself.

Since I’m still reeling from the excitement of ‘Inception’ I decided this would be the subject matter for my designs. And since I’m fond of the classic Penguin Books style of books covers, this was my theme. Sorted.

Hopefully the illustration should make sense, particularly to those who’ve seen the film or at least a trailer. In keeping with the stand out element of the city curling in on itself from the trailer and posters, I decided to focus on this for the illustration, but opted to go for a retro, simplistic style, which was common for many Penguin published books from years gone by.

The above design is obviously very similar but I’ve instead opted to use the character Cobb’s dradel as the illustrative element, which is used in the film as a ‘totem’ (a unique object, the exact properties of which only the owner and sole handler knows, which they use upon awakening to ensure they are actually awake and not still within somebody else’s dream).

Any thoughts, opinions, or critiques are welcome so feel free to leave a comment. You can also view these on Flickr and comment that way

I may create more in this style as a series in future since it’s great fun so be sure to grab my RSS feed or follow me on twitter to stay up to date.

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I’ll admit, I’m a little slow posting these (over a year too slow it would seem) but great designs are great designs, regardless of age, so I’m bringing them to light again.

Flickr user spacesick has created a number of quaint, retro-inspired book covers based on several famous films. The “I can read movies” flickr set features novelizations of Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and Batman Returns to name but a few, all of which use simplistic, recognisable elements from the films in question to illustrate the cover.

If you’ve seen the film then the cover illustrations should make sense to you. If not, just enjoy the cool, retro designs.

It’s well worth checking out spacesick’s blog too.

What do you think of these? Perhaps you know of similar projects? Or maybe you’ve created something in the same vein? Be sure to leave a comment and let me know!

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If you haven’t seen the new Christopher Nolan film ‘Inception’, do so immediately. This isn’t a blog about films and their content, so I won’t go into detail about the plot or the production values, or anything like that. Just know this; It’s absolutely outstanding!

The following collection of ‘Inception’ poster designs really capture the essence of the film, without explaining anything specific about the storyline. They capture your attention and imagination like all good film posters should, and the lack of explanation peaks your curiosity.

If you’ve seen the film, I’d love to hear your opinions on it via the comments section at the end of this post. Or if you’re here as a designer to just check out the posters, let me know your opinions on them.

All images Copyright Warner Brothers (I think).

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Client: Self Promotional

Description: A redesign of the cover for ‘The Virus Has Been Spread’, a tribute album to Atari Teenage Riot. Released by underground/experimental electronica record label D-Trash Records, the album features covers of ATR songs by various artists on the D-Trash label.

The Virus Has Been Spread album page.

Stock Image Link

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The tissue manufacturer Kleenex are running a design competition in the UK, giving 3 lucky winners the opportunity to have their designs printed and used on the packaging for Kleenex’s collection cube. The overall winner will also receive an Apple iPad!

Entry to the competition is exclusively via the Kleenex Facebook page, and as the entries are selected for a short list via a voting system by Facebook users, it seems to me that the winners are likely to be those who have the most Facebook friends and can drum up the most publicity via their extended network.

Many of the entries are simply stock images or copyrighted imagery, so it’s possible that actual design talent MIGHT be able to shine through. The final date for entry is 31st October 2010, but if you’re entering, get your entry in ASAP!

If you’ve entered the competition, or know of anyone that is, be sure to leave a comment below letting me know.

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When it comes to design, less is most definitely more. And save for text on a plain background, you can’t get much simpler than a photograph and some type.

This collection of album covers features artwork from albums by a range of musicians, all of which have eye-catching, simple photography as the basis for the design.

Naturally, it’s likely that the majority of these have all been through some kind of post-production image-adjustment, but they all retain the minimalistic style of using the photography as the main focus of the design, with no additional elements added afterwards (at least to my knowledge).

If you like this, be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed to stay upto date with new posts.

All images Copyright their respective owners.

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On Monday 21st June 2010, the legendary Mancunian comedian Chris Sievey sadly lost his battle with cancer, aged 54.

Chris was best known for his iconic and much-loved character ‘Frank Sidebottom’, an aspiring pop star who never let his (many) failures get him down. Through his work, performances and TV appearances, Chris put Frank’s home town of Timperley on the map.

Despite his many years in the business and his popularity with people of all ages, Chris died practically penniless and was sadly facing a state-funded “pauper’s funeral”. However, thanks to his generous fans and supporters, funds were raised in excess of £21,000 which ensured both Chris and Frank got the send-off they deserved.

This illustration is my way of honouring a Manchester legend, who will sadly be missed by all.

RIP Chris Sievey | 25th August 1955 – 21st June 2010

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Client: Self Promotional

Description: An illustration based on the popular and possibly over-used style of creating 3D typography. Created in Cinema 4D with additional effects added in Photoshop.

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Personally, I often find it hard to come up with an idea for a design to help keep my creative juices flowing and my portfolio up to date. Over the last few days I’ve been brainstorming ways to come up with my own design briefs that are not only going to help me gain content for my portfolio, but also give me experience of trying new techniques or areas of design.

Here are my suggestions. I’d love to hear of ways that help you to keep creatively active via a quick and easy comment at the end.

Keep a Sketchbook

This is a no brainer really but I’ve listed it anyway because it’s fundamental. Any designer who doesn’t keep a sketchbook or at least some way of scribbling down ideas or notes is surely doomed to fail. Inspiration has a habit of striking when you’re least expecting it so be sure to have one to hand to make a note or quick sketch of that idea before it’s lost in the recesses of your mind. Going back and looking over your random doodles or sketches at a later date can often jump start fresh ideas that you can expand on and work into a finished idea.

Rebrand a famous company

How would you have designed the now infamous ‘Google’ logo if it had been you that were tasked with branding this little known company back in the day? Would you have gone for the mis-matched colour scheme? Which typeface would you have used? See what you can come up with.

Redesign poorly designed content

How many times have you looked at a generic-looking flyer that’s dropped through your letterbox advertising a company, a local restaurant or takeaway for example? Now how many times have you thought to yourself “I could do better than that!”? Maybe you should. Perhaps you could even offer the finished design as a template to be sold via your site or modified to fit someone’s needs, for a small fee of course.

Work for a non-profit organisation

Approaching a local charity organisation with an offer to lend your expertise will more than likely see you helping out in some form or another. Whilst it’s likely in this day and age that they will have a website online, they are unlikely to have the funds available to pay a web professional to create a slick, modern and valid site, hence the likelihood that it will look like it’s been written in html using notepad with none-CSS ‘hard-coded’ styling.

If you’re a web designer, perhaps offer to design a simple, yet impressive site than can easily be modified and expanded by someone who knows what they’re doing.

Working with charities is fantastic as it allows you to help others, whilst doing something that can also benefit you. Plus you never know who else will be working with the charity, or which contacts you will make. Be sure to carry a few business cards with you just in case.

Work through tutorials

This is probably one of the best ways to kick-start inspiration. Working through tutorials created by other designers helps you to keep up to date with the current design trends and learn the techniques to create pieces in that style. Of course, don’t follow them step for step, setting for setting. Allow your own creativity to take over and lead the artistic direction of the piece you’re creating. Take a look at the Computer Arts website for fantastic downloadable design and illustration tutorials.

Recreate pieces from a famous artist

This is a technique that has been used by several famous artists, and allows you to pay homage to someone you admire in the highest possible form, whilst at the same time demonstrating your personal style and artistic ability. Salvador Dali painted the classic ‘Temptation of St Anthony‘ in 1946 which was emulated many years later by Peter Goodfellow for his illustration ‘Parson Nathaniel‘ that featured inside the CD booklet for Jeff Wayne’s musical interpretation of ‘The War of the Worlds’.

Temptation of St Anthony’ | Copyright Salvador Dali
‘Parson Nathaniel’ | Copyright Peter Goodfellow (Courtesy of…)

Recreate your earlier designs

As the current design trends change and you gain experience, you’ll find that many of your older designs will be replaced by more current and interesting pieces to prevent your portfolio becoming outdated. Instead of letting these pieces simply sit dormant on your web server, why not breathe new life into them by recreating them in a fresh, new style? To reference Dali again, he recreated his classic ‘The Persistence of Memory‘ in the form of ‘The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory‘, which is effectively the same image, but re-imagined in an almost cubist style.

‘The Persistence of Memory’ & ‘Disintegration of The Persistence of Memory’ | Copyright Salvador Dali

Create Modern Day Equivalents

Why not take a now unused concept and re-imagine it for the modern day? Take for example classic WWII propaganda posters that were designed to sway civilians opinions of the enemy and provide advice on what to do in emergency situations. Nowadays, ‘public service’ posters generally tend to warn you about eating too much salt or contracting chlamydia, but imagine posters were still used as one of the primary forms of providing important and invaluable information or striking fear into the population, as opposed to TV broadcasts and websites. What would these posters look like when created with contemporary techniques in a modern style?

Alex Varanese recently used a similar concept to create several vintage advertisements for modern day gadgets as though they were invented in 1977. Take a look at these, they’re spectacular.

Listen to Music

This is a technique I’m particularly fond of. Pop on some headphones, turn it up to 11  and listen to some of your favourite music in your own little world. Get away from things, zone out and let your imagination run free. It’s amazing how music can affect your emotion, especially if that particular song is personal to you. Listen to the lyrics and the emotion in the music. What images do they conjure up in your head? Jot them down and expand on them.

Try something new

Perhaps THE best way to increase your skills, portfolio and experience is to try something new. Step out of your comfort zone and push yourself to expand. Experiment with new, different or lesser known software packages. Instead of creating 3D typography in a 3D software package, why not attempt to create it in real life from cardboard, paper, random objects and photograph it? Maybe it will grow into a whole typeface that you can use solely for your own work? Perhaps create a poster as a giant card stencil that can be held up to a wall and spray-painted over to create a lasting (literally) effect? Try new ideas, experiment, and above all, HAVE FUN!

Have you used any of these techniques? Will you be trying them out?  Do you have a trick that helps you overcome a creative block? Be sure to let us know with a comment!

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