Creative Review articles from August 2004

Creative Review archives from August 2004

Delighted to be a designer.(Editorial)
August 1, 2004... You may recall that, last month, we featured a project by LCC graduating students called Process. As part of it, the typography group asked friends and family what they thought graphic designers did. The results are revealing. Most equated...

Zyman right and wrong.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... Re: the Sergio Zyman article [Advertising Doesn't Work, July], is he right or wrong? The answer is, of course, yes. Yes he's right most advertising doesn't work. Yes he's wrong as to why it doesn't work. As chief marketing officer for...

But why was it in CR?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... I found it slightly ironic to read Zyman's article in CR because, in some ways, your publication is almost the embodiment of commercial creativity for creativity's sake rather than commerce. The bottom line is that the Cannes awards are for...

And his book's boring.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... Zyman opens with that tired cliche of the Emperor's New Clothes and the diatribe goes smartly downhill from there. His main argument appears to be this: I'm the only arbiter of what works and what doesn't so how dare an agency disagree with me?...

But the article's great.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... Zyman's piece was by far the finest article I have read for a while. Not only did he discuss issues that no-one else dares tackle, he also supports his statements with concrete evidence. Budweiser's Wassup campaign not working: I didn't know...

Just don't say New Coke.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... While Mr Zyman does manage to compliment himself on his brilliance, the excerpt fails to mention that Mr Zyman was the father of New Coke--a hugely public, colossal failure of a new product launch, rivalled only by the Ford Edsel. So I guess...

Corrections.(Editorial/Letters)(Correction Notice)
August 1, 2004... Corrections: AKQA have asked us to point out that on p36 in CR July, while the copy is accurate in that AKQA produced the microsite for Nike at nikefootball.com/uk/, the actual web address and screenshots published are not their work but are...

The Gate brochure.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 1&2 THE GATE BROCHURE The Gate is a new arts centre opening in a refurbished, listed church in Cardiff. Amongst its facilites is a gallery space, sculpture wet-rooms and a small theatre. Design firm Departures were commissioned to produce...

CD packaging: u_nderscore by d_rradio.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 3 CD PACKAGING: U_NDERSCORE BY D_RRADIO. This sleeve for electronica act d_rradio's debut album underscore is the first print project by newly-formed design studio, Ian&I, which comprises the talents of former NB:Studio designer Ian Pierce...

Autograf book.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 4&5 AUTOGRAF BOOK Autograf; New York City's Graffiti Writers is a new book by photographer Peter Sutherland displaying a series of his portraits of NY graffiti artists. Due to the nature of graffiti, most of the artists included obscure...

Star Production logo.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 6 STAR PRODUCTION LOGO Star Production are a new London-based production company that specialise in fashion and advertising. The idea, explains Suburbia's Lee Swillingham, "was to design a logo around 80s science fiction and video games,...

Doppleganger.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 7 DOPPLEGANGER Australian photographer Tim Richardson approached Zoe at Melbourne-based Wishart Design to produce this high gloss, machine stitched booklet to show off images he shot specially for a project inspired by, according to the...

CD packaging: the Lovely by Mara Carlyle.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 8&9 CD PACKAGING: THE LOVELY BY MARA CARLYLE Duo Non-Format bare designed this black and white packaging for the debut album of singer and rising star, Mara Carlyle. Readers of Non-Format art directed magazine The Wire will recognise the...

Kunstuff magazine.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 10&11 KUNSTUFF MAGAZINE Established quarterly Danish art, craft and design magazine, Dansk Kunsthandvaerk, appointed A2 Graphics/SW/HK to reinvent the title and to undertake art direction duties for a two-year period. A2 have introduced a...

Grand Central Studios identity.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 12-14 GRAND CENTRAL STUDIOS IDENTITY Derek Samuel's D.design has created this identity for London's Grand Central Studios who specialise in sound for TV, cinema and radio commercials. The identity and its application cleverly takes the...

Diesel campaign.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 1 DIESEL CAMPAIGN Diesel delves into the subconscious with a new campaign comprising print and short films from animators, artists, filmmakers, musicians and illustrators across the world. The multi-faceted project will be screened on...

VW Golf print campaign.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 2&3 VW GOLF PRINT CAMPAIGN Tongue-in-cheek reactions to the serious technology available in the new VW Golf is the subject of a print campaign from DDB New Zealand. Ads feature drivers (and their pets) being spooked by features such as air...

Mum promo.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 4 MUM PROMO Studio AKA director Marc Craste has shot his first promo--for Icelandic band Mum. The video, to track Will the Summer Make Good for All of Our Sins, is a dark and disturbing affair. A huge bloated body floats through a variety...

The Designers Republic Nuno Filipe promo.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 5 THE DESIGNERS REPUBLIC NUNO FILIPE PROMO Madeira-born multi-instrumentalist musician Nuno Filipe has just released track Julia from the album Nowhere. Its promo, by The Designers Republic, was created as one long, linear image, using...

Clarks commercials.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 6&7 CLARKS COMMERCIALS More sterling work for Clarks Kids from St Luke's. Exploring strapline "For every kid there's a shoe that fits", spots feature quirky kids Hula-Hooping incessantly, miserably failing to do football tricks and...

Stella Artois print campaign.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 8&9 STELLA ARTOIS PRINT CAMPAIGN Lowe's new international press campaign for Stella Artois highlights various details about the beer from its heritage and provenance through to ingredients and even how it's served--apparently there is a...

Fowler family for Kia.(First Sight)(Pete Fowler)
August 1, 2004... Illustrator Pete Fowler brings his distinctive style to bear on the first nationwide ad campaign for Kia cars, launched this month. Fowler has created a set of seven characters which will feature in commercials and press ads through Mustoe's....

Design against despotism.(First Sight)
August 1, 2004... Can designers change the world? Zvakwana (meaning "enough is enough") is an underground, pro-democracy pressure group in Zimbabwe bent on encouraging its people to rise up and fight for freedom of expression against the repressive Mugabe...

Antidote the cure for Lancet.(First Sight)
August 1, 2004... When communications agency Antidote was commissioned to redesign noted medical journal, The Lancet, the brief was multi-faceted. Not only did the journal need a face-lift, but Antidote was also tasked with redesigning its website and specialist...

One to watch: Damien Poulain.(First Sight)
August 1, 2004... "You never know what's going to happen tomorrow or the day after," muses illustrator/designer Damien Poulain who approaches work with a refreshingly open mind. "I try not to think too much about the future, I just see what's in front of me,"...

I was the monkey man: animal trainer Nicholas Toth tells Gavin Lucas about his role working with the chimpanzees in the Portman Group's anti-binge drinking drunken monkey ads.(First Sight)(Interview)
August 1, 2004... CR: What's your job title/profession? NT: President and head trainer/coordinator of Cougar Hill Ranch Inc, a company my father started in 1970. CR: How did you get interested in animal training? NT: I was born and raised into...

This is showcase, produced in association with VGL. Each month we explore a different theme bringing you the latest and best work produced in that area from around the world. This month's theme is food and drink.
August 1, 2004... 1. Belu is a not-to-profit water brand: all net revenue will go to fund water projects worldwide. Packaging by Lewis Moberly features a glass bottle with a graphic of a spring on the back so that it sits behind the logo when viewed from the...

Advertising does work: in last month's CR, Sergio Zyman accused the ad industry of wasting clients' time and money. In response, Caspar Thykier enlists the great Bill Bernbach to help make the creative case.
August 1, 2004... SERGIO ZYMAN'S PIECE was undoubtedly positively polarising. Like good advertising I'm left in no doubt as to whether I subscribe to his brand of thinking or not. In my humble opinion, if this defines a "marketing guru" incur industry today,...

A decade of decadence: the authoritarian society of Singapore turned four ex-military policemen into rebel designers. Mark Sinclair meets Phunk Studio.
August 1, 2004... SINGAPORE HAS A SMALL population: At 4.3 million people it's little more than half the size of London. An island, a country and a city all in one, since independence in 1965, Singapore has developed into one of the world's most prosperous...

Graphics [discuss] 01. What is design for? In the first of a series of debates tackling major issues in graphic design, CR editor Patrick Burgoyne asked leading design critic and writer Rick Poynor and Pentagram New York partner Michael Bierut, what is design for? This is an edited transcript of their discussion.
August 1, 2004... PATRICK BURGOYNE I'd like to start by asking you both for a definition of graphic design and to outline what you think is wrong, and right, with graphic design today. RICK POYNOR This, for me, sums the whole thing up, it dates from 1960...

Poster boys: screenprinted, hand-crafted concert posters by aesthetic apparatus provide a welcome antidote to the slick marketing operations of today's music industry.
August 1, 2004... OUR DREAM CLIENT," says Dan Ibarra, one half of Minneapolis-based design duo Aesthetic Apparatus, "would be someone who could commission us to do poster work." "Yeah," agrees AA's other half Michael Byzewski, "some individually wealthy dude...

Content & contact: when is an ad not an ad? A new category at the Clios reveals the ever more complex art of communication.
August 1, 2004... DESPITE WHAT SERGIO Zyman may have claimed in last month's CR (see p40) TV commercials and press and poster ads are no longer the only creative weapons wielded by the modern ad agency. Traditional media form but part of the mix in a marketing...

Star gazing: in a celebrity-obsessed culture, it's no surprise that brands should seek to exploit stardom, but you have to follow the rules.
August 1, 2004... ACCORDING TO SPECIAL analyses of the research databases of Millward Brown, mruk and HPI, campaigns featuring celebrities are no more nor less likely to be successful than those which use any other creative technique such as humour, side-by-side...

Seen including reviews: Paula Carson visits Beijing for the lomographic world congress Mark Sinclair reports back from the Cannes lions plus: pick of the month book reviews.
August 1, 2004... LOMO, LOMO, LOMO, LOMO Camera in hand, Paula Carson gets to grips with Lemography in China The story goes that in the early 1980s, Russian arms and optical factory LOMO (Leningradskoye Optiko-Mekhanicheskoye Ob'edinyeniye) developed a...

Remember the first time?
August 1, 2004... Another year, another Cannes. Mark Sinclair wonders what it's ell about Queuing up for the DDB agency party, held on the beach in front of the Martinez hotel, I noticed a group of people who didn't seem to be part of the shambolic line of...

LCC/autograph ABP student bursary.(Competition Corner)(London College of Communication)(Association of Black Photographers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... The London College of Communication and Autograph ABP (Association of Black Photographers) have formed an alliance to address low numbers of non-white students on photography degree courses. They have created a three-year programme to allow a...

YCN.(Competition Corner)(Young Creatives Network )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Young Creatives Network is helping the charity ENCAMS, who are behind the Keep Britain Tidy campaign to organise a summer competition for creatives. The challenge is to inject some personality into the classic Tidyman character and is open to...

Nokia shorts.(Competition Corner)
August 1, 2004... Could you make a 15-second short film suitable for playing on mobile devices? All entries will be viewed by a panel of film experts, who will select ten finalists which will be screened at this year's Raindance Film Festival in October and...

Estings.(Competition Corner)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Once again, E4 and Creative Review are offering readers the chance to get their work on air. All you have to do is create a six-to-ten second sting for E4. The winner will receive a commission from E4 to make a series of stings with a budget of...

TBS campaign.(Pick Of The Month)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... FROM PUBLICIS, NEW YORK Good work from the excellent Jim Jenkins and this year's Cannes Palme D'Or winner, Hungry Man, for US comedy channel, TBS. Proclaiming itself the authority on all things funny, spots feature random members of the...

Apartheid Museum campaign.(Pick Of The Month)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... TBWA\GAVIN\REDDY, SOUTH AFRICA Great way to stir up publicity for things, banning them--certainly that's the case for a recent campaign for the Apartheid Museum in South Africa. A series of ads feature people of different ethnicity...

Marmalade subscription form.(Pick Of The Month)
August 1, 2004... FROM TBWA/HOTBED PUBLISHING Subscription mailings are the bane of every publisher's life so it's always encouraging to see someone take a fresh, engaging approach to a perennial problem. Creative microzine Marmalade asks potential...

Transformers video.(Pick Of The Month)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... FROM MARK WILENKIN There's something timelessly cool about Transformers--Hasbro's "Robots in disguise" that took the world, or at least anyone under the age of 14, by storm in the early 80s. We used a Jenny van Sommers photo of Soundwave...

Equanimity.(Pick Of The Month)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... FROM CHRIS LEVINE/JERSEY HEIRTAGE TRUST This, the first ever holographic royal portrait, was commissioned by the Jersey Heritage Trust to commemorate 800 years of the island's loyalty to the Crown. Chris Levine, the pioneer in laser and...

www.questfortherest.com.(Hollywood Records albums campaign through the website)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... FROM AMANITA DESIGN/HOLLYWOOD RECORDS Remember the Polyphonic Spree? Weirdo American band whose umpteen members wore robes like some kind of freaky cult? They were all the rage for about three weeks last summer but were then ditched by...

Velvet campaign.(Fallon contracts for the campaign of tissue papers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... FROM FALLON, LONDON Toilet paper--the advertising brief from hell. If it's not a puppy, or a horribly twee bear, it's freakish housewives obsessed with softness: all about as pleasant as the scratchy, shiny stuff you used to get at school....

Mark Sinclair Takes His Pick Of Art And Design Books Published In The last month.
August 1, 2004... PROFILE: PENTAGRAM DESIGN Phaidon, 35 [pounds sterling] Since its inception in 1972. Pentagram has published six books about its own work. This volume. however, looks at each of the firm's partners and is more a study of the distinct...

Gallery.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Design studio Aesthetic Apparatus (see pages 50-52) are enthusiastic contributors to the burgeoning US gig poster scene. But as well as posters for the likes of the Boggs, The Rapture, Stereolab, A-Frames, TV On The Radio and many more, the...

Clio Gold 2004.
August 1, 2004... Jury Chair Statements EXECUTIVE TV & RADIO JURY CHAIRMAN Bob Isherwood Worldwide Creative Director Saatchi & Saatchi New York, New York What may surprise some about the Clio results this year is that there was a...