Oxjam

"Whatever you're into, Oxjam is your chance to fight poverty with music". I think this is a great campaign that Oxfam have come up with; it was set up in 2006 and since then has raised over £1 million to help fight poverty around the world! I think that when charities branch out like this and expand their opportunities for raising money, it makes the charity much more appealing, especially to a younger market. After these gigs as well it is likely that people who attended will develop brand loyalty and donate their unwanted clothes to Oxfam rather than other charity shops. It's all about brand awareness! Especially when the aim is helping a good cause!

The Toyota IQ Typeface

'Happiness Brussels' wanted to create an original ad campaign for the compact Toyota for Europe - the Toyota IQ. They had the idea of designing a typeface that the car would create itself by driving the shape of the letters and numbers. They hired a professional race pilot called Stef van Campenhoudt to do the driving, and 2 typographers from the agency "Please Let Me Design" to create the shapes made by the car into a typeface. Pretty unique idea! You can see a 'making of' video by clicking here.

Bourbon Flyers

Again, during Freshers' Fair, I came across these A5 flyers for Bourbon bar in Leeds city centre. For those that have been to Bourbon, you will agree with me that it's really not the most stylish of places (although we love it for it's fantastic Tuesday nights of great music and very cheap drinks!)

However, I think these flyers really are quite stylish. Black is often used in excess to try and make things seem sleek and classy, and I know that in class we have been advised against it by the lecturers in some cases in our design projects. But I think Bourbon has done a good job and the simplistic logos on the front of the flyers, varying in colour depending on the night of the week work really well and give Bourbon a slick image. So even if people don't keep going back to Bourbon for it's stylishness, I think the leaflets will encourage to them to go there for that reason initially!

Freshers' Fair and Free Condoms

Like most Leeds students, last week I visited the Freshers' Fair with hope of bagging some decent freebies. There are loads of different freebies that companies give out at the Freshers' Fair, most commonly pens, keyrings, flyers, sweets, and this year - condoms in huge abundance!

I must have counted about 10 condoms given to me by different companies, and it's great that so many are concerned about students and safe sex, especially the nightclubs that are also encouraging crazy nights with lots of cheap alcoholic drinks on offer (we all know where that can lead)! 2 condoms caught my eye especially though: one which was in a silver coloured light metal case (by condom essential wear), and another in a G.I. Jonny packet!

G.I. Jonny is part of a 2 month campaign by the BBC to inform the British population about the rising number of HIV cases in the UK, and the packet features the picture of an action man model - who we can only assume is G.I. Jonny, whose tagline is "To inform and protect". I think it's quite an effective way of getting information across, as the shape and size of the packet makes it clear that there is a Durex condom inside, so people will want to pick it up to get the free condom. To get access to it though one needs to open up the packet , and when opened the inside reveals information and facts about HIV. G.I. Jonny also has a website where one can create their own G.I. and watch sketches of him in action etc.

I think the silver condom case by Condom Essential Wear is more about having something stylish yet inconspicuous, and by keeping condoms in a case like that may make people feel that having and using condoms is stylish too.

2 different ways of encouraging safe sex, yet completely different approaches.

Fame!

I've just come back from seeing "Fame" at the cinema, and one thing I noticed at least 3 times on different items of clothing worn by the characters was the product placement of "Lacoste"! This isn't usually something I pick up on very often when at the movies so either they did a pretty good job for Lacoste, or all things advertising / marketing are on my mind at the moment due to this blog and the deadline looming!

CBS Outdoor - Digital Advertising and the London Underground

I think I am at an age now where I am really starting to notice the constant developments that are occurring in technology. I remember when my parents told me stories like "I remember the first time I watched a TV programme on a colour TV - it was amazing!" I feel like I am beginning to store up stories like this myself now; having grown up through the huge developments that have been made by mobile phones, portable music players, computers - that it fascinates me to wonder what sort of thing will be around in 10 years if this is how far we've come since 10 years ago.

Living only a short train ride away from central London, I am very familiar with the London Underground and the advertising situations that are present in the stations: up and down the escalator walls, on the sides of the corridors, on the trains, on the walls across the tracks. There is a lot of waiting involved when traveling on the tube, whether it be waiting to get to the bottom of the escalator, waiting for the train to arrive, waiting for one's stop whilst traveling on the tube or waiting to get to the top of the escalator in order to exit the station upon arrival, so you can imagine that advertisements placed in tube stations are observed by thousands, and welcomed to help pass the time during the wait. In fact, according to CBS Outdoor, 87% of commuters welcome Tube advertising - more so than any other form of advertising (TV: 26%, roadside 6s: 37%) The London Commuter Research 2005.

If that many people welcome static advertising i.e. posters, banners etc, imagine how many people welcome it now that much of it is becoming digital! It was only a matter of time really, until this happened, and I'm sure it was envisaged and expected by a huge amount of people, but still it is a big change when something you are you used to - in this case Underground static advertising - makes a big step in development. Last time I was on the Tube, I didn't see people just glancing at the adverts, but rather staring at them, addicted to the moving images on the screens as people now are so used to digital pictures and entertainment in so many aspects of their lives: television, mobile phones, computers, iPods, games consoles - the list goes on.

As commendable a step in the technological world this is, it still makes me a little sad, and makes me wonder if in future years still images just won't be enough for people anymore. There's so many fantastic pieces of static advertising out there, really clever stuff that doesn't need moving images to make it effective. Posters and banners also save a lot of electricity which is something these advertising companies should probably be thinking about, but I guess that digital advertising saves the trees so it's hard to know who to root for. Anyway I'm it's only another matter of time until we'll be able to watch TV on the Tube screens, or interact with them somehow, but what will be after that? The future is an exciting and scary thing and I guess we just have to enjoy the ride!

Love Food Hate Waste

Lovefoodhatewaste.com is a web campaign that exists to, well, the name says it all really! The website provides tips on saving money when buying food, where to store certain goods so that they last longer, and tips on how to use up leftovers into tasty meals instead of throwing them away.

I saw an A4 advertisement for the site in a magazine whilst I was in the waiting room at the dentist, and I thought it was really cleverly and humorously done. Things like recycling, energy

saving etc are all things that are difficult to encourage people to do; it is hard to know, too, from which angle to approach the issues from. The guilt angle might work on some people but people don't like feeling guilty, especially if the issue is not completely their fault, so in many cases people just try to forget about the issue and then it seems like it has gone away and they don't need to worry about it anymore. The 'do your bit to help' angle might work a bit better but people are so used to that kind of message that it is as easy to ignore as the next.

Love Food Hate Waste takes an interesting approach to the problem of food waste in which the campaign says 'Whatever food you love, we can help you waste less and save upto £50 a month'. This way people feel like the site is made to help them, whereas by taking the site's advice, they are actually helping it too!

Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising

On a visit to London yesterday I decided to take a trip to a couple of museums I have never been to before, one of which was the Brand Museum in Notting Hill. I actually found out about it as I saw a picture from the museum's website on Nat Dodd's blog - thanks Nat! So I decided to investigate further as I had never heard of the museum, and it turns out that its incredible collection was right up my street.

I have always found the development of packaging design through history fascinating, and I spent a wonderful morning revelling in designs from the past, that went as far back as the 1800s. On arrival at the museum I thought the collection was going to be tiny, as one can only see into the first room; the ceilings are quite low and we are unaware that the museum has a lot more space than it appears to have. The collection is in fact very well laid out: above the doorways there are signs that inform you what decade you are about to walk through, and the window displays are arranged categorically eg. toys, games, food packaging, clothing etc. Most also each have their own little plaque, explaining and describing the contents from the era.

One of the highlights for me was speaking to a couple of elderly women who were also looking round the museum. Where the visit for me was more educational, their's was truly full of nostalgia and it must have been amazing for them seeing so many things in the museum that they were familiar with, whether they were from their childhood, their children's childhood or their grandchildren's childhood. I wonder of the concept of the museum seemed in any way strange to them; the items there are not amazing artefacts, rather just everyday items, however when seen all together next to their past and future selves they suddenly seem to become pieces of art, and one looks at something like a Frosties cereal packet in a completely different way.

I guess I got to experience a fraction of what those women felt, too, as there was a small section from the 90s! It was fun to see how things had changed, even if some things only slightly, and also to remember things that are not now popular or are no longer made. It also made me wonder what things will be in there once this decade is over, things that we love as they are to us now very modern, but in twenty years or so will be loved and marvelled over for the complete opposite reason.

Even though I took many photos at the museum, the staff there made it very clear that the photos are to be for personal use only, so unfortunately I can't post any on here. However if anyone wants too see them once back at uni I'll be more than happy to show them! This museum is well worth a visit from both design and historical points of view, and is good value for students - only £3.50. You can view the website here.

Another Example of Volkswagen Efficiency

These are 2 of the new poster ads for Volkswagen, bearing the tagline: "Another example of Volkwagen efficiency". I really like the concept for these ads and I think they are very effective; not only do they underline how and why Volkswagen's new technologies are efficient through the copy, but the design plays by these rules too. The ad is made more time efficient to read as the main point is made by high-lighting specific words, which spell out a sentence on their own. I also like the fact that there is more than one design for this concept; highlighting of words in one, and crossing out words in another. The posters are also efficient in other ways e.g. use only of type, no images (bar the VW and BlueMotion logos), use of one typeface and colour for the main copy, and use only of 2 colours overall (again bar the logos).

Sound of Music - Central Station Antwerp (Belgium)

This performance was done as a publicity stunt in Antwerp Station, Belgium, on March 23, 2009, for a Belgian tv programme that was looking for the leading role of 'Maria' for the musical "The Sound of Music". Apparently it only took 2 rehearsals to get the stunt looking like this! I think it's a fantastic form of guerilla advertising; as viewers we do not know who is going to join the dance next! Even most of the people who look like they don't know what's going turn out to be dancers, and get up and join in when it's time for them to participate. It's very musicalesque in style which does great justice to its purpose, much more so than would advertising posters or tv ads. I love that there's involvement from such a wide selection of people as well, gives a real sense of together-ness. And then when the dance is done everything just carries on exactly as if nothing had happened. The sort of thing that gives you goose-pimples really. Brilliant!