Kids Company by AMV.BBDO. Art direction/ design: Paul Cohen. Copywriter: Mark Fairbanks. Photography: Thom Atkinson
The unscrupulous among the advertising community have often tended to look upon charity accounts less as an opportunity to help those in need and more as a chance to help themselves. Is a more mature approach emerging?
Charity campaigns have often been taken on with the express intention of winning awards and, in order to do so, many have resorted to crude tactics. In the mid-90s when outrage over ‘shock advertising’ was at its peak, some of the worst offenders were for small charities many of which, miraculously, were never heard from before or since.
But perhaps there is something of a more mature approach emerging. Take, for example, recent print campaigns by This Is Real Art for Reprieve and AMV.BBDO’s new campaign for Camilla Batmanghelidjh’s Kids Company plus, from slightly further back, CHI’s Prince’s Trust work and BBH’s Barnardo’s campaign from last year.
Reprieve by This is Real Art. Art director/copywriter: Paul Belford
BBH for Barnardo’s from 2007. Creatives: Nick Gill and Mark Reddy. Photographer: Kiran Master
The first thing that occurs with these campaigns is the amount of copy used. It’s not so long ago that we were all bemoaning the death of long copy in advertising. And yet all four campaigns use lengthy, discursive texts to make their case: in Kidsco, the copy runs to nearly 400 words. The style is conversational.
Copy from KidsCo ad above
All four campaigns go for a factual, documentary style of layout, aping editorial or, in the case of Reprieve, the visual language of bureaucracy. The use of typewriter fonts in Kidsco (Letter Gothic Medium) and Reprieve reinforces the documentary feel.
Reprieve ad copy
Headlines have a similarly editorial look, even working with standfirsts in the typical language of a magazine spread, while the photography studiously avoids sensationalism, particularly Kiran Master’s shots for Barnardo’s. The Reprieve campaign even obscures its shocking imagery, letting our imaginations do the work.
The art directors for KidsCo (Paul Cohen) and for Reprieve and Prince’s Trust (Paul Belford) are noted for a more considered approach - one that seeks to reject the tired formulae of typical advertising art direction (big picture, punning headline etc).
These campaigns attempt to engage with the mind more than the heartstrings, patiently arguing a reasoned case instead of lurching into a stop-them-in-their tracks visual assault. It’s a welcome change.
Prince’s Trust by Clemmow Hornby Inge, 2007. Art director: Paul Belford. Copywriter: Nigel Roberts. Photography: Adam Hinton.
1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
Through this module I have developed skills in design for print and production for print, identifying problems and producing solutions to problems. I learned how to prepare digital images and documents for printing, how to pick varies stock and differences between different printing methods within the industry. I believe I applied my new learned knowledge for print effectively for my solutions, however there are still room for improvement and I would like to develop these skills further.
2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
I have used both primary and secondary research sources to support my investigation, eventually I found that it became more important to find my own approach to my subject matter in order to carry out effective research. I used questionnaires and interviews as my main source of primary investigation, in order to find out which console people miss the most and why people feel nostalgic about video games, I interviewed people who has collections of retro games and consoles and photographed their collection as well as set out specific questions in my questionnaires.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I believe my concept and execution of the final product demonstrates my strength within this module. I set out to categorise my research and profile my findings in an information graphics format, creating a concept to be executed through a range of different media but all within print which was simple and direct.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
I have not been consistent with my time management which has let myself down during the end of the module when I found difficult to carry out printing jobs for my products, leaving things till the last minute has caused me to rush some parts of the project where it could’ve done with more attention. I also need to work on my skills to document my thought process effective when working with digital media.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
• Set a focus and restrictions for the visual investigation • Exhaust as much possibilities as I can within the set investigation with the time given • Identify areas where effective outcome was produced • Better time management • In-depth research • Generate more ideas • Develop solutions further
Air Lines is an art project showing worldwide airliner routes. Every single scheduled flight on any given day is reresented by a fine line from it's point of origin to it's port of destination. Thereby forming a net of thousands of lines. Hubs like JFK, FRA or DXB turn into dark knots where lines meet, lesser served local services are only are a subtle hint.
Details on the Maldive Islands
Australia, showing every route from Outback Piper service to the SYD-MEL racetrack
(Digital samples, actual print quality& printing details may vary)
While I was definitely not a fan of Pixar’s Cars, this I like. Artist Vladimir Nikolic has taken photographs of cars, along with self portraits of himself mimicking the emotions and expressions of the automobiles. The series is called Autoportraits, and could be a handy exercise for animators and illustrators who need to find ways to inject life into inanimate objects on a regular basis.
It’s been a while since we posted up some fresh-looking musical packages and what with everyone talking about “renewing value in music releases” we thought now was a good time to show a few things that have caught our eye recently for one reason or another…
Actually, the 12″ record sleeve is plain white with a central hole. But pull out the enclosed record to find a 12″ square, 12-layer screenprint, signed and numbered by Galapon from an edition of just 100. Photography by Anne-Cecile Caillaud.
Small, independent record labels, such as Show Off, have long understood the importance of creating collectible, desirable music packages and the larger labels are finally realising that they shot themselves in the foot by introducing the jewel case – which, over the years, has persuaded the music-buying public to place zero value on music releases. Oops.
The Vinyl Factory - a company in London that owns Phonica record store, EMI’s old vinyl pressing plant in Middlesex and FACT magazine, has recently started to produce limited edition musical packages for vinyl-lovers… The first package they did was a boxed edition of Beautiful Future for Primal Scream but we’ve just clapped our eyes on their second project – which packages sumputously the music and artwork of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s Monkey Journey To The West – and felt duty-bound to post up some images:
The red, cloth-effect box measures approx 40cm wide, 35cm high and 4cm deep
Open the box to find the text-free cover of a gatefold double vinyl pack…
Remove the gatefold vinyl pack and a folded print on bible paper to find a small book of artwork housed snugly in a foam surround…
Open up the vinyl pack to reveal more artwork on the inside and also on the two printed inner sleeves. The music is spread over three sides of the vinyl discs with the fourth side adorned with etched illustrations by Hewlett
Here’s that etched vinyl
So, to recap - here’s what you get when you purchase this box: Double vinyl pack, small exclusive book of artwork and an art print on bible paper - not to mention the code to download a digital version of the album
We can’t deny that this box set is lovingly conceived and produced to a very high standard. In fact it feels like pretty good value for £65 - although we are left wondering how we’d store it at home… The fact is that we’ve become so used to storing music digitally that being faced with such a nicely produced, oversize box of vinyl and printed goodies is slightly discombobulating. And let’s face it, this isn’t something to keep with your other records. It’s a collectors item that demands to be kept somewhere safely away from the harbingers of greasy fingerprints and clumsy hands…
The Vinyl Factory’s Sean Bidder also told us that there will be a special edition of the Monkey box set that will cost £250. So what do you get for such a sum, we hear you ask? Sean sent us a list of what will be included within the clothbound, foilblocked box:
• Four exclusive Jamie Hewlett giclee-on-somerset prints, each stamped, dated and numbered, one signed. • Exclusive hardback, cloth covered 78-page 12″ size art book containing story, exclusive sketches and illustrations. • Two super-heavyweight 200-gram vinyl LPs will be housed in the book, containing six bonus tracks not available on the commercial release. Pressed on the classic EMI 1400, with one-side specially etched.
Also, when you purchase the box, you also receive a digital version of the album. And, if you’re among the first 500 customers to order the box set, you will also receive a custom-made special limited edition Monkey Om Box, with musical tones composed by Damon Albarn and artwork designed by Jamie Hewlett. As soon as this is ready (release date of the special edition is next week) we will endeavour to post up images here on the CR blog. In the meantime, read more about The Vinyl Factory’s collectible box sets here.
We also noticed that US band, Of Montreal, have been thinking beyond the bog-standard stick-it-in-a-jewel-case approach to music packaging. The band’s new album, Skeletal Lamping - released last week through Polyvinyl Records is available as a straightforward download, there is also an option called the “2xLP Package Deal”. Purchase this $100 package and you get the album on double vinyl, a download code to grab a digital copy of the album, a paper lantern, a set of 9 button badges, a choice of wall sticker packs, tote bag and T-shirt, a sticker set, die-cut poster, the code to download three rare extra songs and a compilation CD. Full details of the package can be found here.
Actually, I also just noticed that Of Montreal have a new animated video for track Id Engager, directed by Marc Reisbig and Hanne Berkaak through Passion Pictures:
Another music release that comes with additional goodies that caught our attention is the forthcoming release of Subliminal Girls 10″ box enclosing their Self Obsession EP - a package created by artist Stuart Semple. The screenprinted cardboard pizza-style box contains a 10″ record, a fold out print, a photographic book, a screenprinted T-Shirt, a laser cut acrylic disk and one-off signed negatives of the band. The press release that accompanied news of this release (release date 17 November) talks about injecting album art with renewed value in the face of digital downloads - yet there are only 10 of these boxes being made and they will be priced at £600 each. So at first glance this box looks very punk - it’s a cheap cardboard box that’s been hand decorated by a mate of the band who’s an artist. However, launching the box set in art galleries (that’s the plan for this) with a sorry-you-can’t-afford-it price tag seems totally at odds with the look of the package.
Sadly, this seems like a PR project created to generate column inches rather than something that will give real fans the chance to own and cherish a beautiful release. How lovely will the ‘normal’ release be, we can’t help but ask ourselves? As for the limited, arty Stuart Semple box – you’d think £600 would buy you something more deluxe and impressive than a cardboard pizza box…
OK, it’s time to move away from arty limited edition box sets and head back to Sheffield, which is of course, where this blog post started… Sheffield’s own Tony “Is This The Way To Amarillo” Christie does his very best to shake the Amarillo association with a new album, entitled Made In Sheffield, on which he teams up with various Sheffield-lads to surprising effect. The album has been produced by Richard Hawley and the songs on it have been written by the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys, Phil Oakey of The Human League, Christie himself and more… As befitting such a Sheffield-focused album, Sheffield-based design duo Peter and Paul’s sleeve for the CD promo version (shown above with innersleeve), sees Tony Christie’s initials in a hallmarked emblem, referencing, of course, Sheffield’s rich silverware heritage.
This is the artwork for cover of Cicada’s latest single, Falling Rockets, art directed and designed by Zip. Illustration by Eric Zener. There’s really not much to say about this, other than we like it so here it is
OK so this isn’t a record sleeve or package - it’s the logo for a brand new musical supergroup that’s lurking in the offing. Yes, The Bottletop Band (logo devised by Brighton-based Red Design) will be a showcase for the combined talents of Carl Barrat (Dirty Pretty Things), John McClure (Reverend and the Makers), Drew Mc Connell (Babyshambles), Mat Helders (Arctic Monkeys), Jagz Kooner (Primal Scream) and several others. But why would these musicians team up to form a new group? For charity of course - the Bottletop Band is a collaborative project devised by the Bottletop charity and clothing brand Fenchurch. The idea is that a selection of talented musicians and producers come together and produce an album, to be released sometime in 2009, in support of Bottletop’s charity work.
As well as the logo, Red has commissioned artist Jim Stoten to produce the above illustration which will adorn T-shirts.
Four Feet From A Rat cover, agency/creative: Mother, publisher: Mam Tor, Designer: Jim Bletsas, artwork: Roger Langridge
The current edition of Time Out London includes the third installment of advertising agency Mother’s Four Feet From A Rat comic. Created in collaboration with graphic novel publishers Mam Tor, the comic offers a quirky insight into London life, with one story, illustrated by artist Roger Langridge, focusing on London’s ebullient mayor, Boris Johnson.
The story, titled Young Boris, sees our intrepid mayor cast as a heroic adventurer, fighting off the dangers of the commies, pesky picaninnies, and the evil Livingstone, natch.
Artwork: Roger Langridge
Four Feet From A Rat, which is appearing in four issues of Time Out London over the course of this year, is the first offering from Mother’s new comics arm, Mother Comics. Alongside its appearance in Time Out, the comic is also available from London bookstores.
Artist Stanley Donwood, who is perhaps best known for his Radiohead artwork, has created this beautiful linocut which depicts his vision of Fleet Street being destroyed by fire and flood.
Fleet Street Apocalypse forms a companion piece to Donwood’s London Views linocut, which featured on the cover of Tom Yorke’s solo album The Eraser. It was based on photographs and observational drawings of Fleet Street and features the Royal Courts of Justice, the Cock Tavern, the Daily Express building, St Dunstan’s Church, the Dundee Courier building, St Bride’s Church, a distant St Paul’s Cathedral and the King & Keys pub all in flames. It was created specifically to be printed at the St Bride’s Institute on Fleet Street.
“Like my earlier London Views series, this picture is ultimately, if loosely, inspired by the 1493 book the Liber Chronaricum, also known as the Nuremburg Chronicle,” says Donwood. “Although the style of the woodcuts in that book has been twisted almost out of recognition.”
“I have been fascinated by Fleet Street for many years,” he continues. “Ever since ending up there one freezing winter night at the end of a disastrous psychogeographical exploration of Clerkenwell and Holborn. Once a shoreline track between London and Westminster it has, over the centuries, become synonymous with the printing trades, home at times to innumerable publishers, printers, newspapers and writers, including Samuel Pepys.
“The print trade has now gone from the street. I don’t think you can even get a photocopy done there now. In the 1980s a combination of factors, including Thatcherism, the disgraced Robert Maxwell, Rupert Murdoch and unfettered greed finally silenced the presses. Fleet Street Apocalypse was printed on possibly the last remaining press in Fleet Street.”
The printing press at St Bride’s
On printing the linocut, Donwood says: “Due to the large size of this linocut we had to think laterally when it came to working out how to print it. The picture was made up of two sections of linoleum, each cut separately and designed to fit on the platen of the Hopkinson & Cope press. The process we developed involved wrapping sections of the oily press with paper, rolling half of the large sheets of paper within a protective sheet and then printing the unrolled half. When the edition was done, we then repeated this process with the other section of lino. Registration of the two halves of the print was achieved with the archaic technique of making pinholes in the sheets during the first printing then lining up the pinholes for the second. This process means that each print, though part of an edition, is unique.”
An edition of 50 prints is available from slowlydownward.com. Donwood has also donated an additional edition of 40 prints to the St Bride’s Institute.
Before the Euro, Dutch money was the most beautiful in the world. A new Five Euro coin, designed by artist and architect Stani Michiels, is a worthy successor to a great tradition
Michiels won a Dutch Ministry of Finance competition to design a coin with the theme of ‘Netherlands and Architecture’. “I approached the subject ‘Netherlands and Architecture’ from two points of view,” he says on his blog. “On one hand I paid tribute to the rich Dutch architecture history and on the other hand to the contemporary quality of Dutch architecture. These form also the two sides of my coin. Traditionally the front of the coin needs to portray the queen, while the back side displays the value of the coin.”
For the front of the coin, Michiels listed the names of prominent Dutch architects according to how many hits they gained on the internet: “Of course this order changes over time and as such this is another time stamp on the coin besides the number ‘2008′. Only the first 109 architects fitted on the coin, so that was immediately the selection.”
Using different weights of a monoline font that he designed especially for the task, Michiels arranged the names to create a portrait of the Dutch queen.
On the reverse, Michiels referenced the sheer number of architecture books published currently, arranging different sized books around the edge of the coin so that the space between their tops forms the outline of a map of The Netherlands. “The books rise as buildings towards the center. Through their careful placement they combine to outline the Netherlands, while birds’ silhouettes suggest the capitals of all the provinces. The following scheme reveals the process:”
In a delicious added twist, Michiels designed the whole thing using only free software. The coin was released to the public on 30 October.
