GDUSA NewsletterFEBRUARY 2011

DREAM BIG WORK HARD

The new edition of GDUSA magazine is now in the mail, this week, featuring our 2011 Designers-To-Watch and Students-To-Watch special reports. We asked the professional designers: What would you advise the design students? The answers broke neatly into four categories: work, think, and play hard; study and apprentice with someone you admire; learn to communicate verbally as well as visually; and pursue your passion. Equally interesting was the dog that did not bark: nobody suggested abandoning art for the likes of law or accounting or banking. Walter Porras of Walmart captured the spirit: “Do what's in your heart... Dream big and be willing to stand behind your designs.” – Gordon Kaye

Graphic Design News

BODY AS BIOGRAPHY
Photographer Terry Richardson shot this edgy advertising campaign for high-end fitness club Equinox. It features scantily clad models surrounded by photos of her naked body parts. Another has a model in a low-cut dress being dangled next to a pool by a shirtless suitor. The campaign raised some hackles. (Whatever hackles are.) The campaign – “My body. My biography.” – has a budget of $3 million and a microsite.

JUST MOMA’S TYPE
New York’s MoMA has acquired 23 digital typefaces for its Architecture and Design Collection. Some are some familiar, some common, some esoteric. MoMA’s Paola Antonelli wrote that “we based our decisions on the same criteria — ranging from aesthetics to historical relevancy, from functionality to social significance, from technological ingenuity to economy — that we use when evaluating objects.” Typeface designers represented include Matthew Carter, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones, and Erik Spiekermann.

PARTY HEARTY
The logo for the 2016 Olympics in Rio was unveiled before a million New Years Eve revelers on Copacabana beach. Brazilians like a good revel, and the flowing symbol resembles three figures embraced at the arms and in joyous dance, This “reflects passion and the transformation of Brazil,” says Carlos Nuzman, organizing committee head. The logo was designed by Rio agency Tatil (selected from 140 candidates) and, dampening the joy, some skeptics note that the logo is similar to that of the Colorado-based Telluride Foundation. To be continued.

NEW HAITIAN WEBSITE
Graphic designer Adrianna Gonzalez has redesigned the website for the Ministry of Haitians Living Abroad. MHAVE wanted a website that would be easy to update and manage. Gonzalez decided to focus on a sleek intuitive design; the key elements of are floating docks that remain in place. The top dock houses the navigational system, while the bottom one features live news feed, as well as social media links.

GOOD CUP BAD CUP
Creature has created an integrated, multi-channel ad campaign for Seattle’s Best Coffee. The first phase of the campaign includes a series of online-video and tv ads, billboards, wild postings and digital elements, and demonstrates the company’s business strategy of bringing great coffee everywhere. Three 30-second spots by the agency use humor to depict consumers in unexpected situations that are a metaphor for the many places where great coffee is needed; outdoor ads use a 10-foot sculpture built from brightly colored coffee mugs that mirror the colors of the packaging system.

SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE BEAR
Demonstrating they are smarter than the average studio, yU+co crafted a stereoscopic 3D main-on-end title sequence for the Warner Bros animated film Yogi Bear. The sequence incorporates stylistic elements of Saul Bass with the madcap nature of Hanna-Barbera’s animation. The sequence uses only silhouettes of the main characters so as not to mimic the 3D animation seen in the film or the original look from the 1960s cartoon. To watch the sequence, CLICK HERE>.

NEW G2 CHIEF
G2 has named Bruce Henderson Chief Creative Officer for North America. It’s a newly created post within the top five-ranked marketing services agency. Henderson is responsible for leading the agency’s creative across all practice areas, including branding, design, digital, and experiential. Most recently, Henderson was at Ogilvy, New York, where over an eight-year tenure he served in various capacities, including group creative director.

YOGURT OF CHAMPIONS
Ceradini Brand Design developed new packaging for this Greek yogurt product for kids. The effort is on behalf of Agro Farma, makers of the Greek yogurt brand, Chobani, and its line of Chobani Champions, the first-ever Greek yogurt made for kids. The new work underscores Chobani’s bold brand character and further accentuates and celebrates the product name, which connotes the potential of children to be champions in their own right.

OPULENT ARABIC TYPEFACE
Pearlfisher has created the identity and packaging design for Zadina, a new luxury Emirati store developed by Al Foah, the largest global producer of dates. Zadina sells Emirati dates and date-based products. The creative team came up with the identity and marquee for the Zadina brand, inspired by opulent Arabic script that echoes the provenance of the brand. The identity is translated across the range of products from jams and pastries to ice creams.

MOBILE FITNESS
IdeaWork Studios, an interactive creative services agency, has designed the first mobile application for Crunch Fitness. It enables members to stay connected with their gym from wherever they are, allowing them to check-in, retrieve location and class info, set preferences, redeem specials and stay connected with the Crunch community. Users may download the free app online for iPhone or Android at the Crunch homepage.

COY AND HEIDEN HONORED
The highest honor the AIGA Los Angeles bestows went to Jeri Heiden and John Coy. The new Fellows are recognized for their contribution to raising the standard of excellence in practice and conduct in Southern California. Heiden, a graduate of Pepperdine University and Art Center College of Design, is currently at Smog Design and spent many years as creative director at Warner Bros. Records and A&M Records. Coy of Coy, LA studied Fine Art at DePauw University and Art Center College of Design, teaches and lectures widely, and was the first president of AIGA/LA.

LUXURY OF LETTERHEAD
Rohner Letterpress and CharisseM Design have unveiled an ambitious marketing campaign, The Luxury of Letterpress, to show how letterpress printing effectively creates total branded environment. The program features a direct mail package and microsite designed by CharisseM Design, a boutique graphic design and branding firm in Chicago. Designer Charisse McAloon collaborated on ideation, creation and design of the brand Tactile, an imaginary high-end apparel and home retailer, crafting custom components including hangtags, gift cards, gift card carriers, labels and membership cards. CLICK HERE>

Take Five! Career Tips

From The Creative Group

Business Buzzwords Be Gone

“Social media” isn’t just a trend taking the world by storm; it’s also the term advertising and marketing executives ranked as the most annoying buzzword in a survey by The Creative Group. While buzzwords can help colleagues communicate ideas quickly, when overused, people may stop paying attention. Following are five additional clichéd terms you may want to avoid:

1. Synergy
2. Free
3. Innovative/innovation
4. ROI/return on investment
5. Extra Value/Value Added

The Creative Group is a specialized staffing service placing creative, advertising, marketing and interactive professionals on a project basis. For more information, please visit creativegroup.com. Connect with The Creative Group at facebook.com/thecreativegroup or twitter.com/creativegroup.