The One baby Protest

In the run up to the UN summit in New York next week, One, the charity headed by Bono and Bob Geldof, is launching a campaign to ensure that no child will be born with HIV by 2015.

The campaign calls on people to sign up to the petition, to put pressure on world leaders to ensure that no child is born with HIV by 2015.

The campaign encourages users to choose one of five animated babies and a protest message to send on to friends that might also be interested in supporting the cause. Just by taking part in the interaction with the babies on the website you are signing a petition to world leaders!

Obviously some people will seek out petitions like this and sign willingly because they believe in the cause but sadly most people aren't as proactive as this. Therefore One has so cleverly created something that looks like a bit of fun, that people can talk about and send to their friends and almost without realizing are helping to support a very important campaign. It's not that they're fooling people into this, it's just that they're making 'politics' accessible to those that might find it intimidating or all a bit too serious for them. It's not that people don't care, it's just some people aren't interested in listening to balding old men squabbling and might find cute babies and internet interactivity more appealing. Yes the campaign is a little unorthodox and the babies kind of creepy in my eyes but I think it will get peoples attention and that's what they want right?

They are also asking people, including celebrities, to change their profile on their social networking sites to one of them as a baby. This again is a subtle and unimposing way of getting the message to spread.

Check out the campaign website here... http://www.one.org/international/actnow/babyprotest/index.html

Great idea, not sure about the application...

NHS Birmingham East and North just launched a new campaign to warn people of the long-term effects of childhood obesity. The posters show images of children that have been altered to show how they would look with medical conditions and feature captions such as "Ollie Webb, heart attack age 35" and "Asif Khan, stroke victim age 31".

I think the idea is hard-hitting and impactful and will make parents think twice before over-feeding their kids with junk food. I feel however, that although the images were in fact shot by Rankin they let the posters down. To me they seem a little half-hearted and ambiguous and to be honest I think there would have been a number of students who would have been delighted to take on this job for free and produced the same if not better quality of work.

There is one poster however that I feel is really effective, and it's this one below...

Does anyone NOT want to be/ be with Audrey Tautou?

Surprising to some I actually like french humor, but over-riding that I LOVE Audrey Tautou and almost every film she's been in. So a couple of weeks ago I wondered down to the Uni library to see if there was a french film I would like to watch, and I found "Priceless". Excitedly I rushed home to watch it, only to discover that there were no subtitles! Ah well, I had nothing else on and I watched it anyway.

To my own astonishment I think I followed the plot pretty well saying that I only have a handful of french holidays and a GCSE under my belt...

The movies deals with the two French favorites (no not baguettes and berets), sex and fashion. Audrey Tautou plays the role of a beautiful gold digger, attaching herself to wealthy men so she can live the high-life through their wallets. She however mistakes a waiter at a hotel bar for being a high roller and the next provider of Chanel dresses and expensive jewellery. He of course doesn't let on that he's just a waiter so he can spend time with this beautiful woman and ends up completely bankrupt. He however, then inadvertently becomes the object of affection for an older widow who soon foots the bills for a fancy hotel room and a new wardrobe. Tautou then begins instructing him in the ways of her world...

No it's not the best movie ever made but I like its Breakfast at Tiffanys' style and the relentlessness of Tautous character. Women are portrayed so often as fluffy and soft, desiring love at first sight and falling for any man with a bit of charm. Tautous' character is far from from the kind and shy women she normally plays and is strong, cheeky and care-free. I really enjoyed watching her take on a more seductive, manipulative character and I think she did it well.

What club shall we go to tonight?

Forget half naked blond bombshells, garish multi-coloured patterns and copy that only fourteen year olds from West London find appealing and check out these promotional flyers for club nights around the world created by Job Wouters (Letman) in collaboration with Roel Wouters. They designed material for clubs like 'Sugarfactory' in Amsterdam and 'Club Rotterdam'. These flyers would definitely sell even the most grimey club to me!

They are uncluttered, bold designs that have room to breath. The hand-made style typography and eye-catching blocks of colour bring an element of youthful creativity without looking naive or innocent.

On the surface these designs are fun and exciting but it's only when you look deeper into the many layers you really start to appreciate the quality of the composition and extraordinary typography skills.

Designer//Slash//Model

While reading the book 'Field Guide: How to be a graphic designer' I came across a case study about Digital Kitchen, a creative agency in the US. I looked them up and found the promo video below...

Yes, it doesn't make me laugh out loud (possibly because of the characters are made so annoyingly frustrating and American) but it is so refreshing to hear an agency talk about themselves and the design they do without sounding horribly pretentious. Through taking a tongue and cheek look at the world of design, Digital Kitchen have produced a promotional short film that doesn't alienate a large percent of the public. So many agencies and designers go on about how the industry is under appreciated and try to glorify the design profession (don't get me wrong I'm glad people are fighting the cause) but this film seems to rise above being resentful and just hilariously pokes fun at the situation.

Through tackling the problem in this way, they have allowed themselves to create a film that not only people in the design industry but anyone can watch, enjoy and still take some important knowledge away with them about a design agency and the design world.

Ads are changing tactics

Recently I have noticed a change in direction for a lot of adverts that are directed towards males. Adverts, especially for those products that can be seen as 'fun' seem to have given up on aspirational advertising, including strong, professional business men in their stories but are instead picking up on mens' sense of playfulness, silly quirks and things men really enjoy. They appear to no longer want to persuade men by showing them the great person they could be if they used 'x' product but they are actually embracing males for who they are, warts and all... This allows men to empathise and interact with the advertising, producing a 'that's what I would do' response. For example the new Reno Clio advert doesn't really do a great job of selling the pros of the car itself but it seems to still get the attention of it's male target audience by using humor and including a male character that is realistic and essentially 'normal' and unintimidating. This is a huge step away from the Burton and Cigarette adverts of yesteryear that almost always used formal professional male icons in their advertising but it seems to be working! Other examples of these new types of adverts are the fantastic BT adverts with Adam and Jane and the new Heineken one with the walk in beer fridge!

Design Book Covers

Recently I got my mitts on four Design books published by Antiques Collectors' Club. Like many other of these books their front covers follow the hugely eye-catching black and white pattern combined with a block colour design. The patterns that make up the cover sleeves are inspired by the work of the artist that the book is about, for example the pattern for Nash brothers book is composed of Paul Nash's 1925 engraving, Flower.

The block colours that have been chosen for these four books are so rich and bold that they sit most comfortably among the busy patterns. Sit all the books together and although a little hectic I think they are a real graphic beauty.