Saul Bass

Check out this website, pretty cool www.saulbass.tv

It is very hard to 

David Carson

David Carson is famous for his uncommon arrangement of letters, words and sentences.  Since the early nineties he is the best known practitioner of innovative visual and graphic design, whose work is often described as the new typography, de-constructive typography, or digital typography, he has been dubbed the "Father of Grunge", due to his dirty, messy style. 

The style in which he works is very similar to how I like to work with a page and layout, I relate to his 'dirty, messy, haphazard' presentation. Although he works is very 'grimy' it is very aesthetically pleasing and you cant helped but be gripped by it.  

Anime

Anime cartoons have taken off like a storm in the last few years, with cartoon series, comics, books and films. They are rich with colour, super heroes, and fight scenes and true to cartoon form they exaggerate features but present an unusual idea of perfection. The illustrations are packed with high energy, emotion and a sense of sexuality - especially cartoons for the older generation. 

Alex Trochut

Alex Trochut has a stunning array of work, including his latest Rolling Stones album cover "Rolled Gold" as well as work for British Airways, Diesel and Nike. He typography is like nothing i've seen before, whilst looking at his work I realised I had been looking at the same website for an hour, I was hooked, suprised and sustained by his variety and intensity. He has invented his own complex, interlocking, sinuously sexy letter forms, for example his lettering for CHannel 4's 3 minute wonder...

It won't let me upload any of his work so check him out online at www.alextrochut.com

Pringles Select

I have noticed that when a brand needs to refresh its product they often redirect which target market they are trying to reach. Pringles normal audience would be children and teenagers as they are advertised as good for parties and packed lunches, but they new pringles are directed towards a slightly older generation with there new packaging and sophisticated flavours. These kind of changes are very common in the food industry especially with snack foods such as crisps, sweets and chocolate, as there are only a few ways to re-invent the product.

Good things come to those who wait

Colour Like No Other

Ipod

The Apple Ipod adverts are a good example of getting advertising right, they pitch their adverts perfectly to their target audience. There ads are usually fun, fresh, bright and funky often with an up-to-date catchy song. Ipods are still one of the trendiest gadgets to be had, I think their success is down to their very effective and entertaining ads.

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Harder, better, faster, stronger...

I don't know if you've seen this home made video for the song, harder, better, faster, stronger. Take a look tis very clever...

This is England

Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti's sculptures fascinate me. They look at a different aspect of the human body, his elongated sculptures represent the shadows that our bodies cast. By removing definition such as eyes, ears and nose...allows you to appreciate the sculpture firstly as a whole and then it allows to further look at the more defined markings. I admire his confidence to play around with scale, because the sculptures have large feet you start from the bottom and work your way up, which emphasises the the scale of the piece. He usually either chooses to make his sculpture really tall or very small, there is no in between as this would not attract the viewer I don't think, you are drawn to them because they are unusual and out of proportion.

Richard Billingham

Richard Billingham is another photographer whose work I admire. I am drawn by the roughness and rawness of his photo's, he sums up domesticity perfectly; Everyday people, with everyday lives, in everyday situations but they make a unique and striking pictures. I like the fact that none of his pictures are staged he lets the subjects of his work be natural, he captures the moments of "family life" which would normally be overlooked and ignored.  

Christian Boltanksi

Although I find Boltanski's work visually appealing, I find many of his pieces give off an erie presence which makes me feel slightly uncomfortable if I look at it for too long. His work has been considered a "disturbing archive of our social, cultural, ethnic and personal histories". Many of his pieces are death obsessed, he creates photos that are out of focus and blurred so the faces become more ghost like and emphasise the memories that lie behind these faces. I like his photos that are lit up with bulbs, the pictures become shrine like and celebratory of the lives of the people who feature in them. 

You can see an similarities and influences from Annette Messenger's style and presentation, who is his wife.

It's All Gone Pete Tong

I love this film, based on a true story, set Ibiza about a DJ who goes deaf from all those years of loud pumping music with no ear protection. It takes you on a journey of drugs, sex and music where you experience the rise and fall and happy ending of a DJ who loves doing what he does best. The film is very bright and colourful, a representation of the drugs that surrounds this film, with huge dance anthems that flows through the film bringing all aspects of DJ life into a loud clash! 

For lovers of music this film is great!

Milton Glaser

Im sure we all recognise this iconic logo and Bob Dylan cover by Milton Glaser; on a recent University trip to New York I had the chance to hear Glaser talk about his work. This inspired me to look at more of his stuff and I was not dissapointed. His work is often vibrant, fresh and modern, he seems to keep update with what is going on in his surroundings and uses them to create his next piece. I like his laid back attitude towards his designs, his designs are often simple and straight to the point to create maximum impact. For example his recent poster of 

George Bush and the oil crisis. It is visually funny and presents the message clearly that Bush is "oil hungry" with just a simple change to the original photo. This is the kind of design I love to look at, simple but clever.

Beijing Olympics

Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti sculptures are fascinating to me, he has taken a different aspect of the human body to recreate. His elongated sculptures represent the shadows our bodies create, they start with big feet and grow taller and smaller towards the head.  What interests me most is his confidence to play around with scale, to draw emphasis to particular features on the sculptures. By not having much defined details such as eyes, ears, nose it allows you to study the sculpture firstly as a whole, then you can concentrate on individual markings.  

Oval Press Box

Nan Goldin

Basilica (Hungary)

Andy Goldsworthy

Adidas

I found these old Adidas adverts which are very clever. The have used the natural fold in the magazine to seperate the clothing from just been casual everyday wear to sports wear. Much like the amnesty international work, they have thought about where the adverts will be shown and used this to enhance the visual impact. It is a simple concept but has a powerful outcome by allowing the magazine to do the work for them. By having the picture spread across a double page your eyes are automatically drawn to the centre fold of the page, this too adds to the effectiveness of the picture. The images are so strong that not much copy is needed, the image clearly shows the message and you know what product is being advertised.

Durex

This Durex Ad campaign I really enjoyed, I like the fact it is light hearted, playful and fun yet still gets the point across. It makes a change from adverts about conception trying scare or guilt trip you. Its positive nature, I think, will be far more effective and successful in encouraging the use of contraception.

Amnesty International

Amnesty international are reknowned for their controversial ad campaigns, their work often portrays powerful visual metaphors which captures the very essence of the message they want put across. (Above, "Lady Flower" campaign against women circumcision).

Here are some of my favourite Amnesty ads, they have inspired me to think about not only what the contents of my photo would be but also think about where it is going to be used. They use surroundings that we are familiar with and use them to convey a completely different meaning, they create such a powerful impact and certainly makes you remember them.