The Graphic Shock [Creative Advertisements]

Putting the "graphic" back in graphic design.

One of the primary purposes of good design is to effectively get a message across. The world of commercial advertisement sets a vast stage for designers to showcase their talents, and today, with such an oversaturated market, artists are pushing the boundaries of creativity to grab your attention.

Here's a look at some ads that deliver what I'd like to call the "graphic punch." Shocking? Definitely. Effective? You tell me.


The Montana Meth Project is a large-scale prevention program aimed at reducing first-time meth use by presenting teens and young adults with highly graphic ads.

These print ads deliver the "shock factor" with quite a punch, and along with video and radio ads of a similar nature, the project has produced significant results since its inception in 2005: Meth use among teens in has declined by 45%, Meth-related crime has dropped 62%, and workers testing positive for Meth have declined by 72%.



"You remain anonymous, criminals don't." These Crime Stoppers ads deliver the clear message using the blur tool. Their realistic depiction of crime scenes (albeit with a bit of Photoshop manipulation) reminds us of the importance of witness-provided information in catching criminals.

The following ads by Czech group Freedom for Animals are a great contrast with the glamorous posters we typically see for cosmetics in magazines. They aptly remind you of the pain and suffering animals go through to bring you the products you use. As TYWKIWDBI writes, One doesn't have to be a supporter of the PETA fringe to be impressed by the immediacy of this ad.



Feed SA is a South African charity aimed at delivering food to poor, starving children. Their decal images posted at the bottoms of shopping carts show sad kids reaching up at you, reminding the shopper how easy it is to put food in their hands. These inexpensive decals resulted in increased donations and a significant boost in website traffic. (via)


Ads with gruesome and realistic photo manipulation shock us into paying attention to them. Although they may or may not realistically depict what they are advertising for, don't they still make you feel a bit differently toward their cause?

Watercolor Wednesday 11

For the last couple of weeks I've found myself unable to make myself sit down and finish any paintings, but luckily I have a small backlog of pictures in various degrees of completion.

The genesis of this painting is a little unclear to me: about a year ago my boyfriend and I had a small brainstorming session where we decided to sketch out ideas for a spaghetti western with campy monsters. Nothing really came of it, but to this day I still find myself drawing cowboy mummies ever so often.

Little Red Riding Hood, as a goat, heads towards the void where her grandmother's house should be, but isn't, because I got distracted either by food or something shiny. I added a bit of goauche to her cloak and some of the shadows since the watercolors were getting a bit muddy.

I'm not sure what to make of this one! I started painting the creepy ratty guy first, and then just kind of tacked on the bee.

When I find myself in an artistic rut I like to take some time to find some new source of inspiration. Most recently I've taken up reading collections of short stories by Ray Bradbury, whose work is always a wellspring of unusual ideas.

I also tried out using this neat little flash application that randomly generates topics from three wheels of words. The results range from intriguing to downright weird, and I'd suggest that anyone with a bad case of artist's block try it out!

Sketch Sunday 11

A couple of weeks ago I went to Maker Faire at the San Mateo Convention Center to help Ambidextrous Magazine promote their upcoming issue titled "Space." I was invited to put together a collage of the editors. Since the theme was "space," I decided to draw them as astronauts and aliens!

Editor's photo collage for Ambidextrous magazine issue 11: Space
I started out with crops of each person's head, floating over a black background. Then I sketched out pose ideas for each of them, rotating heads to fit the composition of the big picture. The stars, comets, moon, and planets in the background are all Photoshop brushes that I once downloaded, but can no longer recall from where. Eventually, colors and other details were added, to yield this final product!

The most difficult part of this picture was dealing with the silly artsy people who sent in their photos in black and white. Were they trying to be classy? Emo? Maybe, but who knows. It was too bad because I added color to them anyway. Can you tell which heads were colored by hand? Hopefully not, because that means I did a good job. ;)

Ambidextrous is Stanford University's journal of design. I know a few people that work on it, and volunteered to help out with this image. The magazine is run entirely by students and features some really great articles on design and the design process. Most of the articles are written by professionals in the field, and cover a wide range of subjects about design concepts.

If you are interested, check out their website for article previews!
The questions they pose to the greater design community relate to the broader design process, and not just a single aspect like industrial or graphic design. For example, issue 10 ("Getting it On") covers topics from condoms to the evolution of the zipper.

One thing I really like about the magazine is that each issue has a centerfold called Functional Dissection where they take apart some device and document the process. In issue 8 ("Secret"), the Ambidextrous team took apart a combination lock to show us what made it click. Other issues broke apart roombas, polaroid cameras, and even a nail gun.

If you are interested in reading more about Maker Faire, check out my friend Paula's recent blog post at Quite Curious! She provides a great account of it, and has some great photographs as well.

Textures

Can you guess what these are?
Do you remember that picture game when you were little, where they show you a zoomed-in detail of a cropped photo, and you have to figure out what the object is?

Blue stripes, pepper flakes (pelicans at Monterey Bay)
Foliage in negative lighting
Green carpet wall (stacked broccoli at grocery store)
So this isn't exactly like the picture game I described above, but the idea is similar. I love photos made to look like textures, especially if I can get the entire frame to be nearly homogeneous. This broccoli wall at my local grocery store just stood out to me, so I whipped out my camera to get a snapshot of it, a split second before an employee told me that I'm not allowed to take photos inside the grocery store.

Pink foliage (magnolia flowers in bloom)
Ruby droplets (grapefruit)
Amethyst wild flowers
13 pounds of olives in the sink
A collection of ladybirds (seen at the Academy of Science)
The greatest inspiration is finding beauty and joy in the simple things that surround us every day. What do you like capturing in your photos or art?

Cinnamon sprinkled on pine nuts (banana bread mix, ready for baking)

Light & Nature

Rainbow- why is the sky much darker to the left of the rainbow?
Last week, nqd featured Keri Smith's work titled "How to be an Explorer of the World." After reading through the preview pages of her book, I thought to myself, I already do some of these things! I constantly admire the world around me, and sometimes try to document what I see with photographs.

I thought that inspirimint readers might be inspired by some of the pictures I have taken over the past few months, so here they are for your enjoyment! These photos make me feel more connected to nature.

I love the way light reflects off of eucalyptus leaves
Sun & clouds, shot from the highway.
Dusk at Golden Gate park.
Dried orchids.
Peach blossoms from the farm (mid-March).
The tender shoots and flowers of pea plants make a delicious stir-fry!
Have you ever noticed that the tips of golden poppy leaves flame?
Last year's grape vine twisted around the wire.
Purple flowers by the lake.
Light filtering through chlorophyll reminds me of stained-glass.
Droplets aggregating on the surface of a freshly-cut honeydew.
The rain forest biosphere at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco teems with life!
A giant Geneva wheel, a component of the 10,000 year clock's chime generator (displayed at Maker Faire).

Watercolor Wednesday 10

I am endlessly amused by critters with stout, rotund bodies on stilt-like legs. As I drew this picture it became a laundry list of things that, for whatever curious reason, I think are absolutely hilarious.


A list of them follows:
1. cyclops!
2. pathetic little wisps of hair
3. CHEST HAIR (funnier on scrawny little guys, but still funny otherwise)
4. fancy shoes
5. apprehension
6. tall pants with suspenders

This picture was also an exercise in figuring out which pens work on my crappy handmade paper. The answer: most of them, except for the ones I want to use. Thanks for that, paper!

Not-So-Brass Knuckles

Feeling thuggish today? I was highly amused after finding a whole slew of unrelated products designed after a lethal weapon. These items are interesting concepts, especially since brass knuckles were designed to fit comfortably in a fist. There are plenty of things out there that we need to hold comfortably for extended periods of time, and re-designing tools after a pre-existing, highly ergonomic weapon seems like the proper way to be inspired.

The Knuckle Brush
Bourgeois Brass Knuckles by Chromoly

The Umbuster by Srulirecht
Umbuster case

Soap Knuckles by Spye
Punch by J.C. Karich
Mug! at Thabto
Next time I want to bring out some of my inner thug, I'll be sure to keep these aptly designed items in mind!

Sketch Sunday 10

This weekend, to avoid the stress and hassle of finding parking (and actually parking) in San Francisco, I took a long relaxing ride on the train to meet some friends there. I was recently inspired by Shane Glines' cartoon pin-up girls, and sketched a few big-headed, long-legged girls on the way up. The train ride was very bumpy, but luckily there were many stops along the way. During the bumpy part of the ride, I would draw the rough underlying sketch with my red pencil, and then quickly overlay a few strokes of pencil lineart at the stations.

In addition to being a foxy lady, the girl in the sketch above must also have some serious muscles, because that pose looks pretty difficult to hold. It was really fun to draw curvy legs on these ladies, which is probably why I drew them a little longer and more slender than usual. One of the main reasons I like drawing girls over guys is because they have a lot more accentuated curves. This makes the poses much more dramatic and gives their shape much more depth.

So why are drawings that are grossly disproportionate compared to a normal human body still acceptable as cartoons? I was thinking about this and realized how many cartoon characters have giant heads, big eyes, or long slender appendages, and I began to wonder what kinds of proportions work, and which ones don't.

I was reminded of the sensory homunculus, which is used in psychology and neurology to depict which body parts require the most neurons to sense. In cartoons, however, it seems to me that the body parts are exaggerated based on how they are perceived. For example, since people pay a lot of attention to the details of another person's eyes, it does not seem unusual for cartoons to have larger-than-normal eyes. I think that the length of the arms is compared mostly to the length of the legs, and not to the size of the head or body, which is why Dee-Dee's and Jack Skellington's arms and legs are long and slender, independent of the size of their heads or bodies.

Anyhow, these observations are simply based on my own drawing experiences and not anything more scientific. If you have any more interesting insight or details, please share!

Watercolor Wednesday 9

After painting the carrot guy for the last watercolor wednesday, I decided he needed an overly confident friend! And, uh, a rudimentary background. Featureless voids make me uneasy!


For this entire week I've been getting ideas for paintings just as I drift off to sleep. It's the worst thing ever because they are burned into the back of my mind, even if they are terrible or half-baked. Angry cactus guy (above) is the result of one of those late night ideas, and I assume he's scowling because of how hastily he was painted! This is an approximation of the painting process:

1. Sketched out drawing. Was pretty okay with it.
2. Suddenly developed violent hatred for sketch, scrapped it altogether.
3. Whipped out watercolor paper, scrawled out a totally different composition.
4. Started painting, began to realize the darker shades of green were totally not working out the way I wanted them to.
5. Put painting out of my line of sight. Glanced at it once in a while, hating it from afar.
6. Finished painting by adding spines and little details here and there.

Once again, the moral of the story is BE PATIENT, STUPID. I will learn from my mistakes someday! 

What typical process do you usually go through for a painting or drawing?