Evian advert

I have recently noticed that there is a lot of excitement about this particular advert.
I personally, saw it a while ago before it was shown on the tv so am not as excited as everyone else to see it on the tv. However i do think its a clever idea and it is entertaining to watch. I do like how it looks so real, when it is obviously computer generated. Good use of motion graphics here.

See the advert here:

New Yok Trip

In November 2009, myself and my fellow university students participated on a trip to NYC. The main aim of the trip was to get in contact with design agencies and arrange to meet up with them whilst in New York and to show our portfolio's. This was a great experience as i have never been to New York before and i got the chance to meet up with a few New York design agencies and see if things run differently over there.

Paul Smith For Evian

Recently on a trip to Selfridge's i came across a bottle of Evian water that had a striped design on the bottle.
After looking around a found out that it is actually a limited edition bottle that has been design by Paul Smith.
It really caught my eye as bottles of water are usually boring and predictable, however this one was interesting to look at and an unusual shape.

After coming home i decided to check out the Selfridge's&Co website and found out the following information:

"Known for his colourful stripes, Paul Smith has designed a new and limited edition bottle especially for Evian.
To celebrate the festive season, Evian enlisted Paul Smith to bring a youthful spirit in to the design of a chic new bottle.
The new design for Evian features vibrant colours, and we would expect nothing less from Paul Smith."

and here is a picture taken from the website of the special edition bottle.

Yakult Adverts

Whilst researching existing Carex adverts (for a brief i am currently working on), i came across these adverts for the little health drink Yakult.
There are two different campaigns i have came across to promote people do drink the health drink.

I think the way these adverts are laid out as they are different to a normal advert and have humor involved in them, i think this is a key ingredient to having successful adverts.

This is the first set of adverts:





















































And these are the second series of posters:

Prime Studio Inc, New York City.

Prime Studio Inc is a integrated Product + Brand design consultancy that i went to visit whilst i was in New York. Taken from there current website they describe themself as the following:

"Prime Studio is an integrated Product + Brand design consultancy which is dedicated to providing successful solutions for our clients. Our multi-disciplinary team is strategically aware, creatively driven and technically knowledgeable.

Flexibility is inherent in our approach, allowing us to create and evolve teams appropriate for each project and to provide creative solutions that form powerful connections with consumers.

We work hard to engage with our clients to ensure our designs are based on a strategic foundation, encompassing a thorough understanding of the business, the brand and the consumer.

Since our launch in 1998, Prime Studio has worked in a wide range of markets, believing that the diversity of application is crucial to maintaining freshness in our ideas. We have experience in Consumer products, Housewares, Tabletop, Personal care, Food & Beverage and numerous other areas.

In addition, we maintain a trained eye on the global marketplace, to help our clients define the future, rather than react to it."

They have won a number of awards for there work over the years.  Some of these awards include:

ID magazine annual review
Good design 1999 - Zelco Foodtool
Good design 2004 - Zelco LifeAid sport
International Housewares Award finalist 2005 - Polder dishrack
International Housewares Award finalist 2006 - Violight travel sanitizer
Pentawards Bronze 2008 - Axe Detailer packaging
International Housewares Award finalist 2009 - Fiesta Head Chefs
Pentawards Bronze 2009 - Sun Products detergent packaging.

Below is a few examples of there work that they were kind enough to show me:

Studio Lin, NYC. Portfolio Visit

Whilst in New York, attended another portfolio visit.
this once Michele had organised and i came along to it as she did with my previous one.
We went to visit Alex Lin, at his company called Studio Lin.
We had a bit of a nightmare on the way to the studio as we had ended up on 64th street instead of 4th street number 60!! so we had to jump in a taxi and travel 60 blocks to find the right road, luckily we had left enough time to spare in case this had happened. When we had finally found the right road and building, we started walking up the stairs, we were a bit confused as the stairs were very scruffy and there were posters up everywhere advertising dance lessons and we thought there may have been a dance studio somewhere on one of the floors.

We got to the top floor and noticed a sign next to the door saying Studio Lin. We realised that we were infact in the right place and knocked on the door. Alex answered and invited us in, when entering the room it was very small indeed with only Alex and another design working in there.
It looked almost like an arts and crafts room, with lots of stuff hanging from the ceiling and boxes full of bits an bobs.

He was really nice and welcoming and asked us what we had been doing in NY and if we were enjoying it so far, we explained we had only been here one day so far but had enjoyed it up to then. He also asked us what projects were working on in uni and how we generally tackle briefs and come up with our solutions. We explained how we start a brief and come to our final solutions and then went onto show our work.
Michele went 1st this time as she had organised the visit through emails. Alex was very pleased with her work and suggested a few tips to improve the standard of work. I then went on to show my work, Alex's comments were generally the same sort of comments that Erin had said earlier on in the day at my 1st visit; to maybe photograph my work, improve the quality before printing out and increase the sizes on certain images e.g my typeface twigs. Again i was very pleased with the feedback he gave me and was happy that he enjoyed my work and was happy to help me.

After showing our portfolio's, he took us around the room that he worked in and explained some of the current and existing projects he had been working on. I was surprised at some of the work, concidering when we 1st walked in it felt like a kids arts n crafts room.

I then left alex with one of my little booklets i made and we said our goodbyes and left.

Prime Studio Inc, NYC. Portfolio Visit.

After arriving in New York n the Monday, i had previously arranged to meet with the creative director of Prime Studio Inc. As new York is such a big place we decided to stay in pairs when walking around on our own and visiting company, so i paired up with Michele Mckee.
We had already wrote down the address and directions on how to get there before leaving England, so we left the hostel nice and early to give us extra time in case we got lost. With the building only being a few blocks away from our hostel we decided to walk as it would be quicker and easier than getting a taxi or using the subway. We found the building easily and told the man working on the reception who we were going to see and he then told us what floor we needed and what studio number. Being on the 11th floor this was unusual to us as we don't normally have tall offices and buildings this high in Stockport. We arrived on the floor and found the door leading to studio 1101.

We knocked on the door and Erin answered and invited us in. The studio was fairly large and spacious, unfortunately most of the staff were out on a meeting so there was only Erin and another designer in at the time of our visit. Erin offered us both a glass of water and we sat down at the table with our portfolio's. I showed my portfolio 1st and she had very positive comments towards it. She was impressed with the way my portfolio was laid out, she said over in New York a lot of people don't present there work in boxes and it was a nice changed for her to look at.
She was very helpful on tips in ways which to improve the presentation of my portfolio, she suggested to photograph certain pieces of work instead of using the live surface applications on photoshop. I agreed with this as this had been my main aim to do but i had ran out of time before my visit to New York. She also suggested that i changed the lay out of the page where i was showing my homemade typeface out of twigs, if i made the letters bigger, it would be more noticeable that they were made from actual twigs. The only negative comment she suggested was that some of my pages were pixelated, i agreed with this as i had noticed this after printing it out but had no time to re-do it before new york. I will taking every comment that Erin said into consideration and making those changes to my portfolio to improve the presentation towards it.

After i had shown mine, Michele then had her turn. Again she was very nice and made a few suggestions to improve the presetation towards it.

Once we had shown our portfolio's Erin went on to show what work the company had been doing recently and how they got to the final ideas. I was impressed with the work they had created it was very inspiring.

After we had talked for a while, we then said our goodbye's and left the studio. I had previously made some little booklets, showing some of my work and my contact details, i then gave one to erin for her to keep and we left.

I am really please that the visit went well and she liked my work and was very positive about it.

Box Creative NYC, contact emails - Andy Weitzel

Another company i emailed in NYC, was Box Creative.
I was surprised to receive an email back almost straight away, from Andy Weitzel the Creative Director + Co-Founder.

Here is what i emailed and what i recieved:






















I had not realised but i had emailed the same company as my friend Hayley.
So i arranged to go on a visit with her and another student Amy.
We organised to visit on Wednesday at 3pm, however when we got there Andy and his twin brother were both off sick and only the PA in the building. She rang them and arranged for us to re meet them on Friday at 11am.
Once back to the hostel i checked my emails and recieved the email from the brothers saying they had to cancel the meeting. here is what they sent:











We then went forward with the meeting and it went really well. I will post the details of the vsit in a seperate post.

Once home i emailed the brothers to say thank you for taking the time so look at our work. This was the reply i got from them :

Prime Studio Inc NYC - Email contact Erin Buchanan

Another studio i contacted was one called Prime Studio Inc, NY.
The graphic design director, Erin Buchanan Emailed me back.

These are the following emails we exchanged:

























































I attended the portfolio visit and it went very well.
I will post what happened on the visit on a seperate post.

Vertigo NYC - Email contact Fred Pesce

Having being informed that on our trip to New York City in Nov 2009; we would be advised to arrange a porfolio visit with a company in New York.

I researched graphic design agencies in New York and sent out the following Email to a few. this is the one i sent to Vertigo, New York, USA.










After a few weeks of waiting and New York getting closer i finally got a reply :)

From the Creative Director - Fred Pesce.

Here are the emails we sent to each other arranging a portfolio visit:


































































Unfortunately, just before leaving for New York i realised that this Company was infact 2 hours away on the trains, i we would not be able to fit this in within our schedule for New York. I gave the company a quick call and explained, they said this was fine and i thanked them for there helo they have given me.

Container Plus Lecture

Container Plus came in to give a lecture about there company today.
Container Plus are a multi-disaplinary art and design company, they specialise on creating fantasy worlds across a multitude of 2D and 3D platforms.

Luise Vormittag met Nicola Carter when studying Graphic Design at University. Both were unsure what to do with there lives after graduating. So they decided to stick together and set up their own company. they started off by setting up a joint website containing two sepreate portfolio's. Both didnt really have a plan in what to do, they took both portfolio's with them when visiting agencies. 

Among the previous work carried out between the pair is the Lab Cafe display they created for Selfridges in 2004. They were do design an installation for Selfridges Lab Cafe, Oxford Street, London. It was a permanent installation that took four weeks of Saturdays working on the design. They split the design up in to sections between them, to lower the work load. Louise created the heads, line drawings and Nicola created the bodies, colour and style. 
Below is the created Lab Cafe display: 

 

 

Another previous example of work is the Vaulkswagon Fox car launch. 

The idea was to design of 4 rooms at Copenhagen's creative lifestyle hotel, designed for the launch of Volkswagen's FOX, 2005. the hotel was transformed by 20 different designers and then journalists stayed in the decorated rooms. Container Plus were given four rooms to decorate, they created four different stories to decorate the rooms with, these all included playing cards. 
The rooms they completed are shown below:

Another installation created is the Art Car. They only got asked the day before the installation was to be completed so with no time they just threw it together.

Other design work they have created will be shown below:

Charles Worthington  - It goes to your head. Created illustrative advert.

Art exhibition in Germany. Evil Twins. 2006.

After the evil twins project they had an idea to expand company to Patrica, Victoria and Anne making it 5 people in total.  All the new recuits had all had previous experience in the design area. After a year of all working together it just didnt work so they broke back down to just 2 people again. They then went on to be a 3 again, with Patricia re-joining the group and still all work together today. they hae carried on to work for companies such as Topshop and Sony.