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For over a month now, folks have been occupying Wall St., in addition to cities and sites the world over. Not that I rate the merit of a movement by the production quality of its propaganda materials, but for the most part, the protest signs are rather shabby. Luckily, it didn’t take long for interesting populous-generated art and design to emerge.

A series of posters hit the internets with slogans such as “Yes We Camp”, “Tax The Rich”, and the now ubiquitous “We are the 99%”.

Brooklyn-based artist Molly Crabapple contributed a poster referencing the Vampire Squid from Matt Taibi’s book, Griftopia

Molly Crabapple’s poster, image via Boing Boing

Recently, a few bits of design have hit the scene. I can’t exact call them viral, because that implies an unexpectedness in how fast and far they spread, but they’re are intended to be shared and deployed. A while back, I spotted Occupy George, a project which seeks to illustrate the disparity of wealth in America by overprinting infographics onto dollar bills.

images via Occupy George

The cool thing about this project is that you can make your own by downloading the templates for your inkjet printer. No need to come up with your own designs or to painstakingly illustrate the diagram.

Of course, defacing money is still a federal crime, so don’t be clever and pass these bills to any uniformed officials of the government (or at least the Treasury; no one else gives a shit, I’m sure).

More recently, I spotted some clever buttons that say simply “99%”. Obviously, we the 99% can wear these buttons in solidarity, and to quickly assert that I make less than $250,000 (in case you’re curious.)

images via Busy Beaver Button Co.

However this is only half the project. To compliment the 99% buttons are 1% buttons, fabricated with 24k gold. The cost of these shiny 1% buttons is $100 per button, compared to $0.70 for the 99% variety. Don’t worry, half the profits for the 1% buttons are donated to charity. I think you’re supposed to wear it ironically. Or better still, buy it but don’t ever wear it. Ever. (A third option, could you buy it for the sole purpose of mounting on the hood of your Lexus, or whatever.)

Both of these recent projects, in addition to the posters, are great examples of designers putting their skills into good use, for a cause they believe in. No clients are behind this, no big payday awaits. There may be some sense of enterprise at work, but is that not the spirit of the American worker that we’re fighting for in the first place?

What are your thoughts? Are these clever examples of design campaigns for the greater good, or a cheeky opportunity for struggling designers to make the front page of so-and-so blogs?

via Design Work Life and Quipsologies »

This is always a touchy subject, and it seems we’re talking about Spec work yet again. This time, however, there is a healthy dose of government-sponsored irony included.

The Obama campaign (which technically is not part of the government) has put out a call for poster designs to promote, of all things, the jobs bill. There is no pay on offer, but instead this is an open call with the only potential award a signed version of your own winning poster. The cause is noble, and the way they package the contest is well-executed, but it’s still treading into the realm of spec work.

I’m not sure where exactly I stand on this particular matter. On the one hand, it is creative work, and therefore we the creative professionals should indeed be paid. But this isn’t a commercial endeavor, exactly, but a political campaign. I wouldn’t mind donating a few hours to potentially help Obama win re-election (or another political campaign or cause, for that matter). Design the poster, don’t design the poster, I really don’t mind.

But the trouble starts when the folks sponsoring it don’t think they’ve done anything wrong. They put it out to the public as if this is “for fun”, framing poster design as less than a real trade, and assuming that anyone with artistic inclinations will jump at the chance to participate. That’s clearly not the case.

Shepard Fairey with his Obama “Hope” portrait at the National Portrait Gallery

It’s worth mentioning, of course, how much free unsolicited design work was given to the Obama campaign in 2008. Shepard Fairey created the most famous of these, and his “Hope” poster later led to a rather nasty (but significant) court battle against the AP over fair use in photography. Designer and Illustrator Felix Sockwell did a series he entitled “Obeyma” (a reference to Fairey) and there have emerged dozens of gorgeous examples such as these typographic posters.

Obama typographic poster

I read about this in an article on Rolling Stone, where the tone is much more scathing, pointing out how the campaign has $60m cash on hand, and how with the justification that this is a $2500 donation to a campaign the math doesn’t add up. Check it out.

What’s your opinion, should political campaigns solicit contributions from designers? Are you going to enter this competition? Is this poster really that big a deal?

via Rolling Stone »

These made me smile. Aaron Wood, known as Justonescarf on Etsy, has created a series of WWII-style propaganda posters for today’s popular social networking sites — Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.

One that caught me eye was this Twitter Fail Whale poster. I had to do Aaron a solid and buy a print from his Etsy shop.

I have to mention, of course, that these aren’t the first WWII-style propaganda posters to hit the Internet. In fact, there’s a whole bunch, included Loose Tweets Sink Fleets, Someone Tweeted, and more.

via Design Milk »

download .mp4 / watch on YouTube

While I don’t want to cut down anyone else’s work, I think it would have been much more compelling if the gears were different sizes, and therefore only aligned once every ten minutes or so. Get people transfixed, keep ‘em staring.

via The Artist and His Model »

I recently spotted the very sharp campaign for Nike, “New York vs. The World”. I’m genuinely a little curious as to the origins of this project, but I have to admire the cross-media approach which includes outdoor posters, apparel, packaging, custom type, and more.

From what I can tell, it was designed by HORT, a German firm with a British web address. Check out their post for a more in-depth look.

This is the sort of work I’d love to be doing — full-scale branding that forces us carry out a creative concept across various delivery sources.

Packaging examples of region-branded Nikes.

Does anyone remember a brilliant series of ads in the mid-90s where Nike featured the NYC stories about basketball? They were black-and-white and didn’t actually show any ball being played, but instead featured a voiceover telling some random tale about New York, and then closing with the Nike swoosh over the three letters NYC? Anyone remember that? Those were very smart, and I think Nike should resurrect those 100% as is. No?

via The Artist and His Model »

This is a clever little guerilla marketing campaign going on here in New York. Obviously, Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire-turned-mayor is running again (for a third term), so why not run another billionaire against him. There’s even a whole platform including how Burns will use the subway to ship freight and cattle.

Gothamist featured the story, and includes a video. The “official” campaign site has more info, wrapped in a pretty awful design.

I’m interested to see where this goes, if the local news catches wind or if the gang gets sued by the creators of The Simpsons. I still haven’t exactly determined the purpose — it seems a long way around to promote The Simpsons as a TV Show, which already have a solid following in New York (and anywhere educated and comedy-loving people live)

Apparently it’s part of Art in Odd Places. »

Hell, I dunno. Thought it was clever. Maybe I’m just a big Simpsons fan.

O that I were yet a grad student, for surely this would be my thesis.

London, my beloved bittersweet mistress of a second-city, has an identity crisis, and has put out the call to the design firms of Britain (and to a lesser degree, the world), to redesign the brand identity for London. While a bit of visual goodness is always appreciated, the main objective in this endeavor is to unify the many purpose-build identities used in London for tourism, transport, the 2012 Olympics, and a host of other departments and activities.

London’s many identities, courtesy of Brand New

I should have written about this last month when I spotted a post on Logo Design Love, but somehow I didn’t get to it. Anyway, The official assignment is elaborated on over at Brand Republic. In short, the call for work is unpaid, and you must contact the folks running the scheme to get your name in the ring. For anyone reading this blog post, you’re probably too late, as the closing will be 3 Sept.

But I think that I will turn this in a Design For Fun post here on Perez-Fox.com. Having lived in Britain, and fallen in love with Lady London, this could be a great chance to geek out with cultural identity-based design, and a challenge in modern branding on how to tie all those seemingly unrelated elements together.

Outside of the official tender, there are a number of possible solutions being discussed on the site A Brand For London. Definitely some sharp insight into typography, iconography, design history, and the “brand DNA” of London. But didn’t Rian Hughes already put together a logo for London a few years ago? Yes, he did, and the powers that be told him “thanks, but no thanks.” (in the British equivalent of a Sarah Palin accent, no doubt.)

Hughes’s Rejected Logo for London

So everyone bust out the sketchbook and let’s find a way to unify London behind some sort of a logo or graphic identity. I hope to find some time in the next few days to post my entry.

And let us not forget that immortal quotation about The Big Smoke:

“Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
— Samuel Johnson

Well, last night I snuck out to a preview and managed to watch the film. The two words on my tongue after seeing it: “so what?” The film is a little more than a trophy, acknowledging the rare moments in advertising that do, somehow, manage to cut through the shouting, and that can, admittedly, touch our lives. But we already knew that.

From the title, I imagined Art & Copy would be a sort of inside story into the day-to-day lives of ad agency workers. For once, the lay public will get a glimpse into how it happens, and see that behind these ads are real people, waking up and going to work. But instead, we see a reinforced stereotype of frustrated artists and eccentric creative directors who swear they are changing the world simply by breathing.

There has always been in our society a cynicism towards advertising. We don’t enjoy being interrupted, be it on television, radio, in magazines and newspapers, or even while walking down the street peering at bus shelters and billboards. We’re sick of this shit. But the film does nothing to assuage this cynicism, and instead helps solidify it by highlighting how each of the famous ad-men (and women) featured share a general hatred for their own profession. This is more apparent in the nature of the film itself — interview segments are intercut with montages of ad-saturated cityscapes. Statistics are displayed on-screen that quantify just how many ads we’re exposed to … and how the figures are getting worse over the years. So after a heart-warming tale about the golden age of the biz, we’re brought back to Earth by the reality that those days are, indeed, gone.

Advertising (at least in America and Britain) is overwhelmingly white and male. The industry continues to take criticism for this. And that lopsidedness is reflected in this film. I’m just saying. It also misleads the public by featuring only successful, distinguished industry veterans, thereby sidestepping the ugly issue of burnout, which is infamous within the profession. A lot folks don’t make it to the corner office, and are pushed out well before their hair goes white.

But to be fair, the Art & Copy does entertain. Featuring some of the most notable ad campaigns of the last 50 years, it literally makes us laugh and cry. After all, aren’t emotions slightly heightened by nostalgia?

There is an odd meta quality to the film — the whole thing is one giant ad in the sense that they use the medium of film, combined with moving music, well-chosen imagery, and clever text, to evoke emotions in the audience. And maybe we’re not supposed to notice, but I did, can still testify that in that regard, it’s done very well.

Sadly, the film represents very few campaigns (or thinking) from the 21st Century. Obviously, the Century is young, but with media and consumer habits changing so rapidly, I reckon it’s worth at least mentioning. One line, I believe, mentioned the need for more integrated campaigns going forward, and a few of the on-screen graphics acknowledged that advertising is no longer confined to the television set. But no attention was paid to the trans-cultural nature of brands, user-generated content, the push for online, the death of newspapers (and magazines), or TiVo, all of which are huge players in the constantly-evolving landscape of advertising today. With this oversight, Art & Copy might have been perfectly suited a release in 1999.

I am cynical about advertising. Perhaps because I like to focus more on the branding side of things, but I’m one of those guys who wouldn’t mind if all advertising disappeared overnight. (yes, I know there are economical logistical issues to work on) But even I, the cynic, have to give props to some of the campaigns over the years that have moved us forward. These are one that do become art, and do end up in that same corner of our brain where we store fond memories of childhood Christmases. Here are a few featured in the film. They are indeed timeless. (in no particular order)

Wendy’s – Where’s the Beef (1984)

MTV – I Want My MTV (1981)

Nike – Failure (1999)

Nike – If You Let Me Play Sports (1995)

Milk – Got Milk? (Aaron Burr) (1993)

Braniff Airlines – End of the Plain Plane (1965)

Reagan ’84 – It’s Morning in America (1984)

Johnson ’64 – Daisy (1964)

Apple Macintosh – 1984 (1984)

Apple iPod – iPod+iTunes (2003)

[someone please correct me if I got the years wrong. I'm not the expert here.]

So what’s the takeaway from all this? Basically the same thing we’ve been saying all along: advertising can push the limits of art, media, communication, storytelling, and society. But it usually doesn’t. If you’re a client, take a risk once in a while, it may pay off. If you’re an agent, try not to be a dick. Be creative. And don’t take yourself so fucking seriously. (I added that last one myself.)

PS, I think I might have voted for Reagan. A little hyperbolic, but man, what an ad.

Check out this Flickr pool of beautiful faded signage and advertisements. I love this crap, wish I could go around photographing more of it. There’s actually an example right at the end of my street.

Faded Signage on Flickr »

via Design Work Life »