This was another spot brought to my attention today. It runs a little long but I think it is just brilliant. It builds and gets better as it goes on, not to mention how amazingly it moves from scene to scene.
A writer I am currently working with, Ashley Billings, has been alerting me to a lot of great television spots that escaped my attention in recent past. I know this spot is old but it is just so brilliant. It makes me laugh every time I watch it. Thanks for sharing the laughs Ashley.
If you have seen a television commercial that blew your mind at one point or made you stand up and ask, ‘My God, who the hell did that?’
Chances are, you were watching the work produced by one of the heavy hitters at Gorgeous. Some of the best Directors producing for broadcast call Gorgeous home.
All of their work is either hilarious or spectacular. Also, it is probably worth noting before you visit the site, that they also introduce themselves as cuddly little kittens.
London-based Up the Resolution have crafted some amazing creative in the form of commercials, music videos, and virals for clients both large and small. There is some really amazing work on their reel and there is also some great behind the scenes footage on their site.
Johnson Banks is a really interesting creative agency based out of London. They have created work for a broad spectrum of clients with no real discernable style. They prefer to be style-less and create according to the client’s needs, generating creative the most aptly solves the problem at hand. It’s a sincere approach that is worth taking note of. No surprisingly they have some really accomplished work in their portfolio including the stamps created for the Beatles above. Talk about a cool project, how much fun would it be to make stamps for the Beatles?
I am surprised I haven’t written about Un.titled before. I have mentioned some of the people who work for them in previous posts. Un.titled is a creative agency in the UK comprised of an eclectic group of thinkers, designers, developers and artists.
Comments Off on Guy Ritchie for Nike FootballAdvertising
Director and lucky-ass Madonna husband, Guy Ritchie just directed this new spot for Nike Football. Some of the biggest soccer stars in the world appear in the first-person-perspective video. If you are a fan of soccer, as I am, it is about as close as you can get to living the dream for just a few brief minutes. Fantastic idea. I can’t believe something like this has never been done before. Brilliant.
Character is a design agency based in San Francisco. Character was established in 1999 by Benjamin Pham, Patricia/Tish Evangelista and Rishi Shourie. The studio now employs a team of art directors, designers, project managers, brand strategists and writers. Character has generated creative for Nike, Levis, Restoration Hardware, Kohler and Pottery Barn. They have some beautiful design work in their portfolio. All of it is on point and highly accomplished.
Sea Design just relaunched their website. I have been a fan of their work for a while. I sought them out after seeing the first cover of Grafik Magazine. They subsist mostly on minimal design and have produced some stunningly clean typography. You can view some of their work on their website but the real nugget, and trust me it is worth your time, is in the downloadable PDF’s under their about section. Take the time to download them and look through them because there is some gorgeous graphic design waiting to inspire you.
1st Ave Machine is an NYC based CGI VFX/Animation studio and production company specializing in advertising, music videos, broadcast and feature film. They are known for their hyper-realistic organic animation. The studio was founded by animation and live action director Arvind Palep and executive producer Serge Patzak.
The stills above are from a recent AT&T commercial. The realism of the graphics have to be seen to be believed. They are absolutely stunning. Amazing work.
Every once in a while you see a website that makes your jaw drop. That is what happened when I visited Kashiwa Sato’s website. I also almost had a seizure but sometimes seizure-inducing is a good thing. The site reminds me of the older work of Yugop.
Site aside, there is also a wealth of great work at the website. It comes almost unexpectedly because the strangeness of the site that hosts it. There is almost a strange push-pull juxtaposition going on. Sato is a rare breed however, sacrificing his identity for the integrity of the project and massaging style to solve the problem put to him by the client. That is the definition of a good designer.
Sato was born in 1965 and graduated in 1989 from Tama Art University with a degree in graphic design. After a stint at Japan’s second largest ad agency, Hakuhodo Inc., he went on to establish Samurai studio in 200.
Since then his major work has consisted of television commercials, commissioned work for music, product development, visual identity, branding and creative direction and art direction for every kind of client under the red sun.
He is also a published author. His shelf is home to almost every award the Japanese ad community has to offer. To top all of this off, he also gives back as a professor at Meiji Gakuin University.
Jack Ryan Schuler is now a Denver resident with a book full of confident and effective design. He graduated from the Art Center College of Design. Following graduation he lived in a loft above skid row in downtown Los Angeles while working for Shimoda Design Group. Shimona is an architecture firm that has done commercial interior work for Lord’s Couture, MTV and Rolex. He almost became a back-up guitarist at one point for Kelly Osbourne. He is in Denver now looking for an agency or design firm to call home and I would imagine he is also seeking freelance in the interim. Visit his site and send the guy an email. We don’t want to lose him.
Comments Off on Wexley School for GirlsAdvertising
Ah, what to say about this rare and precious beast? Hmm. I doth wonder? Wow, doth is a real word, my spell checker didn’t even catch it. Who knew.
Essentially, Wexley School for Girls is an advertising agency, and equally as essentially it is a group of the biggest wise-asses ever to run the game. Boy do they run it well. There is so much funny and incredibly smart work in their book that it is kind of daunting. It’s not the kind of work that a lot of overly aesthetic types will appreciate it. A lot of it appears almost ‘underproduced’ in that regard, but lovingly so. Don’t be fooled by this because intelligence and humor permeate everything in their book down to the core. Their broadcast and viral work is a study in low budget meets high concept. If you are in advertising, it will have you asking, “Shit, why didn’t we do that?”
The crazy sexy space cats at Wexley believe that anything can be advertising depending on how it’s thrown out their into popular culture. Traditional media, design, packaging, video games, PR generating lunacy, short films and even an occasional squirrel race. Nothing is off limits and everything deserves thought.
They may not be what I typically post, which is usually pretty and gratifying design, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t amazingly talented and deserving of every accolade possible. They are the kind of agency I would kill to work for. I would imagine you can hear laughter throughout the day in their office and I bet a lot of it is coming from the clients and not just the creatives. Spend some time checking out their broadcast work because it is pure pleasure. If you like your humor dry with a side of smart ass, then their blog will send you through the roof.
Birmingham-based Tak! has been around a while and used to have a really over-the-top almost inexplicable experimental website that was a lot of fun to explore. Since then they have grown into an established creative agency with an impressive roster of clients. They symbolize the new wave of agencies that seem to function more as a team defined by creative collaboration versus a group of employees working as cogs spinning in a deadline machine. It’s a trend that I think has a lot to do with how the internet has opened the communication lines between creatives and allowed us to consider relationships and methodologies the were not-so-long-ago entirely inaccessible. I think it is a positive shift and a microcasmic experiment in how business with work in the future.
In that vein Tak! functions as a team of designers, art directors, programmers, illustrators, photographers and film makers. They believe in the power of an idea and that power is the culmination of of their client interaction driving their desire to always keep thinking. They live and breath design and believe good design is about choosing the appropriate look and feel for the given project at hand. In other words, style where style is due. A good note for young designers, myself included. They also work to communicate simply and not overshadow the communicative transaction with over saturated style keeping usability and functionality top of mind.
Their website is also a testament to how this new wave of agencies is administering their culture to the end user and potential client. Tak! has a great blog full of fun and inspirational content that doesn’t read like a PR effort. The site overall has a friendly and honest tone that really makes you feel like you are engaging personally with their agency.
Comments Off on Advertise On ChangethethoughtCtt News
Changethethought is currently seeking sponsors and advertisers. If you would like specific details or to hear more about Ctt’s reader statistics send us an email and we can give you all you need.
We are currently seeking hosting sponsorship and advertising both on and off the central blog.
Comments Off on Idea 2008 Grad Show: Putty in Your HandsGraphic Design
The 2008 graduating class of Vancouver’s IDEA [Illustration/Design: Elements & Applications] 3-year diploma Program will be having their graduation show on April 14th. The school centers on programs in communication design and applied illustration. The program has been recognized for high job placement success and strong career relevancy. In shorthand, the students come out of school very well prepared to jump right into a career in the design and creative industry.
As of the scheduled show date of April 14th there will be 26 new designers and illustrators ready to hit the slippery creative ground running. You can check out their site which features profiles and portfolio selections of each graduate at:
The site is very well designed and there is some equally well designed and thought out work in the portfolios of these young graduates. I was impressed.
Comments Off on 1950s – 1970s AdvertisingAdvertising
A coworker of mine was sifting through this Flickr collection earlier this week. I noticed some really interesting images flashing across his screen and inquired as to what he was looking at and he said someone had emailed him a link to this really interesting collection of 1950’s through 70’s advertising.
The account claims that you can find Posters, Magazine Advertisements, Brochures, Booklets, Publishing, Calendars, Greeting Cards, Packaging, Logotypes, Trade-Marks, Letterheads, Exhibitions, Show-windows… Graphic design, illustrations and printed artwork in general all from the the 50’s and 60’s era. It’s an interesting study in design and there is definitely a bit of inspiration to be found.
