Bird's Nest

A little belated, but this Coca-Cola ad that aired during the opening ceremonies last week is ADORABLE.

Brilliant Stop Motion Ad

Courtesy of Motionographer.

A Foray Into Commercial Photography

Unilever/Axe ran an ad using my photo of Hillary from the New Hampshire primary.

Adventures in Crowdsourcing

Particularly after the conclusion of Assignment Zero, I have become increasingly wary of the genuine benefits of crowdsourcing -- particularly within the context of journalism and other creative processes that require a degree of continuity. A few recent projects, however, have caught my eye for their singular ability to harness the occasionally useful residual energy of the masses:

1. You know that distorted word that pops up when you try to create an e-mail account or leave a blog comment? Usually, it's a nonsensical string of characters designed to foil spambots and the like. With reCAPTCHA, however, the site's visitor is required to enter two separate words: one that the computer recognizes and actually uses for verification, and another that actually comes from a book that is in the process of being digitized. reCAPTCHA takes the words that aren't easily identified by computers and has you blog readers and e-mail sign-up-ers do the work. Brilliant!

2. The Border Film Project provides packages with disposable cameras to both Minutemen and Mexican migrants attempting to enter the US. When the cameras are returned, the best photos are selected and added to a traveling exhibition. They've posted a number of the images on the site, and some of them are quite stunning.

3. And most recently, Google just launched a video project encouraging people to make short clips showing the trademark Gmail envelope passing across the frame from one hand to another. On August 13, Google will stitch the best into a single film. Pretty convenient if you can crowdsource even your advertising campaigns!

"This Ad Is Not Exactly Kosher"

My favorite ad agency of all time -- Saatchi & Saatchi, creator of brilliant campaigns like 30% Off Everything -- might have put a bit of a dent in their sterling reputation.

Fact Magazine recently ran a series of Doc Martens ads designed by S&S and featuring four punk icons wearing nothing more toga-esque sheets and combat boots. The problem? None of the families/estates of the four deceased musicians -- Kurt Cobain, Joey Ramone, Joe Strummer, and Sid Vicious -- were actually asked for permission before the images (from major stock house Corbis) were used. Once news of the ads reached America, Courteney Love and Mickey Leigh (Joey Ramone's brother) raised a big stink and Doc Martens immediately canceled their contract with Saatchi before issuing a public statement of apology. Said Leigh in his own statement, "And, not that my brother was terribly religious, but the fact that he was Jewish, and this ad is not exactly kosher, makes it that much more inappropriate, inconsiderate and contemptible."

LogoOrange

Branding agency LogoOrange has a small catalogue of famous corporate logos and their design histories up on their website. As a for instance -- am I the only person who never noticed that the Yamaha logo is a set of three crossed tuning forks? Apparently, Yamaha was founded (originally under the name Nippon Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha) as an instrument repair company. I guess the motorcycles are just a hobby.

Also on LogoOrange's site is an efficient write-up of predicted 2007 Logo Design Trends. Don't know what hot dogs, clouds, and transmission beams have to do with branding? Read on.

And lastly -- for any designer who has to switch constantly between RGB and CMYK formats, the site includes an extensive color-matching chart for easy conversion.

From Nexus Productions

This spot for Orange is one of the most wonderful ads I have ever seen.

Elsewhere in Adland, this ad for an Ariston washing machine is beautiful, as is the older French Citroen commercial.

Animal Testing

Pretty effective ad campaign from Freedom for Animals. Click on the images for a larger version.

30% Off Everything

Pretty damn brilliant ad campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi.