Earlier today I was flicking through the News of the World Sunday magazine Fabulous and came across four advertisements for various products that stood out to me for a number of reasons. I’ve included the adverts with a little analysis as to why I was drawn to each image.

I can only apologise for the quality of the images. Trying to scan a flimsy magazine page is without getting the print from the other side showing through is no easy task.

All original images copyright their respective creators.

Ribena

This advert looks as though it was painstakingly made by hand (which it probably wasn’t), and the way the designers have constructed the product from items the product itself is made from is very clever. Recently I’ve developed an interest in typography created from real-life objects as oppose to computer graphics and I feel this image is a reflection of that style.

Elastoplast

I love the photo manipulation on this one. This advertisement visually demonstrates with great effect Elastoplast’s new range of plasters that include skin-healing cream (even if the ‘cream’ does look a little like ”Mr Whippy’ icecream).

Uncle Bens

This advert is my personal favourite because of it’s simplicity and bold colour. Using 5 grains of rice to symbolise a thumbs-up is genius. I’d like to imagine the idea coming from the designer spilling rice and having a ‘eureka’ moment.

Cathedral City

Again, this advert caught my eye due to the simplistic style of the illustration. Using the cute little cheese-grater as a jail cell to illustrate low fat cheese being ‘a crime against taste’ is quite clever

What do you think? Which was your favourite and why? Have you come across a stylish, eye-catching advert recently? Leave a comment and let me know.

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I’ll admit, I’m a little slow posting these (over a year too slow it would seem) but great designs are great designs, regardless of age, so I’m bringing them to light again.

Flickr user spacesick has created a number of quaint, retro-inspired book covers based on several famous films. The “I can read movies” flickr set features novelizations of Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and Batman Returns to name but a few, all of which use simplistic, recognisable elements from the films in question to illustrate the cover. Read the rest of this entry »

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If you haven’t seen the new Christopher Nolan film ‘Inception’, do so immediately. This isn’t a blog about films and their content, so I won’t go into detail about the plot or the production values, or anything like that. Just know this; It’s absolutely outstanding!

The following collection of ‘Inception’ poster designs really capture the essence of the film, without explaining anything specific about the storyline. They capture your attention and imagination like all good film posters should, and the lack of explanation peaks your curiosity. Read the rest of this entry »

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When it comes to design, less is most definitely more. And save for text on a plain background, you can’t get much simpler than a photograph and some type.

This collection of album covers features artwork from albums by a range of musicians, all of which have eye-catching, simple photography as the basis for the design. Read the rest of this entry »

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Personally, I often find it hard to come up with an idea for a design to help keep my creative juices flowing and my portfolio up to date. Over the last few days I’ve been brainstorming ways to come up with my own design briefs that are not only going to help me gain content for my portfolio, but also give me experience of trying new techniques or areas of design.

Here are my suggestions. I’d love to hear of ways that help you to keep creatively active via a quick and easy comment at the end. Read the rest of this entry »

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There is a vast number of artists with varying degrees of skill and expertise, all using deviantART to showcase their work (myself included). I have a long and varied list of artists on my watch list, including concept artists and digital painters.

The work that some of these artists create is absolutely amazing, especially some of their speed-paintings which can take less than an hour to create, yet trick you into believing you’re seeing a huge amount of detail in them.

On the other end of the scale is the photo-realistic landscapes or portraits that can take a huge amount of time to complete that simply drop your jaw to the floor.

The list below is a selection of 20 of these deviants and their creations that I personally liked. Feel free to add your thoughts or suggestions for artists to feature in a future post.

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Saul was a prolific graphic artists and film maker who was well known for his many collaborations with film directors, including Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorcese, often designing both the title sequences and the advertising posters for films such as ‘The Man With the Golden Arm’, ‘Psycho’ and ‘Anatomy of a Murder’.

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This collection of propaganda posters comes from China.

During the time of the Korean conflict which saw America became China’s main foreign adversary, the Chinese used posters to suggest that the USA was using bacteriological warfare against them , a perfect use of propaganda to fuel hatred for their enemy and at the same time justify the actions of the country in the eyes of its inhabitants. Read the rest of this entry »

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This collection of posters is from Britain during WWII and also features several recruitment and morale posters. Read the rest of this entry »

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These Russian posters from WWII were designed to improve morale in, whilst at the same time providing valuable advice to soldiers and civilians. I personally think the colours and tones in some of these are fantastic. Read the rest of this entry »

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