Tag Archives: creative

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Baby

Or shall we say “beannachtaí na féile pádraig!”? Either way, we hope you’re being a stereotypical celebrator of this Irish holiday–wearing all of your green garments, either drinking or at least thinking (daydreaming?) about drinking a Guinness, and insisting that your grandfather’s cousin’s uncle was half-Irish, so you are in the clear. For this fine holiday, we thought we’d share some of our favorite St. Patrick’s Day themed adverts from recent years.

St. Patrick’s Day is all about tradition, and we think this ad for Fujifilm from last March appeals to the nostalgia of bygone celebration. The copy, though somewhat hard to read, speaks of a distant memory that so many can relate to, conceptualizing the timelessness of a Fujifilm photo.

(Source: Coloribus)

Following the theme of tradition, McDonald’s clever promotion for its Shamrock Shake plays on the annual dying of the Chicago River. We’ve heard the shake isn’t quite appetizing, but really appreciate the advertiser’s optimisation of placement at a spectacle that gathers tens of thousands every year. The Shamrock Shake “spilled” into the River for the past two years.

(Source: Ads of the World)

The following ad from Durex employs the stereotypical Irish phrase “to be sure, to be sure.” We like the use of white space to make the product the main spectacle, and assume the green condoms are meant to resemble four leaf clovers, creating a second layer of play on “getting lucky.”

(Source: The Chip Chop Awards)

Finally, what would St. Patrick’s Day (or advertising, for that matter) be without Guinness? We love this one, calling all to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day like a “real holiday,” and we couldn’t agree more!

So, as Durex advises, have a fun, safe St. Patrick’s Day!

Nature’s Music

You know those albums featuring the sound of rain falling, or waves crashing, that are meant to be calming and meditative? Well this is much more interesting. We came across this video today of sound designer/composer Diego Stocco playing a tree. By tuning the branches of a tree in his backyard with a pencil and plucking, bowing, or stethoscope-ing them, Stocco created a full song:

We were so intrigued that we sought out some more Diego Stocco productions, and this is what we found:

The most awesome part of the video above? Diego invented the instrument he is playing in it! It’s called the Experibass, and Diego was inspired to create it in order “to hear the sound of violin, viola and cello strings amplified through the body of a double bass.”

We love that Diego combines his artistically toned ear and appreciation for nature to create such beautiful music. He has an admirable ability to hear the beauty in things that  others hear without a second thought everyday.

(Sources: Boing Boing and DSSessionVideos)

Amazing, Lazy Internet Browsing

We think this is unbelievably cool. In 2008, Emotiv developed the EPOC  neuro-headset that allows users to interact with video games using their emotions alone. And now, the company has developed an app called EmoLens that lets one navigate through and tag pictures on Flickr using their emotions as well. What sets Emotiv’s headset apart from similar apparatuses is that it’s for sale to the public — the headset itself costs about £190 ($300) while the EmoLens software goes for £25 ($40).

The EmoLens app distinguishes four separate emotions (happy, sad, anger, fear) to determine how one feels about a certain image on Flickr. The image is tagged by the respective emotion, and once the feeling fades, the app displays another image pertaining to the user’s selected topic. Essentially, the headset allows the user to control Flickr without ever touching the keyboard or mouse, through the use of brain signals and blinking. Watch this video below to see a detailed explanation of how it works. We want one!!

(Souce: Dvice)

Product Placement: Don’t Overdo It

In a much-anticipated move, communications authority Ofcom finally lifted the ban on product placement advertising on UK television, a law that was officially instated on 28 February. And finally, the first legal product placement was featured on This Morning in the form of a Nescafé Dolce Gusto Melody II coffeemaker.

It seems quite anticlimactic, doesn’t it? That’s because it’s not very exciting– those of us not ashamed of our affinity for American television have been buffered for this advancement for years.  Product placement has been commonplace among our advertising counterparts in the US since the 80′s – you may have noted American Idol judges’ preference for Coca-Cola, Gossip Girl’s endorsement of Verizon, or even Jerry Seinfeld and friends’ love for Junior Mints.

We are all for product placement when done subtly and tactfully. It can be a great opportunity for the product to be seen and buzzed about as long as it doesn’t affect the content of the program. For instance, Britney Spears may have made $500k on her video for Hold it Against Me, but the product placement was far too much, making the video look like cheap advertising for Sony, PlentyofFish.com, and Make Up Forever.  However, here we are writing about it, so we suppose the point was made. Nice one, Brit. In the end, we look forward to spotting those sneaky placements in our favorite UK shows, and following up to see if there are any changes in sales for advertisers.

And what would Friday be without us sharing an ad campaign we enjoyed this week? We love this one from Oreo which gives a twist on their newest tagline “Milk’s Favorite Cookie.”

Milk’s Favorite Pampering Technique

Milk’s Favorite Breakfast

Milk’s Favorite Cookie

Though we would have liked a line that flowed better than “pampering technique,” overall the campaign seamlessly tied creativity with a great product shot.

(Sources: GOOD and Ads of the World)

A picture is worth… A novel’s words?

Matt and Alex of NovelPoster have created these awesome posters featuring the full text of classic literary novels shaped into a recognizable image associated with each novel.

The Wizard of Oz

The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland

Great Expectations

The posters were featured on Kickstarter, and NovelPoster has already surpassed it’s original goal of $5,000 by over $3k, and the campaign still has 53 days to go! We can certainly see why so many are eager to back this very cool idea. In full size, the text of every work is completely eligible.

On top of the literary works, NovelPoster is now featuring iconic images created from the twitter feeds of popular celebrity tweeters such as Kanye West, Stephen Colbert, and Lady Gaga. Watch the video here for more information from Matt and Alex, as well as a preview of the Twitter posters.

(Sources: My Modern Met and Kickstarter)

Making CO2 Emissions Tangible

Do you know how much 350 grams of CO2 is? We can’t really imagine a solid image of how much CO2 that is, or how much it is affecting our environment when released into the atmosphere. Nitipak Samsen, a graduate of the Royal College of Art, acknowledged this intangibility and created the ATREEM (Automated Tree-Rental for Emission Encaging Machine) in order to make carbon emissions and carbon trading more understandable for everyone. He does this by creating a credit card operated tape measure that translates the amount of CO2 absorbed by the tree to that of the amount emitted by doing certain activities.

Turns out, 350 grams of CO2 is equivalent to a 10 minute ride on the tube. The tree shown above takes 2 days and 10 hours to offset that amount. How many times per week do you take a tube ride that is 10 minutes long? Maybe more like 45 minutes? Samsen wants to change the way the public thinks daily–how big is your carbon footprint in terms of the life of a tree?

While developing the ATREEM, Samsen also developed a Tree Tape for Kids. The tape acts as an arts and crafts project with a real learning experience behind it. Children, or anyone, can download the PDF for the file, follow the easy instructions, and voila! The tape compares the amount of CO2 absorbed in the tree (according to its type and width) to that of a more tangible amount -  from air travel and breathing to cheeseburgers and pints of lager.

We think these are two great ways to show children and adults the reality of our carbon footprint on a smaller, relatable scale. It’s also a very innovative combination of creative and scientific design that we commend for its modernity and simplicity.

(Sources: Dezeen and dotmancando)

Good Friday

We love Fridays. We especially love this Friday because we saw the sun for more than 20 seconds! We also fancy good news, and we’ve heard some today. WPP, the world’s largest advertising company and owner of ad powerhouses JWT and Ogilvy & Mather among others, announced its profits were up 28.5% for 2010. This suggests that there is a light at the end of the recession tunnel, and that we in Ad World are slowly making our way there. Clients are seriously investing in advertising again after the disheartening years that were 2008 and 2009. Happy Friday!

And here is an ad campaign we enjoyed coming across today for the Corinthia Hotel in London.

At Baby Creative, we believe that simple sells. We thought the minimalistic, simplified element of the campaign made the ads really eye-catching. It was a nice break from typical hotel ads that feature room and building shots, and the ads, done by WCRS&Co., urged us to go check out the hotel to see if it reflected the modernity of the campaign. Well done.

(Sources: Yahoo! Finance and Ads of the World)

Awesome Architecture: Guangzhou Opera House

We think the architecture on the just-opened Guangzhou Opera House in Guangzhou, China is so cool! Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the Opera House sits on the Pearl River and was meant to resemble two pebbles sitting on the bank. Furthermore, the interior was also inspired by the natural tendencies of rivers.

The interior is meant to reflect the results of erosion on rivers, as ceilings and walls feature foldlines that would occur naturally. The fold lines also allow light into the building and improve air circulation.

The Opera House seats 1,800 and also has a 400-person multi-functional hall and multiple rehearsal rooms. We would love to see a show in this theatre just to take a walk around! An extra plus—the building of the Opera House has improved commerce and cultural interest in the Guangzhou area; the House’s location harmonizes the formerly enclosed cultural center to the more modern, international financial district of Zhujiang.

 

(Source: Dezeen)

Wine Bottle Ceiling

A glass of wine is great. A bottle of wine, better. But 5,000 bottles? Audio-enhancing? Decorative? We personally wouldn’t immediately think of these terms to describe a mountain of empty wine bottles, but one Argentinean engineer did. Diego Valentin owns Ginger Restaurant in Buenos Aires, which features a second, lower ceiling made of wine bottles that were consumed in the restaurant.

The result is a very cool looking ceiling that has dramatically increased the acoustics of the restaurant, whose high ceiling had forced the restaurant’s sounds to bounce around, echoing.

The curved shape of the wine bottles allows the sound waves to instead be “broken,” resulting in better sound quality and ambience. The bottles, most of which are shades of green, also illicit a smooth glow throughout the restaurant.

 

 

(Source: Tree Hugger)

Magma Fireplace

Who doesn’t like a good fireplace? Unfortunately, most houses and flats are now deprived from them for various reasons, but portable ones are more and more common.

We’ve come across this one, which not only will warm you up during those cold winter nights, it is also a beautiful piece of furniture, and serves as a table as well!


The colours represent the different Earth’s layer, from red to gray, giving this coffe table/fireplace a unique look. And it works on bioethanol liquid fuel, which apparently is harmless and easy to use, and maybe more importantly it is environmentally friendly!

The only downside is like most design items, you’ll have to pay the price to get your hands on it: £5,440. Seems a bit pricey, but for such a unique item that will also keep you warm and add a lot of character to your living room, it actually isn’t too bad!

 

(Source: Design Buzz)