Tag Archives: design

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!

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)

Bic chandelier

Design is a beautiful thing, especially when objects from our everyday life are transformed into a piece of art.

For example, something as unaesthetic as a bic, has been turned, in this case, into a beautiful chandelier. We couldn’t believe how amazing a lot of ball pens put together could look.

Definitely something we would like in our offices. Unfortunately, the link to purchase one seems to be broken… Shame!

(Source: Design Fetish)

Faber-Castell ad campaign

Here is a brilliant ad campaign for the pencil-maker giant Faber-Castell.

We love the concept, it’s very clever and fun. And it makes pencils more exciting than they actually are.

And it works very well with the shark.

Plus the dog is very cute.

(Source: Ads of the World)

Double USB port to make our life a little bit easier

Isn’t it annoying when you’re in a rush and have to upload something on a memory stick, but you can’t seem to be able to find the right side to insert it? This is one of many little frustrations of every day life.

So how to avoid it? Design a USB port that only has right sides, no wrong, by integrating two contact layers that can slide to make room according to the way you insert it. Why didn’t someone think of that before?

However, is it something that we really need? Yes, it is frustrating, but isn’t showing we are getting lazier, and cannot cope with problems anymore? Even the smallest ones, that are actually more inconviences than actual problems?

(Source: Dvice)