McCains 'Good unlimited' tv campaign

''Potatoes are tickled with feathers to turn them into Potato Smiles; Sweet Potatoes are hugged with rosemary and garlic and Potato Wedges are showered with a confetti of natural herbs and spices. It's a happy, wholesome place where McCain do good things to good food.''

I love this new campaign. I'ts friendly, inviting and appeals to all ages and markets for its playful and concept driven idea. It gives mccains moral, personality and approachability. It tells the consumer that they are eating good food made from good source.

Innocent smoothies | bobble hats!

I saw these in Sainsburys after work last night.

I'd seen them dotted about on the net but i hadn't seen this new campaign on the shelves.

Instantly has the 'awwwwwwwwwwwww...' factor , therefore i think it appeals more to women! (YA THINK?)

Already a lover of innocent smoothies, i instantly felt the need to own some of these cute knitted hats so i bought four, yes four little bottles of innocent smoothies for six pound, SIX.

For that reason, this works. It physically creates characters out of the bottles and has a winter twist with the knitted hats but also the more obvious ; bottles sitting in a fridge will get cold and want to wrap up!.. it forces you to see them as people almost, its bizarre.

The variants of these knitted bobbly hats reflects the variants of the flavours also.

I just love them. So simple ( if not expensive) but all the same, lighthearted fun from a company of the same nature and characteristics. It gets people physically involved with something material to keep that usually wouldnt be used/integrated with small plastic bottles...

Its also encouraging as each hat has a little tag that tells you that 35p will go to 'the big knit' to keep older people warmer this winter. It makes a clear and witty link between the association of old people with the passtime of knitting and is generally for a worthy, thoughtful and ''nice'' cause.

YUM :)

Benefit | crescent row | Lee Lee, Sofia and Gina

I love the packaging for these new perfumes ''Crescent row'' from Benefit.

They stand out instantly for the rich quality of design and physical reflection of a door and/or house that is illustrated on the packaging.

the story goes... each perfume represents a different type of woman. The design was based on the series of exclusive flats in Bath...i think this is evident in the elegance and vibrance of the packaging and bottle itself which shows the different moods and 'flavours' of each perfume in the colour and intricate illustrations surrounding the whole campaign behind this brand.

i'll have it for Christmas, cheers.

This morning rebrand | lambie nairn and ITV creative department

I must admit, i do like it.... or its an improvement at least. The new logo is certainly much better. A softer and more friendly typeface definitely helps give the programme a more approachable and down to earth feel. Less corporate and overbearing, it emits personality ( like the show) alongside the opening credits. The use of various media and illustration styles also reflects and mirrors the various aspects and services of the programme and how these integrate and work with and alongside eachother. The colour scheme is also softer and slightly more femminine but i pressume that the target market would be infact women who are home at that time of day- who possibly dont work, have children to look after etc (hence the various slots on home and gardening, beauty , clothes etc.)

i think it definitely appeals more. little touches like picturing the presenters (aswell as other members of the this morning team) in a polaroid photo type frame on the credits/ website , as part of the design, communicates further and metaphorically the idea of friends and family and a base to create memories and feel at home on the show...and therefore trust it.

Carphone warehouse dudes

I've always liked the Carphone Warehouse idents. I especially like these simple character illustrations. Inspiring to work with, use and develop. They have become instantly identifiable to the company. Contemporary and adaptable to motion graphics, they appeal and work in every medium.

The advertisements whereby the hand draws the illustrations out in intruiging quick-fire slides is also unexpected and as it shows the working progress in a ''fast forward'' way. Cleverly done; mixing different media and quality to draw in attention.

They were also used as sponsors of x factor. Interacting the audience in the adverts by publishing voices of the public singing, whilst the illustrated characters mimic the voice.

watch the advert style here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X4wVUcCUBw

HP Sauce poster ad

I saw a poster belonging to this series, in the metro paper a couple of weeks ago. Instead of a man , it was a child crying because of 'no hp'.( unfortunately, they seem to be scarce).

i like these. very simple and witty, straight to the point and caught my eye straight away. There's also something quite retro and unexpected about them. They resemble a 1940's propaganda poster, i interpret the aim to ironically play on this. A clear bold statement, emphasis on the 'no' as a negative; There's no room to question it, its designed and worded as a confident statement ( but lighthearted with its humorous edge).

Packaging | quaker oats | creamy oaty fruity

My final designs for quaker oats new 'chilled creamy oats' pots.

The brief was aimed at young women and i think this is clear in my ideas. The illustrations are delicate and the colours have a slight female bias also. The use of white space and simple illustrations is supposed to reflect the 'healthy light snack' side, whilst the bulky typeface stands out and show a substantially filling snack, despite it aiming to be healthy, it still wanted to reflect the satisfying end result and the richness and quality; which i believe is reflected in the colour. Originally, i planned to use paler versions of the colours used but i found that these looked too medicinal and therefore diet/health orientated. Quaker oats were more about communicating the goodness in the snack for on the go women. This is were i got the idea for the arrangement and name of the pots. I liked the idea of a 'ready, steady, go' solution but i turned these into 'creamy, oaty, fruity/sweety'. Simple and bold, it reads quickly and bluntly , naturally due to the alignment and 'boxed' effect; it also creates more of an identity out of it. I toyed with the idea of using the red, amber and green colours for each word to reinforce the idea of an on the go snack but i thought it appeared too confusing and wouldnt differentiate enough between the fruity and sweety flavours.

Overall, im happy with the final designs and i think they would it well amongst brands existing in the market. Its a different approach to the traditional Quaker oats look, but i dont think its too eccentric or different to look inconsistent or out of place; just a simple, delicate and feminine design; mainly typographical with simple vector illustrations as to not deter away attention.

Packaging | Double Decker Diversions

This is my final development for Double Decker Diversions. The concept stemmed form the idea that a double decker was quite a filling and considerably large bar to eat as one whole snack . As a brand extension, i created Diversions-small edible bites that 'divert' the two original layers within a double decker . Therefore this packet consisted of 'chewy nougat bites' and 'crunchy cereal chunks'. The illustrations i used were in the theme of the meaning behind the actual word 'double decker' (hence why i i used 'diversions') which are all appropriate to road travel/ traffic and direction. Seeing as this was a new brand extension there were two elements i thought were needed. The first was to incorporate the original orange and purple colours as they had such initial presence and recognisability on the original bar.The second was to clearly state the actual products inside, on the packet, which even till now i think could have been worked on further to place them more appropriately. I'am however, happy with the end product. I think i created a versatile and stand out, compact identity for double decker ..modernising the brand more smoothly yet without being too playful and exaggerated; it still keeps professional and realistic. It has more character and elements to it , which make it stand out.

Simone Legno -TOKIDOKI

This italian born artist initiated 'Tokidoki' ( 'sometimes') with these Japanese inspired characters. i love the style and the vibrancy of his illustrations. Very simple, very playful, very effective and versatile. Having expanded and grown , the company now produces merchandise, personyfing character and style into products such as 'mimobots' , an extension of USB's , made into recognisable, 'cute' and comical characters adapted around the shape and net of the product. Alongside this, his art has also been printed on the likes of notebooks and other stationary, bags, vinyl toys etc.

Initially 'childlike' , they incorporate a twist of an almost adult-friendly humour ..and the quality and contemporary look reinforces this.

Design Event 09 - Democracy Exhibition entries

These are my visual responses to 'Democracy' and the aspect i chose to communicate what it means to me. i researched various viewpoints that i could interpret from what we know of Democracy in society,Britain and also globally.

I decided to portray the inequality of democracy and the hypocracy surrounding 'majority rule'. Britain is supposedly a democracy; whereby we as citizens each have the right to vote for what WE want in our society and country. However, despite being given the power to decide the fate of affairs, a conclusion is cast based on the majority vote. So then, if exactly 51% of the population voted one way and the rest of the 49% voted otherwise...how is this a fair vote in a fair democracy? My pieces demonstrate how decision can be made based on 1% whilst the whole other half (minus 1%) can be overlooked, disregarded and fogotten. This is not democratic. Hypethetically, only just over half of voters could potentially have a say in what happens here on.

I was overally inspired by the Jonathan Barnbrook series of politial sketches for the Schweppes advertising campaign and i liked that illustratin style. That, alongsiode use of white space and the phrases i incorporated in the same style ..and i think i created 2 effective pieces with impact.

Doubt went over wether i needed the type to help express the message at all, aswell as the layout, but i think this landscape view fits and works well with the type and flows accordingly accross the page.