’Tis the time of year that we give thanks for vandalized business signs, gigantic turkey sculptures and the awkwardly posed gentlemen who love them.

I’ll be back next week.

Labels: holiday, humor, turkey

I thought I would point out the new print campaign by ThinkB4YouSpeak. I like the all-typographic approach, but for the love of Zeus, how about a little typographic sensitivity when attempting to use justified text blocks. *shudders* Oh well, here’s the rundown from the site:

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) teens experience homophobic remarks and harassment throughout the school day, creating an atmosphere where they feel disrespected, unwanted and unsafe. Homophobic remarks such as “that’s so gay” are the most commonly heard; these slurs are often unintentional and a common part of teens’ vernacular. Most do not recognize the consequences, but the casual use of this language often carries over into more overt harassment.

This campaign aims to raise awareness about the prevalence and consequences of anti-LGBT bias and behavior in America’s schools. Ultimately, the goal is to reduce and prevent the use of homophobic language in an effort to create a more positive environment for LGBT teens. The campaign also aims to reach adults, including school personnel and parents; their support of this message is crucial to the success of efforts to change behavior.

ThinkB4YouSpeak

Labels: ad campaign, gay, graphic design, lesbian, ThinkB4YouSpeak

No quality beverage is complete without a fashionable lid, so here are a few of the bottle cap collections that I’ve bookmarked for design and packaging reference. Mmmmm...Nu Grape.

Bottle Cap-O-Rama

Maura Cluthe’s Collection

Andy Roscoe’s Collection

World collection of Fanta caps

Bonus Fanta Goodness

Labels: bottle caps, graphic design

I just recently rediscovered Text Twist, and boy-oh-boy is it a hoot. It’s a simple, yet addictive game, especially delightful for those who decree themselves as wordsmith nobility.

Text Twist

Labels: games, Text Twist

The American Humanist Association, has just spent $40,000 on an newly-produced atheistic Christmas campaign. First, let me state that I have nothing against atheism. I live in a country that offers religious freedom, as well as the right to believe that a god does not exist — it is a complex individual decision, and I leave it at that. Now, back to the point of this post.

I can’t be sure, but if I had to guess, I would say that roughly $37 of the $40,000 went towards concept and layout. In my opinion, this campaign is uninteresting, uninspiring, and quite possibly a complete waste of money. What is the call to action, to stop believing in God? I’m not a religious advocate, but I’m guessing the success rate of this campaign should top-out around 0.0017%. Here’s my unsolicited advice...If you’re going to spend money on a campaign in which 95% of the earth will dismiss it almost instantly, make it MEMORABLE. Use humor, use hypocrisy, make it visually seductive, have it challenge the viewer’s notion of what religion is. These ads are nothing more than a failure of marketing and advertising.

The fact that an atheist group had the guts to produce godless Christmas ads does not in itself make these a success. Take PeTA for example. This is a group that is unafraid to confront its audience, can be unapologetically irritating, and is unrelenting in its cause. Whatever you might think of PeTA as an organization, they run a well-executed, top-notch ad campaign. Sure, they may be viewed as exploitive, or overtly sexual, but they are high quality, well designed and photographed, but most importantly, they are memorable ads.

I admit it, I would have loved to written a post about an interesting new atheist ad campaign, but after seeing these, I might just head on over to peta.org, and see whom they’re upset with for wearing a fur coat — it will be more enjoyable.

Labels: ad campaign, American Humanist Association, atheist, graphic design, PeTA

Visualart requested 100 vector logo submissions, and for each, created a three second logo animation for free. There are some pretty interesting results, and the video quality is top notch.

I will warn you, the work is definitely worth checking out, but there are 50 videos per page that all trying to load at the same time. Unless you have a super-fast connection, you might need a bit of patience.

Pimp My Logo

Labels: graphic design, interactive design, Visualart

I am in awe of how well these playing cards by Ukrainian artist Vladyslav Yerko have been illustrated. The set of illustrations aren’t just really good, they are make-quality-artists-feel-bad-about-their-own-work good. I would love to get my hands on a set of these.

Playing Cards from Ukraine

Labels: artist, fine art, graphic design, illustration, Vladyslav Yerko

I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

About the poster

Labels: humor, poster, vote