Edward Ruscha is an American fine artist with something significant to say about pop culture and advertising. His work, which sometimes looks like an ad, also has something to teach the makers of pop culture and advertising. According to The Tate: Words and phrases are at the centre of Ed Ruscha’s work and first appear in his paintings as early as 1959. The use of words and text in twentieth century art can first …
Heinz Brazil Is Improving the Tattoo Experience for All
In an innovative, relevant, and health-conscious move, Heinz Brazil is developing a proprietary "Heinz red" tattoo pigment using only non-harmful ingredients and making the ink available to tattoo parlors throughout Brazil. The action comes on news that color tattoo ink faces growing restrictions and outright bans in countries around the world. The European Union alone has banned over 4,000 ingredients used in the …
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Creativity, Uncaged
Advertising is a visual medium. This is truer today than ever before because people don't read, they glance. And with a world full of glancers and screen addicts, the high bar for "breakthrough creative" is now sky-high. Fine art breaks through Detailed illustrations of mythical and phantasmagorical birds take center stage in these striking posters designed by Dentsu Inc to promote the One Show Exhibition in Tokyo. …
Welcome to New York, The State of Respect
Advertising can't fix our largest societal problems. It can open eyes, hearts, and minds, without which no progress gets made. The following posters for the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York contain some of the best poster art I've seen this year. The work from Conquistadors in Brooklyn also ranks as some of the best advocacy work of the year. With 228K dead Americans and 8.9 million more infected …
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How To Humanize A Technology Offering with Exceptional Brand Story and Brand Identity
How do you send digital files that are too large for email? Specifically, which provider do you use? Dropbox? Dropsend? Sharefile? WeTransfer? One of these tech companies is an impressive marketer with a full suite of tools for creative people. One of these companies believes in the power of brand, art, story to separate it from the pack. One of these companies donates 30% of its advertising space to …
Is Your Homepage All the Page You Need?
For small businesses who need a website, there is a myriad of options, not all of them equal. Squarespace sells the dream in this new long-form commercial. The dream is that a website opens the door to commerce. https://youtu.be/dWCl6Er_VG4 Wake up, now! Thanks. Now, that you're wide awake, let's look at the pitch that Wix.com makes to small business owners. https://youtu.be/6Wu9-v6Wfy0 The dream …
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Make the Logo Better!
In the beginning, there was pulp. We took this excess fiber from the communications industry and made it into something. This is what our logo looked like in 2004 when the site launched and for many years thereafter. Thank you, Shawn Hartley. In 2017, I hired a designer in Portland who had recently graduated from the University of Michigan to make a new logo for the site. I wanted a different look and …
I’ll Take ‘Creative Wizardry’ for $800, Alex
Diminish a once-powerful industry and lose all respect inside and outside the agency. What is influencer marketing? What is programmatic? What is artificial intelligence? There is a virulent strain of stupid on the loose in the business world today. The disease leads those infected to strip the soul of creativity from the marketing communications industry. Whether it's a content marketing disciple …
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What Is Great Writing, And Where Do Great Design Ideas Come From?
Writing and design—these are the core skills that propel the communications industry forward. Without excellence in writing and design, we would have no great books, films, or architecture, and our advertising would be a complete waste of time and money. Thankfully, there's a universe of talented writers and designers and many are willing to work in corporate communications. In May, One Club put together a video …
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The Hard Reset Begets The Big Shrinkage
In 2020 and 2021, agencies will shed 52,000 jobs, according to Jay Pattisall, an analyst with Forrester. Half the jobs will not return, he predicts. Forrester also predicts that advertising spending in the United States would decline by 25 percent this year and would not recover until 2023. Is this a solid read? No one has a crystal ball, just loads of data, and anecdotal evidence. As teams shrink in size, the …
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