[RED] and Oxfam

[RED] is a good example of advertising, it sends a clear message to its audience telling them what the organization does. At the same time it allows the audience to buy [RED] branded products to create revenue for the charity and even allows them to upload their own videos onto www.joinred.com allowing the audience to feel involved in the charities actions.

[RED] uses high profile tv, magazine and website advertising to gain a wide audience. Targeting a larger audience base and creating [RED] branded products which will be popular with a varied type of customer will inevitably be benificial for the charity.
I think Oxfam uses bad advertising techniques to communicate their message. One way I know this is everytime an Oxfam advert comes on the TV everyone I know changes the channel immediately, this shows that they not communicating successfully with viewers.

This stereotypical way of advertising has bin broken by [RED] and I believe Oxfam can learn something from them, the majority of viewers are selfish and mostly only care about what they can gain from something. I believe Oxfam need to change their image and try to get in the spotlight as much as [RED] have by advertising in the right places and becoming associated with popular brands like apple and motorola.

www.tokyoplastic.com

This design company have created a very fun and interesting way of navigating and viewing their work and games.

I really like what they have created, the user is given no instructions or details about how to use the navigation system. From clicking on one topic the user is shown an elaborate animation which takes them to their destination on the site .

There is a strong style all the way through and you constantly feel the site gives off a very strong sense of character and I recommend viewing their interactive animation "The Little Fella".

www.readymech.com

This website gives people the opportunity to print out flatpack toys. The toys include monsters, robots, people and one created for Nike.

The idea to give people ready designed flatpack toys which they can print out and build for themselves combines two great techniques. First the designer can put anything they want on the flatpack including brands, and secondly the user gets a feeling of being a part of the creation of the toy.

www.colourlovers.com

This massive community website allows members to create they're own 6 colour palettes which can then be voted and commented upon by other members.

Members can also create they're own colours and name them, which creates a very proud feeling when someone sends you a comment saying how much they love your new colour.

This process of creation and admiration is very addictive and become quite the hobby even though it is a very simple idea, giving everyone the same skills and options to be creative eliminates any elitism that can be found in other online communities.

www.mrwong.de

This designer also uses pixel art as his main weapon, Mr Wong has created hundreads of pixel icons of everything you can imagine...from tin openers to cartoon characters. Every week he uploads his new creations for his fans to download for free, his "goodies" range from icons of mobile phones to your favourite football shirts.

His most famous creation was his "Soup'Partments" which can be found from his website, he created the world's tallest virtual building and allowed everyone a chance to own a floor. The owner could then design his or her floor in what ever they wanted, from a football pitch to a recreation of they're bedroom, what ever they wanted! If that isn't interaction on a massive scale i don't know what is.

www.drububu.com

This self titled "pixel pusher" originates from the Netherlands and goes by the name Arjan Westerdiep. His design works varies alot from flash animation to traditional pen and ink to pixel art.



His main creation is the character Drububu, this fellow appears throughout his work and as you look through his website you start to believe this character is actually the designer.



Arjan's website includes his portfolio of work, miscellaneous creations and games. The navigation system is really easy to use as it is always located on the left side and the site is not cluttered what so ever, showing only the menu and the current item at one time.



He has attracted a massive fan base without doing much commercial work and I am sure if he was in the media light more he would be a lot more famous.

Neville Brody

Born 1957, London.

Graphic Designer, Typographer and Art Director, Neville Brody is an alumnus of the London College of Communication and is most well known for his work on The Face magazine.

While he was art director for The Face magazine, Brody questioned similar rules which David Carson did, such as the why be controlled by the edges of the paper? He tryed to make the magazine as visually interesting for the reader as possible and strived to make them look twice at each page. He was concerned with pushing the boundaries of conventional magazine design and this originality benefited The Face with popularity.

www.researchstudios.com
www.wikipedia.org
www.designobserver.com

David Carson

Born 1956, Texas.

An American graphic designer, David Carson is most famous for his use of experimental type and innovative magazine design.

Carson was the founding art director for the alternative rock and roll magazine Ray Gun.The magazine was important because it abandoned the conventional rules of publishing by discarding headlines, columns and page numbers. This created an original and abstract style and was soon mimicked on album covers and posters.

This pushing of boundaries and originality is hard to be influenced by because if you try to push boundaries I always find the results are thin and without meaning, what I have learnt from David Carson is that rules are not set in stone and sometimes the best results are when you do not follow them.

www.davidcarsondesign.org
www.wikipedia.org

The Designers Republic

Founded 1986, Sheffield

The Designers Republic is a group of graphic designers who work in contrast to the current understanding of design, "TDR is a declaration of independence from what we perceive to be the existing design community".

TDR have designed record covers for many bands including Aphex Twin and Age of Chance, visuals and packaging for computer games such as Wipeout and everything from websites to music video production.

TDR have created an easily recognisable style using flat vector graphics and anti-establishment images and corporate logos with a hint of irony, this constant style helps them to communicate their "motto" through what ever medium they are using.

www.thedesignersrepublic.com
www.wikipedia.org
www.creativematch.co.uk

Edward Tufte

Born 1942, Kansas City.

Edward Rolf Tufte is a Professor Emeritus of Statistics, Graphic Design and Political Economy at Yale University, the New York Times described his as the "Leonardo da Vinci of Data".

His best-known books are Envisioning Information and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.His books include hundreads and hundreads of devices and techniques for showing complex information via visual means, some include statistical graphics, timetables, data maps and relational graphics.

The level of his knowledge and expertise is astounding and without some of his communicative devices the world would be a very different place.www.edwardtufte.com

www.wikipedia.org
www.salon.com

Chris Ware

Born 1967, Nebraska

Chris Ware is a comic book artist, best known for Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth and Acme Novelty Library.

Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth is seen my many as his best work, the book uses many different techniques to communicate lots of information and trys to portray a convincinging illusion of life. Thousands of drawings are helped along by pull-out instructions and paper cut-outs and his outstanding draftmanship easily helps the viewer to gain an understanding of his book.www.randomhouse.com

www.wikipedia.org
www.fantagraphics.com

Saul Bass

Born 1920, New York.

Saul Bass can be described as one of the first designers to realize the creative potential of the opening and closing credits of a film, he worked on films such as Casino, Goodfellas, Vertigo, Psycho and The Man with the Golden Arm. He was also an incredible logo and designed logos for hundreads of companys throughout his life.

Saul Bass used large blocks of colour and negative space to create simple but effective title sequences, this immediately gave the viewer an impression of the film. The Man with the Golden Arm was one of Bass' famous sequences, it uses an animated paper cut out arm to help portray the topic of the film which was heroin addiction, as you can imagine it caused quite a sensation in 1955.

This succesful use of simple colours to communicate alot of information has inspired me in my work to develop my own images to their full potential.

www.saulbass.co.uk
www.wikipedia.org
www.designmuseum.org

Edward Gorey

Born 1925 Chicago.

Some clasify Gorey as a writer who drew, and others as an artist who wrote. He was a master of pen and ink illustrations and used his ironic and offbeat humour to gain fans all across the world. Using a small colour palette and simple illustrations he managed to communicate alot of information to the reader, this enabled him to create many wordless books using only his illustrations to talk to the reader.

This has interested me greatly because I have tried to use the images in my book to communicate the information to the reader, using as few words as possible.

www.goreyography.com
www.edwardgoreyhouse.org
www.wikipedia.org