Artisan - the lightboxes...

I have only today managed to find the time to take a few pics of the panels which I designed and produced before Christmas for Artisan. The panels look great, the pics are quickly taken and do not do them justice.

"Royale" - notes from Louise...

Louise Doubble, a collaborator on this project, has emailed her notes.

Here they are.

"Royale" - The Commercial continues...

Further commercials follow the same theme. But with a slight twist.

As the camera pans away, we still see SLJ. But sat beside him is Denzel Washington. Both are so cool.

The commercial follows similar course of original.

Subsequent commercials keep adding additional "cool", coloured actors, musicians, sportsmen and celebrities.

Such as: Will Smith. Chris Rock. Meki Phifer. Lawrence Fishburne. 50 Cent. Kanye West. Wesley Snipes.

The commercials continue and the bar gets longer. And longer. And longer...

"Shaft"...

Shaft

Who's the black private dick
that's a sex machine to all the chicks?

(Shaft!)

You're damn right
Who is the man
that would risk his neck for his brother man?

(Shaft!)

Can ya dig it?
Who's the cat that won't cop out
when there's danger all about

(Shaft!)

Right on
You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother--
(Shut your mouth)
But I'm talkin' about Shaft
(Then we can dig it)
He's a complicated man
but no one understands him but his woman

(John Shaft)

Isaac Hayes (October 1971)

"Royale" - The SLJ Follow Up...

After the commercials have aired, the follow up posters/billboard/Adshells are released. These introduce the SLJ character and reinforce the Royale brand.

"Royale" - The Commercial...

The commercial opens with a black screen and the sound of "Shaft" by Isaac Hayes.

The black screen fades away to reveal two eyes. The music continues playing and we become aware of female voices "cooing" and praising a man. Giggling and fussing over him.

The camera pulls away to reveal more of the face, until we see the recognisable features of Samuel L. Jackson. He is sat at the end of a bar. The soundtrack enhances the fact that SLJ is cool.

However, SLJ is alone and the female voices continue. The camera moves to the other end of the bar. A "geeky" man is surrounded by gorgeous women; they are infatuated with him and are draped all over him.

The camera pans back to show entire bar. SLJ - alone - at one end. Geek - with females - at the other.

Close up of SLJ. Perplexed as to why he is alone.

Geek stands to leave. Walks to wards SLJ. A beautiful girl on each arm.

As he nears, SLJ asks: "Hey man. What's your secret?"

The geek stops. "My secret?"

Geek turns towards SLJ and opens his jacket to reveal his top pocket. Inside is a packet of Royale condoms - with the name clearly visible.

He says to SLJ: "Royale".

The geek looks at the girl on his left and smiles at her. He looks to the girl on his right and winks at her.

He looks at SLJ, pauses and finishes. "With ease".

"Royale" - The Teaser...

Our campaign for "Royale" condoms kicks off with poster/billboard/Adshell advertising at locations throughout the UK.

We chose a simple, strong design which intrigues the viewer by giving nothing away. The ad carries the Royale www address which can be accessed; here, visitors can register their interest and receive a free sample pack.

Quick Projects: Multiculturalism...

This evening we took a look at a report on "multiculturalism" compiled by Undaleeb Qazi, an Account Executive at Weber Shandwick UK, from a report prepared by KRC Research, part of Weber Shandwick Worldwide.

Taking the information in the report as our basis, we were asked to design an advertising campaign for the following market.

Product: condoms

Target market: Second generation Afro-Caribbean males aged 18-35

What did we do? We brainstormed our initial thoughts of the target market and pooled our ideas: West Indian. Hair - weaves/dreads/extensions. Gun crime. Knife crime. Bling. BMW's. Patois. Trainers. Rap. Hip-hop. Bump 'n' Grind, Dancing. Homeboy/Homies/Hoodies. Street cred. Be'atches! "Down with it!" Jungle music.

These initial notes gave us the idea to name the product "Hoodies" or "Hoodz". For obvious reasons!

What next? We thought of some role models: Martin Lawrence. Chris Rock. Richard Pryor. Judge Jules. Samuel L. Jackson (SLJ). Will Smith.

Our aim? To make our condoms cool to buy and cool to use for our target group. We decided to market them via radio ads (egg. Radio 1 Xtra, 6 Music), posters/flyers in clubs and venues, ads in music press.

Drawbacks? Our initial idea seemed good. But we felt that the name "Hoodz" and our approach was too obvious and excluded some of the target group - such as males more interested on studying, those focussed on career progression and those with little interest in music. We scrapped the "Hoodz".

Second thoughts? The target market age range was quite widespread - 18 to 35 - and we felt that our idea must be something that could be inclusive to all of them.

The research showed that 28% of black respondents expressed a liking for Denzel Washington - this tied in well with our thoughts about SLJ as both are respected actors/icons with appeal at all ages (and, as an added bonus, an appeal that cuts across racial boundaries).

So? The SLJ link had led us to "Pulp Fiction" and the 1970's "blaxploitation" film genre.

We decided on a three pronged attack with our ad campaign would.

1. "The Teaser" - billboards/posters/Adshells that will run for for 2 weeks.

2. "The Commercial" - screen commercial (TV/cinema/www).

3. "The SLJ Follow Up" - billboards/posters/Adshells to run for 2 weeks.

Van...tastic...

Am busy working on three vans for one of my main clients; whilst trying to set up the files for a fleet for another client.

This is a fleet of 15 Mercedes Sprinter LWB's that I have been asked to do. As is the norm, they are required ASAP - or quicker. I designed this customers original logo and vehicle layouts, yet he was not aware of this and has had a new logo and van livery designed elsewhere.

This causes problems as the client has now decided on a design that has several components that make the practicalities, and price, of producing the graphics difficult.

Bantam progressivism continues...

Today at Valley Parade, City met Notts County for the first time since we beat them 2-0 at Wembley (olde worlde stadium) in 1996.

Ah! The sweet memories of that great weekend in the capital as City won the Division 2 Play Off final - our only appearance at the much missed Twin Towers.

Today's result was almost, as sweet as a 3-0 win for the Bantams - Peter Thorne doubling his seasons tally with a clinically taken hat-trick - was matched by the industry and tenacious teamwork displayed by our players. A poor season to date has been rejuvinated by our two victories in 2008 - the first a 2-0 win at Accrington Stanley on New Years Day.

A good result - especially as Huddersfield lost 3-1 at home!

Quick Projects: The professor replies...

Thankfully, Paul was fine about the blog entry and is even willing to continue with further contact from me. What a tremendous gesture of support from him; I am sure that I will have many more questions to ask him, particularly concerning the aging population query.

I bet that Patrick (tutor) will be very pleased as he is always prompting us to contact as many design professionals as possible for to as for their viewpoints and ideas.

gavin:

i'm honored to be included on your blog -- thank you for the link.

please feel free to stay in touch.

paul

Quick Projects: The flurry of emails continues...

I responded to Paul's email.

Hello Paul

Many thanks for taking the time to respond to my email; I very much appreciate the effort you have gone to.

The clarification that you have provided is superb as we (my peers and tutor) did consider that you included designers in other areas – product, accessibility etc – and not simply graphic design. But we were unsure if that was the case!

For instance, I am self employed (vehicle livery, signs etc) and put forward the scenario that street furniture and signage has to be accessible for people with limited mobility and wheel chair users. This would require that signs are not positioned to high for this group to view.

Part of our degree course covers “an aging population”, so the link that you sent on “Typography and the Aging Eye” will prove to be massively useful. Thank you.

My tutor has encouraged us to begin a “blog” that we can put much of our notes, ideas, research etc onto. I have taken the liberty of adding your email reply to this along with your picture which I have taken from the Ohio State University website. I have included a credit to them and trust this is permissible.

http://kramerschronicles.blogspot.com/

I hope that you will allow me to contact you again if I have any further queries.

Yours truly,
Gavin Dimmock

Quick Projects: A response from the professor..!

I do not know if my questions to Paul Nini were interesting, considered or even original, however, Mr. Nini very graciously sent a reply. It came within a few hours as well and I thank him for taking the time and trouble to reply.

gavin:

thanks for getting in touch. it's always good to hear from someone who's read my writings, and who asks thoughtful questions. the scenario you raise is quite possible, and raises an interesting point.

in the statement you quote, i was referring more to functional issues -- i.e. enabling viewers to successfully access and utilize information for specific purposes. in fact, the entire passage (from the suggested additions to the AIGA’s existing publication on ethics) reads:

"Designers must advocate and thoughtfully consider the needs of all potential audiences and users, particularly those with limited abilities such as the elderly and physically challenged."

which is to say that we should not assume that everyone has excellent vision, mobility, etc. the number of elderly in the population is larger than it's ever been, and designing for this viewer group will become more and more important in the coming years. in architecture and industrial design this approach is referred to "inclusive design" -- which i think is equally applicable to our efforts.

so, to finish this point, i'd like to direct you to another article of mine on the AIGA site, which deals with typography and the aging eye. please see:

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/typography-and-the-aging-eye

now, back to your question. i don't think it's truly possible to fully consider every possible audience beyond the target group in the computer game example. but that doesn't mean that some consideration shouldn't occur.

the type of imagery that you mention might also he somewhat harmful to younger children, and might certainly be offensive to others beyond one's grandmother. still, it can easily be argued that it's very effective for the intended audience.

what we have in this situation is the need for a designer to make an ethical decision. personally, i don't think that market considerations should outweigh ethical ones, and i would refuse to participate in a project requiring such imagery. but that's easy for me to say, since i make my primary income as an educator. a designer who works solely with clients wouldn't necessarily be able to be so choosy.

the reality is that such a client will always be able to find a designer to work on such a project, even if others turn it down. ultimately all ethical choices are personal, and they will differ from designer to designer. creating a strict standard that we all must live by is impossible -- but continuously raising the question is important, as we need to be reminded that our choices have ethical ramifications.

i hope this reply answers your question somewhat. please feel free to follow up with any further comments.

best wishes to you, your tutor, and your peers.

paul nini

professor of design
ohio state university

Quick Projects: Ain't email great...?

I surfed the w3 for information about Paul Nini and came across his entry on the faculty of Ohio State University. It showed his email address, so I decided to contact him about his article that we discussed yesterday.

Here is my email:

Hello Mr. Nini

My name is Gavin Dimmock and I am currently studying part time for a degree in Graphic Design.

Last night (7th Jan) at college, our tutor introduced us to your article from 2004, “In Search of Ethics in Graphic Design”. It prompted an interesting discussion amongst the class and has given us new ideas to consider when designing.

I was interested and intrigued by the comments that designers must “consider the needs of all potential audiences and users”. Am I correct in thinking that you are referring to any one who may view a piece of design and not simply the intended market?

For example, consider a designer who is creating the packaging of a computer game that has strong images to be used on the cover (war, horror etc) – as many seem to these days. Does the designer have to consider, not just the teenage market that he game is aimed at, but the possibility that granny might come across the box and be offended by it? If designers have to consider every possible viewer, then does this not limit the designs we can create for a specific target market or client?

We would be very interested in your views on this and other areas of the ethics issue.

Best regards,
Gavin Dimmock

Quick Projects: Ethics and Copyright...?

Paul Nini (picture from Ohio State University)

Tonight we studied two topics, "Ethics in Graphic Design" and "Artistic Copyright". Patrick gave us copies of articles about both these areas for us to read and digest; we had an intriguing discussion about them.

• "In Search of Ethics in Graphic Design"

This article, by Paul Nini (Associate Professor in the Department of Design at Ohio State University), argues that designers need to consider "all potential audiences and users" of their work.

We were confused if this referred simply to the client that commissioned the work and the intended audience or if it referred to any person that might view the work. We all agreed that any work would be interpreted in different ways by each viewer and, therefore, it would be very difficult to avoid upsetting some audiences. Additionally, some works would, by nature of their content and marketing requirements, actually be required to challenge current thinking and provoke comment; particularly as a means of making the design, product or service stand apart from their rivals in the marketplace. Therefore, would trying to appeal to all audiences be beneficial to the clients needs?

With regards to graphic design, we fully agreed with the quote from Milton Glaser that "If you don't know who you are talking to, you can't talk to anyone". But this would appear to be contradictory to Nini's claims that all audiences must be considered.

However, his claims do have greater merit when considering other forms of design such as product design, architecture and clothing. Concerns such as accessibility and safety must, in these areas of design, cater to all potential audiences in order to satisfy health and safety issues.

• Copyright
• Copyright (USA)

Not really much disagreement about the need for copyright legislation to protect designers. We were intrigued by what amount of alteration to an existing design would constitute infringement of copyright law. How much change would be tolerated?