Posted by truecreek on June 8, 2011 under Opinions. Everyone has them. | 
I don’t normally comment on architectural design, but Kroon Hall at Yale University is just something special and deserves some thoughts.
A net-zero building, it’s one of the finest pieces of architecture I have seen in the U.S. in a long time. It has solar panels, a geothermal energy system and was manufactured with more recycled materials than I would want to list here. They even use water from a pond to flush toilets. Now that’s design.
Complete article here:
Posted by truecreek on January 4, 2010 under The Work |
The start of a new campaign for Fortress Technologies. Nice, clean look mated with a very strong visual. Definitely a bit more earthy in tone than what has been the norm, but I think it works well. Many other great headlines to work with in the future.
Posted by truecreek on December 4, 2009 under More Dam News |
From Popsop
SABMiller Plc. have re-launched Pilsner Urquell, the original pilsner from Plzen, with new secondary packaging and can graphics by Lewis Moberly.
LM were appointed in 2008 as part of a global re-positioning of the brand. The new design reflects the high quality of the product and reasserts the rich and authentic heritage of the brand with a contemporary edge.
The new split color secondary packaging and can graphics are now a harmonious balance of a premium gold and dark green. The gold is a reminder of the wonderful golden color of the beer while green reflects the familiar green glass bottle. Secondary packaging features a water-marked, cropped graphic version of the Plzen town coat of arms highlighting the unique relationship between the brand and the city. The brewery gates feature as a graphic device on the base of the can.
Other Pilsner Urquell designs here.
Posted by truecreek on December 2, 2009 under More Dam News |
From Popsop:
The Nike (RED) campaign was launched yesterday, December 1, in 13 countries around the world. Like Starbucks, another global brand, the sportswear maker joined the movements dedicated to fighting AIDS in Africa. All the revenues gathered from selling red football laces, with each pair costing $4.00, will be donated to the Global Fund.
Posted by truecreek on August 4, 2009 under More Dam News |
From Popsop.com
Miller Russia has announced the winners of contest called “Create Your Future”. The aim was to choose the best design from 500 submitted works which will be printed on the new collectible cans series this year. From 30 short-listed works just 3 were chosen by online voting.
The authors of the best projects will get $5000, $3000 and $1000 accordingly.
Unfortunately, the design that took the most number of votes is too similar to the first collectible Miller can, that’s why the jury will choose a new design concept from the 30 final designs. And author of that design will also get a cash prize $5000.
Posted by truecreek on May 1, 2009 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
For those of you who are following the saga of sale or no sale for the automakers: this is NOT what I was suggesting at all. This kind of local stuff just gives me the heebie jeebies.
I just sense so much desperation in the art direction. Agreed?
Posted by truecreek on March 26, 2009 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
I love newspaper. Always have. It’s just a wonderful creative medium that allows clients to not only project their brand image in a tasteful manner, but it allows for the communication of additional points of importance without destroying the creative at hand. It’s artwork. And it can really work for the client. Martin’s Mike Hughes thinks the same.
By Mike Hughes
It’s time the advertising industry did something important.
For our own self-interest — and for the common good — we need to start paying attention to newspapers again.
To begin with, it would be good for our business. For our own selfish reasons, we need a medium that targets the well-informed. We need a medium that lets us tell our whole story — and not just the 30-second version. With each passing month, we need more media that target people where they live. We need more media that let marketers build a brand and ask for the business. We need more media that let writers, art directors, photographers and illustrators practice their crafts.
We need a medium with the immediacy and importance of newspapers. Lee Clow says, “Newspaper is a special medium. It’s urgent, not yesterday or tomorrow but today. Sitting with a newspaper and a cup of coffee in the morning will always be one of the most intimate media experiences there is.”
Online or in print, we need newspapers. There are no substitutes. Magazines, TV channels and websites don’t do the same things. Not even close.
Our industry needs newspapers — but just as important, so does humankind. The world needs the kind of journalism practiced by newspapers when they’re at their best. The local investigative pieces. The foreign correspondence. The war reporting. Without them, news goes unreported. Viewpoints are narrowed. Governments can run amok.
That kind of reporting is expensive, and right now no one knows how it will get paid for in the coming years. With newspapers cutting costs every day, who will pay to man a substantial bureau in Baghdad? Who will spend the money to report the atrocities in Africa? Who will find the resources to blow the whistle on the next Watergate?
Even at their best, magazines, TV channels and websites don’t come close to giving us that kind of reporting.
Of course, humankind’s problem isn’t necessarily the advertising industry’s problem. If online and print newspapers weren’t proven effective, no one would say our industry needs to address this important problem.
But decades worth of evidence — including evidence gathered in 2009 — points to the uncommon efficacy of newspaper advertising. You know how excited our industry gets about the Super Bowl? Well, every single day of the year, more American adults read a printed newspaper than watch the big game once a year. And in 22 of the top 25 markets, the local-newspaper site is the No. 1 local site in town. And the newspaper-website audience has grown 80% in the past five years.
So why aren’t we creating more newspaper advertising? Part of the answer is undoubtedly fashion. Twenty-five years ago, an advertising campaign usually meant “TV and some print. Maybe radio.” That was the fashion then. Say “campaign” to ad people today, and their minds leap to “TV and digital.” We say we’re media-agnostic, but our behavior often says something else entirely. How many agencies aren’t selling newspaper advertising to their clients as hard as they should? How many advertisers are overlooking the medium that still has unsurpassed credibility with its audience? It’s time for a wake-up call.
No less an authority than Jeff Goodby reminds us that far from being out-of-fashion, a good newspaper ad is actual art. “The art is the part that gets people to look. Show outrageous things that don’t belong there. Shock people with a new logic,” he says. “If we all do this, it will become very difficult to find which newspaper page we want to wrap the fish in.
“I will like that day.”
Let me be clear here. I don’t think the newspaper industry is going to die anytime soon. With some well-publicized exceptions, most papers are surviving the economy’s near collapse. They might be holding on by their fingernails, but at least they’re holding on.
But if the newspaper business is going to give us the content our industry feeds on — and if it’s going to give us the journalism the world needs — newspapers need to be robust.
If we don’t give them a fair shot at our budgets, they might never be healthy enough to do the job we want them to do.
And we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.
Posted by truecreek on February 12, 2009 under The Work |
When you’re thinking about starting a new company, don’t forget about the impact a great logo will have for your new brand. As we all know, your brand is much more than just a sweet logo, but it’s a great way to get things started.
From a creative standpoint, so much of what you will be doing in the future to communicate with your customers will flow right out of that design, so make the investment and be sure to get it right from the beginning.
Several years ago I met Pete, one of the designers in The Creekbed and owner of one of the finer design/brand studios here in DC. He’s one of the best in the business these days and I’m proud to say he’s part of the team. He’s produced award-winning logos for The Grammys, Rouge at the MGM Grand in Vegas, True Creek and so many more. Take a moment to look at some of his eye-catching work below.
Tags: Advertising, advertising agency in alexandria virginia, advertising agency in DC, advertising agency in northern VA, award-winning, brand, communicate, design, logo, Rouge, The Grammys
