Help Mother Nature Fight Back: Eagle

The visuals used in this picture really communicates the whole ‘fight back’ concept but for those who’ve seen 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow, we know this is a downplay to nature’s fury.

Help Mother Nature Fight Back: Penguins

Help Mother Nature Fight Back: Whale

Help Mother Nature Fight Back: Turtle

All I can say is the eagle version is just wicked! I love it.

The Think Different campaign, launched in 1997, was a key factor in Apple’s recovery from financial difficulty and reinvigorating their brand with creativity, while re-establish a lost brand.

Think Different: Einstein

After this campaign, Apple has had many creative campaigns that today has positioned their brand as not just a computer for creatives but for the everyday computer user. However, it’s the ‘Think Different’ campaign that sparked it all.

Think Different: Graham

Think Different: Dylan

The brilliance in this campaign is that it was refreshing to see our heroes being honoured but more importantly, there was someone everyone can relate to. It marked the beginning when clearly Apple is no longer looking to be perceived as a niche product, that is, for creatives only.

Why should it? Designers aren’t the only type of creative people in the world and Apple recognized that even though designers were loyal followers, to truly bring the company back, they have to appeal to creatives outside that niche.

‘Think Different’ channeled the creativity of some of these key innovators, musicians, filmmakers, artists and others by saying Hey, we advocate all forms of creativity because creativity is about thinking different, it’s about changing the world.

It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’ve come from or the colour of your skin; at some point one of these ads touches you and reminds you of a defining moment in history where these people made a change.

Think Different: Ghandi

Think Different: Picasso

The ‘Think Different’ campaign is undoubtedly all about branding. There was a strategic decision to not include any Apple products in the campaign, and placement of computer ads in fashion magazine makes a big statement. The key goal was to re-gain what their brand lost and this is evident by Steve Jobs’ statement at a party he held for his staff at Palo Alto, “Our brand is the most – or at least one of the most – valuable things we have going for us now.” – Davenet

This campaign was inspired and built on campaigns like Nike’s “Just Do  It” and MILK’s “Got Milk?” campaigns. This is mostly true because of his mention of these campaigns at the Palo Alto party in celebration of the campaign.

Think Different: Moonwalk

Think Different: Ghandi

Think Different: Einstein

Think Different: Hitchcock

Click here to view the embedded video.

There’s a part where the executive producer said she saw something in the materials that she would never have been able to articulate. That’s very interesting because it shows that sometimes, you really have to see it to know that’s what you want.

What do you think of this? Should creatives always know beforehand what they want because we’re visual thinkers? Is it a case where our thinking evolves as we go? Or is it really a case of “we know it when we see it”?

Click here to view the embedded video.

‘Think Different’ is not just another campaign but one that revitalized a brand that’s worth billions today. It’s a campaign that increased sales and positioned Apple onto the right path. It did not just send the message to consumers; Apple’s staff clearly clear got the message as well.

Do you think this campaign played such an integral role at Apple? What’s an example of another campaign that has such an impact on a company? Let me know your thoughts.

The navigation rocks out of simplicity and style. I like how it’s placed on the shed, the 5 links makes navigation easy for any novice. It’s known that reduced choices increases conversion because the less users have to think about, the faster they will make a decision.

When navigating to other pages, I feel the navigation links should have an active state to remind me where I am. That would be useful.

The area where we have ‘Your Website’ on the top right is very nice. It uses basic information architecture to explain just what goes into a website, something many clients do not know. However, I feel they could have added a pop-up or some type of info box to elaborate on what CMS, W3C and all this fancy lingo means. I mean, you and I as web individuals know but not the average client.

It’s good they quickly get to the WHO, WHY and WHAT because at this point I’m wondering just that. Key point here is to note how the text is very short and not overwhelming to readers. I personally have some issues with the layout causing it to have only 2 words per line. It’s a little annoying and doesn’t allow me to read as fast as I normally would if it had more words per line. This might be just me but I’d do it differently while including those lovely illustrations that keeps things visual.

This area got a little busy for me but I find myself enjoying the illustrations. It does a great job of breaking up boring text with great visuals. The only problem is that the content ‘how do they do it’ took precedence over portfolio work. It seems fitting at this point to stop talking and start showing what exactly it is they do. The entire ‘how they do it’ to me can be discussed verbally or even be presented on another page. The portfolio is completely downplayed. In fact, when I go to ‘Designs’ I expect just that but get more copy.

I know personally, if I’m hiring, the last thing I look at is text. I simply absorb the portfolio but considering this is geared towards average clients, a more sales like approach like this might work.

The footer looks great but I’m not sure what’s up with the boxes. This is a great segway for me to go into branding. The name ‘Ready Made Designs’ seems to imply that they are template designs but according to the site copy, it’s not. The boxes seem to reinforce the message of pre-packaged designs ready for shipping. I’m being sent mixed messages and as a client I would be a little confused. Their name doesn’t seem to align with their message of ‘tailor-made’. Truth is, ready made and tailor made are the exact opposite.

Here’s something to look at; because I cropped the footer to show only the part with the boxes downward, how does it feel to you? To me I can easily take this for a shipping site. That’s just an observation but luckily it’s the last thing on the page I see.

Visually the site design is great and usability is on point. There are some great details in the site design you’ll enjoy if you look around (hint – the contact page, I love the dropdown). Of course like any design there can be improvement and I feel they’ve overlooked certain things like branding; still, nice design.

What are your thoughts on Ready Made Designs?

I’m located in Canada so it’s pretty damn unfortunate that CTV cut all the superbowl ads to show local ones which was boring, no offence to Canadian advertising. Let’s be honest, the ads help make Superbowl as big as it is. Anyway, there’s YouTube and here’s what I saw.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Google’s surprise ad for the superbowl is nothing short of genius. I love how it started up, picked up speed and ended with ’search on’. Obviously this ad targets the younger generation which uses lines like ‘rock on, surf’s up, etc’. The copy had that connection with that audience but it’s brilliant simplicity was well executed to appeal to any one. Great win for Google.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So you’re drinking beers with your buddies, in the football frenzy and this ad comes on showing an old lady being tackled. How can you not crack up? The lines are priceless. Definitely one of my favourites.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A lot of people seemed to like this one and it was even placed on the winners list on Fast Company. I’m going to have to disagree. If anything I thought it was silly but it was pretty clever capitalization on the whole late night war episode. I didn’t find it funny. If you’re going to make me laugh, do so damn it, don’t make me chuckle. Oh wait, I didn’t even chuckle. Not my favourite personally.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m really surprised that Audi came under fire for this ad. I liked how the ad highlighted some of the ridiculous shit people do that affects the environment but some good points were made. As a consumer I really didn’t see the negative and felt that my liberty is being taken away. However, my upbringing taught me to walk with my own bottled water not buy it so taking that away won’t bother me.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So CBS accepted this, rejected ManCrunch superbowl ad and then there’s an uproar. Listen, one look at that ad and it can be clearly offensive to lots of people watching, maybe not you or me but someone out there. How can we compare the contents of ‘ManCrunch’ to that of ‘Focus on Family’ ad.

It’s not about messaging, let’s look past our nose for a second, it’s about the content and that is offensive. ‘Focus on Family’ does deliver a message everyone doesn’t agree with but is it done in a highly offensive way? No. What’s offensive is the message, not the content. Just the same ‘ManCrunch’ message may be offensive to some people but the point is that it was delivered in an offensive format thus both message and delivery is offensive unlike the other.

Wait a second, don’t we have children at Superbowl or watching the game on TV? Do we  really think this is appropriate content for them? Next thing you know, CBS allows it and another group kicks up a storm.

I definitely agree that while GoDaddy’s Lola Ad was over the top, the content of that was not offensive to anyone or at least not as bad as ManCrunch’s ad.

The Superbowl had tonnes of ads – if there’s one you want me to critique or kick up a discussion on, comment below and I’ll happily watch and add it to list of critique here.

Lacoste: Club

I would say they hit the nail on the head if these photographs had to represent elegance, vibrance, happy, slice of life, happiness and all those positive characteristics because that’s exactly what I saw and how I felt looking at these images.

Lacoste: Club

What I love about these photographs are the colours. They’re really so positive, a place I want to be. I admire how they made one specific colour in each shot be the theme and set that energetic atmosphere.

Lacoste: Club

WWF: Give Wildlife a Hand - Crocodile

WWF: Give Wildlife a Hand - Eagle

WWF: Give Wildlife a Hand - Tiger

WWF: Give Wildlife a Hand - Toucan

WWF: Give Wildlife a Hand - Toucan

WWF: Give Wildlife a Hand - Zebra

I do agree that WWF deserves more original ads but it’s still a great and well executed concept. What’s your thought?

The first thing that caught my eye was the huge bold heading “Creative Engaging Branding”, this instantly tells the reader exactly what the company specialize in.

To the right of this great looking title is a slideshow of recent work from the agency, giving anyone interested an idea of the style of work they produce and the sort of clients they have worked with. I particularly like the way the work slides in using an array of different techniques, making it interesting throughout. It would have been very easy to put the same transition on every slide but I’m glad they put a little extra effort in to make them all different.

I know the Charles Elena Design site uses a very commonly seen colour scheme of Red, White, Grey and Black but they have used it to great effect throughout the site to give the whole thing a very striking impact.

Every section in the site has a different background colour making each unique, with the supporting colours used expertly to give hierarchy to the page. The pages with the red background are my personal favourite.

I really love the use of huge graphics throughout the site, these are very much in-line with the big bold headings on every page. There are more and more sites online these days incorporating massive font and graphics and Charles Elena Design is a great example of why. As you travel down the page you are treated to some lovely shapes that really show off the agencies skills.

One point I would make though is that the speed at which the page scrolls down means that these graphics are shown too briefly in my opinion. While you can scroll to the graphics and take them in properly it wouldn’t hurt to slow down the scroll speed.

While I’m suggesting improvements that could possibly be made I’d like to highlight the very small copy font that is used on occasion. In the example above the copy font size is 10.67px which is very small for such a long paragraph of text. I would love to see this bumped up a pixel or two because it’s currently very hard to read.

One final improvement I would love to see would concern the presentation of their portfolio. They have used a scrolling carousel to display their work, which in my opinion, is difficult to use as it makes focusing on specific work very fiddly. An option to scroll through the work one by one would be my preference.

Also, their is currently no way to enlarge the work on offer. I’d love to have the chance to open their work up in a lightbox and see it in all it’s glory.

I don’t want to seem too negative here though because overall I really love this site and think it’s a great piece of work. With that in mind, I want to now go onto my favourite design feature on the site, the fixed logo and navigation. As you take a journey down the page the logo and navigation come with you staying in a fixed position on your screen.

This may not seem special but the designers of the site have thought about this journey and incorporated the logo into the background graphics. In the example above the logo merges with the curved graphic to make it look as if the curve is bleeding out. There are numerous examples of this as you go down the page and it is small touches like this that, in my opinion, makes sites stand out from the crowd.

I totally get the concept that this is how adults ’supposedly’ play with toys hence the phrase in the ad ‘Come and Play’. However I’m betting any grown man or woman that plays with toys, does it with their kids.

Motor Show: Toys

Now imagine a father sees this in a magazine and thinks, ‘hot’ then looks over and sees his 6 year old playing with a doll similar to the one in the ad – there’s something unsettling about that. No one is going to think the dolls are hot but the human mind is going to replace that with real women because we have everything required to do that.

I’m willing to think I’m over-thinking this but wait… look at the background of the images. The settings are even in kids’ environments. Am I the only one that thinks there’s some disturbing about this? Look, if you’re gonna sell me through sex, do it in a way I can enjoy it without feeling weird about it. It’s that simple.

Motor Show: Toys

Overall at first glance the ad is funny and even creative but further breakdown and analysis shows that it’s not necessarily a great one. I’d love to hear what readers think because it could be me over thinking. Love it or hate it?

McDonalds as you can see consistenty pushes their product in our way but in the most creative ways. I appreciate the fact that it doesn’t always include a picture of their burger or fries. I personally like the one with the lights “Open at Nights” where it uses just the lights on the banner. I love their outdoor ads.

Could these ads be the reason McDonalds is crushing the competition with $41 billion in sales versus Burger King and Wendy’s which combined barely makes half that? I definitely think these ads play a major role. Look at the results for ‘Owning Chicago’  campaign which made their highest summer sales ever in 2005. I’m just pointing out the fact that being consistently creative in their marketing is playing a major role in their domination. Maybe Wendy’s should consider this and start improving their campaigns both on TV, printed and outdoors.

What are your thoughts?