Stop Violence

A creative way to advertise stopping violence. Never realized there were the words love and nice in it. The transition from black to red helps with the message because black is neutral and dark, while red can be associated with love and passion.

- Catherine

Minimal Graphics by Catharine Fishel

Form Follows Function

This picture is simple, eye-catching, and true to its message. The phrase can be applied to many disciplines, but the image of the hand and fork is familiar to everyone and delivers to message quite clearly.

 - Catherine 

A Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design by Chip Kidd

I Heart Design

I love the all type treatment for the cover of the book. Not only is it modern, eye-catching, and sleek, but also provides the content of the book. The little upside-down heart is a metallic red and adds just a small pop of color that really draws your eyes to it. Even though there is a lot of words of various type weights and styles, it is organized due to the grid layout.


- Catherine

Ketchup = Smoothie?

I love the minimalist design of this ad for the New York Lottery. It makes it very clean, simple, and open. I also like how the phrase is written out. Because of the italicized serif font, along with the image, you would think that it would be some philosophical quote or something, but no, it is just a completely random thought that has nothing to do with the setting of the actual image. It makes it unexpected and therefore very humorous.

- Catherine

Lurzer's Archive: Vol.1-2014, Page 79

Ernst & Whinney

When Ernst & Ernst changed their name to Ernst & Whinney, designer George Tscherny created this distinctive image to show the transition to their new name. By picking this specific typeface, he was able to simply rotate the E ninety degrees to create the W with minimal adjustments. This is design is very well done because it is so simple, but communicates perfectly the changing of the name. 

- Catherine

Baseline: Autumn 2013

Stone Sour House of Gold and Bones

The overlaying of photographs creates a very surreal composition. I'm not quite sure what's going on with the first image, but I really like the how the two faces are composed with the branches to make it look like they're exploding or colliding. The contrast between the white feathers and the dark background in the third image is very eye catching.

- Catherine


How: March 2014 - Page 85

Nava

"Typical candy packaging falls short in connecting with consumers. Nava share a positive message with their sweet harmony of chocolate and nuts." - Natalie Zamora, Designer

I really like this packaging for these chocolate covered nuts. It's very simple, yet elegant, and very cute as well. The so not common cylinder packaging is eye-catching and the predator and prey child-like illustrations is a unique way to portray the pairing of nuts with chocolate and the harmony it brings.

- Catherine

CMYK: No 55, 2013 - Page 49

Night is a Journey

This is such a unique image to associate with sparkling wine. It looks like the moon in the picture is based off of the moon from A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès. I guess they're saying that their wine will take you on a bubbly journey through the night. Don't really understand the correlation between the wine and visions of the future from the 60's/70's, but perhaps they're just adding to the "fantasy" vibe they are giving.

- Catherine

Lurzer's Archive: Vol.6 - 2013, Page 38

Shampoo for hairloss

This is an ad for Clear Anti-Hairfall shampoo, which I can only assume is a shampoo that helps decrease hair loss. I like how the myths to prevent hair loss are written by using various stages and angles of balding men. The idea is unique and I don't recall ever seeing anything similar before. To me, the ads say to use their shampoo because if you keep believing the myths, you're hairline can look like those of the men making this ad.

- Catherine

Lurzer's Archive: Vol 6-2013, Page 48

Keeping Tabs

This is an ad for creativity-online.com, which is part of adage.com, a website dedicated to news regarding marketing and advertising. I just love the illustrated stickers that they want you to use to label creative pieces according to what pictures are depicted. I also like how they have included an illustrated background to present the stickers on instead of just having them there. Will I ever use these? Probably not because they are just too cute!

By the way, the list says:
A: Award-worthy
B: Disturbing
C: Funny
D: Further research
E: I did it!
F: I wish I did it!
G: Mind-blowing
H: Music
I: Sexy
J: Dynamite

- Catherine

Creativity: Nov. 2008

Don't let bad breath do the talking.

This ad for Mentos chewing gun in Shanghai makes good use of photography and some photoshopping to get their message across. The Chinese is subtle and the speech bubble goes so well with their corresponding food that it really seems like the food is doing the talking. I am surprised with the use of blue cheese because cheese isn't that popular with the Chinese, so I don't think blue cheese is that common. I could be wrong though, especially since I've never been to Shanghai which for all I know, could be more westernized than the other places I've been.

- Catherine

Lurzer's Archive: Vol 6 - 2013, Page 51

Recycle Your Phone

This is a creative ad for phone recycling company. They are playing off the fact that some songs are just recycled versions of previous songs and that people have made a lot of money off of that. So now they encourage normal people to do the same by recycling their phones and getting paid to do so. I think for this to be successful, the songs have to be known to the viewer so they have chosen popular songs.

- Catherine

Lurzer's Archive: Vol 6 - 2013, Page 95.

Meat or Fish

I tried finding the product online with no luck, all I know is that it's a wine called "Meat or Fish". Perhaps it pairs well with the two? I just like how realistic the animal hybrids, which play off of the product's name, are even though it's a bit unsettling. Hopefully one day I'll be able to photoshop like that. 

- Catherine Yao

Lurzer's Archive: Vol 6 - 2013, Page 41

Haagen-Dazs Ad

I love the simple grid layout of the items of this picture because it presents everything in an elegant and organized manner. Like with my previous post, it is relating two seemingly unrelated things, this time a violin and Haagen-Dazs ice cream bars. A violin must be precisely crafted to creating perfect music for the ears, and their ice cream is also crafted of the same nature to create a perfect taste. The color pallet of the violin parts and the ingredients of the ice cream are of similar hues and are in the same orientation (as their counter parts) so it is very easy to see the message that they are portraying. Overall very elegantly done, makes me want to buy expensive ice cream.

- Catherine

Lurzer's Archive Vol.6/2013 Page 61

Turn your boring food into (super expensive) art!

I now realize I could have cropped this differently so the important parts of these ads are more clear, but here are the same ones I found online for your viewing convenience: The first one, Starry Night, bonus one that isn't in the magazine. 

What attracted me to these ads for "le charcutier" was the fact that they managed to take famous art pieces and relate them to their kitchen products, two seemingly unrelated things and it makes perfect sense. The ads themselves are very simple: The before and after paintings, the price, and the product in the corner, which shows how well they have executed this because no further explanation is required. The painting to product pairing is also very suitable and completely supports the message.To me, this ad says "Sure, you can make good food, but with our products, you can make amazing and memorable food!". 

These ads came from Lurzer's Archive: No.5, 2013, Page 60. I highly recommend this magazine to anyone who needs inspiration because it's just pictures without the interruptions of articles. 

- Catherine