Lucky Number Slevin

A bit behind with the times i know, but what a great movie, very cunning in its plot and lots of phrases that all come together as the film progresses - the Kansas Shuffle, Good Cat and Slevin. It is a better version of Oceans 11 when looking at the storyline, everything seemingly links even down to the small fact of the baseball. The filming of the film is clever, one part is Slevin playing chess with The Boss and then Smith playing The Boss, it flows through a three way conversation which has only ever taken place between two people; from Smith to The Boss and The Boss to Slevin. A useful way of showing how the information was received and passed on to with who was involved. The film is a mixture of gang culture mixed in with humour, a fantastic film to be seen by all, i don't want to say to much to spoil it but it's awesome.

Silent Disco

I know were not supposed to be uploading our nights out in Leeds etc but this is for the marketing of it. Every Tuesday at NU they have a Silent Disco, a strange concept you may think but actually pretty good. Everyone has wireless headphones and the choice of two channels for variation in music and their own volume. It's great because you can take off your headphones and talk to each other relatively easy and funnily you hear everyone singing which is normally drowned out from the music (must be awful for the bar staff...). Check out vid below for a bit of atmosphere.



When you think about the concept it's great, you go out with a group of friends and each has a different taste in music usually resulting in a compromise or split. So this lets you all stay together and dance to what you like, clever idea and funny when your all dancing to different channels because what your listening to doesn't match up with others dancing.

Cadbury's Ad

My sister kept raving about this as supposedly did radio 1, this is far from what i expected from Cadburys, one of the best bits for me was at the beginning - a GLASS and a HALF FULL PRODUCTION, using what you've got to reinforce the brand that bit more but in a playful way. Now the actual ad has Phil Collins backing music with which the gorilla later starts playing the drums...one of the bizarrest ads especially from Cadburys but to be fair if nothing else it will get people talking.

Section Seven

This site is for a design agency in Seattle, the layout is pretty basic but effective and interactive. It is easy to navigate and clearly labels and displays the work. A varying range bright colours are used for signifying different projects, to look at the site is nothing special but it has a nice flow to it and works well.


It's good to see all the varying layouts as you get to see what works and realise you can work out what you want, what is popular and what your aiming for - is it high tech animation and layout or simple and effective?

www.sectionseven.com

Photography

I found this site through another site, what mainly appealed was there idea - A collection of unexpected photography. It's nice that it is not all set up or have to be in certain genres, it can be anything you want. If you go on have a look at the collection through the thumbnails you get to see how random the collection is. The two pictures below i found in pretty quick concession.



Let's just say it's interesting.

www.filemagazine.com

Perfect Fools

This websites pretty funny, bit weirder than the rest and interesting to navigate. When your looking at it the trees seem to get in the way of the work and you wonder why would anyone put stuff stuff in front of there work. A small toolbar along the side and bottom allow you to go across and up and down. Thought it was very interesting to have this layout of a ground where it could interfere with viewing there material, but maybe that's the point, it makes people look harder. By the looks of it they have had some big clients but annoyingly the absolut stuff i wanted to look at would not open, but check it out even if just for the layout features, never seen anything like it.


www.perfectfools.com

Jonathan Yuen

This site was featured in one of the american design magazines and from the stills in the book it looked good, but it's even better in real life. You start off fishing and you get the choice of two crosses, one takes you into that section, the other takes you across the site and opens up more areas.


The further across you go the more you explore and end up with a picture as below. Then each section that gets added on creates a picture.


It is a wonderful site to explore and the work is pretty good too. From the main screen it takes an element and carries it through to the next section keeping it consistent. On the right section of the picture above you will notice a guy with a frog when you go into that section it follows on to the screen below.



A great site that should be looked at http://www.jonathanyuen.com/main.html

Cakes & Chocolate Shop

These cakes are amazing and slightly reminded me of the Skoda advert, they do a variety of cakes for different celebrations. It's one thing doing a good 2d cake but making it 3d adds a whole other dimension - literally. No these are fantastic, with how real they are take a peek below -






The quality of these cakes are great, they would be such a good present to receive.

http://www.cakeandchocolateshop.co.uk/

Planet Flowers

Looking at a slightly different area of design, one of my friends was showing me the flowers she is having for her 21st and i just thought it was pretty interesting how there is a market for literally everything. This isn't just your average flower arrangements, thought they were nice, classy and very different to the usual designs you have.






I love how there are no boundaries to what they do, looking at the huge purple flowers suspended from the ceiling, and the middle picture reminds me of an enchanted forest, it's interesting what you can with flowers to decorate the surroundings.

Beer Mats

I saw this bar mat while in NY at an Irish pub. It made me chuckle, a many people know alcohol in peoples diet is a big no no if your trying to loose weight because of calories so Guinness are playing on this, i like the 'Good news for coasters everywhere' like they are living beings. Novel to shape the coaster like a pint of Guinness instantly recognisable because of its individuality.


Then on the other side you have the 'That's something to toast to' bit cheesy but fills the gap but the part that annoys me is "Low Calorie still means drink responsibly' this drink aware campaign is irritating, whether there are posters saying about it or not people will drink as much as they want at the end of the day whether a poster says drink responsibly or not.


Carling having taken a different root for their current coasters -


Many people moan because they nipped away and there glasses have been cleared away by the bar staff and also plays on a cover to protect your drink from being spiked. It works well because it's talking to the drink owner and interacting with them, and because its a beer mat there is duel usage of the sides, shouting out the brand loud and clear.

NYPD

For some reason i didn't take a picture of this when i was in Times Square but thought it was hilarious that even the police department was lit up joining in the Times Square atmosphere. When you think about it they must have to do it to bring themselves to attention for if they are needed.

Coca Cola

The picture is quite far away but the focus is on the Coca Cola billboard and you can see how they have utilised the area above to enhance there ad. I liked how the bottle was overflowing from the billboard and onto the wall. The art on the wall is better than the billboard itself and it was what grabs your attention.

Signs

Keeping my eyes open for all this valuable untapped space walking across one of the Bridges in Montreal on the back of the motorway signs i spotted graffiti.


Obviously advertising here would not be the best for drivers, but you could adapt it if it was short and like on the front of ambulances it reads the correct way when it's in your mirror however this could be slightly dangerous. But it could be used for people walking over the bridge, most people who walk over a bridge look whats happening below, they want to look at the hidden. Could be interesting to see if it could get utilised, and if the spray can artists (in this case probably delinquents) can get there so can the advertisers.

Prescription for Comedy

In the middle of Times Square HBO Comedy has rented a window for an installment and in Times Square competition is fierce...flashing lights everywhere so it has to be a good window to make an impact. I like the idea, it revolves around the idea of you having a prescription for comedy so in the window is various enlarged drugs bottles as if the medication and instead of some ridiculous long name that means nothing you get the comedians being your drug. So simple and effective. Under the HBO Comedy you can make out Ellen DeGeneres among many others.

Brooklyn Bridge

Iconic in many films i present to you the Brooklyn Bridge... We walked over this on the last day, it's great, the size and structure is immense and it provides you with great views of the city and surrounding areas. I am always astounded at how they build the bridge when you start from scratch to go over water, there methods are very clever.

Strawberry Fields

This is a memorial in Central Park over the road from the Dakota where John Lennon lived and later got shot. Lennon and Yoko Ono adopted this area as there favourite place of the park, and later Ono donated $1,000,000 to the Central Park Conservancy and re landscaping of the area.

Strawberry Fields is a memorial for John Lennon, there is a small walk and on the floor is a mosaic surrounded by benches with 'Imagine' in the middle, the most famous song by John Lennon. Everyday on top of the mosaic area people would do different things to commemorate him, most of the time it was in the form of flower displays as below, but others left single flowers, poems, candles and anything they feel appropriate for instance in the picture below you will see a collage and guitar.


The first time i visited Strawberry Fields it was a different flower display encompassing the Imagine mosaic but the Peace sign is relevant in many ways; the era, the situation and to rest in peace.

Grand Central Station

This place is amazing, such a big place crammed in the middle of Manhattan. It has over a hundred lines and is on multiple levels. The inside is so extravagant for a public place of everyday use which can be looked as a good thing for something so nice to be utilised. I have never seen a station like it though, there are bars, restaurants, stalls, shops, pretty much everything and large dining areas, it's a very social place and many people use it for meetings. My friends cousin had a business meeting at the Michael Jordan bar, it's the way of New Yorkers. But it was great we met her afterwards and were in the bar with business clientel in our shorts and tee's, relaxing atmosphere having drinks and you look down and the commuters are rushing to there next appointment it's like watching ants. The station is an opulent hub of activity. (Unfortunatley a bit blurry but you get the idea, and this was taken early on in the day from the drink at rush hour).

The Beach

Whenever someone writes in the sand we feel the need to read it, even though the majority of times it has nothing to do with us, except this time it is, it's sole purpose is to be read by others.


I just thought quite a nifty way to get people to look at it and free advertising space, the more you look the more untapped places you find.

Montreal Film Festival

Sadly we didn't get to see much of the film festival but we went to see a late night screening...on the street! They had closed a section of Katherine Street off to host the festival and put an outdoor cinema screen up for late night showings.


Cinema Paradiso was projected onto the screen and many sat on the benches provided our pulled up a kerb as we did and sat and watched except for many I'm sure it was good but we were watching the film in German with French subtitles so with Jen's rough translation and my small knowledge of the film from AS Film Studies we pieced it together. Things like this always make me question as to whether England would do it, in one way we are more liberal and the other we are not.

Safe Lamppost

In Montreal on our way to Chinatown i spotted this lamppost, in the photo it looks pretty normally minus being a bit more modern than our English ones. If you look closely in the white square the is a light for the sidewalk, this is a really good idea as generally the lampposts are for the roads and cars even though they have headlights, and now the pedestrians have lit pavements too. Simple and effective design getting a second use out of the post there and may be a deterrent for crime on the streets if it's well lit.

The sign says it all...

This is not being put on here for an awful joke but while in Toronto we came across this Hospital -

It's bizarre how both us and the locals use English as a first language yet to us this is not worded kindly and yet they have no problem with it. Now i have to say when i first saw this i thought it was funny because i didn't think it was serious as we had only seen signs but is it just me or is it a bit morally wrong?

The Dalmation

From travelling around you get to see a variation in the architecture and style of what people want and need from buildings and in the middle in one of the outer neighbourhoods of Toronto there was the Dalmatian.


This has been given the name by us, fair point i think. The building is actually a apart of a design school but with limited space to extend and the need came out this design, it doesn't look the strongest building looking like Dalmatian corrugated card and some coloured poles, definitely an eye catcher, quite fun but ugly especially given the surroundings. It stands out like a soar thumb, this may have been the design purpose but people have to look at it everyday...

Ladders

In the lobby of an office in Toronto there were a number of ladders, each with words on every rung. I thought it was quite an interesting installation as to whether people were supposed to read it and be inspired or just read it or for the sakes of just filling dead space. Generally when i think of ladders in the workplace i look at it as a metaphor for working your way up the company not sure the window cleaners see it like that though. The variation in words makes me doubt whether it is for inspiration or just visual purpose.

Utilising space

While in Toronto i came across a number of billboards all advertising the 'gossip girl'. Quite good to get that much space together to advertise one thing giving more impact but they have also used the billboards to cover up the site of electric pylons that stand behind it in a grid like form. So advertising has it's sole purpose of selling a product and now to cover up soar points in the surroundings.

Interactive Advertising

This has stumped me twice, all you see or have is a projector but you can effect what it is showing...bizarre i know, check this out below.


The images kept changing, on this one you wiped out the colourful layer to reveal writing and an advert below. The next one below was full of footballs advertising there local soccer team. But you could kick the balls and they bounced off of each other, it is really cool and weird because for the audience it is something fun, new and memorable way of getting information across.


This kept us amused for a while, because i do not understand how you can physically interact with something that is being projected to the floor except for the old trick of bunny ears on the screen in the cinema that kids think is hilarious.

Toronto

Toronto to me felt like a mini New York, Starbucks on many corners and a few high rise buildings and busy people. It was interesting to see the varied architecture in the buildings in the area.


It's nice to see a mixture that there not all clones of each other especially being newer builds and with all of them being different it makes them unique and stand out more. For a sightseer it makes it a lot more interesting to look at the different buildings than replicas of the mundane square high rise block buildings. It's been interesting going from city to city because obviously the more you go down the aesthetic route with design generally the less space you have to utilise inside. The one on the left i took a particular fancy to because even though i could not see the top it reminded me of a maple leaf (on the Canadian flag) from the general lines of design in the top section.

DKNY

This is an example of everything in America is bigger...they go beyond billboards and on to buildings. When i saw it i was impressed, it's hard not to miss it with the contrast of the skyline within the words and the dark background. The Statue of Liberty stands out two fold and as you look into the background you see the Empire State and the image has been manipulated to incorporate iconic symbols of New York into the DKNY (Donna Karen New York). I like how they have used building it breaks the tradition of what we normally see. (On the picture it looks small with comparison to it's surroundings but it's big.)

Times Square

This place is unbelievable - it never sleeps i had been through it at various times of day and each time it was full of people as if it was midday even if it was 2am. Im not sure what it is but i just find it mesmorising but amazing, by night is alot more intense.


Both night and day the lights are goign, i do not think they ever get turned off, and if you are a few blocks away you see the sky with a glow in it and you know where it is. But at night it's great


The amount of bright lights there, its dazzling, and the adverts everywhere are amazing, there are bright lights all over mainly advertising the Broadway showes, the electricity bill must be pretty huge too.