Put Me to the Test - GameSurgeons.com

I've just finished my second brief from my Put Me to the Test experiment given to me by web designer Colin Grist.

Brief: Make some really hip, small characters for a new website gamesurgeons.com. It's a site about gaming and game reviews. The characters should be doctors and nurses but with a cartoony feel and they would be dotted around the layout. Really nice, modern and humorous in style.

Deliverable: Set of characters

Deadline: Two weeks

Solution:

I wanted to create a set of characters that reflected the design of the GameSurgeons website.

I decided to imagine characters that would work in the GameSurgeons hospital. Using the style of vector forms without outlines and slight gradients I created a set of Southpark-like figures that can be used to examine new games and consoles.

The nurse carries an Xbox game instead of a clipboard, the surgeon is playing with the GameSurgeons syringe and the doctor has a PlayStation controller for a stethoscope.



Feel free to leave me feedback, that is the aim of it after all!
Plus, feel free to Put Me to the Test by clicking this button:

Cheeky job application

Such a rubbish but great (only as a one-off) idea! I can't believe how well this worked. Incredible.

Put Me to the Test - Karbon Creative

I've just finished my first brief from my Put Me to the Test experiment given to me by agency Karbon Creative.

Brief: Get existing Audi owners to visit their dealership.

Deliverable: Press Ad

Deadline: One week

Solution 1: Quite often businessmen and women will stop off to buy a coffee on their way to work.

I suggest that instead of stopping at BP to grab a coffee, they are invited for a free coffee at their local dealership. Whilst enjoying a free espresso they can chat with the sales team and admire the cars on display. This is an opportunity for impulse buys or for booking a car in for service for example.

Audi’s signature headlights were what inspired my creative idea.


Solution 2: Car dealearships are not necessarily located on the way to work for Audi owners to pop in easily. This means that in order to get them to go out of their way to visit the showroom, there has to be a good reason.

I suggest holding Scalectrix competitions at each location and inviting Audi owners and their families to compete against fellow Audi owners. Great fun for everyone, but also a great opportunity for impulse buys whilst waiting for a turn on the Scalectrix track. This time allows the salesmen to talk with the customers, show them the new cars, perhaps give the owners’ cars a quick check and suggest accessories which could be purchased.

The idea of holding events allows the owners and their families to have great fun whilst connecting with the Audi brand amongst the cars in the dealerships.


Feel free to leave me feedback, that is the aim of it after all!
Plus, feel free to Put Me to the Test by clicking this button:

Le scaphandre et le papillon

This film tells the true story of Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby after he suffers a stroke. He suffers from a rare condition of "Locked-In Syndrome" which means he is totally paralysed but still thinks normally, like being locked inside his own body. The title "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is a metaphor for his condition. The Diving Bell (or better translated, Diving Suit - but one of the really old metal ones with the goldfish bowl hood) represents how he is locked inside his body and the butterfly represents his mind.

He is able to communicate however by winking his left eye after his desired letter is read out from the alphabet.

Jean-Do (as he is called by the people close to him) reacts at first, as anyone would, with a very negative outlook and even communicates to his therapist "I want to die" but after a visit from a friend who tells him about how he was held hostage for 4 years, an almost similar experience to Jean-Do's situation, he has a change of outlook. He decides to write a book about his experiences. Obviously it is going to be a slow process.

The camera work of this film is very well done. The first scenes are shot through the eyes of Jean-Do so the viewer experiences him waking up out of a 3 week coma bleary eyed and they discovering that he cannot speak and cannot move. It takes 30 minutes before we see the first glimpse of his face, which again is seen through the eyes of the protagonist in the reflection of a window. Again this was a really nice tough as we saw his appearance at the same time that he did.

I recently watched "Creation" the story of Charles Darwin (which i will have to write a post about) and that along with other things has got me thinking about life in general. I guess somehow i've been having some quite "hardcore" thoughts recently. One thing that made me stop and think in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" was this scene:

Doc: "In the past, we would have said you'd had a massive stroke. You would very probably have died. But now we have such improved resuscitation techniques that we're able to prolong life."
JD's thoughts: "This is life?"
JD's thoughts: [repeats] "This is life?"
Doc: "Yes, prolong life"

And also when he later tells his mentor that he wants to die.

It made me think, for example, if a rabbit has a stroke it's the family of hungry fox cubs that benefits, that's life - something good actually happens. Yes it's sad for the rabbit, but the fox cubs get to eat plus it's good for the race of rabbits because that rabbit won't have children that are likely to have strokes so the species is protected. With humans however, we don't think like that. We think as individuals, not as a race. Is it better if someone with a hereditary disease dies or is it better if they are saved by doctors, have children and then the children suffer of the same disease and this goes on and on and spreads to more and more people? Big question! Food for thought....

Musée de la Publicité - "Advertising the Great Causes"

Today I visited the Museum of Advertising in Paris to see the exposition "Advertising the Great Causes". This expo covered advertising campaigns about drugs, alochol, AIDS, littering, the environment, human rights, poverty, arms, all of the Great Causes.

I think that this sector of advertising is one of the most difficult to produce. I recently worked on a Bollocks to Poverty (Action Aid) brief and had decided with my 'project partner' that we didn't want to guilt-trip our target audience. It is the obvious choice and is the choice that has been taken by many advertisers before us. I think it probably worked in the beginning but now the public has got fed up of hearing bad news and just shuts it out. Advertising for the great causes is having to be more creative and show matters in a less gloomy light.

Here are a few of the adverts I found the most interesting:

"Non-drinking water kills 8 million people a year in the world. Make the policies act by signing the petition at www.yourdropofwater.org"

"Chaque jour 15 personnes sont victimes du non-respect des feux - en ville, il n'y a pas que des voitures accidentées"
"Every day 15 people are victims of the non-respect of traffic lights - in town, it's not just the cars that are broken" - difficult to translate exactly...

Surfrider's Association ad showing a rubber glove flapping in the wind on a beach. It seemed to represent the sea/beach calling out for help.

"300,000 child soldiers dream of simply being children, www.amnesty.fr"
"300,000 enfants soldats rêvent simplement d'être enfants, www.amnesty.fr"
(Sorry for the window reflections in this pic!)

Sleepeater interactive music vid

Love this music vid! My guess is don't bother using it if your internet connection isn't great however. It's always good to see stuff done a bit different!

Google's fun side

I wasn't very impressed by Google's advertising for Chrome as I felt it was really boring however they have definately redeemed themselves with this viral video I love the idea, it's SO much more interesting than "Chrome is so amazing beacuse you can have 20 tabs open at the same time" (see below)



Google has never really had to make an effort to promote itself before now. It is the leading search engine - by miles. Now it's in competition with Internet Explorer, Firefox etc and it has had to make an effort. I think the "multiple tabs" campaign was a reflection of Google thinking it didn't really need to promote itself and could just rely on its no1 status.

The problem with promoting an internet browser is that not everyone knows what one is and most people probably don't care/realise which browser they are using anyway. Now they have launched their Speed Tests video i think people will see Google's more fun and human side whilst discovering that they can surf the internet more quickly by downloading chrome.

Definately a step in the right direction and currently featuring on BuzzFeed.com's Just Launched list.

Slice packaging

A really well designed set of packaging for an equally well thought-out brand.

Catch of the Day

Recently I watched this documentary on VBS. Since then I have done a lot of thinking about basically everything humans have done to the World. I'm not usually a hippy or anything but watch this and perhaps it will open your eyes too.

Below is an ad which basically sums it up. The campaign is called "Catch of the Day" by Saatchi and Saatchi New York for the Surfriders Foundation. The items where found "fresh" on a beach and show exactly what is happening to all of the plastic we use and throw away.

This is also the reason behind the Gorillaz latest album title : Plastic Beach

Visit to the Centre Pompidou

What better to do on the first sunday of the month than visit the Centre Pompidou in Paris? I felt a bit like a fly as I walked round because I found my self attracted by anything with neon lighting. Looking at all the art and stuff kind of made me question whether the things I saw were genuinely "works of art" or just a pretty picture/installation or a load of rubbish.
There was one piece that I did like however, below, but merely for its aesthetic qualities and simple but nice interactivity.

If tree is to birds nest, then the Pompidou centre is to.....? Tree houses =) They're a bit pointless but i like them.It has to be said one of the best things about the pompidou centre is the view. Panoramic view of Paris including the Notre Dame cathedral, Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur.

So I wasn't very impressed by the "art" but I did stop by the book shop and spent at least half an hour flicking through the 2009's D&AD Award Winners book. I have been watching some of the interviews with the judges so it was interesting to see the work they picked. Maybe I'll do another post about that...