Examples of Controversial Advertisements

Over the years there have been many controversial and close to the knuckle examples of advertising that some companies choose to release to the public. Here are some good examples of controversial advertisements and my thoughts on them.

Mettiamoc Latesta ‘Dead Santa’:

This advertisement that features the severed idol of childhood hero Santa Claus was used to advertise an Italian campaign called Mettiamoci La Testa.
I can definitely see why this advertisement would be deemed as inappropriate because it uses a shock image that would easily scare children as well as some more venerable adults. The company kept this severed head advertisement campaign for some time and all together five advertisements were produced to promote the website www.mettiamocilatesta.it

What Are You Doing To Yourself?:

NSW Health produced these series of advertising campaigns, which is part of the Australian governments efforts to promote responsible drinking with many young adults in Australia.

The adverts would usually show some sort of irresponsible activities that were classed as something that could happen when you drink too much. These activities include disorderly behaviour such as street fights, dangerous driving as well as inappropriate behaviour that are linked to being drunk.

Popular Australian photographer Gary Sheppard who is known for many of his advertisement campaign photography photographed the advertisements.

United Colors of Benetton:

United Colors of Benetton have always been known for their experimental style of advertisements and they love to use a lot of shock photography in efforts to promote the brand to it’s full potential.
Since the late 80’s the company has used shock tactics not to promote the products but to spread awareness on worldwide problems at the time. For example in 1992 the company released an advert that showed an AIDS patient dying whilst surrounded by his family. The image was nominated for many awards and was later put into Life Magazines collection of 100 Photos that Changed the World. The image came under a lot of ridicule because of the religious imagery that was involved. It was said that the AIDS patient was made to look like Jesus with his disciples; of course this enraged a lot of people.

Kinetic Typography

Kinetic Typography is the creation of moving type within film. The art form is used a lot within the film industry in beginning and end credits.

The art form itself is actually a lot older than people would think it is. Early examples of kinetic typography can be traced back to 1899 when infamous filmmakers such as George Melies had used a mix of cinematic transition effects and static text to give an effect that the text is actually moving.

Even though the art form had been played with in the past, it was never looked upon as being used to it’s full effect. It was only in the 60’s when American graphic designer, Saul Bass, started to produce his own title sequences for many filmmakers at the time such as Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick.
Bass’ most famous title sequence to date would have to be the one that he produced for the Alfred Hitchcock film ‘North by Northwest’ where a condensed font is used to move across the opening film imagery of a New York building. Now that the art form had been introduced to the commercial film industry it began to become more commonly used by many other filmmakers. Bass went onto produce title sequences for many classic movies such as ‘Big’ and ‘Goodfellas’.

Kinetic typography in recent years is still very popular especially with amateur filmmakers and graphic designers that are starting to make a move into motion graphics as a whole because kinetic typography is a very good starting point for motion graphics. With programmes like Adobe After Effects it has become fun and easy to create great looking moving typography in less than a day.

Kinetic typography is still used within commercial films; for example, the ‘Catch Me If You Can’ title sequences involve both typography and vector shapes. But the art form has become very popular with online promotion. An example of this can be Cee-Lo Green single ‘F**k You’. Before an official video was made for the song, a kinetic typography video was made and released online via YouTube and received over 6,000,000 views in the space of 3 months.

With advancements in design technology and with new motion artists appearing on the commercial design scene, I think kinetic typography are going to be around for a long time.

What is Street Photography?

Street photography is a type of photography where the photographers situate themselves within a certain public places to get a great looking shot. Places such as city centres, parks, memorials, beaches and even the top of buildings all in efforts to get a shot that portray a certain aspect of street culture.

A lot of street photography is shot out of the spur of the moment and unwritten photography rules such as ‘don’t think just shoot’ comes into play and some of the most breath taking shots are taken using this method of photography.

Anyone can shoot a good street photo, there is no experience really needed to capture a certain part of street culture, street life moves so fast that sometimes it is beneficial to be an amateur photographer and not to worry too much about camera settings.

Street photography first started becoming popular during the late 1800’s and up to now it has become one of the most respected types of documentary photography. Many photographers have tried certain aspects of street photography but some of the pioneers of the art form are people such as Henri Cartier-Bresson who was famous for his black and white shots that captured a turn in generations within France and other parts of Europe. Other pioneers such as Gyula Halasz (Brassi), Robert Doisneau, Joel Meyerowitz and Garry Winogrand are all very highly respected street photographers.

Heroes of Information Graphics: Harry Beck

Harry Beck is one of the early examples of information graphic pioneering, he single handedly changed the way London Underground commuters get around in day to day life and also changed the outlook on how things should be done when it comes to designing underground/subway maps all around the world.

Beck was responsible for the widely known and very popular London Underground tube map design that is still used today. It’s simplistic line work, colour coding and easy to read aspects made the map a favorite among commuters compared to other maps that came before Beck’s innovative design.

The map, made in 1931, was first thought up by Beck during a time when he was laid-off from his then job of a engineering draughtsman at the London Underground Signals Office. Beck had an idea that the people using the underground system were not too bothered about the map being geographically correct or not so in efforts to make the map more user friendly the idea of changing some aspects of the then current design of the map which was very cluttered and difficult to follow, such as straightening out the tube lines and evening out the distance between underground stations. The map was also made larger so that it could be read a lot more easily, railway lines were spaced out more and no street names were shown to make more room for the important tube information.
Beck used simplistic vertical, horizontal and 45 degree angles to show the tube lines, these proved easier to read than the older tube maps.

The original design by Beck was first sketched up within the pages of a school textbook, once Beck had gotten all stations within the design and it all flowed together efficiently, he decided to pitch the idea to London Underground officials. At first the design and ideas to change the Underground map were turned down due to the ideas of change being too ‘radicle’ and ‘revolutionary and people would never understand it’. Beck went away with more determination to get the map design put into production. Beck made some slight changes to the map and in 1933 went back a second time to pitch the idea further. At this point the officials of the London Underground did a trail run of only 500 hand held copies of the map which were handed out to morning commuters.
The map to the Underground officials surprise was starting to become high demand, the people loved the design and found it a lot more easier to follow. Beck was onto something big and had now revolutionized the way tube maps were laid out and portrayed. Within a month of the trail copies of the map being published, Beck’s stylized map was put into common use and become the official map of the London Underground.

Beck’s use of common sense to the idea that if you were going underground you didn’t really need to know the geographic of where you were going was a success, and many other underground railway associations around the world have used Beck’s style of to the point and simplistic design to underground maps. From New York to France they all use a style that was thought up by the ex-engineer.

In 1947, Beck went into teaching at the then London School of Printing and Kindred Trades and continued to make amendments to the Underground maps up until 1960. He was also commissioned the design a variety of public posters to promote the London Underground.

What is Information Graphics?

In today’s modern age we are surrounded by information that is represented in an image form. From the simplest icons that can be seen on door signs and road signs to the more complex examples of image based information such as maps. Information graphics sometimes go unnoticed when in fact they play a big part in our day to day life.

The concept of information graphics is simple, you take a piece of information and you simplify it down to some form of image, what the image is totally depends on what type of information you have to start with. For example, a simple piece of information such as ‘This toilet area is reserved for men’ has since been represented by a world wide known stick figure characterization of the ‘standard man’, even though there are no characteristics to the symbol of the man it still gets the message across that the area of this building is reserved for male visitors. Of course you can’t just have a male symbol, you also have to have a female symbol to represent both human genders. The differences between the male stickman icon and the female stickman icon is that on the female version, the character is shown to be wearing a form of dress. Even though it’s not everyday that females wear a dress, because that piece of garment is recognized as a female trend, the symbol represents a female. The graphics are simple and do not require a lot of thought sometimes, but sometimes the more simple a graphic is, the bigger impact it has.

Some more complex examples of information graphics can be seen on things such as maps. Maps take a long time to produce as they have to represent information of whereabouts to a very strict rule of accuracy so that people reading the maps are making the right decisions in direction and end up in the right place according to what the map tells them. The most complex and intriguing examples of maps include whole country maps which take years to make from the vast amount of information that goes into the imagery. Maps sometimes don’t always follow strict accuracy though, for example the famous London tube map that was designed by Harry Beck in 1931. The tube map shows a very slick and simplistic over view of how the London tube system is laid out. A lot of straight lines and very easy to follow once you have gotten the hang of how the tube system works. But in fact, the way the map is laid out has no similarities to how the London tube system is laid out really at all. It is known that if you were to remove the top parts of London to show the underground, the rail lines are in fact all over the place and scattered in various places but always do end up at the right destination to what the inaccurate map shows.
Say that Harry Beck designed the tube map with great accuracy, it would almost be impossible to follow for London commuters. This is why the tube information was simplified to make it more easy to follow and better so more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Plus the readers of the simplified maps are on the correct ground level, so they follow it but are always relying on the lines to go to the right places. If they were to go underground and follow the same map, they would most likely get lost in the depths of London somewhere.

Information graphics are very important in guiding us through life simply and effectively. If it wasn’t for the simplifying of information and putting that information into an image form, life would get kind of boring and would drag on a bit. The variety of symbols, colour ways and other forms of imagery brings a bit of difference into the way that we as people see things in day to day life. Information graphics are important and they’re helping us get on with life simply and efficiently.