David Airey, graphic designer » Advertising

Chip Shop Awards 2010 open for entry

David Airey — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:11:38 +0000

The Chip Shop Awards 2010 is open for entry.

The Chip Shop Awards is about fostering and recognising creativity with no boundaries and no rules. It’s an international creative awards, open to anyone with great ideas.

Best Use of a Shop Window Postcard Space

Client: Playstation 3
Company: the if agency

Best Use of Plagiarism

Client: Metropolitan Police
Company: TCS Advertising

Best Public Awareness

Client: Durex
Company: Malcolm Crews Design

Best Viral

Client: Richard Holmes, Marketing Director, Specsavers
Company: Specsavers Optical Group

More Chip Shop Awards nominations in a blog post from back in 2008.

Can you do better? Enter the Awards here.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

Viagra is 10

David Airey — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:58:20 +0000

That little blue pill from Pfizer is celebrating its 10th birthday. Let’s reminisce together about the flood of Viagra spam we’ve each deleted.

Watch on YouTube if you can’t see ad above. The video, developed by French agency BDDP & Fils is being shown to the Pfizer’s European staff as part of the 10 year celebrations.

Via I Believe in Advertising.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

New not improved

David Airey — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:01:48 +0000

Just because something is new, doesn’t mean it’s better.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

HP invent

David Airey — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:04:06 +0000

Hewlett Packard set a design brief for the recent D&AD Student Awards, and one result in particular stands out.

Brief:
Present an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive.

Response:
Focusing on the synchronisation of a range of HP products, printers become an orchestra in an aesthetic symphony conducted by HP Workstations.

Filmed, edited and directed by Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth.

The two designers are recent graduates from the Design Communication degree course at Kingston University, London, and they’re currently looking for experience within the creative industry.

Good luck in your search, guys. Love the video.

HP – invent on Vimeo via Johnson Banks.

Music © Round Table Knights.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

The Chip Shop Awards 2009

David Airey — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:58:10 +0000

After a tough judging session held at Leo Burnett’s offices, The Drum has today announced the nominations for this year’s Chip Shop Awards, the only international advertising awards that actively encourages entrants to cheat by entering ads for clients they don’t even have on their books.

The Chip Shop Awards are unlike traditional advertising awards schemes and include such categories as:

Best Use of Bad Taste
Best Use of Plagiarism
Most Politically Incorrect
Best Use of Shocking Copy
Best Ad for a Client You Haven’t A Hope of Winning

Hitting out at today’s safe advertising, London ad-man Dave Trott, said:

“A lot of the fun has gone out of advertising. Here today what we have seen are a lot of ads that are a lot of fun, and actually many of them could have run without any problem. Sadly though… nobody wants to run fun ads any more.”

Best outdoor advertisement

D-FENCE
“Tough barbed wire.”

Best use of bad taste

Johnson’s Baby Lotion
“Babies so smooth, be careful you don’t drop them.”

McDonalds
“10% discount for OAPs every Wednesday.”

Best use of shocking copy

Playboy
“In this month’s issue: Is Afghanistan the right reason to pull US troops out of Iraq?”

Best use of a shop window postcard space

Salford Piano Tuition

Jo’s Ironing Service

Other top brands also in the running to scoop exclusive ‘Chip’ awards include Durex, Colgate, Specsavers, The Sun, Churchill Insurance, Marmite, Guinness, Staples, Woolworths, Jewson and Blu-Tac.

This year’s event takes place on June 10th at Fabric in London, and you can view all the nominations here on The Chip Shop Awards website.

I previously published a quick selection of last year’s winners too.

Good luck to all nominees!

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

Sex, Lies and Photoshop

David Airey — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:01:05 +0000

With so much falsehood in fashion advertising, just how much are we affecting the minds of the younger generation? Magazines, billboards and other print media push an unattainable fantasy world upon us. So when laws are being considered to have publications clearly label ‘Photoshopped’ images, personally, I’m all for that.

Image source

French public health officials want to combat eating disorders by having magazines say to what extent their photos have been retouched.

“These days, altered images are ubiquitous; the fairytale world threatens to engulf our own. The illusion is more complete, too — with digital technology it’s harder to see the smoothing. Stalin would have drooled at the possibilities.”
More here on David Byrne’s Journal.

The New York Times has featured a short video (less than 5 minutes long) explaining why magazines should be more transparent (video produced by Jesse Epstein of Wet Dreams and False Images).

I’ve previously mentioned the topic, with the twisted reality of fashion advertising, and it’s one I believe should be given a lot more attention.

Here’s a related video that clearly outlines the ‘Photoshop effect’.

Visit YouTube if you can’t see the embedded video above.

Further discussion on image retouching

The Photoshop effect
“…whenever one of my videos begins to do well on YouTube, the commentators berate me over my weight.”
Women who say no to Photoshopping
“Retouching. Photoshopping. It’s everywhere. Want to be considered beautiful? You must have no pores, no wrinkles, no moles, NO PERSONALITY.”
Has photo retouching gone too far?
“Remember Jessica Rabbit? I wanted her va va voom figure, long red hair and white skin as a girl, but I knew she was a cartoon. There was no illusion of reality. Is what we are seeing in print these days any more real than Jessica Rabbit?”
Kim Kardashian Photoshop controversy
“So what? I have a little cellulite… just because I am on the cover of a magazine doesn’t mean I’m perfect.”
Striving for perfection is dangerous
“If we are never exposed to the imperfections of celebrities, how can they possibly serve as healthy, responsible role models?”

Your thoughts

Should magazines disclose to what extent their images have been retouched, or should we carry on as we are?

I don’t agree with those who blame the media for every teenage girl with an eating disorder, but there should at least be some accountability for fueling the fire.

Some people want to ban retouching entirely, but any form of media censorship isn’t good in my opinion. I’d like to see a high profile fashion magazine publish an issue without any retouching at all. Now there’s a publicity generator, and it would go some way to dissolving the myth of fairytale beauty.

Update: 17 April 2009
French Elle has published a ‘no makeup’ issue — causing a stir.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

FAB Creative Excellence Awards

David Airey — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:05:40 +0000

There are just two days left to enter 2009’s FAB Awards (Food and Beverage Creative Excellence Awards). Now in its 11th year, the FAB Awards has taken entries from clients and agencies in over 60 countries around the world. Here are some of my favourites from 2008.

“The only international Food and Beverage Awards, recognizing creative excellence in the Media: Integrated Campaign, Digital Media, Print, Packaging Design, Press, Poster, Radio, TV / Cinema, Radio, Direct Marketing, Sales Promotion.”

Lactofree (health foods and dairy products)