For many years now, I’ve noticed that when I look at an advertisement, be it in a magazine, a newspaper, or on a billboard, I often ignore the communication and am more inclined to critique it. Is the imagery suitable and well done? Is the copy pithy or funny enough? Is the layout busy or uncluttered?

Even when an ad works, in that I look at it, read it and get hooked by it, I still find myself saying, “niiice,” at the end of it, rather than thinking about the company, brand or offer being sold.

I tend to wonder who created the work, rather than allow any benefit to be given to the advertiser — “The XYZ ad was really nice. EFG did a really good job with it”.

How about you? Are we all ignoring the message in others work and being critics? Can we be sold to, since we know (or assume) that the advertiser had little to do with the ads we see?

Note to the nine people who read this blog: I’m smack in the middle of developing some work for a pitch, and have been pretty tied up with work. Because of this, I’m going to be a bit irregular about posting here.

I came across these three print ads for Companhia Athletica at Ads of the World a few days ago. I thought they were great and especially liked how the third ad shows the man trying to block the inflow of soda. You’ll have to go to AOTW to see the larger versions of each ad (You really should — they’re that nice.)

Technorati Tags: companhia athletica, print ads, art direction, design

A terrific post at the COLOURlovers blog answers this and many other questions about why certain colours are associated with certain things. Click over and have a read.

Technorati Tags: color, association, design

I went to a Citibank ATM this afternoon and noticed this posted at the machine.

Couldn’t they have put up a better looking notice? Maybe used something with a Citibank logo. Maybe pasted the notice vertically so it didn’t run past the pillar. They definitely could’ve worded it better, because the copywriting is pretty awful, and left out the quotation marks.

I wonder who this notice could be directed at. I figure there are two kinds of people. The first would be women wearing hijab and they’re certainly not going to unveil themselves for a camera, even an ATM security camera. The second would be people who’ve come to the machine to do something dodgy. I can really see themselves posing for a pic.

I suppose there could be a third type — the guy who picks his nose a lot. At least he’ll know not to do it when withdrawing money.

Lastly, we’re not really a very security-aware society. There aren’t any CCTV-type setups here and we’re pretty oblivious to our surroundings. I would bet good money that most people who use an ATM don’t even know there’s a camera watching them and if they do, they’re not thinking about it when at the machine.

You’ve just made them conscious of the fact that you want to have a look at their face. They’ll be more inclined to cover up now that they know you want to have a look at them.

So, in essence, the notice feels invasive, achieves nothing and looks horrid.

Technorati Tags: citibank, atm, security, notice, copywriting, privacy

There’s a phenomenal set of images on Flickr representing Swiss graphic design history. I haven’t been able to go through all of them yet, so can’t state which is my favourite.

It’d be nice though, if anyone went from here to there, to post back what they were drawn most to.

Technorati Tags: swiss, history, poster, graphic, design, typography