designtoandfro.com » Transmogrify

Stupid is as stupid does

Mihae Mukaida — Mon, 03 May 2010 01:02:58 +0000

Walk in any subway station in NYC and you’ll see Diesel’s current campaign BE STUPID. And maybe it’s exactly what their creative agency of choice Anomaly banked on, but it had me rooting for stupid too. Maybe it was the multiplatform campaign, which no doubt cost a pretty penny (not to mention an all expense paid trip across Mongolia by train or if you prefer shark swimming in South Africa) but the campaign struck a chord with me. Mainly, because I’ve recently taken a contract corporate gig, I now know what it means to die a little each day. Yes, I had some doubts from the beginning, but I also had high hopes, believing I could play a pivotal role in a redesign, rethinking how an e-commerce site functioned anew, but what I’ve discovered is something else entirely, something which spoke to the first lines of Diesel’s campaign copy “Like balloons we are all filled with hopes and dreams but over time a single sentence creeps into our live…Don’t be stupid. It’s the crusher of possibility.” And maybe e-commerce isn’t necessarily the place for experimentation and online innovation but it should be.

I’ve grappled with how to move forward and perhaps I found my answer at AIGA’s recent NYC event on Design and Advertising when an audience member told a humorous story and asked a poignant question. During the talk Doug Jaegar, the youngest to ever be elected President of the Art Director’s Club, had thrown up on screen a series of interesting one liners from various professionals in the industry about design and advertising. To quote a few, which lose a lot without the visual but none-the-less here they are: From an ad agency – “Design is the bass line, advertising is the guitar solo.” From a design group – “Advertising creates problems, design creates solutions.” Even Todd Waterbury of Wieden+Kennedy, had one to eloquently contribute, “Design is a language, advertising a sentence.” Well, our audience member being in pharmaceutical advertising, asked “while everything you’ve said makes sense, my client isn’t gonna hear ‘design is a language, advertising a sentence’ and see the error of their ways. What two minute elevator pitch can I use with a client to get them to not want to put a generic smiling, healthy looking patient on a poster with the drug name and legal copy?” It got more than a few laughs but it was a very good question. The answer via Doug Jaegar,”maybe you should quit your job.” I think his point being that you will always have battles to fight, working with people who appreciate ideas shouldn’t have to be one of them.

Please Enjoy…

Mihae Mukaida — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:33:25 +0000

Surprisingly, I’d known about Ji Lee’s work long before I ever knew about anything about him. In fact, you probably do too. If not walking the streets of Manhattan then perhaps perusing blogs online. His work has that quality that catches attention without screaming at you. I literally went through every page of his website, I don’t think I’ve ever done that. To be quite honest, that fact alone is inspirational. His work is playful but sophisticated, smart but accessible-he excites curiosity, not to mention the man seems to have the right balance between life and work…anyway, in his own words, “please enjoy.”

Travel down the rabbit hole…

Mukaida — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:53:31 +0000

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It’s a scratchpad for ideas…want to join, get in touch 908.917.7273

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ASAD A smile a day: The effects of smiling drawings and sketches

What’s on your Desktop – a foray into the creative space analog to digital and back again

Life of the plastic bottle on multiple planes of time (inspired by Einstein time) mumbai

Ideation: the genesis of the idea via the family tree

Redesigning the tarot

Keep Calm and Carry On

Mihae Mukaida — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:18:11 +0000

Though the now recognized british poster found huge popularity during the Christmas of 2005, it was originally produced in 1939 for the Ministry of Information and was only to be distributed should the Nazis succeed in an invasion of Great Britain. The third in a series of three it was designed as a motivational poster for the British Government.

Printed and stored, the poster didn’t see the full light of day until the year 2000, when a copy was discovered by a bookseller Stuart Manley and gained popularity shortly after it was featured as a newspaper supplement Christmas gift idea.

Below is the original image along with a parody found on ffffound. While the typography is clearly off the mark, the British stiff upper lip sentiment surely gets turned on its head.