The Invention of the Apple Logo

here

The Word It for March is....

finally posted

Removing Red Eye with Photoshop

I normally use the brush tool in the "color" mode to change the color of the red to a dark color I pick up with the eye dropper tool.
This site has a video that demonstrates a more complex and probably better way to do this. Give it a try.

Here is a photo you can download and fix.

Apple vs. Microsoft Branding

This is a great little film the demonstrates how good Apples branding is. Less is more. This reminds me of how many of our newspaper ads look. Pack it full until it is not longer effective...

Spiderman Reviews Crayons

This is what you get when you combine an active imagination and too much free time.

World's Best Designed Newspapers...

"The Society for News Design contest judging is done for the year, and they've announced the winners of the World's Best Designed Newspapers portion (which was actually judged last week). There are only two this year:

The Guardian, London, U.K. daily, circulation: 395,000
Rzeczpospolita, Warsaw, Poland, daily, circulation: 180,000"

Random CD cover design

The next assignment is a CD cover using 4 random words drawn from a hat: two nouns, one adjective and an emotion. For those of you playing at home we pulled from a hat for you. They are:
Puppy
Stove
Sweaty
Disappointment

Here are some other that people have drawn:

Myself: Bicycle-Box-Dirty-Disturbed
Wade: Puppy-Bathroom-Angry-pointless
Cory: Island-Computer-Love-Sweaty
Rhonda: Chameleon-Mom-Blue-Melancholy
Brandon: Cat-Purse-Lovely-Upset
Lisa: Handgun-Chameleon-Pointless-Nervous
Jim: Pumpkin-Purse-Massive-Melancholy
Carrie: Lipstick-Smile-Sweaty-Love

Put your finished images in the "CD Covers" folder in my shared folder in Adv Place.
finished CD covers can be seen here.
You have two weeks. Be Creative.

The Reason

Seth Godin has a great post about the reason we do things. How many things to we do just because "that's the way we always did it". Think of all the things we do that no longer have a good reason...

This makes me want to drink a Coke

This ad is disturbing. At least they aren't running it in the U.S. It's running in Australia, and they speak German, and Germans love David Hasselhoff.

February Whats...

Just so you don’t think I am all talk and I am doing these projects to... I finished my what over the weekend and posted it to Speak Up and they updated the site this weekend. Now Mike Blair and I are the only two to upload ours. Anyone else going to go public?

Need so help from you for the next project

OK, I need a little pre-work from you all for the next project. Can everyone submit to me by email, 2 nouns, 1 adjective and 1 emotion? No proper names (sorry Brian, Bob Dole is out).
The next project will include pulling subject from a hat. More detail later.
Can I get these by Monday so our first group that meets on Tuesday will have all of our words?
Thank you for the help and be creative!

Chocolate Website

This site does a great job of using an accent color with the predominately brown site. Click on the logo and watch the photos and color change.
Thank you Cari, for pointing the site out.

"Copy Goes Here" - Film

I nice little film about an ad adgency

Ewe Rock

ewerock
Originally uploaded by waxpixel proprietor.

I finally figured out how to get a second flickr account up so the valentines will be posted online now. Just click on the EWE and it will take you to the waxpixel flickr page were all of our future projects will be posted.

Art's Little Brother

An Essay in Icon Magazine about the Art and Design relationship – by Rick Poynor

Sometimes I find it more insightful to read the comments rather than the essay itself. –from DesignObserver.com

What?

Speak Up has 3 pages of "What" posted now. One of them belongs to Mike Blair, but I'm not sure WHAT it is...

Interesting insight from Brad

I thought I would point out a thought provoking post from our Vice President.

Iowa Newspaper Association 2006 Winners

On Friday night the 2006 INA awards were presented and The Des Moines Register won Newspaper of the Year for General Excellence. This is determined by overall points through all categories including News, Online and Advertising. Advertising played a large role in making this possible with our many winning entries.

Advertising Winners are,

Best Food or Grocery;
1st Place – Chocolateria Stam
3rd Place – Dahls Foods

Best Ad Featuring Professional Service
2nd Place – Des Moines Realtors

Best Furniture ad
3rd Place – Homemaker's

Best Auto Ad
1st Place – Karl Chevrolet

Best Miscellaneous Ad
1st Place – Iowa Stars
2nd Place – Des Moines Area Community College

Best Special Section (SWEEP)
1st Place – Homestyle Weekly
2nd Place – Merle Hay Mall
3rd Place - Mercy Hospital

Best Ad Series featuring Merchandise or Service
1st Place – Mercy Medical Center

Best Ad for Community Promotion or Event
2nd Place – Walk To Cure Diabetes

Best Ad Designer
3rd Place – Chris Hanson

Best in Class
1st – Homestyle Weekly
2nd – Chocolateria Stam

In fact there are only two categories that we did not have a winner in, Agriculture ad and Newspaper/Marketing ad.
Congratulations to all of our winners and everyone that contributed to these ads being so successful.