Best Ad Campaigns of All Time

Advertising is nothing without concepts. I found this list of the top 10 advertising campaigns of all time. Different as they are, they have one thing in common: they all started with one great idea. 

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I was busy being a twinkle in my father's eye for most of these, so I would update this list with the legendary Got Milk? campaign by the California Milk Processors Board.

Also, who could forget when Apple personified a Mac and a PC? Priceless! 

What is your favorite campaign?

I wonder what font that is?

Wonder no more. WhatTheFont! is an easy, comprehensive, and free(!) tool to help you answer that looming "What font is that?" question. Upload an image (screen shot, picture, etc.) of the font in question, supply a little clarifying information, cross your fingers, and see if you get lucky. It's not 100% accurate and the quality of your image certainly makes a difference, but with the challenge of, say, creating a department page for an already established publication, it might just make your life a little easier.

And for your innergeek, WhatTheFont! also comes in a nifty iPhone app!

What's the big idea?

"Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science, and in advertising."

David Ogilvy said that. The original Mad Man, he's considered "The Father of Advertising" and the creator of "The Big Idea," or a "concept," as we called it in class.

According to David, you can recognize a big idea if you ask yourself these five questions:

1. Did it make me gasp when I first saw it?
2. Do I wish I had thought of it myself?
3. Is it unique?
4. Does it fit the strategy to perfection?
5. Could it be used for 30 years?

My current favorite campaign is for Oscar Mayer Selects, which is about saying yes instead of saying no. The spots showcase a husband and wife, saying no to everyday, but funny, occurrences. At the end, they say "YES!" to Oscar Mayer Selects because it's good for you.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million, so I'm posting several examples of this excellent concept here! I certainly wish I had thought of it myself!

The Real Simple Way to Blow Dry Your Hair

A lot of what I know about life comes from Real Simple magazine. Their editors have a way of dolling out advice that makes me lap it up like a hungry kitten. The only problem is, sometimes their ideas are...too simple?

2010's March edition invited me to try 3 easy steps to a perfect home blow-dry. The claim: I would cut my time in half. I'll do ANYTHING to reduce the amount of time I'm under that oppressive heat so I read on.

Step 1:

• After toweling off wet hair, set your dryer on medium heat and high air speed. Blow hair until it’s 80 percent dry.
• Gather the hair on top of your crown and secure it with a clip. Begin drying the lower layers with a brush, using more heat. Point the dryer’s nozzle downward to help smooth hair and create shine. Look at her. Her hair is already very smooth and she's completely in control. She's poised and stately. And that bicep. Drawings never looked so good.

Step 2:

• Blow-dry the top section. Aim at the roots to add volume, then work toward the ends, using the brush to pull hair forward and out. She has the whole top of her hair flipped forward and, not only is she still in control, she's meditating to the sound of her dryer.

Step 3:

• Remove the clip. Flip all hair back. Part and dry hair around the forehead.
• To curl ends, roll them under with a round brush, blast with heat, and set with cold air. For a straight finish, pull the brush through while drying ends with warm air; set with cold air. Apply styling cream to tamp down flyaways, or mist with hair spray. Not a drop of sweat on her forehead. NOT ONE. She has almost half of her hair casually wrapped around the round brush.

And that's it. Simple, right? Right...if you have perfectly cooperative hair. 

See the entire visual and verbal definition here. 

On the Grid

During class last week, I got asked about the mysterious "grid" our professor keeps referring to. Not that I'm anyone to be answering questions about anything (unless you want to know about eyebrows, in which case, I consider myself an expert), but I thought I'd pass along a little information.

It's my understanding that there's no wrong or right way to make a grid. There are many, many, many grid options. So when graphic designers talk about "the grid," they aren't referring to one, specific layout...at least I don't think. They are referring to "a two-dimensional structure made up of a series of intersecting vertical and horizontal axes used to structure content. The grid serves as an armature on which a designer can organize text and images in a rational, easy to absorb manner," according to Wikipedia.

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This zine is an excellent introduction to the grid. This article is also a great overview. And this book is the the grid bible, as far as I'm concerned...which isn't very far.

In a nutshell, you first decide what grid you want to use for your design. The most common are columns and baseline, but modern design uses the golden ratio and the rule of thirds. Use scratch paper and a ruler to map out your page before going into InDesign, if you need to.

In InDesign, click inside the ruler and drag out guides to set up your own grid and section off your page in orderly "chunks." Don't forget to include gutters, or "breathing room." You can also turn on a "grid" in InDesign and use it as a guide, if you wish.

There are a great many people who understand the usage of the grid far better than I, but hopefully this gives you a start place. Feel free to chime in, and remember, 

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Yelp

I looked at a bucket load of infographics to find the perfect one to share here. It was a hard job, but someone had to do it. Instead of finding the perfect inforgraphic to share here, I found this terribly funny description of Yelp users.

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Related, but only by association, the video series "Real Actors Read Yelp" on YouTube is enough to bring all productivity to a screeching halt. But you didn't hear that from me.

(Un)appetizing

I spent one whole minute considering jumping on the gluten free bandwagon some eight months ago. A Google search took me to Eating Well Magazine, a publication familiar to me during my stint as a graphic designer for a health and nutrition PR firm.

This magazine has always been hit or miss for me, mostly miss. While I love their mission statement of providing inspiration and information about healthy eating, their execution is often flawed.

I have nothing but praise for the gluten free diet plan Eating Well created; perfect for dieting novices like me who just want our stomachs fed with our brains left out of it. But the images used for some of the recipes are downright foul.

Let me give you a tasty sampler. 

This is Steak & Boursin-Wrapped Bells. Putting aside that I have kitchen aversion and don't even know what "boursin" is, these look like something my niece would make for the third-grade Thanksgiving reenactment. Where was the food stylist on this one?

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I can see my reflection in the shiny meat and carrots of this Bistro Beef Tenderloin.

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Here we have Singapore Chile Crab with Spinach. I got food poisoning just from looking at this picture. Also, how about that lighting, eh?

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Sweet Potato-Turkey Hash with...what is that? Jam? Jelly? I have a policy of avoiding foods with the word "hash" in the title.

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When I has eight, I went to a haunted house where my neighbor was laid up on the kitchen table, pretending to be Frankenstein. We had to touch all of Frankenstein's body parts: his hair was spaghetti, his eyes were grapes, and I think this Chicken with Green Olives & Prunes was used for his guts.

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These Sliced Tomatoes with Pesto Drizzle were taken with an iPhone camera and nobody will convince me otherwise.

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So...who's ready for lunch?!?!