Published on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 by Stuart Thursby

Pundits have been spilling ink on digital media for a couple decades now. Calls to the heavens, appeals to logic and emotion and all manner of hysteria have dominated the digital debate since the 1980s.

Chuck the dot-com bust of 2000 and the past few years of recessionary thinking, the rapid rise and tentative destabilizing of Flash, smartphones and the iPad in to the mix, and you’re left with a messy pie that everyone wants a piece of, without necessarily having a clue why.

Needless to say, this has been a media in flux, going through its birth pains. Looking back on the history books, it’s easy to get the impression that the printing press spread across Europe at Gutenberg’s touch, or that photography overtook illustration in advertising as soon as it became practical. But these developments were measured in decades, not months (as George Tannenbaum rather testily said), and entire careers could be spent in flux, with those (un)fortunate souls who were of working age during these periods of revolution stuck heading in both directions.

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Published on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 by Stuart Thursby

Olga Barkhatova is a photographer/design/illustrator based in Toronto.

Equally talented in the three professions, Olga’s work is varied and disciplined, showcasing a wide array of approaches and themes. Fine art, advertising, still lifes, fashion and personal work dot her photographic portfolio, with a similar variety of areas in her illustrations/retouching work and design work.

She recently spent four years as a designer at Acuity in Richmond Hill, ON and is now working full-time freelance in the creative arts.

Click here to visit Olga’s site. More images after the jump.

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Published on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 by Stuart Thursby

Applied Arts Portfolios is the newest of the Applied Arts offerings. Available exclusively to photographers and illustrators to promote their talents to potential clients, it is the latest addition to our popular promotional programs. Every week, we’ll be picking one photographer or illustrator from the site to promote on the Wire. This week, we’re featuring Montreal-based illustration collective Polygone Studio.

From their website: “Since its inception in 2001, Polygone Studio has accumulated an exceptional portfolio. We are consummate experts on all aspects of data synthesis for still and animated images (storyboard, illustration and multimedia animation) and sound production (audioguide). From small, local museums to renowned multinational exhibits, our projects demonstrate top quality and versatility.”

Click here to visit Polygone’s portfolio. More images after the jump.

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Published on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 by Stuart Thursby

Montreal’s Mookai Communications (who we last saw creating posters for the Segal Centre) recently rebranded Wine Awakenings, “a unique company specializing in wine education and leisure learning.”

Embracing a stoic, elegant and classic approach punctuated with colour and illustrations, the communications for Wine Awakenings consisted of a logo, brochure and scent cards, packaging designs and a website. Black is the dominant theme here, neatly tucking into the established aura around the wine field.

In the words of Mookai, “The illustrative style became a main branding element and was incorporated across the other materials. The Wine Aroma Kits were repackaged with matte black paper and the logos were foil stamped in colours representing the different wine varieties. Inside the kit are the aroma vials, an informative brochure and a set of illustrated sent cards which further assist in enhancing the wine tasting experience.”

Creative Direction
Lori von Sychowski   
Art Direction
Lori von Sychowski
Design
Tanya Duffy
Illustration
Tanya Duffy, Chantal Fournier
Print Production
Kiera Liutak, Julie Boisvert
Copy Editing
Andrea Cohen

Click here to visit Mookai’s site, and here to visit Wine Awakenings’. More images after the jump.

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Published on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 by Carrie Martin

THE 2010 INTERACTIVE AWARDS ARE COMING!

Call For Entry launching September 7, 2010

Mark your calendars, our 2010/11 Interactive Awards will be launched September 7, 2010 with an entry deadline of October 8, 2010.

All winning work will be published in our Feb./March 2011 Interactive Awards issue. In addition, all winners will receive a full year of coverage in our online winners gallery. Visit our 2009/10 Interactive Winners’ Gallery to see last year’s winning entries.

We look forward to seeing the great work that you’ve produced over the last year.

Questions? Contact Carrie Martin at awards[at]appliedartsmag.com, or by phone, 416-510-0909 x32 (outside Toronto: 1-800-646-0347).

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Published on Monday, August 30th, 2010 by Stuart Thursby

In a typical Mad Men episode, research comes back saying something plain about the insights surrounding a brand. But the creatives, led by a cape-wearing Don Draper, rage against the machine and follow their gut instinct to create breakthrough creative that could have never happened had the team followed what research was telling them.

It’s the kind of Americana story that we all love to hear: those who won’t follow what “The Man” is telling them, coupled with that burning desire to express themselves and put one’s genius out into the world. It’s a story as warm as apple pie and baseball (or maple syrup and hockey, depending on your chosen country). And – as with everything – there are always two (or more) sides to the story.

Creatives in marketing have to constantly grapple with what research and strategy is bringing to the table. Most of the time, the research “lies” or isn’t able to define any true insight that will ignite the creativity towards the red carpet at Cannes. Web analytics has come a long way, and actually being able to see what consumers are doing (and the ability to even know why they’re doing it) gives us more insight than even the best creative brief can. Despite all that real data, marketing professionals en masse can’t seem to wrap their heads around it. In fact, if you look at the majority of online campaigns — even the ones that are taking home the Cannes Lion Cyber award — they are not leveraging even the basest web analytics to optimize and adjust the campaigns based on what consumers are actually doing.

This is an excerpt of a full-length column from Mitch Joel of Twist Image. Click here to read the rest.

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Published on Friday, August 27th, 2010 by Peter Giffen

Prolific and talented Toronto illustrator Gary Taxali has released his first picture book, This is Silly!, aimed at three- to five-year-olds. Published by Scholastic Canada, the $20 hardcover book knows its audience, boasting “goofy text and absurd imagery,” with a warning that “this book may cause uncontrollable giggling in children.” You can also visit some of book’s characters online, including Silly Sol, and Manic Monkey. Known as an illustrator and fine artist, Taxali also designs his own toys through his company Chump Toys and will be designing a line of retro toys for Indigo Books & Music.

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Published on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 by Peter Giffen

Applied Arts friend and advertising legend Gary Prouk, of Sebastian Consultancy, provides links that will help you kill time, avoid work and find inspiration and entertainment.

The Mad Men of Mid-Century Modern Design: The Selvedge Yard blog presents the work of mid-century American designers George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames and Jens Risom, shown above in an image from a 1961 Playboy article. Enjoy samples of furniture design and room interiors that you can imagine Hef and friends lounging on and around. A link is included to the magazine article.

Scraptorium: A site for Angelica Paez, who has been making collages for more than 15 years. As she says, “I probably started as soon as I had safety scissors in my hand as a small kid. I had a love for construction paper then and enjoyed cutting out make-believe scenes using some of my mother’s catalogues and magazines. Little has changed since then, except now I use sharp scissors.”

I Love Typography: If you are really passionate about fonts, typefaces and all things typographical, then this is the blog for you. Sample posts range from the “Origins of ABC” to  ”Why Did I start a Type Foundry?”

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Published on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 by Stuart Thursby

Applied Arts Portfolios is the newest of the Applied Arts offerings. Available exclusively to photographers and illustrators to promote their talents to potential clients, it is the latest addition to our popular promotional programs. Every week, we’ll be picking one photographer or illustrator from the site to promote on the Wire. This week, we’re featuring Toronto, ON-based photographer Joseph Saraceno.

From Joseph’s portfolio: “Joseph Saraceno is a Toronto based photographer specializing in fashion and still life editorial images. He has photographed for a wide variety clients locally and internationaly.”

Click here to visit Joseph’s portfolio. More images after the jump.

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Published on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 by Ian Mackenzie

Illustration by Joel Holtby.

There’s a great way to tell if your idea for an ad has the potential to be great: Switch out your client’s product for a competitor’s. If the ad still works, the idea lacks ownability. And your ad is destined for mediocrity.

Ownability involves discovering what’s unique about your product and letting that be the hero of the story.

Three examples of brand ownability done well:

1) Post’s “Diamond Shreddies” campaign puts the cereal’s unique shape at its heart. And I’m guessing no one will misremember it as the “Diamond Cheerios” campaign.

2) “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” The official rallying cry for debauchery and excess leaves little chance you’ll forget where to find it.

3) Mini Cooper. Here’s a car that wears its identity on its front grille. And in a sea of similarly styled sedans and coupes, Mini owns tiny.

The problem is, most ads aren’t as ownable as they could be. They walk like ads. They talk like ads. But they have nothing essential to say about the products they represent. They’re category promos with a phone number. And they’re missing opportunities to forge meaningful bonds between the brand and the consumers they’re trying to court.

Creating true ownability is hard work. It involves deep study of your product, your market and your consumers. The job is further complicated by the fact that competing products within categories often have precious little to distinguish themselves from each other.

But if the goal is better, more effective ads, it’s well worth adding ownability to your brief’s list of mandatories.

When capacity allows, push hard for ownable ideas.

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