Highly imaginative and highly creative ad solutions.  Great job Yellow Shoes!

Today’s showcasing is something rather unique in my book.  How do you envision a new, creative way of inviting people to your upcoming wedding.  Usually wedding invites are elegant forms of paper, perhaps embossings, and are fairly minimalistic in their design approach.  You say the date, the time, the location and the RSVP info.

What if you wanted to give full details about the upcoming event, including the dinner menu? What if you wanted to include some bio information on the background of the so-to-be married couple regarding how they met and eventually decided to tie the knot?  What if you are a pair of goof-balls with a great sense of humor and want to do something very untraditional?

Well that is exactly what couple Steve and Jacqs decided to do when they partnered with web designer Stephen Oldham to come up with a fun, and quirky website to promote their wedding.

With a distinct eye for vintage typography and a homage to copy layout of the late 1800′s and some fun jQuery ScrollTo functionality for the website navigation, the couple and Stephen created a fantastically whimsical online communication.  From their back-story, to the directions, the wit and humor and inside jokes (only for family and dear friends to get I assume) the site is as fun to read and explore (be sure to roll over the pair of silhouette heads), the site is such a refreshing way of getting the info out there.  Obviously not for the stranger (They don’t even list their last names anywhere), this site was a fun project for those closest to the couple and who already know them, yet they take an approach that assumes complete strangers like myself (and very soon YOU) will peruse their site and be left wanting to know more about this couple, if not want to crash their wedding, which would, I’m sure, have been just as fun and inventive.

Hats off guys!  I know by now the date has come and gone and I wish you both very many happy years ahead!  Let’s hope they decided to do a website devoted to a baby announcement in the near future!….

Visit the website here:

www.steveandjacqs.com

So take a deep drink from your mug, sit back and be prepared to ponder and enjoy!

I totally take back all of those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger

Was learning cursive really necessary?

Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died. 

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

“Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this… ever.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay. 

I would rather try to carry 10 overloaded plastic bags in each hand than take two trips to bring the groceries in.

How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said? 

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone and pinning the Tail on The Donkey. But I bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time… every time!

I am talking about the new, up-and-coming illustrator out of Berlin, Germany: 21 year-old Niklas Coskan.  Also know as the Dee Dee Kid, this youngster is proving himself a force to be reckoned with.

From his fabulous use of thick-and-thin ink lines, great vintage low-saturated color palette, and interesting compositions that have their own innate movement and visual direction, Niklas’s style is anything but mundane and ordinary.  This illustrations have a natural look that lends itself well to letterpress printing, with its gritty grain and imperfections, and have a simple enough color palette that they could easily be reproduced in that manner or large on shirts.

His twisted, yet charming subjects have a bit of that “rat fink” style that was the signature of illustrator Ed Roth, yet Niklas has made it his own, rather than a deliberate copy.

Niklas shows that kind of raw talent at a young age where you know that given time to more completely hone his craft, he will be a dominating illustrating force in the design world in the coming decades.

Check out his full portfolio…

This brilliantly creative solution is simple in execution, tastefully done, and allows the consumer to participate in the idea by removing one of the tabs to keep his contact information, while ummm… circumcising the poster in the process.  Nothing like a cutting-edge design to get the point across (sorry for the pun)!

His death reminds me so much of others who transcended their mere generation or culture, or local market.  Steve showed the world how to reinvent how we think.  He taught us how to dream.

For many of us, we have just lost this generation’s John Lennon.  This generation’s Martin Luther King Jr.  This generation’s JFK or Thomas Edison. Men who have radically changed our times around the globe, and men who still had so much left to give before they left us.

That is what inspired this small graphical tribute to the great Steve Jobs.  Who gave us the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone… and who taught us to iMagine.

Don’t get me wrong, the animated short film Big Buck Bunny has nothing to do with Pixar. It actually has to do with Blender, an open-source animation tool used mostly for creating grass, hair, leaves, etc.  Part of the Blender community, a small team (7) of the best 3D artists and developers in the Blender community have been invited to come together to work in Amsterdam from October 2007 until April 2008 on completing a short 3D animation movie.

What developed from their efforts, is an engaging, charming and hilarious short film.

What’s even better is that you can have a FREE copy of it for yourself.  Large, HD versions (in various file formats) or even an iPod Touch version for your mobile needs.  Go over to the Project’s website to grab a copy.

Yes, this movie is almost 4 years old, but I think you will find the animation was years ahead of itself for 2008 when it was made.

Enjoy!

1. He’s The Everyday Hero

Put aside the fact of Bruce Wayne’s wealth, under the costume, he is still just a city’s citizen that is tired of allowing corruption, crime, and evil run rampant. Yes, he is simply-put, a vigilante.  But he inspires us to not turn away from injustice, but to do something about it.

2. No Powers

He is one of the few heroes in the DC Comics or Marvel world that has absolutely no super powers.  No superhuman strength. No extra-planetary abilities. He is a mortal man. His strength he gets from conditioning. His combat abilities from training. Yes, he has gadgets, but could he still be Batman without them, yes.  Take away the robotic suit, and Tony Stark is no longer IronMan.

3. He is Complicated

The motivations behind the character are anything but simple.  They are complicated.  He has emotional baggage. He has issues that not only fuel him in his quest, but can haunt him in his sleep. Does he need counseling? Yes.  But that is why he is so relatable to us all.  He is not the Man of Emotional Steel. He is a real guy. With a past. Living each day with having to deal and cope.  Sound familiar?

4. He is Not Glorified

I love the movie line, “He can become what Gotham needs him to be.” Batman is not Gotham City’s glorified hero.  He doesn’t have the greatest press coverage.  Some view him as a hero.  Some view him as a crazed vigilante.  Some view him as just another villain who is wanted by the police.  Because he is a mystery to most, he can be all of those things and still fight for justice.

5. Fear

I love the very concept of his character.  He strives to strike fear into those that use fear itself to prey among the weak and innocent.  But he uses he own fears to personify that fear.  By becoming The Bat, he embodies that fear, that element of dark night and uses it to his advantage.

I am also a lover of vintage travel posters.  Their simplistic use of flat color that really due upon their lithographic production processes and had all of the characteristics that that specific method endures.

While this entry of inspiration may not be new on the Internet-scene, stumbling upon them recently was and so I instantly fell in love with Steven Thomas‘ travel poster work.  This freelance illustrator specializes in vintage travel poster and propaganda posters that come from his love of 1920′s design.

Taking the concept of all of the glorious places one could travel across the galaxy (as found on the Stars Wars map) and putting it to a theme of travel posters was brilliant.  Playful, fun, and a joy to gaze at.  Thank you Steve for making my day… make that WEEK.

Where the heck did all of the good posters go?”

It’s as if all of the great graphic designers went on strike during this year, because I only found FOUR that I found to worthy of showcasing for their good use of layout, color, negative space, or typography. Don’t get me wrong, there were tons of movies hitting the theaters, but the posters that advertised them just were of the average garden-variety and were overall…lack-luster.

So enough gripping. Here are the 4 that stood out to my eyes.

Malcolm X

Typophiles rejoice!  This poster just hits it out of the park!  Why?  Simple, bold, and it’s ambiguous enough to cause people to talk about it or get closer to see just what movie is coming out on November 18th.   For a teaser poster, it just doesn’t get any better than this.

Unlawful Entry

I love this poster for two reasons.  The combination of grainy monotone images and full-color help to break up the visual space.  Top it off with a the strong horizontal spaces of white that cut up Ray Liotta’s face are great.  It gets the impression of voyeurism without showing window blinds.  The irregularity of it gives it almost an organic feel to it and it just pushed the creative envelope more than what some of the others were doing at the time.

Basic Instinct

Not only a disturbing movie to watch, but this poster shows how just the right photo can really make the poster.  The glaring eyes of Sharon Stone, the wonderful duotone image that is revealed in an obscure, almost blade like shape that dissects the visual space and the wonderful empty negative space really helps make this poster stand out from the pack.  The nice subtle text distinctions in the title treatment are just icing on the cake as is the way the image and text copy draw the eye downward towards the title. Fabulous!

Reservoir Dogs

Thought I should end my small collection with a BANG!  Literally.  The poster is simply an award-winner.  A great approach of grainy photo, arresting red hue overlaying it (to mirror the amount of blood spilled in this flick), the modern approach to the typography… simply delicious.  A wonderful, edgy poster to match a wonderful and edgy film.