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!

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)!

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!

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.

But what really floated my boat, was Will’s side project titled Silhouette Masterpiece Theatre. This is where Will’s true Jedi skills as a visual designer show true.  Taking old vintage paintings as a backdrop, Will bends the scenes by combining white silhouettes and very witty prose to engage the viewer with a simple but strong message, some for pure whimsy, others for a more thought-provoking statement.

With a whopping 58 pieces in this design collection, Will shows us all that his Well of Creativity runs deep. All I can say is, be inspired and go check out the complete collection.

With regards to how seriously he takes his job and work, I will let his own quirky bio do the talking…

Wilhelm Staehle is a horribly disfigured gentleman who often frightens small children when he emerges from the seclusion of his sprawling estate on the eastern coast of the Americas. In his free time, between sporting for foxes and dressing his disturbingly broad collection of taxidermy, he finds time to hand-cut silhouettes. He begs you to enjoy them, or to at least refrain from informing him if you do not. He thanks you for your time.

And lastly, the most amazing battle of them all.  We all know that dogs “claim” to rule over cats, but this image really captures the ninja-like skills that felines secretly possess, as you can see by this vicious Roundhouse Kick!…

Enjoy!

I have spent countless moments of head-shaking and wincing while on the highways when I pass RV’s of all makes and models, only to be staring at badly executed attempts at “cool” graphics.

Mostly these graphics take on one form and one form only:  The badly implemented and overly used design convention known as the “Nike Swoosh”.  Now I have nothing against the actual Nike swoosh.  It is probably one of the most simple and globally-recognized logomarks around.  But any attempt at a logo for a tech company, telecommunications company, or computer services company always seem to resort to placing a crescent-shaped swoosh over the name or around it.  Ugh!

That being said, this same convention has unfortunately littered our roadways in the form of useless, and randomly placed graphics on the sides of recreational vehicles.  I guess the intent is to imply speed and make them seem like they are going faster than they are even remotely capable of.  But this is such a farce.

Worse, their placement is undoubtedly managed as acts of randomness.  There seems to be no order or thought-process as to where they need to be placed. In the case of the swooshes, they are usually overlapping, and visually seem to contradict where the eye should be directed.

And if it isn’t a swoosh, it is a random, sharp-looking shape or totally irrelevant graphic.  And when there is a concept for an RV design, say where the RV is called the “Cougar”, and you need to have a graphic of a cougar on it (because let’s face it, people wouldn’t understand the name if you didn’t), it is a graphic that someone created who bought Adobe Illustrator two days ago and have seemed to master it in that amount of time, especially the art of gradients.

Now I am not saying that all RV’s should be devoid of any graphics.  With a smart use of color and nice execution of the design, one can create a dynamic and nicely done application of graphics on an RV.  One whose color palette is modern, and the visual lines of the piece actually all move in the same direction as the vehicle moves, thus having the design make sense.

Thus lies my presentation of The Good (only one), The Bad & The UGLY:

The Good

Not the ultimate in best examples, but you get the idea that if properly applied, it can be done decently.

The Bad

At least the placement isn’t so random and the graphics are used as mild decoration, not the emphasis.  Hmmmm… love that bad gradient applied to the ribbon. Yum!

The UGLY

They couldn’t just leave the horizontal lines alone could they?  “what this needs is a confusing pile of swooshes!”…

Who comes up with the names for these?!!

And it just doesn’t get anymore random than this!

I welcome your comments on this post.