“Lasinen Lapsuus” is Finnish for “Glass Childhood“.  This print ad campaign, designed and created by Euro RSCG Helsinki is for the purpose of educating the public. The Fragile Childhood activity has begun in 1986 and has been established as a well-known form of activity in Finland. Its goal is to help children who suffer from parental alcohol misuse.

As quoted by someone who was effected by the project:

I was shocked to hear that after only a couple of drinks my child doesn’t know me anymore. In my own eyes I’m just starting to be tipsy, but Niko thinks I’ve become another person. Mama is gone and he’s left alone.

The brilliant simplicity of this ad lies in its striking image and simple copy and its minimalist approach in its design.

Very inspirational!

Creative designer and illustrator Troy DeShano designed a series of minimalistic posters that helped promote one of these film festivals celebrating the life of John Hughes.

The most brilliant of these was for, you guessed it, The Breakfast Club.  The obscure composition and layout, with its unusual cropping of nothing but shins and shoes is what makes this so fantastic?  Why? Because it was the unique characters in the film that made it so memorable and Troy somehow found a way to portray them distinctively so that you know exactly what film this is before you can make out its subtle title at the bottom.  The muted color palette, the lithographic texture of the piece, the subtle tile pattern of the school hallways.  Truly a creative approach and executed with sheer genius!

Check out the complete series.

Below are a series of images from his Vanitas series.  For more of this inspiring contemporary artist, view the rest of his work here.

“Black Still Life”

“Consumption”

“Design For Life”

“Last Days”

“Prosperity Decay”

“Shelf Life”

“Wasted Youth”

The stark black and gorgeous red and orange hues really draw your eye, but it is the strong horizontal bars with type that contrast beautifully with the title treatments vertical orientation.  Great execution of combining the title and a character image.

Whether the movie turns out to be as good as the posters is left to be said…

Sure, it would have been easy to fill the whole page, have the different statements be in different fonts, sizes, and angles, but I think it would have ended up a mess.

Instead, Scott leads the viewer down a logic path of reading and I love the connectivity of the pieces.  The muted hues are gorgeous and love the symmetrical and centrality of the piece.

Here’s to the age old question, “What is Design”?

The most interesting part about this whole, very inspiring, and delicious-looking website?  It is a campaign by the Wisconsin Cheese Advisory Board.  Talk about a great way to sell cheese!  Now I have to run and fire up my grill and wipe the drool from my mouth.

Yum!

Time to give a shout out to another graphic designer out there.

In this case, my kudos go to Austin, TX-based designer, Karl Hebert. I first stumbled upon his work when I came across the business cards for Pattern Productions, an Austin-based television production company.  He created this while being on staff with Spoonbend.

What was nice about this logo and identity project was that the client had zero pre-conceived ideas for their logo.  They just liked the name “Pattern”.  So, Karl decided to pay homage to the days of TV test patterns and as you can see below, the result was a fantastic logo and even better concept for their business cards.

Karl now flies solo under the umbrella of Gold Lunchbox and now works in France.

Keep up the great work Karl!

I love the complexity, yet simple muted hues being used. Very non-traditional and inventive.  Great job!