Article: 2010 October : The Dot Creative : Graphic Design Blog

Archive for October, 2010

Creative Uses of Handles in Transit Advertising

October 28th, 2010 by Bored Panda | No Comments | Filed in Design

After looking at 33 Cool and Creative Bus Shelter Advertisements, it’s time to move inside and check some great interior transit advertising examples. To be more specific, we’re talking about creative bus and subway handle advertisements.

Why should advertisers use it? Well, first of all, handles are interactive in their nature. When a bus or a train moves fast – you have to grab onto something, and this involves touching the handles around you. This is exactly what every advertiser dreams of – users interacting with their advertisements. Not to mention touching leads to better remembering of the message.

Moreover, clever use of handles in advertising will definitely reach much wider audience than just the riders on a bus or a train as it can easily become viral on the Internet these days. So, it’s guerrilla marketing as long as it’s really cool.

Also, riders can’t turn it off, and because they are dieing of boredom waiting for their stop – they will definitely notice and read each and every word on a handle advertisement. Enough of the talks, let’s see the best examples of creative handle advertisements!

Indus Pride: Beer Mug

(Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Bangalore, India)

Ponytail Train Handle

Local beauty salon franchise, Johnny Andrean launched a hair-strengthening product and wanted to communicate it with a low budget. (Advertising Agency: Fortune Indonesia)

Harley Davidson Bike Handles

“Motorbike handles were mounted in busses and tramways of public transport to announce the arrival of new Harley models.” (Advertising Agency: Wirz Werbung/BBDO, Zurich, Switzerland)

Amnesty International: Hanging

(Advertising Agency: Tribal DDB, Hamburg, Germany)

Baltica

(Advertising Agency: Sepia, Chile)

Whose hand are you holding?

(Advertising Agency: unknown)

The Big Pilot’s Watch – “Wear it here”

Images of the Big Pilot’s Watch are attached to the hanging straps in buses, so anybody who wishes to can easily try on the Big Pilot’s Watch, just on the way to the airplane. (Agency: Jung von Matt/Alster)

Abused Handles

Social advertisement against woman abuse in Indonesia. (Advertising Agency: JWT, Indonesia, Jakarta)

Fitness Company

(Advertising Agency: unknown)

Hankook Tyres

(Advertising Agency: LG AD, Korea, Seoul )

Tie Train Handle

A neck tie in Tokyo’s trains was promising people more money. However, the funny thing it’s an ad for a loan company. (via)

Pepsi Handle

This creative handle advertising campaign for Pepsi was featured on 3400 buses throughout USA. (Advertising Agency: unknown)

Creative Uses of Handles in Transit Advertising originally appeared on Bored Panda on October 28, 2010.

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Tags: Advertising, ambient ads, boredpanda, bus ads, bus handles, busvertising, Cool Ads, cool handles, creative handles, guerrilla advertising, guerrilla marketing, handle advertising, interior bus ads, Latest Posts, transit ads

Famous Paintings: Before and After

October 26th, 2010 by Bored Panda | No Comments | Filed in Design

When you look at any painting your head is constantly looking for a meaning behind it. However, art is hard to explain, and even the artist may not know why he did one thing or another. The problem is that art is like the artist’s soul – wide and often unexplainable.

Nevertheless, people always try to explain artworks – some are known while others are still discussed. For example, Edvard Munch described his inspiration for his famous painting “Scream”:

” I was walking along a path with two friends — the sun was setting — suddenly the sky turned blood red — I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence — there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city — my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety — and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.”

Other famous artist, Rene Magritte also explained his “The Son of Man” painting:

“At least it hides the face partly. Well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It’s something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.”

These were not some randomly selected quotes – you are about to see very different interpretations of these particular works. Actually, a lot of famous paintings may be just pieces from the secret painting series!

“The Son of Man”

“Scream”

“American Gothic”

Eating Disorders

Pregnancy Test

Cats

Woman

Slippery Carpet

Silence Before The Storm

Stop Sign

P.S.: we got these spoof paintings by email and do not know who actually did them. Please let us know if you know anything – we’d love to credit the authors.

Famous Paintings: Before and After originally appeared on Bored Panda on October 26, 2010.

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Tags: Art, boredpanda, Edvard Munch, famous artists, famous paintings, funny, Latest Posts, parody, Rene Magritte, Scream, spoof, Van Gogh

Vividly Realistic 3D Murals by Eric Grohe

October 21st, 2010 by Bored Panda | No Comments | Filed in Design

Meet Eric Grohe, a world famous artist who designs and paints vividly realistic murals and architectural facades, transforming ordinary spaces into panoramic works of beauty, depth and inspiration[1]. You can say it’s the the same old Julian Beever’s 3D Pavement Art, except it’s on the walls this time.

Eric Alan Grohe was born in New York City in 1944. His professional career as a graphic designer and illustrator began in Seattle in 1961. In 1973, he was asked to design graphics for Expo’74 in Spokane, Washington. At this time, he began receiving commissions for his artwork, which have continued to grow in scope and size, leading to today’s large-scale trompe l’oeil murals. Throughout his 43-year career as a professional artist, Grohe has received national recognition for his work, which is now focused on painting figurative and architectural murals for clients throughout the country. [2]

Now let’s take a look at his incredibly realistic murals, and always remember to check twice before driving below a bridge in Seattle!

Website: ericgrohemurals.com

1. Serenity Road (Seattle, WA)

2. 55 Diamond Court (Massillon, Ohio)

3. Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

4. Ohio & Erie Canal (Massillon, Ohio)

5. Steel (Steubenville, Ohio)

6. Great American Crossroad (Bucyrus, Ohio)

7. A Century of Heroes (Massillon, Ohio)

8. Gateway to Steubenville (Steubenville, Ohio)

9. Centennial Arch (Steubenville, Ohio)

11. Niagara (Niagara Falls, New York)

12. Liberty Remembers (Bucyrus, Ohio)

13. Miller Brewing Company (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

14. Dedication (Columbus, Ohio)

15. Cornerstone Square (Canton, Ohio)

Eric Grohe At Work

Vividly Realistic 3D Murals by Eric Grohe originally appeared on Bored Panda on October 21, 2010.

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Tags: 3d murals, 3d paintings, 3d pavement art, 3d wall paintings, Art, boredpanda, Eric Grohe, illusion, julian beever, Latest Posts, realistic, realistic paintings

10 Creative and Unusual T-Shirts

October 19th, 2010 by Bored Panda | No Comments | Filed in Design

Today, we can’t imagine our lives without the T-Shirt, however “t-shirt” didn’t even exist in English dictionary until the 1920′s, and only in 1960′s it became stylish and entered the mainstream fashion.

It may be hard to believe, but up until the 1950’s, t-shirts were still considered underwear until Marlon Brando, John Wayne, and James Dean shocked Americans by wearing their “underwear” on television.(1)

This, of course, convinced the public that it was absolutely OK to were T-Shirts, and now, after more than 50 years, there are thousands of really cool and sometimes even crazy T-shirt designs out there – some of the best ones are on this list!

Have fun scrolling down the list, and don’t forget to get yourself a tee from our sponsors: crazydogtshirts.com!

Resident Evil Zombie T-Shirt

(Bamboos to Capcom)

Venetian Blind T-Shirt

The string is not a print, but a real string, which you can pull to open the blinds, as shown on the image above. Suitable to spend the hot summer. (Bamboos to shikisai)

Bikini T-Shirt

(Designer: unknown)

The Situation

A perfect T-shirt for that “guido” in your life who wants to show off the abs ala The Situation from MTV’s Jersey Shore via (Bamboos to Branden Kramer)

Personal Trainer T-Shirt

(Advertising Agency: GJP Advertising + Design, Toronto, Canada)

The Chalkboard Tee

(Bamboos to thechalkboardtee)

Zoo Safari T-Shirts

(Advertising Agency: DDB Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil)

2010 FIFA World Cup T-Shirt

(Designed for the Dutch football federation)

Best Video Game Controller Ever

(Designer: unknown)

FedEx Illusion T-Shirt

10 Creative and Unusual T-Shirts originally appeared on Bored Panda on October 19, 2010.

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Tags: boredpanda, cool shirts, crazydog, Creative Products, Featured, funny t-shirts, funny tshirts, Latest Posts, t-shirt, t-shirts, tee, tees

This Is Amazing – It Really Works! [Pic]

October 18th, 2010 by Bored Panda | No Comments | Filed in Design

Yes, we’ve tried it twice, and this really works! Absolutely nothing happened! (Bamboos to Eric for designing this one)

This Is Amazing – It Really Works! [Pic] originally appeared on Bored Panda on October 18, 2010.

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Tags: boredpanda, Picture of the Day

33 Cool and Creative Bus Stop Advertisements

October 15th, 2010 by Bored Panda | No Comments | Filed in Design

It’s been a long time since we had our last post on advertising, so it’s a perfect time to look into the world of bus shelter ads. However, before jumping to the real world examples, let’s talk about it first.

Bus shelter ads also known as “transit shelter displays” are highly effective, sometimes more so than larger hoardings, claims research sponsored by Right Angle Media.[1] Moreover, some areas do not have billboards as an advertising option, so transit shelter advertising will often be an excellent alternative to larger billboards.[2]

In addition to that [3]:

Bus Shelter Ads Are Always On. They work for you 24 Hours a day, 7 days a week.
Bus Shelter Advertising Offers Great Visibility. Drivers, pedestrians and bus riders all will see your ads.
Bus Shelter Ads Provide Multiple Impressions Per Prospective Customer. People passing by on a regular basis are bound to notice your ad.
Bus Shelter Ads Give Precise Geographic Targeting. If you do business locally and want to target local consumers, there’s no better advertising vehicle.

On the other hand, plain bus stop advertising cannot get consumer’s attention effectively because of one-way communication. But this is where advertiser’s creativity comes into play creating installation-based bus shelter ads which can do two-ways communication.[4] Interactivity and consumer’s involvement is the key to success here. Usually, people are bored to death waiting for a bus, so everyone would thank advertisers for giving a little game to play, and eventually maybe even buy the product later.

To sum up, bus shelters is a wonderful medium for advertising, but it takes a lot of creativity to make the best of it. Without further ado, let’s see the 33 best practices of bus stop advertising and share our thoughts afterwards!

1. IKEA: Bus Stop

Advertising Agency: unknown

2. Guarana Antarctica: Net

Art Directors: Marcelo Maia, Bruno Brasil, Rodrigo Rodrigues

Actual size goal posts were placed in bus shelters around Sao Paulo for the Soccer World Cup

3. Fisch Franke: Filled with Water and Real Fish

Advertising Agency: Publicis, Frankfurt, Germany

4. Le Lait: Milk Carton

Advertising Agency: Nolin BBDO, Canada

5. Fiji Travel – Throw Away Your Clothes

Advertising Agency: TBWAOSLO, Oslo, Norway

6. Real Hip Hop: Black Power

“Black music all the way.” Cannes Lions Outdoor finalist. Advertising Agency: Dentsu, São Paulo, Brazil

7.Je*s Jeans – No Need to Bend Anymore

Advertising Agency: Bruketa@Zinic, Zagreb, Croatia

8.Fitness First (International Chain of Health Clubs)

Advertising Agency: N=5, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

9. Wonderbra: I Broke the Glass

Advertising Agency: Publicis Frankfurt, Germany

10. Movie up: Balloons

Advertising Agency: unknown

11. Free Coffee From April 20th till May 3rd

Advertising Agency: Cossette West, Canada

12. Asian Weeks till 24th August

Advertising Agency: DDB Helsinki, Finland

13. McDonald’s: Night

Advertising Agency: DDB Sydney, Australia

14. Norwegian Airline’s New Destinations: The Kilt

Advertising Agency: Volt AB, Stockholm, Sweden

15. Norwegian Airline’s New Destinations: The Sauna

Advertising Agency: Volt AB, Stockholm, Sweden

16. Apple Macbook Air: Swing

By Bruno Taylor

17. Calgary Zoo: Dinosaurs Alive!

“More real. More scary”. Advertising Agency: Trigger, Calgary, Canada

18. Australia Post: Personalize Your Post

Advertising Agency: M&C Saatchi, Melbourne, Australia

19. Coca-Cola Refrigerator Bus Shelter

“Open Happiness.” Real Coke bottles settled to the mock-up cold refrigerator. Advertising Agency: McCann Erickson Istanbul, Turkey

20. Hasbro Cluedo: How Does It Feels To Be Involved..?

“How does it feel to be involved in a crime.” Advertising Agency: DDB, Italy

21. Playstation Bus stop

This bus station in Malaysia features boards with bubble wrap. I would probably miss the bus here! Advertising Agency: unknown

22. Victoria Bug Zoo

This TSA, made from a plastic sheet with hundreds of small magnifying lenses, allowed passersby to see through a bug’s eyes. Advertising Agency: Rethink, Vancouver, Canada

23. Osram – Energy Saving Light Bulbs

Only use electricity when you need it. Advertising Agency: Saatchi&Saatchi, Cape Town, South Africa

24. Alfa Romeo Helps Other People Sell Their Cars

Within days the poster sites were completely full. Advertising Agency: Duval Guillaume, Antwerp, Belgium

25. Coca-Cola: New Grip Bottle

Challenge: Let people know about how the new Coca-Cola Grip Bottle has a better grip for holding.

Solution: Posters printed on Velcro were placed in bus shelters in Paris to make people interact with the grip.Results: People literally hooked to the campaign. On the whole, a 3.8% brand volume growth in France compared to 2007. Advertising Agency: Marcel, Paris, France

26. Livegreen Toronto: Switch

“Hello, have you heard about livegreentoronto.ca?” Advertising Agency: Agency59, Toronto, Canada

27. First Poster That Responds To People Looking At It

“It happens when nobody is watching” Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg, Germany

28. Etv: Football World Cup

Bus stop ad promoting local tv channel live coverage of world cup 2006. Advertising Agency: unknown

29. Ecko Clothing: Bluetooth Graffiti

People will get the possibility to access the citylight via bluetooth with their cell phones and spray their own graffiti with the cursor of their phone. Advertising School: Design Factory International, Hamburg, Germany

30. 3M Security Glass

Break it and you can take $3 million in cash! The true is, that there were actually only $500 put on the top of the fake bills, and people were only allowed to use their feet to break it. In case, someone actually break it – there was a guard to assure that nobody kept the fake money from the glass.

31. Rubbish Since Monday

Advertising Agency: Colenso BBDO, Auckland

32. Star Wars: Lightsabers

Advertising Agency: enVision, Aarhus, Denmark

Advertising Agency: unknown

33. Quiksilver: Ramp

A real skateboard ramp was mounted on the side of a typical danish bus shed providing pass time activities for the waiting passengers. (Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Copenhagen, Denmark)

If you liked these, you might want to check out new post: Creative Uses of Handles in Transit Advertising, or 30 Clever and Creative Bus Ads on demilked.

33 Cool and Creative Bus Stop Advertisements originally appeared on Bored Panda on October 15, 2010.

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Tags: ads, Advertising, ambient, ambient ads, boredpanda, bus, bus shelter, bus stop, bus stop ads, Cool Ads, guerilla marketing, guerrilla advertising, guerrilla marketing, Latest Posts, marketing, transit shelters

Liu Bolin: The Real Life Invisible Man

October 12th, 2010 by Bored Panda | No Comments | Filed in Design

Meet Liu Bolin, the real-life Invisible Man from China, an artist with the ability to disappear in any surroundings.

Born in 1973 in Shandong and a graduate of Shandong Art College and Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, Liu Bolin became popular for his mastery at the art of camouflaging himself against virtually any background.

One single photo takes up to 10 hours to prepare - Liu uses himself as a blank canvas, and with a little help from an assistant, he paints his body to merge as seamlessly as possible with what is behind him. The results are incredible – sometimes passers-by don’t even realize he is around until he moves.

While his camouflage artworks are really mind blowing, he’s here with a message: “The situation for artists in China is very difficult and the forced removal of the artist’s studio is in fact my direct inspiration of this series of photographs, Hiding In The City…I am standing, but there is a silent protest, the protest against the environment for the survival, the protest against the state.”

So, let’s take a look at 20 amazing Liu Bolin’s camouflage photos, and if you’d like to have a printable version of his artworks you can find them here. (Sources: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6)

1. Teatro Alla Scala

2. Suo Jia Village – Modern China

3. Graffiti

4. Bird’s Nest

5. Arles

6. Hiding In The City – Telephone

7. City Hiding

8. Forklifts

9. Shooting

10. Hiding In The City No. 34

11. City Hiding 53

12. Hiding In The City No. 2

13. Hiding In The City No. 62

14. Hiding In The City

15. City Hiding 27

16. Hiding In The City No. 31

17. Provisional Wall

18. Car

19. People’s Police

20. Government Finance Information Board

Liu Bolin: The Real Life Invisible Man originally appeared on Bored Panda on October 12, 2010.

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Tags: Art, boredpanda, camouflage, China, invisibility, invisible man, Latest Posts, ninja, Weird

13 Amazing Before And After Makeup Photos

October 6th, 2010 by Bored Panda | No Comments | Filed in Design

There is a popular saying in Russia that before you marry, you should take your bride to the sauna first. You may think it has to be done for some dirty purposes, but actually wise men explain it differently:

“When you go with your chosen one to the banya (Russian word for sauna), you can see the real person, without all the cloths and all the cosmetics that can deceive you greatly and affect your choice.” (englishrussia)

But remember, it’s an old saying/tradition long before the Photoshop era – so today this sauna test is probably even more important than ever before.

If you still don’t believe it’s necessary – Vadim Andreev, makeup artist from Russia, has an amazing portfolio of before and after makeup photos you should definitely see!

Website: vadimandreev.ru

13 Amazing Before And After Makeup Photos originally appeared on Bored Panda on October 6, 2010.

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Tags: before and after, boredpanda, cosmetics, Latest Posts, make-up, makeup, makeup art, makeup artist, Weird

20 Odd Vintage Products You Won’t Find Today

October 4th, 2010 by Bored Panda | No Comments | Filed in Design

Because every panda loves vintage stuff, we had no choice but to bring you another amazing collection of Vintage Products You Won’t Find Today!

Of course, some of you may argue that you can actually get the inflatable life-size doll from this list, but hey – you’ll never find the free 10-day home trial period with it! Oh, the good old days!

By the way, if you are new here, or you just got an Internet connection – you should definitely see other cool vintage articles we had earlier: 25 Vintage Ads That Would Be Banned Today, 18 Cool Inventions From the Past, and if you are into computers – 15 Vintage Computer Ads That Used To Be Cool.

Now let’s scroll down the list, and don’t forget to tell everyone what you think about these products, and which ones you miss the most.

1. Toothache Drops

2. Doll With Free 10-Day Trial

Of course you can find an inflatable doll these days, but you won’t find the special “FREE 10-DAY HOME TRIAL” offer.

3.Vibra Finger

Because dentists recommend daily gum massage.

4. Cook and Wash on Your Refrigerator!

Actually, after further investigation, you can get one

5. Fly Pistol

Especially fun when a fly flies towards another person.

6. Hangover Heaven

7. Cigarette Case

8. Perfume Bottles for Humming-bird Taming

9. Cube Lube

Cube Lube – an incredible lubricant which helps your cube twist more freely, turn more easily! (Bamboos for Paxton Holley)

10. Multiple Electric Scalp Massager

11.Injectable Poppy Juice

…from the juice of the poppy. How could it harm you?

12. The Name of The Game is…

“Here’s the exciting new indoor sport for people who love people. It begins by choosing up sides (delightful custom) and centers around the “Porron” (translation: “to pour it on”) filled with your favorite libation. Object of the game is to see which team achieves the longest trajectory for the longest time with the fewest spills. Rewards to winners are optional.”

13.Wonder Sauna Hot Pants

14. Macho – It’s B-a-a-a-d.

15. Bradley Group Showers

“To save money!”

16. Solar Bath Apparatus

“No, THE peculiar looking device in the photo at left is not a camera, nor even a telescope, although partially resembling both…”

17. What Time Is It?

I have a big suspicion this might be a fake. You might wanna check your grandpa’s watch!

18. Sanitized Tape Worms

No diet, no exercise – just use sanitized tapeworm pills! The mechanism was that after swallowing the parasites, they’d nest in your gut and feed off digesting food.