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Brian Yap Named Graphic Design's People To Watch
Boxing Clever's own Brian Yap, Creative Director, has become a member of the chosen. Selected today as one of Graphic Design USA's People to Watch in 2012, Brian adds his name to the club with a limited and respected few. Even today, Brian is representing our agency and his skills at MacWorld working on Adobe's new tablet app, Adobe Ideas. His work and dedication have more than earned the right to be here (and there for the week). We're proud of you, bud!
To learn more about Brian and his amazing talent and the honor, go to:
http://www.gdusa.com/issue_2012/january/ptw/brian_yap.php
Posted By: Dave Scott at 2:22 PM 01/27/12
Tags: Brian, Yap, Creative Director, Graphic Design USA, People To Watch 2012, Adobe, Ideas, Tatoos, Boxing Clever
A World Without Free Knowledge
Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Although Piracy is a huge concern with the freedom of information sharing, the censorship of such media imposes on our freedoms of speech and even more the freedom of information - a right that we so diligently fight to preserve or create in other countries. Please learn what these bills are really about and if you oppose, then right your congressmen and women and protect your rights. Props out to Google, Wikipedia and more for bringing the potential pitfalls o such legeslation ot the forefront of the conversation today!
Posted By: Dave Scott at 10:25 AM 01/18/12
Tags: google, wikipedia, SOPA, PIPA, Freedom of Speech, digital protest
Newsweek's Mad Men 60's Revival
Newsweek is planning an issue marking the return of "Mad Men" this March by adopting the magazine's 1960s design throughout -- all the way, it hopes, to the ads.
Tina Brown, editor of Newsweek and The Daily Beast, said she thought of the idea while talking with Matthew Weiner, creator and executive producer of "Mad Men," about ways to treat its season-five premiere on March 25, nearly a year and a half after season four concluded.
"Newsweek was very much on the cultural forefront at the time of the show," Ms. Brown said. "It covered the events that are so much of the background for the show's drama -- the burgeoning civil rights movement, the women's rights movement, the Vietnam War. That was Newsweek's cutting-edge beat and its flourishing journalistic subject. So it seemed like a wonderful marriage in a sense to take that and apply it to the magazine, to make the magazine an homage to the period."
The magazine experienced its own upheavals in those years as cultural norms shifted. "In that period women were not even allowed to write for the magazine," Ms. Brown said. "There was a whole 'Mad Men' culture at Newsweek. Women had to be the researchers and the copy backup to the sort of swaggering male writers. In the '70's, the women of Newsweek launched a class-action lawsuit to write and have bylines."
Things have changed on the ad side as well. The "Mad Men"-themed issue can't include one big category from the 1960's: tobacco advertising, which Newsweek no longer accepts. But Newsweek is trying to interest other marketers in either reviving their own ads' look from the time or, for newer brands, imagining how their ads would have looked in those days.
"We've challenged agencies and clients to do '60s-inspired creative, but for modern messages and products," said Rob Gregory, president at Newsweek Daily Beast.
"It's analogous to when the NFL has a game and the teams wear their vintage uniforms," he added. "It's a nod to retro style, but it's a live game and it counts."
The "Mad Men"-themed issue, which will be dated March 19, will include a cover story on the series and a feature on the role of advertising in U.S. culture.
The design team is examining back issues for guidance. "From '64 to '69, Newsweek had this super-slick, dead-simple modern look to it," said Dirk Barnett, creative director at Newsweek Daily Beast. "The ads were in color. For the most part, everything else was in black and white with thin, red lines."
The look was similar to the design on "Mad Men" in a way, Mr. Barnett said. "When you watch 'Mad Men,' everything is so precise and tight," he said. "It's all about precision, really. That's what we want to infuse into this."
Posted By: Dave Scott at 9:20 AM 01/13/12
Tags: Newsweek, 60's, Mad Men, Advertising, Retro,
Benetti's Coffee Logo Design
Normally I wouldn't blog about my own work - however - for this project I've added a new app to my illustration tool kit! I had done this illustration in Adobe Ideas over a weekend.
The client had a history of tatooing and enjoyed that style of art. It was a great experience to work with a program that offered the ability to draw by hand providing the subtle human element to the drawing. What I really enjoy about drawing are those happy accidents created by the motion of the hand over paper – those subtle strokes that communicate the personality of the creator. Adobe Ideas allowed that same personality to come through in the tablet while providing even more of those “happy accidents” as I moved through the toolkit between pencil and eraser. The overlaying of transparencies created colors I hadn’t consciously thought about which made it into the final piece.
Attempting the same thing in a traditional Illustration program looses those elements in favor of more graphic – almost mathematical approaches to the art as Bezier curves create perfect arcs and the line tools never waiver. The greatest benefits were to loose the leash of a mouse – to step away from a desk and to get some time back with the family while enjoying the creative process. My daughter, 12, has an interest in fashion design. She has already picked up the program and started designing her dresses using photographs from magazines as a template to begin building upon.
I love this tool and after almost 20 years in the advertising business have found my way back to illustration as a basis to begin a design. I’m enjoying working again in a way I hadn’t since the days of “pencils” disappeared.
Posted By: Dave Scott at 3:58 PM 01/12/12
Tags: Adobe, Ideas, Benetti's, Coffee, Logo, Design, Illustration
Joe Stephens, Poster Wizard Extraordinaire
Ladies and gentlemen, he’s done it again! Joe Stephens, Art Director at Boxing Clever, has created yet another amazing poster for Vintage Vinyl, this time for Umphrey’s McGee’s in-store performance. The poster was such a hit that Vintage Vinyl had to double order more of the screen printed posters from “All Along the Press.”
Take a look at Joe hanging out with Umphrey’s McGee below. That’s one hell of a smile Joe!
Posted By: Ann Taylor at 9:52 AM 01/06/12
Tags: Boxing Clever, Joe Stephens, Umphrey's McGee
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