Children of Men style advertising is here!
| Hopefully you’ve seen the film Children of Men, if not you really should, it’s a great film set in a fascist Britain in the 2020s. As someone who studies and looks out for advertising, I noticed these ads in the film: |
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| They have a unique style and font, and in the corner say ‘HM Government’ and remind us of the scary fascism that we are subject to. So in a society where none of this is happening at all, it’s no surprise that when I was cycling back home today I saw this: |
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| It’s not disturbing or scary at all… |
My new job… administrating the Debating Society website!
So I got my first proper “webmaster” job, really by accident, I’m now managing www.unds.org.uk which is the University of Northampton Debating Society. You may have seen my design for their logo on the graphics page so I’m now editing and posting on that site. So check it out if you like, and let me know if you think I could do anything else cool with it in the comments.
If there are no comments, I will assume I have done an awesome job. That’s fair, right? :p
Obama’s Logo Options
If you want to see what Obama’s logo options were for this election, which, as you can see, could have looked very differently, check out this article on the LogoDesignLove blog: here.
Will Obama rebrand the Presidency?
Well a lot of people were hoping for an Obama victory (including, on occasion myself), and it looks like they got their wish. Obama obliterated his rival John McCain, through what is undoubtedly the most expensive largest and most well managed presidential campaign in American history.
What many are wondering though, is since his campaign was so marketing based, can Obama live up to the hype? Others have asked, since the campaign was so well managed, will the presidency be as well?
Well it seems that we already have some indication, after only a couple of days since Obama became ‘President Elect’, there is already ‘Change’ afoot, albeit in website form, it seems Obama’s campaign team has not abandoned him now he’s won the contest, and the slick design aspect of Obama’s approach continues. His team, now called the ‘Obama-Biden Transition Project’ has set up a website that may point the way forward to how he’ll manage the presidency, Change.gov
This website, seemingly as well designed as his original BarackObama.com site, sets out what Obama plans to do and continues several aspects of that site, including a blog. Now the last person I want to sound like is the guy who told John Oliver that it was incredibly important that the next president be able to use Flickr and Twitter. But online seems to herald the most changes, at least in the short term.
It seems that was for the best that I wasn’t addicted to Obama’s social presence, (at least for the moment), since Obama’s twitter has been dormant ever since he (or once of his staffers) thanked those who helped “make history” on the 5th, and Obama’s flickr was last updated on the 6th with photos of Obama with family of before and during Obama’s victory, and later speech. From the looks of it, these were used simply campaign tools to gather support from an internet savvy audience, and there is no sign of those earlier tools (apart from that blog) on the President Elect’s new site.
Does this abandonment of internet tools mean that when Obama becomes president, even this blog and site will go? Or should we see the Change site as a sign of something more?
I mentioned earlier the slick design that the original BarackObama.com site and the Change.gov site both share, however I don’t know much about how much power the President gets over their identity or that of the white house, but I would bet that if Obama’s team could change it, they would. This from the team that caused such a raucous by giving Obama a seal before he was even elected (see image above).
Will Obama rebrand the Presidency? And will his online efforts change politics forever? I don’t know, but there’s always the… hope.
A Brighter Day will Come
I do listen to Adam Curry who says that it doesn’t matter who anyone votes for in the U.S. election, because we’re all screwed anyway, but I’m certainly of the opinion that Obama is going to make the best of the two candidates. This vid is a great example of design and typography too so, enjoy:
Obama ‘08 – Vote For Hope from MC Yogi on Vimeo.
Friends on Posters: Liam is Sweeney Todd
Well I’ve been mucking about on photoshop again, this time to bring my friend Liam Harrison’s Sweeney Todd-esque portrait photograph closer to the ideas origin, with a little poster manipulation. So remember for this one, I just added the head onto the poster and changed some text, nothing major, but I hope you enjoy it.
Check this out in full in the Gallery: Here (Includes other art)
Thanks for checking!
Now you may have seen these… but…
They’re awesome! From the blog of graphic artist Adam Betts comes some amazing CS 3 replacement icons. These use the box art to enhance the icons adobe released, and give the icons a less obstructive size in your dock. They are absolutely beautiful, I use them, you should (if you are a CS3 user) too!
Get the icons/read the entry: artofadambetts.com/weblog/?p=190
The version on his site is Mac only, there is also a Windows port at deviantart.com/deviation/53728408/