So it seems that information design has become quite the hot topic on Reddit in the last couple of weeks. With that in mind I post this poster I designed when I was a youngin’ back in the day of like 2007 or something. haha. All of the data on this poster is based on the annual Fraser Institute study on economic freedom.
On Monday GM officially filed for bankruptcy which puts their $2 Billion advertising budget on the chopping block. The federal government basically took GM over, A 60% government stake in General Motors “may give some Americans pause,” said President Obama. Gee you think? This is the same federal government that loses $10 billion or so annually in the shuffle of operations. Literally, they lose it and can’t find it. Not to mention the fact that they have $34 trillion in upcoming liabilities in Social Security, Medicair and Medicaid that they have no idea how they’re going to pay for.
This is just great.
What will this mean for the advertising world? This article argues that it will put downward pressure on advertsing prices and that media companies will get some good deals on air time. GM owes ad agencies $167 million, what will happen to that money is yet to be determined, which sucks if you run one of those companies. But the good news is that $121.5 million of it is owed to Starcom MediaVest for purchases they made on GM’s behalf. So if you don’t work for Starcom MediaVest then you might be able to attract new clientelle to the ad buying market with lower prices, which could be a boon for hiring. Which is good news if you’re an unemployed designer like me.
Chris Lyons' 2009 Poster
I was at the Lilac Festival the other day walking around and I started to wonder how I could market DRKMTTR gum in this context. We’re in tough economic times and thousands of people were walking around enjoying the free festival. These handouts could be a nice touch, they’re small, light on content and copy. Plus, they have a coupon on the bottom.
I took the photograph and the model is my cousin Cristina. 
Heliocentric cosmology might be a little too heady of a concept for the tag line though…it just means revolving around the sun. As opposed to the geocentric diagram (around the earth) that was commonly accepted pre Copernicus. Heliocentrism is something he stole from a dead Greek guy named Ptolemy. Maybe I’ll simplify the tag line.
Allegories representing Sight, Taste, Hearing and Mind. I’ll let you decide which one is which.
Gravity Defying Bubbles Magazine Advertisement
Dark Matter is hypothetical matter that is undetectable by its emitted radiation, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter. Dark matter is postulated to explain the flat rotation curves of spiral galaxies and other evidence of “missing mass” in the universe. According to present observations of structures larger than galaxies, as well as Big Bang cosmology, dark matter and dark energy account for the vast majority of the mass in the observable universe. Inflating a bubble of Dark Matter could have dire consequences, be warned!
Traditional advertising has reached its limits in terms of psychographic connectivity. Lifetimes of exposure to proliferating visual noise have relegated advertisements to the status of white noise. The future of marketing lies in guerrilla and alternative advertising.
From a distance you can see an object floating in a public square, high off the ground. As you get closer you realize that it is a person with a huge bubble coming from their mouth. There is a rope attached to their ankle that is tied to a nearby pole. A sign on the pole reads “WARNING: tether yourself before blowing a bubble with our gum.” They must have blown a bubble big enough to lift them off the ground!
Below the sign their are sample packs for you to try. You grab one and open it, on the inside is a line of text that instructs you to text “DRKMTTR” to a phone number. You send the text and receive a reply with a coupon for a free pack if you sign up for email updates. You sign up and an email is sent to you with a coupon and your iPhone/Blackberry is immediately sent to a micro site with further information on the brand. You put a piece of the gum in your mouth and start chewing…it’s really tasty. Should you blow a bubble?
This is the most interesting and immersive experience you have ever had with a brand, you’re hooked for life.
Guerilla Advertising Concept
The Warning Sign
The capstone of any solid ad campaign is a succesful call to action. In 2009 and beyond this often means new media.
For Hayek’s Revolution beer I designed a logo, labels, packaging, ad campaign and now…a website. The ads lure you to the website with a coupon for a free bottle which can be printed and redeemed at retail outlets. The website gives the consumer further background about the life and ideas of F.A. Hayek as well as introducing them the different brews. The web experience serves to further emphasize brand recognition and loyalty through familiarity and interaction and hopefully through psychographic alignment.
How boring and expected is a magazine or billboard advertisement for beer? You know the answer.
I’m a big believer in alternative and guerilla advertising. With that in mind I conceptualized and art directed this alt media campaign for class.
A photographer goes to a wall near a bar…maybe in a back alley where drunks go to piss or where cute college coeds stand in line smoking cigarettes. The photographer chalks off a spot on a wall and then photographs it. They take the photo back to the studio where a designer has a pre-designed ad with a nice product shot and tag line waiting. The background is plugged in and sent off to the printers. The ad is fixed into a thin metal frame and rushed back to the spot and mounted right where the chalk marks were drawn.
It blends right in.
