Here we see true design thinking taken to the next level. Paperboy Wines offer a great product with a difference – their wine is stored in paper bottles. A plastic bladder inside stores the wine and stops it from seeping through (much like a box wine) and the paper bottle can be put in an ice bucket for up to 3 hours.
By not using any glass this wine uses only 15% of the energy normally needed to produce a glass bottle of wine and at the same time, the lower weight of each bottle means shipping is easier too.
Chris Soukup is an American photographer with an amazing eye. From moody, almost ethereal black and white shots through to cinematic wide angles and dark, moody diners and street scenes (reminiscent of some of Edward Hopper’s best paintings) we can see a master at work.
To see more of Soukup’s amazing images, check out his flickr profile here.
Kerby Rosanes is a seriously talented illustrator from the Philippines. This work, Growth, offers us an insight into her process and shows the immense attention to detail in her work.
For more of her amazing work, check out Kerby Rosanes on Behance here.
Gurafiku is a great blog curated by Ryan Hageman. It features graphic design from Japan and gives us a beautiful window into a culture and style we don’t see much in South Africa.
As we all know, inspiration can come from anywhere and it’s important to know what’s out there – going all the way to Japan is a good start!
Inkymole is the nom de plume of Sarah Coleman, a British designer and illustrator who we believe is quite honestly – amazing.
Her attention to detail and consideration of typography are impeccable and while her work is whimsical and beautiful to look at, it’s not derivative or too reliant on current illustration tropes (creepy girls, ghosts, stags, beards, unicorns etc).
Here we present a small selection of her work, including her cover for Playboy Magazine from 2012 – the first time in 23 years that Playboy had an illustrated cover.
Sapeurs are a group of men from Congo who, despite their livelihood or station in life, dress well. Very well. For them it’s all about the person you want to be, and the energy you put out into the world. One could link them to South Africa’s izikhothanehowever for Sapeurs, it’s not about wearing the most expensive clothes simply for the sake of it – it’s for the love of style and the worth of the man wearing the clothes – one can see how these traits align very well with Guinness.
This ad from Guinness tells a great story. It’s shot beautifully and really is another good example of content marketing, much like the other ads we’ve featured this week, although this you can see is a bit more of a hybrid between traditional TV/film advertising and Internet video. This could easily be edited down and flighted on TV, but the longer version is so much better, which the Internet allows for. Also, posting this on the Internet means you to do more – at the end of the video there is a link to learn more about the real men behind the suits. This is a great touch – because if these men were just being used for their look and style it could be easy to argue that this is yet another case of advertising exploiting a culture for commercial gain.
But what an art director’s dream. The dusty streets of Africa and the pop of colour of these immaculate suits makes this a real feast for the eyes. You’ll notice too that the Guinness branding stays quite understated for the majority of the film – you only see a few bottles and glasses on the tables toward the end. By pulling the brand back slightly and allowing the story to breathe, this ad is much better than it would have been had we seen Guinness being consumed from the beginning.
As people who love Africa, we are so happy to see some of the great things this continent is doing being featured on the global scale. Now who knows a good tailor?
To learn more about the men, check out this video below.
Here, another great piece of content marketing, although this takes a slightly different approach to it than we saw on Monday with Arnold Schwarzenegger for Gold’s Gym. Instead of using a famous face, this uses a tried and tested method, one we all know and love (even though many of us won’t admit to liking Leon Schuster movies) – pranks.
To promote the new horror film, Devil’s Due, they decided to build an animatronic ‘devil baby’, which they would leave in a public space. After realistically crying and grabbing the attention of people around it, the baby pops up and screams scaring the living daylights out of the public and providing us with some great laughs. Quite honestly – it’s hysterical.
In less than two weeks, this video has been watched nearly 40 million times. Now, you need to ask yourself – if you were tasked to promote a new horror film, what would conventional thinking be? Probably to create a scary looking trailer that horror buffs can share with each other, maybe put on Facebook. But this takes it one step further – while there is a ‘devil baby’ in the film, these pranks in essence aren’t related to the film’s content at all, however – they are so funny to watch that you can’t help but check it out. Would a trailer be seen 40 million times? Probably not. But something like this? Most definitely.
The trick is to step outside your usual ways of thinking. While pranking people may not be the number one go to method for advertising, when you think about what horror movies are all about, the concept really comes together. It’s all about getting that huge scare which makes you jump out of your seat or grab the person next to you – and that’s what’s happening here.
The other important thing to remember about content marketing (especially this type, where we have public interventions) is that the majority of viewers of the content aren’t actually the people you are engaging in a public space. While you may only reach a few hundred people directly, the reach you get online can be huge.
So, the next time you hear a crying baby in public – what are you going to do?
This ad went up on 21 January 2013 and within five days 8 million people had seen it. But let’s be more specific – they hadn’t been forced to watch it, like they would for a toothpaste ad in the middle of their favourite soapie – they decided to watch it out of their own free will. They took the time to search for it, click on it, share it with their friends and watch it.
This is the power of content marketing.
By taking someone we all know and love (who doesn’t love Arnold Schwarzenegger?) and putting him in this amazing situation (pretending to be an employee at Gold’s Gym) we see a great piece of content that is unexpected, funny and most importantly – shareable. The Internet has really allowed advertisers and creatives to go even further when it comes to promoting products – they are no longer limited by time constraints for television or by budget when it comes to buying ad space. You can spend your time, effort and money in creating a great piece of content and put it on YouTube and if you do it right – people will do the hard work for you. And honestly – who doesn’t want to see Arnold Schwarzenegger making a fool of himself?
If this is the future of advertising – it’s looking bright!
To finish off our print week, we decided to go for broke and show some other print ads we think are great. While they all can look totally different (thanks to some clever art directors) notice how they tick all the boxes of a great print ad.
The Official Stellenbosch Academy Blog 