Here's a logo that I made for a fictional bar inspired by this blog. I'm lucky to have found such a perfect font to go along with the image that I wanted to use of the iconic Clockwork Orange eyeball. My version of the Milk Bar unfortunately won't have any LSD-laced milk for sale, but it will serve the best White Russian money can buy, and fresh home-made cookies. Yum yum!
The other day I was watching T.V with a bunch of friends (new season of Ru Paul's Drag Race: All Stars edition, woo wooo!!!) and a commercial came on for the new Cadbury Screme Eggs and one of the guys said "These commercials are really great." Everybody dropped their mouths, aghast that those words were uttered in a world that's so packed full of crappy ones that we as a society are almost immune to them, we feel nothing any more. But looking into a campaign for these diabetes-inducing little treats, I found out he was right, they are really great. Here's a few examples:
It's just so cute when they say "goo"! I'm sure the candies are disgusting, anyone who I know that's ever eaten a Cadbury Creme Egg says it's like getting beat up by a bucket of sugar, and eating them is about as attractive as eating your own snot, but they're really pushing to expand out from being an Easter-only candy and forging their way into Halloween territory. (Side note: Halloween Territory sounds like a Tim Burton movie starring Johnny Depp.) Also, apparently the only difference between these and the regular ones is that there is a weak mint flavour to them, which again, sounds pretty disgusting. I love how at the end of the commercials they don't give you a website or, God forbid, a phone number. Instead they just have a picture of the Facebook logo and the name of the product. I checked out the Facebook for Cadbury Screme Eggs, and since the page was created in July they have about 62,000 Likes. They regularly post cute little pictures about the "Goo-pocalypse" that's taking over Canada.
The caption for this one was "Goo goo goo. **Translation: Which tool do you think would make the best de-gooer?"
The only thing that I've noticed about the Facebook is that they need more people monitoring it. There's a ton of fans interacting with these great commercials and images, but a lot of them are asking questions about where to get these little minty monsters in their specific regions. They could have a staff member on there full time replying with an "Anywhere. You get them anywhere." or even a "Goo goo gooo!"
Check this hella sweet promo for Mexico's Next Top Model. The song is enough to make it killa but the chick puts the badassery over the top.
(FYI - the song is called Runway Walk by Xzibit. What a great track for walking down the street in a pair of heels to make you feel like the boss applesauce.)
The caption at the end says "A model is nothing without attitude. Mexico's Next Top Model, Being pretty is not enough."
There's a couple other sick spots for this show that I found on YouTube like this one:
If the show was half as good as these ads are I would still be watching it. But I have to admit, I watched like the first 17 seasons of America's Next Top Model religiously. Tyra 4 ever, smize for your life.
So I've been thinking a lot about logos lately. Big logos, small logos, even medium-sized logos.
Whatever size they come in, I find that the best logos add to the company name. They don't just sit beside it or distract, they're seamlessly blended together whereby the whole is equal to the sum of its parts.
If you plan on designing a logo for yourself, Logofaves.com has a wonderful gallery of some of the best logos around. They even categorize it into Highest Rated and Most Favorited, and give you the option to Pin It onto your pinterest board.
Here are some of my favorite examples:
These are all fantastic, amazing and hilarious. They worked with what they were given to make something clever and awesome, and they make me want to buy their products, whatever these products may be. (Elephant combs?)
Recently Idesigned a logo for local Winnipeg LGBT* bar. I had a long conversation with the President of the Board of Directors to figure out what direction the company wanted to rebrand themselves with.
In the end I gave them some samples of my final design, which included a version for their signage and for their communications.
This is what I came up with:
Their tag line is "The Heart of the Community", so we decided together to incorporate the heart into the logo design. It'll be displayed on the signage in 2013, so look out for my baby if you're ever in hankering for a gay old time in Winnipeg!
Love love love this cute little retro YouTube commercial for a Los Angeles coffee shop Handsome Coffee Roasters. Is there a word for YouTube commercials yet? Ones that are three minutes long and get away with saying stuff like "I love flicking beans!" YouTubettes? YouToots? YouMercials? Anyways... Watch it if only to see an old school commercial in 1080p.
The moment we've all been praying for has finally come! The Bluths of Arrested Development have snapped some promo shots together for Entertainment Weekly, so this means that a reunion season/movie is coming our way faster than a runaway stair car!
The cast is so amazingly funny that even a few still frames of them are hilarious, and they don't look like they've aged at all since the show ended, though Tobias is looking a little chunkier. But the prospect of chunky Tobias in cutoffs makes me want to blue myself.
For those of you that aren't familiar with the show, I ask you... "WHY NOT!?!?!" Anyone who has watched it loves it, and the episodes just keep getting funnier. It was cancelled in 2006 despite winning dumptrucks of awards and being named by IGN as the funniest show of all time. It also has a huge cult following, so fans have been waiting for a reunion for the last 6 years, and it looks like the wait will soon be over.
I personally can't wait to see what they do with the Bluths, but there are 6 years worth of pressure on the writers to knock it out of the park (like the baseball episode). Looks like ten to thirteen episodes will be released on Netflix on the same day sometime in 2013. Leave it to A.D. to do something totally weird like that. Now, I'm off to buy all the Netflix.
In case the promos are not enough, here's a YouTube clip of George Michael (no, not the singer) in front of the stair car, keeping an eye out for hop-ons.
Plus an extra-special top-secret bonus of what appears to be Buster Bluth running around in a lovely blue peacoat. Taste the happy!
Here at the Milk Bar, sometimes I go off track. But as Lady Gaga says "Right track blah blah blah." Basically I'm really excited because Hallowe'en is a-comin' yet again! In my opinion Halloween > Christmas on so many levels... Mostly because I'm Jewish. Just kidding, I just play a jew on T.V. Moving right along, Hallowe'en is fast approaching and I've already started the construction of my costume. Wanna know what it is? First, let's take a moment to reflect upon Hallowe'ens of yore, and share together in the "colourful" history that is my love of making costumes. It all started when I was but a wee tot and I accidentally sewed myself to a piece of fabric. You could say I got "hooked" (pardon the pun). These days I'll usually make 2 decently elaborate costumes. Like last year when I was a Human Centi-Pad (from T.V.'s South Park)
Classic. This same year I was also Ezio from Assassin's Creed. Here I am killing another Ezio who dared try and assassinate me at Comic Con.
Here's me as an Avatar. Too much fun until someone burnt down my hometree.
This is when I was just Joanne Mcleod. Hal Johnson ditched at the last minute. Awkward!
Here's me as Waldo from a b-day party.
And as a zombie doctor. Zombies need to be financially secure too.
And as Fiona from Shrek.
And as Freddie Mercury.
And as Lindsay Lohan.
And as a Ghostbuster.
My go-to weekend outfit is usually a sailor. Here are some seamen by a toilet.
No idea what we were supposed to be here.
As Alexander DeLarge. He is an inspiration for life and for my blog.
There is but a snippet of some of the kooky characters I've decided to emulate at some point. Needless to say I love this and I'm so so so excited to officially announce on this blog right here that this Hallowe'en I'll be dressing up as Loki from The Avengers/Thor.
I just think he's so cool and brooding for a villain. I've already started building his awesome helmet out of some wire and paper mache, stay tuned for pictures of the finished version.
So basically my dream in life is to work in advertising or marketing for a booze company. Any booze company. I can sell what I know, and I know booze. Plus it's really easy to make people buy it right? WRONG-O! Here in Canada there are sooooooo many restrictions that you have to consider when making an advertisement for alcohol. You can't make it look like a fun time in any way shape or form. That's why I admire this type of advertising when it's done really well. Today I wanted to shine a spotlight on the lovely print ads for Absolut Vodka. They're simple, clean and effective, and very modifiable. I think their strength lies in their simplicity, and they stand out in a magazine based on the one crisp image of the bottle and the unmistakable font.
This is a little spin-off series they had with the tagline "In an Absolut world".
This last one has an invisible caption that reads "In an Absolut world there are no labels".
Cheers to you Absolut Vodka! You make me want to drink you.
