D&AD Annual 2010

Designing a book that will be displaying the best advertising design of the year was always going to be hard but artist Bob & Roberta Smith has done a pretty good job. Introducing a theme of 'Everything is Made' to the book, D&AD President Brazier comments "I love that sentiment. To me, it sums up what being a creative is all about. It's not just coming up with an original idea, it's about crafting it, nurturing it, doing it justice".

The book is a brilliant piece of art in itself. It's bold, bright and exciting. Even more more I agree with Brazier's comment about having to craft design. Currently coming up to the end of a university project, we are constantly taught the importance of development and the potential in every idea. It's not just about the first good idea that pops into your head.  

Where Children Sleep

I noticed this book displayed on the Creative Review blog a couple of months ago and thought it was a really interesting insight into the way that children around the world live in their 'personal space'. I was only recently reminded of it when I saw that it was also displayed in the Photography Annual, winning the prize for Best in Book.

The photographer James Mollison, came about with the idea when set a brief to create a project on the subject of children's rights. This led him to reflect on the role that having his own space as a child had on his childhood development.

Each room is displayed with an image of the child on a plain white background next to it - displaying each child as an equal, whilst showing each of their rooms which display their life and personality.

The cultural ideas behind the images are outstanding - from Kenya to Tokyo, Israel to Brazil. Some of the images are quite upsetting, especially the image of a 4-year-old boy who lives on the outskirts of Rome and sleeps on a mattress in a field with his family.

17-year-old 'X' who lives in Brazil

15-year-old Risa who lives in a Teahouse in Japan

4-year-old Jivan, who lives in a skyscraper in New York

Unnamed 4-year-old boy who lives on the outskirts of Rome and sleeps on the pictured mattress with his family

No Logo

In all honestly I had never heard of this book until about a month ago when on holiday with a fellow design student, who had 'cleverly' brought it to read by the pool for her dissertation. Maybe not the easiest read it turned out as she managed about 1 chapter and gave up due to the heat.

She did however, encourage me to buy it and try reading it for my dissertation, as what she read had been really interesting. Now, I'm about to read it I've done a bit of a google on the book and it looks like it has created quite a lot of hype in the design world. The book, first published in 2000, although mainly about branding, focuses on anti-globalization and four main chapters;

1. No Space - how the expansion of major brands such as 'Nike' are no longer just a name on a product but have begun to pop up everywhere and become almost a lifestyle.
2. No Choice - about how large brands use their size to limit the number of choices available to the public and dominate the market.
3. No Jobs - a major point of anti-globalization where many of the brands can be seen as unethical by moving their factories to other countries and using sweatshops.
4. No Logo - discusses the movements during the 1990s such as the culture jamming movement... I would go into them, however until I've read the book I have to admit I don't actually know what they are!

Reading the reviews and the general overview of the book has made me think that from a designers perspective it's going to be quite a challenging read. Multinational brands are leaders in the markets and putting them into a negative view can only be asking for criticism...but hopefully something in it will come up that I can use in my dissertation on 'co-branding'.

39p Hotdogs

Living quite close to an Ikea at home, my friends and I would always make trips to it just to sample the cheap Ikea restaurant with it's 39p hotdogs and £1.20 meal deals. Now however, Ikea has gone one step up in the world of food with a new book which makes baking into more of an art.

The 140 page book by Forsman and Bodenfor, makes the ingredients, and outcomes, for the 30 Swedish recipes into works of art, whilst also promoting Ikea's kitchen ranges.

When I think of Ikea as a brand, I think of minimalist, clean cut, simple and easy. This is exactly how the ingredients, and outcomes are displayed. A perfect way to illustrate a brand in such an innovative way.

I Wish I Worked There!

I always feel a bit guilty for liking picture books but this one is pretty fun. 'I Wish I Worked There!' by Kursty Groves shows the world's most inspiring and creative places to work by looking into the offices of 20 global brands including Google, Dyson and Dreamworks. The underlying message behind the book is the idea that having an innovative work place can lead to innovative ideas, and some of the world's most successful brands. 

In the Lego offices in Denmark they facilitate team building through table football on giant lego shapes, with the aim of encouraging employees to relax and socialise with one another. I wish I worked there...