How To: Utilize Great Web Design

Lines and Colors explains how not to display your portfolio on your free Web page (the one with the forward slashes and that squiggly line thing). Really good advice.

Apple displays their newly redesigned Web site. Great design. I love how clean and concise it is; that's their job. The bars (Top Songs, Top Albums, Recent Stories, etc.) show what you want to see if you scroll over them and hide everything else. (Perhaps this was synchronized with the unveiling of the near-final version of Mac OS X Leopard. Or maybe it's the release of Safari for PC.)

I'll admit it -- this blog is lacking structure. I've been working on learning how to make it better. If you can help me out, especially with html, I would very much appreciate any help. Feel free to contact me. Thank you!

Sick Game Review by the Church of England

Usually when you hear 'sick' in a game review, it's not a bad thing. But the Church of England is calling the Playstation 3 game, "Resistance: Fall of Man", sick for other reasons. The church is asking for Sony to take the game off store shelves because it uses Manchester Catherdral as a backdrop for a large battle in the interior of the structure. But the battle is against an alien race, not humans. They probably didn't even see the whole game, if at all.



The bishop of Manchester, the Rt. Rev. Nigel McCulloch, said: "It is well known that Manchester has a gun crime problem. For a global manufacturer to recreate one of our great cathedrals with photorealistic quality and then encourage people to have gunbattles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible."

The Church of England will be sending a letter to Sony on Monday. Sony responded by issuing the following statement: "Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is aware of the concerns expressed by the Bishop of Manchester and the cathedral authorities... and we naturally take the concerns very seriously. Resistance: Fall of Man is a fantasy science fiction game and is not based on reality. We believe we have sought and received all permissions necessary for the creation of the game." Sony plans to reply with a more detailed statement on Monday.

(via Drudge)

Update (June 11, 2007): The church has called on Sony to contribute funds to help Manchester Cathedral combat gun crime, a problem the city has had in recent years. Gamers have posted walkthrough footage of the cathedral on YouTube, and the church isn't happy about that, either. "They can only be described as virtual desecration", said Rogers Govender, Dean of Manchester Cathedral.

Free Root Beer Float at Sonic!

If you haven't seen the commercial, in 24 hours from now (that would be June 7th), from 8pm - midnight, you can get a free 10 oz. root beer float from Sonic. There's no catch -- no "with the purchase of" -- just free.

'London 2012' Triggers Seizures, Nausea, Disgust

People in the UK have gone awry since the unveiling of the 2012 London Olympic Games logo. There have been (edit: eighteen) reports of people having seizures while watching the new launch event animation on the official Web site or TV broadcast.

According to BBC News, a London 2012 spokeswoman said the section of footage concerned showed a "diver diving into a pool which had a multi-colour ripple effect". It was not the logo itself that has caused the problems.

"Some have had seizures, but others are feeling very unwell with potentially worrying symptoms including vomiting and headaches. A lot of people are very frightened", said Ingrid Burns, spokesman for Epilespy Action.

The London 2012 Web site has taken down the video to re-edit the clip. London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, opposed the logo from the start. He also criticized the designers for not testing the video for 'health checks'. It took a year to make the logo, but it only took seconds for everyone in the world to hate it.

(via Drudge)

2012 Olympic Game Over for London Logo

London has recently unveiled the logo for their 2012 Olympic Games, and the public are not pleased. Especially when it cost them £400,000 (US $797,640). They had no say whatsoever, but they're speaking out now. BBC was, of course, all over this coverage; the Sport Editor's Blog asked for comments and has received over 3,300 reactions so far - mostly negative. Also, according to the blog, an online petition has been set up and has received almost (edit: 50,000 signatures) to bring the old logo back or start from scratch. A Facebook group has also been set up for a petition. BBC is taking a poll on what people think of the logo.



The logo was designed to inspire social, structural, and social change. It's also aimed at the young person. In five years, some of the young people who are currently on Facebook will still be on there. Granted, Facebook is for everyone now, but the majority are college and high school students. Yet there is a Facebook group asking for the logo to be changed.

I guess I could be considered a young person, too, still attending college. What do I think? It's a kind of drawback from the 80's, but one we'd like to keep there. Even my sister, a junior in high school, said, "It looks a bit older, like from the 80's". The emblem will be coming in a series of shades of pink, blue, green and orange and will evolve as the Games draw closer. I like that idea. But it's really hard to believe this was done for over a half a million dollars.

The logo in itself is not inspiring, but the Olympic Games themselves, when you look far past the controversy, are. The best of the best athletes from around the globe competing against each other - that's inspiring. Hopefully that will be enough to overshadow the logo and keep the torch burning in everyone's minds.

BBC and the official London 2012 Web site has encouraged everyone to create their own design. You can see the BBC designs here and here. The London 2012 designs are here. You can also watch a film about their new brand/new look. (I think it's an honest message but a little cheesy. With the reactions already made about the logo, I think the public may be less forgiving.)

What do you think?



All 4

WSJ Creative Leaders Contest

The Contest
The Wall Street Journal is re-launching the Creative Leaders Campaign with their Weekend Edition, but now they want you to choose the creative leader. Like the ads before, the nominee must have some connection or relation to the advertising or marketing industry.

The nominee is also required to complete and sign a consent release. You need to pose a series of questions, enter the nominee's answers, and upload a photograph of the nominee. All of this information is on the Contest Webpage. Basically, it will be the same template as the ads that have run in the Wall Street Journal for over 25 years.

But this is better for you. The winner will receive a trip to New York City to the Museum of Modern Art for the new Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition Creative Leader unveiling event on July 17th. The trip includes a two-night stay in a New York City hotel for you and the winning nominee, in-ground transportation to and from the airport, your hotel, and the MOMA. (APR: $3,500)

Hurry though. The contest ends at midnight (EST) on June 23, 2007. Best of luck to you!

(via Shedwa)

Interactive
The contest began on May 14, 2007, but the Web site is not yet fully complete; the gallery is coming soon, and two creative leaders are also coming soon. On the home page, there are pictures compiled to look like the silhouette of a human. When you scroll over each picture, it reads who that creative leader is. I wish that once clicked, it would take me to information about that person, but it does not. Or perhaps if the pictures turned into the specific creative leader's form, and then his or her picture was shown, complete with more information. The site does give a date and small bio on past creative leaders. I'm not exactly sure if the date is when the company was founded or if it is saying when the ad ran. There is a recent ad of Alex Bogusky in dirtbike attire that you can see as a PDF.

Inspiration
The Advertising Education Foundation has all of the past ads, written by Doug and Jim Johnston, for the Wall Street Journal Creative Leaders Campaign, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal.

How To: Prevent Gun Violence

The copy flows very nicely, and the execution of these ads are great. They also display important and powerful stories to get the message across.
(via AotW)

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Recently there has been a campaign by McCann-Erickson for the Nikon D40, an entry-level digital SLR camera. The camera was introduced to the market in November 2006. The recent TV commercials, which first aired two weeks ago from today, were filmed in March of 2007 in the town of Georgetown, South Carolina. The cameras were given to ordinary people - fire fighters, police officers, retirees, high school students, moms and dads - to document their everday lives. Nikon states that Georgetown, dubbed Picturetown, is "a place where ordinary people take extraordinary pictures."



Viewers can visit stunningnikon.com/picturetown to view over 300 pictures in the gallery and learn about some of their experiences using the camera. Visitors can enter in a chance to win the camera if they spot it on the site, within the 40 days of the sweepstakes. The site also gives the time in Picturetown, USA, but it is the wrong time. The time zone here is Central Standard Time, and the time zone for Picturetown is shown as one hour earlier, not later. When I changed the time on my computer, the Picturetown time went back one hour. You can see the screen shot below.



Nikon has also been doing print ads for Picturetown, but I really like the actual size cutout of the camera that you can peel off the ad and take with you. You can open it up and read the camera's main features. If a photography lover wanted to bring this to someone's attention (as a gift, to ask for financial assistance, etc.), it's much easier and a better presentation than tearing out an ad in a magazine.

But a camera doesn't take a great picture; the photographer does. It does not state anywhere (that I could find) if the Georgetown participants were all given cameras with the same lens. Because the price given for the Nikon D40 is $599 (w/kit), we can assume they were all given the camera with the 18-55mm lens. If they used a better, more expensive Nikkor lens, I'm sure their pictures would look even better. It's not so much the body of the camera that matters, but it is in the lens. Unless of course, you want better durability, more fps (frames per second), more megapixels, and more professional features. But again, the camera does not set up the composition for the shot or have an alarm to let you know when the best lighting situation is. It is the photographer who makes the image.

Digital SLR cameras are not point-and-shoot cameras. With an SLR (Single-lens reflex) camera, what you see in the viewfinder - and a little bit of what you don't see - is your picture. The LCD screen on a DSLR will not show you the picture before you take it; you are required to look in the viewfinder, take the picture, and then you will see it on the LCD display. Most point-and-shoot digital cameras show you what you are seeing through the digital display screen.

The Nikon D40 (w/kit 18-55mm lens) retails at $525. Nikon's biggest competition is Canon. The D40 competes with the Canon Digital Rebel XT (w/kit 18-55 lens), which retails at $599. The Nikon has 6.1-megapixels, and the Canon comes with 8.2-megapixels. There are other things to compare as well, and you can find them at photography review Web sites like Digital Photography Review, Steve's Digicams, and Camera Labs.

Stunningnikon.com also features the Nikon D80 and the Coolpix point-and-shoot cameras. The site labels the Coolpix as beautiful and the D80 as vision. The D40 is labeled as Picturetown.

The D80 is a step up from the D40. It is a 10.1-megapixel camera that can come with a 18-135mm kit lens and a retail price of $1,179. Nikon gave experienced photographers the camera, and their work is shown at stunningnikon.com/d80. I like this gallery a lot more than Picturetown's because you can zoom in with the entire gallery. And then you can zoom in to the picture itself. All of the participants for the D80 have a Flickr gallery where you can see all of their pictures. There is also a widget you can download that will display their pictures as your background. Great ideas to keep it going even after they visit the Stunningnikon site.

The Coolpix series ranges in price from $110-$350, with various features and sizes. The cameras were given to celebrities to document certain celebrity events. Basic information is given about the limited edition Zac Posen case on the Web site, but the case is no longer available. But if you want to learn more about their promotions, Nikon says to sign up. This is the least involving and least personal.

Nikon released the D40 in November of last year, and four months later, released the D40X, a camera with the same body but more features and $200 more. I believe this is a good move by Nikon, and I thought that maybe it should have been done earlier, in sync with the release of the camera and before the holiday season. But I see that the campaign is about the every day, and this works better with a wider audience, which Nikon is aiming to reach. Though I do believe that their claim of everyone being able to take extraordinary pictures with the Nikon D40 to be false. But with that said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Especially when you get a free camera.

Size Matters

Samsung commercial uses high-speed camera, tiny food, insects, and an arachnid.

Hey, Wha' Happened?

I apologize for putting this blog in a dormant state as of late. There have been a lot of papers, projects and finals that I have been working on. The Ad Feed looks as if it's taking a break for a few weeks in its creative section. Look forward to something even better as the site reads, "the second coming of The Ad Feed will blow its predecessor away."

I am in the process of moving out of the residence hall and going back home for the summer. I also have plans to update and polish this blog. All in due time. Thank you for your patience.