What is advertising?

Is it the promotion of a viewpoint through the construction and dissemination of a message in exchange for money? Is the end goal of a professional advertiser to aid their clients to make money by selling a product, an idea, an experience to the consumer?

With that in mind I sincerely ask is this man the greatest advertiser?

Is a message created by a culture inseparable from the ruling ideology of that culture? Whether the stance of the message supports or opposes this ideology, does the message not lose meaning when it is removed from it’s context? Considering that Advertisers accept money for crafting messages, does this not make one complicit with their client’s activities?

Isn’t there system set in place to inform the individual when these activities wander into the grey moral area? I believe that this system is called Ethics. Ethics are sets of principles that inform behaviour. Principles that form the foundation for a belief system. When a discipline starts pushing the boundaries of what is possible, naturally ethical principles are called into question:

This may be true for matters of science, but what excuse is there for Advertising? While beliefs are considered to be sacred and above scrutiny, don’t the bedrock principles that inform these beliefs seem to be more malleable and adjustable to circumstances? While people in the media industries grapple with how to create or change public perceptions, why is there not more stringent accounting for why such perceptions are created or changed? The general consensus on diamonds, for instance, is that they are so valuable because they are rare:

In the case of diamonds, the most destruction happens in their mining. Is the long term destruction caused by the design profession not just as destructive and long-lasting? How can products destined for the landfill be force-fed to consumers by slick marketing that aims to transform “wants” into “needs”?

Clearly there are individuals in the industry who realize what is happening. People who disagree with the way that things are being done. If there was no merit to this viewpoint then why is there a popular movement creating images like these?

Is the highest achievement possible in Advertising a successful campaign? And what defines a successful campaign anyway? Is it the effect that a campaign has on increasing demand? Is it a campaign that affects the behavior of consumers that exist outside of the initial target market? Is this not then the best possible result of any campaign?

These questions become all the more difficult to answer when the economy looks like ours does. Or does it make it easier to chase the money regardless of the consequences? Maybe we can sleep easier knowing that we aren’t the only ones doing this. Maybe we’ll get relief from future historians who will believe that we thought that we could fix anything with enough money. Or maybe we’ll get relief from the neatly bottled products that we promote.

Friday. 9 hours that everyone struggles through waiting for the weekend. Instead of wasting productivity, at Etiket, I’ve taken control of organizing a series of discussion sessions. These sessions are intended to allow us to explore topics that are provocative, interesting and informative. Having the chance to present any topic, naturally, I spoke about J.J. Abrams. The references in the poster are quite obvious, but like any good story, the scene needs to be set in the first act. With that in mind, please pay attention as independent filmmaker Kirby Ferguson runs us through the true origins of creativity:

The next speaker is renowned radio producer Ira Glass. Mr Glass dispenses sincere advice on storytelling. On keeping at it until one’s abilities catch up with one’s taste. On learning to cut work and ideas when they are clearly not working:

And now that you’re fully invested in this narrative, your reward as a viewer is a satisfying denouement. J.J. Abrams talks about mystery boxes at TED:

What you see here is the product of frustration. The therapeutic process I went through making this cannot be overestimated. As you can see in the graphic, my own body of work straddles the boundary between good and bad design. I like to think that I mostly only step outside the good circle when I’m pushed.

There’s little else to say other than, I am still on good terms with the client that inspired it. Hopefully we’re a little further along on their journey of education.

I haven’t been happy with the cases on offer for the iPhone 4 so far. They’re either terrible imitations of Apple’s official bumper cases (which aren’t available in South Africa yet) or they’re the incredibly ostentatious Ed Hardy silicon condoms that refuses to leave your pocket.

We’ve recently had some vinyl decals made for the office and I really enjoyed the vinyl solutions I’ve seen floating around for the iPhone 4. Instead of making yet another internet purchase, I thought I should try my hand at making my own.

What you see here is two early examples of the end results. I’ve made the obligatory reference to the greatest television show of all time alongside the appropriation of a previous piece of my illustrative work.

The printing wasn’t perfect on these prototypes and I’m not completely pleased with the die-cuts, but I’m very excited about these pieces. Let’s see if they’re going to show up in the cmyplayStore.

Luggage. Whether it be a backpack, a laptop bag or a set of matching travel bags, it represents potential. Potential experiences; of places to come, things to see and people to meet.

It also carries the residue of the past. Of places visited and of memories made. Of moments spent alone, or moments shared with friends. Presently, such memories are abstracted and intangible. It wasn’t so long ago that these experiences were memorialised into pieces of aesthetic celebration that take the form of luggage labels.

Pieces of commercial art, let’s not make any mistake about that. But these illustrations celebrated the setting of these memories in a very unique, and often quaint, way. It may now seem tacky to plaster your luggage with stickers, I can’t help but think significant links to a personal history is lacking by not doing so.