This poster began as wanting to do something colourful to cap off the final day of früjch and being visually-loud enough to grab attention the heap of emailers that all SMU students receive each day. My Adobe PS was also going wonky on me, so decided to try something new that day. Something that required as little PS-ing as possible!  

Besides, weird as it might sound, I genuinely do like tearing and pasting scraps together. I find it highly therapeutic. It’s also what I always do to wrap presents. I think my friends have come to expect / resigned themselves to that as my de rigueur wrapping paper. But that’s another story.

 Started off with a blank sheet of A4 paper and my favourite stack of CATALOG & JUICE to rip into (how convenient we got them delivered to früjch eh! Happy days!).

The thing about sticking + scrapping (or whatever it’s called. Calling it “scrapbooking” seems inappropriate since I’m not making a book. “Collage”? Perhaps. Alright, let’s call it “collaging”) is that it’s a trial-and-error process.

 Sometimes you think a scrap is going to look good, but when you juxtapose it against the next scrap, it doesn’t work. You’ve already stuck it on? Doesn’t matter, just stick the next piece over. The more pieces the more textured the feel and the greater it looks. Of course, that’s provided you don’t make a gazillion mistakes. Then you might as well throw the piece into the recycling bin or use it as a pillow.

Lots of fun to work with different materials as well. Brought in some thread, graph paper and a ballpoint and started doodling the words out. Ah yes, the title “Früjch Me Baby One Last Time” is courtesy of JonnyBaBonny once again, from the ever-surviving (what did Shal say Trent called her again?….Ah yes,) Brit-Brit.

I usually use sequins, buttons, markers, crayons, twine, ribbons and rubber stamps too, but some were too chromosome XX, while others I just didn’t have the time to dig out : I remember I had 8.30am class the next day and it was already 11.30pm.

Once all was done, I stuck it onto the scanner, adjusted it to the max dpi for sharpness and pressed the button. It’s amazing how fun the scanner can be. Only downside is that it squashes everything flat, but that can be easily remedied by shoving a book or so at the corner as a makeshift wedge so the lid doesn’t come down fully.

Next it was off to adjusting the contrast (higher, so that the shadows could be seen), increasing saturation for the Reds, making the colours richer and then adding the text in PS (which decided to behaved itself for awhile). Had to crop quite a fair bit off as well.

Things I would change now if I could:

• The date, “April 4”, spelt out with the threads is not clear. Perhaps should have used more contrasting colours.
  
• Although visually-pleasing, as a message, it might not have enough symbolic meaning. In other words, there is not enough depth.The question would be: “Where in the images put together behind does it suggest it’s früjch’s last day? Is it relevant?

  (Which makes me wonder, should every advert you do have depth or is it sometimes enough for them to be pretty and attention-grabbing? I know you can say: Great Adverts Have Depth-with-a-Captial-D, but how often does one come up with truly groundbreaking ads? Should ALL adverts be like that?  Would that be too heavy? Do you need normal ads to recognise great ads? I must think. Must retreat into mountain and ponder.)

Things I like about it:

• Took me only about an hour or two to get everything done. And it was FUN!

• It’s colourful and I do so like riots of hap-happy colours.

• I think it brings across the quirkiness and fun of the früjch culture.

…And that was the birth of the last früjch poster!

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WHAT?
Levi’s 2007 Collection Launch Ad: Dangerous Liaisons

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WHEN?
According to Digital Arts, this Dangerous Liaisons ad was launched somewhere in mid-Feb of 2007.

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WHO?

Here’s the genius team behind it:

Agency: BBH, London
Creative Director: Caroline Pay
Agency Producer: Davud Karbassioun
Art Director: Steve Wakelam (art direction), Dean Wei (typography)

Production Company: Rattling Stick 
Director: Ringan Ledwidge
Producer: Sally Humphries
DP: Alwin Kuchler
Post Production: The Mill, London
Audio Post: Aaron Reynolds @ Wave Studios, London
Offline Editor: Richard Orrick @ Work Post Production, London

Music: “Strange Love” by Little Annie (see below)
Filming location: Prague

The cast:
Male character: Raphaël Personnaz
Female character: Léa Seydoux

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WHY?

Levi’s Europe website  used to have the making of Dangerous Liaisons posted up, but unfortunately when I check today, they had already taken it down.

Pity, because it was enjoyable to hear what the people at bbh had to say. Luckily, I – the ever conscientious student (not) – had taken down some notes. Here’s what some of them had to say:

 Nigle Bogle (CEO of bbh):

“This campaign is about the new seasonal looks at .. . showcasing in a way that acknowledges it’s coming from the Original. This is what we are as Levi’s, we’re not trying to be anybody else…”

Caroline Pay (Creative Director):

“Receiving a brief for a campaign is always exciting. The times when you get a Levi’s brief, you times that by ten.”

The brief given was described as “two-fold”: Making original people feel great in Levi’s and reinstate Levi’s as the original jeans. bbh aimed for the big thought that Levi’s could have that would run for the next 5 , 10 years.

They hit on the idea of a simple time travel story that would show the history of Levi’s, but still keeping it “sexy, playful, fun” – important aspects in the Levi’s brand.

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MORE INFORMATION

Awards/Nominations:

• Cannes Lions – International Advertising Festival, 2007 (Gold Lion ) for Clothing, Footwear & Accessories
• Cannes Lions – International Advertising Festival, 2007 (Bronze Lion ) for Best Use of Music
• CLIO Awards, 2007 (Bronze) for Apparel/Fashion
• Nominee for UK Screen Association The Conch for 2007 commercial of the year

Soundtrack

STRANGE LOVE by Little Annie

The soundtrack for Levi’s Dangerous Liaisons is “Strange Love’ from Little Annie’s Durtro Jnana album ‘Songs from the Coal Mine Canary’ .

Little Annie Songs from the Coalmine Canary at Amazon.com

Strange Love

by Little Annie and Antony Hegarty

Once I had a strange love,
a mad sort of insane love,
a love so fast and fierce,
I thought that I would die.

Yes once I had a strange love,
a pure but very pain love,
a love that burned like fire through a field.

And once I had a strange love,
a publicly acclaimed love,
the kind of love as seen in magazines.

And once I had a strange love,
a beautiful and vain love,
a love I think that’s better left in dreams.

Strangers love,
Strangers love

And once I had a strange love,
A morally inflamed love,
We’d go on holy battles in the night.

And then there was that strange love,
that vulgar and profane love,
the kind of love that we don’t talk about.

Yes once I had a strange love,
a lying infidel love,
who wove in stories like Scheherazade.

And once I had a strange love,
a flaky white kiki love,
we ran so fast
we almost spilled our guts.

You see I’ve had some strange love,
some good, some bad, some plain love,
some so so love,
so what?
and c’est la vie

But just let me proclaim love
that out of all this strange love
You’re the strangest love I’ve ever known.

Presentation
The short 10 minute presentation I totally burnt midnight oil for!

 tvc-presentation-levis 

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Credits
Song lyrics taken from Duncan McLeod’s TV Ad Land. Thanks Duncan!

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What feedback did I get on the first version of the Social Media Breakfast (SMB) logo?

I must say I’m quite relieved.

The comments on uniquefrequency and twitter were encouraging, which I’m appreciative of. Doubly so because I haven’t even spoken to some of these people before. So thanks Daryl, Claudia, nadnut, Krisandro, juzzywuzzy and parkerha for saying you liked it or that it’s fab! All of you made my day.

Of course, one can’t improve without constructive feedback. So like a kid that doesn’t want to face the monsters under the bed, but must be brave, I showed it to my boss. (laughs)

He suggested making the SMB clearer and using a handwritten type to match the sketch. Initially I thought that would be too messy or illegible when scaled down, but time to try again! He also recommended to incorporate a social media element into it.

The last point was something I should have thought about or tried harder to put in. VEEERRYY important for a logo to represent EVERYTHING the brand stands for. As a marketing student, I logically knew that, but let it slide in the face of time. Bad. Shouldn’t have done so.

I really should have given myself more time and did more drafts.

Hindsight is ever perfect. Big sigh to that. Have also learnt if I’m stuck, I should leave whatever I’m designing at the moment, and come back after a while, so I can look at it with fresh eyes.

(Why do fresh eyes make me think of Cows, Farmhouse milk and butterflies?)

And I’m still a bit nervy about offering to design things for people when I don’t have any background.

Well, no background beyond Frujch and fiddy-diddling around photoshop…… photoshop…ah, that reminds me, Quentin says I should be using Illustrator instead. Time to find a copy. Bye bye Yusof Ishak; hello Hole-in-My-Wallet.

But really, I need to get a grip and just try every damn thing I can design so that even if I don’t succeed wildly, I learn something in the process of doing it. That’s what those motivation speakers always say right? “TRY TRY TRY! ”

Alright, up & on, me!

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Obviously, for the next 2 weeks, I kicked myself due to… the usual reasons:

1. OMG-I’VE-NEVER-DONE-A-LOGO-BEFORE.

2. I was literally running between filing & extracting patient files at TTSH (another grand story all together), work @ Qube  and social media summer term

3. Daryl would end our 11 years of friendship over (possible) birth of ugly logo.

Okay.
I was kidding about the last one.

Anyway, I never managed to sit down and work properly on the logo, but thought about it while I ate lunch, was on the train, in the toilet, in the lunch queue… and doodled here and there.

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Even though I doodled quite a while on this idea, I wasn’t totally comfortable with it.

It was both too wordy (with the whole phrase “social media breakfast” spelt out) and kiddy. In the end, I didn’t tried it out with proper fonts in Photoshop.

I guess I never got around to doing it because the idea didn’t settle fully with me. Felt like I was missing something or needed to take something out.

That went on for a few days, before yesterday night which I had set as my absolute final deadline.

So while I was in the shower, with the mantra “INEEDTOGETTHATLOGOTODARYL INEEDTOGETTHATLOGOTODARYL” running through my head, it struck me: the letter ‘S’ sort of  looks like a cup handle.

Perhaps all that shampooing massaged my brain the right way.
(Note to self: To try shampooing again to test above hypothesis)

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MAIN IDEA #2: SMB integrated with a coffee cup + saucer

It was already 11pm so I had to hurry. Drew variations of wide cups, tall cups, narrow cups, cups without steam, cups with shading, sketchy cups, proportionate cups….

It was my dad that mentioned it looks like a person). On hindsight, I realise perhaps it’s only one of the sketches (left, circled in red that did and it’s hard to see so in the final result.

After scanning the design in, I cleaned up the sketchy-cup, making the lines a bit bolder, darkening, sharpening and played around with font colours for the SMB text.

And the first version of the SMB logo was done!

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Some question its feasibility, others wonder about its mission authenticity while even more are just… sceptical about the whole project. Check out OLPCNews – it’s an independent site giving a variety of opinions on the subject – or Wikipedia for a quick overview.

For me, I just think it’s remarkable how design contribute so greatly to humanitarian efforts. Remarkable and relieving.

I was following the news on the China earthquake last week, thinking,

“People are dying by the thousands, medics are helping, rescue teams are risking their lives, volunteer organizations are rallying, humanitarian forces are provided food aid ….” Everyone was being  useful and I couldn’t figure out where design had a place.

It felt like the old debate about the arts being a luxury – how basic necessities called out to be satisfied before one could appreciate Mozart or Les Miserables or that $XXmillion sculpture.

I’ve always disagreed, taking the stand that the arts are the part of life for enjoyment, that if you were poor, watching a play could make you forget your worries for that period, ensconced in a alternate reality.

But the China disaster casted doubts and made me wonder if all that thinking was too naïve. If you’re a doctor, you could help. If you’re a fireman, you could help. If you’re a designer…….

Where’s the part of designers in disasters?

Are designers useless?

OLPS’s initiative reassured me that it wasn’t so. Designers do help, but in a beforehand, behind-the-scenes as opposed to in the actual situation.

That rescue tool kit? A designer made sure it’s as efficient and compact as can be. The $100 computer? It’ll increase learning-interest, subsequent literacy rates and build a more progressive nation. (A bit grand of a statement, but you know what I mean.)

Instead of helping in the now, the designer helped out then to make sure the situation later would be better.

So while not all designs contribute to the good of the world, it’s enough that there are some great ones that do.

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THE RSS HEADACHE

I spent an hour trying to put an RSS button on my page.

After googling, Wikipedia-ing, FAQ-ing, calling friends and yanking out my hair (in that order, yes. Interesting how internet help comes before human help, eh?), I finally stumbled on the right wordpress page with instructions to answer my prayer.

Then, I had another problem:

Did I want the usual orange RSS button?

Or did I want a green, blue, red, grey, purple one?

And if I wanted a green RSS button,

did I want an olive-green, light-green, emerald-green, or teal one?

Not forgetting, would I like that in a

Small / Med / Large size?

Talk about overwhelming choices, and that was before I discovered all the custom-made ones out there.

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RSS ICON ORIGIN CURIOSITY

Who designed the orange RSS/Atom feed icon we know so well today?

Initially, I assumed it was a proprietary logo of the creators of RSS. I thought there was a company called RSS or Feed Co. or something like that. Guess I’m lacking in tech history.

Turns out that it was first used in Mozilla Firefox…

(Side Note:

Which is under Mozilla Corporation,

Which used to be Mozilla Organization

Which was created by Netscape – where Ramanthan Guha created the first version of RSS.

So perhaps my guess wasn’t so far off the mark! )

…. and subsequently was adopted by Microsoft IE in 2005 and Opera in 2006, turning the orange square with radiating waves into the industry standard.

For the life of me, I couldn’t find who in Mozilla designed it, but my searches churned out more interesting questions:

Why this icon? Does it work well?

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THE RSS ICON DEBATE

Although many agree that a consistent RSS feed icon across browsers is a good thing, they’re not so certain whether this was the best. The point of contention: Does it clearly represent RSS?

In order to recognise the icon, one already has to be familiar with RSS or seen it before. If not, a new-user’s common associations to might be “volume”, “audio” or “radio” as P.J. Onori points out.

So, which should take more priority in the design? Clarity or aesthetics?

Safari opts for the former, with its unmistakable blue-white tag of “RSS”. Simple, clear and functional, but also a tad boring.

While on the other end, we have our little orange square: a rather stylish and clean design, but unclear and non-specific.

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I THINK…..

My take is it depends on which stage of awareness or popularity the product (in this case, feeds) enjoys.

It’s like how Nike used to brand its swoosh with its name, but as it grew in renown over the years, dropped “Nike” for a sleeker design of the solo swoosh.

A logo or icon has to be clear in a product’s beginning stages, for both the purpose of building awareness and creating right associations. One shouldn’t have to second guess what the product or brand is called, even if they’re not too sure what it really is.

Personally, I do like the RSS orange icon, and to me, its radiating waves represent broadcasting – a great analogy for feeds. However, I do agree that as a first-time user, I would have no idea what on earth the button’s for.

Some designers have already solved the problem: Just add the two together.

At least this way, even if one doesn’t know what RSS is, he/she can still look up the 3 letters to find out what it’s all about, rather than sit and scratch their head or worse, ignore it all together. It’d be great to watch the use of feeds propagate. Perhaps Microsoft will pick it up soon.

In the meantime, the standard RSS icon looks here to stay; though standard may be a misnomer with all these fantastic variations (from Smashing Magazine) zipping around.

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Recently, I picked up a copy of CMYK* #40 because one of its features, Get the Design Job You Want, caught my eye. I guess I heard an inner voice yelling, “Hey lost sheep, you need this!”

But how much could an article tell me?

I’ve seen self-help books a 100-pages thick that claim to “clinch that perfect (fill in the blank) job” or “chart your path to your dream occupation”. When I flip through them in the library, they either leave me laughing to myself or in despair.

Why? Because you’d have to be the perfect human specimen to get all of it right.

So excuse the scepticism – something that doubled when I realised that the article was only 4 pages long. I was expecting a manual of golden rules, even though logically I knew it was a magazine. Yes, please to meet you, Illogical is my middle name at times.

However, in the end, the limited length of the article worked in Jeff Domke’s ** favour. It was succinct, it got me thinking and he delivered what he said he would – shedding light on how to make the right moves to get that job you want.

And he would know, because for his first 14 months, he made all the wrong moves before he finally learnt to make the right ones. Saving us from learning it the hard way, he gives us 10 Steps:

(Note: Not the full article)

1. Define the job experience that you want

- What kind of designer do I want to become?

- What work environment is best for me?

- What’s my unique value?

- What do I want to learn next?

2. Learn from the masters

- “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi

- “All Access: The Making of Thirty Extraordinary Graphic Designers” by Stefan G. Bucher

- What risks should I take

- How does my fear influence my search?

- What will happen if I give up?

3. Get great photographs of your design work

4. Film yourself presenting your portfolio

5. Go here the jobs are

- Which cities specialize in a certain type of design?

- Which cities hire many junior designers/

- How poor can I stand being?

- How much time can I spend searching for a job?

- How can I quickly connect with local designers in a new city?

6. Join the AIGA and get involved

7. Go on 3 studio tours

8. Win a design competition

9. Find Your weakness, and improve on it

- Does every project I make look the same?

- How is my attitude? How is my ego?

- Do I understand the business of design?

- Can I present work well?

10. In conclusion, start over

“Every time I thought I had failed, I was actually learning how to perfect the job-hunting process. Eventually my growing knowledge and abilities caught up with my job ambitions. Yours will too. Just start over…. Just keep pushing forward.

Take big risks, make big mistakes and design everything you want in life”

Domke’s article is a good start to anybody wanting to go into the industry. Answering all the questions he poses is a daunting task, but it gave me a structure to work with rather than floundering around.

I know I don’t have to kill myself and answer all the questions before I try out for that first job but at least now I know how to go about it and will be more prepared.

I’m on my way to start with #1 tonight.

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*    A design publication that states its sole intention as “presenting outstanding student creative”

**  Jeff Domke is an award-winning graphic designer. As a former internship coordinator for Landor Associates & an AIGA mentoring director, he has gained firsthand insight into the challenges of today’s emerging designers.

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