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Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

wired.co.uk

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Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#161

Post by rsj_hn »

notriddle wrote: post #115
rsj_hn wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There used to be true artistry and celebration of beauty in corporate advertising. Look at the works of Toulouse-Lautrec or Alphonse Mucha. But no college kid is going to be putting up posters of these misshapen flat people in their college dorm.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fe/a1/24/fea1247eb6d9d47c6997... I... guess "celebration of beauty" is a good description, but let's be honest: it's insulting and artistically lazy.

The difference between the crude poster you linked to and the women portrayed by Mucha is enormous. I would say the poster you cited does not celebrate beauty at all. This one, for Trappist Liquor, does: https://www.allposters.com/-sp/Trappistine-Liquors-Posters_i...

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#162

Post by hedora »

TchoBeer wrote: post #130
olivermarks wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Racialization - making everything about racial characteristics and pitting races against each other - is what has been 'on trend' recently and the world is a poorer place for it. Anti racism has been around forever and always should be, because drawing attention to and excluding people due to their race is completely unacceptable in liberal democracy merit based societies.

I don't see how putting people with darker skin in art could possibly be seen as "pitting races against each other". Would the artstyle be improved if it only depicted white people?

The pictures in the article include skin tones such as purple and fuschia.

To me this visual style screams:

“Of COURSE we’re totally ok with…those people we cannot correctly enumerate, even superficially. That doesn’t mean we’d include anything too controversial like those ‘s.”

To each their own, I guess. At least they’re trying?

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#163

Post by userbinator »

kingsuper20 wrote: post #43

Thanks for the link, I had no idea that it had a name. The folks on the site that starts with 4 and ends with chan have done some funny parodies of it. You know, it takes some real work to do a Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman ad. There's a kind of artistic malaise in the modern era. Admittedly, you see that kind of look in vintage travel and airline posters.

The folks on the site that starts with 4 and ends with chan have done some funny parodies of it.

Thanks for the tip, I rarely visit that site but the parodies (while NSFW and not politically correct, in the usual manner) have been thoroughly, hilariously, entertaining. I think the fact that a style meant to be ultra-politically-correct getting turned into the exact opposite greatly added to the humour.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#164

Post by guerrilla »

whatshisface wrote: post #158
RobertKerans wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be, and generally is, both (if by "arthouse wankery" you mean design theory).

I wouldn't tar all of design theory with the brush of being Kabbalistic medieval-metaphysics-like random intuitive associations. Only some of it is like that.

Hey now, medieval metaphysics got us Occam's razor...

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#165

Post by Barrin92 »

Tsiklon wrote: post #96
jihadjihad wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reminds me of the now-infamous Pepsi "Breathtaking" design document https://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell...

This document is insane. It feels like everyone involved in the production of it is so utterly disconnected from reality. That first page “Trajectory of innovation” with the pseudograph is an utterly hilarious distillation of the madness yet to come. The deeper I read into the document the worse it got. Golden ratio, Patterns being found where there were none to begin with (“perimeter oscillations”), Pepsi Energy fie…

>What learning can be taken from this? Is it a case of the train of thought being very poorly explained?

My first question would be if the rebranding was a success? I generally think people are too dismissive of seemingly insane approaches to work. If this guy or girl needed to channel ancient Indian traditions, golden ratios and numerology to get inspired and make the best pepsi logo they could make, who are we to judge

In particular for creative work, there's certainly a lot of good stuff that's born out of sheer insanity, maybe bullshitting too.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#166

Post by bryanrasmussen »

personally I think one of the reasons why it's popular is it is reminiscent of the style of the 1920s, and can thus, with a few tweaks be used to connote a connection to the past as well as implying modernity.

https://www.illustrationhistory.org/images/uploads/held-Life...

https://hprints.com/s_img/s_md/58/58883-lillustration-des-mo...

I can think of lots of reasons why using the 1920s as a visual source would be interesting for designers in this period, so a few people did it and others jumped on (my feeling when I started seeing it around)

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#168

Post by antihipocrat »

Lammy wrote: post #97
Tsiklon wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This document is insane. It feels like everyone involved in the production of it is so utterly disconnected from reality. That first page “Trajectory of innovation” with the pseudograph is an utterly hilarious distillation of the madness yet to come. The deeper I read into the document the worse it got. Golden ratio, Patterns being found where there were none to begin with (“perimeter oscillations”), Pepsi Energy fie…

> What learning can be taken from this? That being stupidly outrageous is a great marketing strategy considering we're still all discussing a branding document from 2009. The gravitational pull of Pepsi is real! :)

I doubt the C-suit bought into the gravity argument. However there is a smile like quality to the new design, as is pointed out in the design docs, and this is probably what resonated with the executives during the pitch.

I also wonder about whether this document is actually the real one as presented to the company. For example am I the only one that sees the hint of a 'P' shape in the new whitespace between the red and blue colored elements? Wouldn't this have been a more convincing feature of the design to highlight than the pages about DNA, gravity and special relativity?

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#169

Post by rawoke083600 »

My trick for writing/making ads (mostly GoogleAds, FB Posters etc) is to do the following litmus test:

Let say I'm creating an advert for a 'Real Estate Agency'.

We will call it 'LINDEX', when I'm done with the text, visuals msg etc, I ask myself:

Litmus Test: "If I exchange another company's name and logo (in the same sector) in the ad will it still make sense ? If the answer is yes, then I know my ad is TOO GENERIC/ LAME

Example:

"Real Estate Agency, "LINDEX" we give personal service and listen to the buyer and put you in your dream home."

Now the above is way too generic if I replace our company 'LINDEX' with say "Tom & Jerry Agents" name and logo the ad will still make sense and is the same amount of boring to be honest.

If I change the ad now to:

"Real Estate Agency, 'LINDEX', the only agency that does a lifestyle assessment and put you with-in 10km of 80% of your monthly travel."

Now that is 'unique`ish' and no other agency can just copy our ad and replace it with their name + logo

Tip 2:

I saw it on some Youtube video and If I recall the Youtuber got the idea/tip from his graphic design mentor. I"m not doing the explanation justice but I will try.

When creating posters/ads: Remember the rule of 3.

You should have 3 different 'levels of read' (text+intensity)

Example of a "good" poster about a Jazz Festival:

I'm using HTML convention to illustrate text size + intensity.

* = h1 * = h2 * = h3

* JAZZ MUSICAL * * LIVE CONCERT *
* WHEN: 30th of Feb at PowerRanger Stadium **
** Tickets are $100 and children under 12 is free **

Explanation:

The first and foremost text "JAZZ MUSICAL LIVE CONCERT" is aimed at drawing the attention of anyone interested in JAZZ and has the most intensity/size. You should not be able to read the H2/H3 (When/Where/Costs/Details) from far away..

Once we got the Jazz enthusiast hooked and they see the poster and start to walk towards it.

Only then will they see the H2 and H3 text,"When/Where" and how much.

The customer should first be filtered through the H1 as a Jazz-Lover of sorts...

The point is there is no use to focus the attention(use up poster-real-estate) on the When/Where/Cost if we haven't first filtered out the "Non-Jazz-People"

PS. All companies, names and examples are fake :)

Bonus Tip: Funny sells: but you are probably way less funnier than you think to a broader semi-unknown audience.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#170

Post by cosmodisk »

jsonne wrote: post #58
Karunamon wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who detected the scent of what I call "arthouse wankery" here. This is popular for the same reason flat UIs are popular - they're easy to create, blandly inoffensive, and convey "modern" to the viewer.

Seriously. It has a lot more to do with the idea too that if you look similar to other big companies who are using it then you'll get a modicum of a trust factor out of the gate than some nefarious psy op.

In an exactly same way,as all the energy companies went on to use green colour on thier websites,while anything enterprise software related was always blue/skye blue. Nothing really new on this front.
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