Magazine / Newspaper

Sky’s New Sport: Crickolf

In this new viral for Sky Sports, cricket and golf combine – hey, it could catch on.
Click through to watch the spot…

UK Degree Shows: What’s On When

Detail from last year’s Central Saint Martins graphic design show catalogue (by Oscar & Ewan). Degree shows offer a great opportunity for graduates to direct attention to themselves and their work. You’d never guess…
It’s that time of year again: the student degree shows are about to kick off and, potentially, launch the career of many a future creative star. Here at CR we do our best to see as many shows as we can and have compiled a list of some of the main ones to see this year, from all over the UK. For those of you who like to see as much work as possible in one place, we’ve also got details on the group shows from D&AD, Free Range and New Designers that showcase the work of hundreds of colleges. And if you want to add details of any other shows we haven’t included here, then please leave all the relevant info as a comment…

Lost: the D in D&AD

Hat-Trick Design was nominated for its Lest We Forget stamp in Graphic Design,
one of only two nominations in graphics categories this year
While an unprecedented six Golds were handed out at last night’s D&AD awards, the Graphic Design section produced just two nominations and no pencils. We asked former D&AD President, Michael Johnson, and Sean Perkins of North why they think graphics was so under-represented (last year seven Silvers and four nominations were awarded in the section) and what D&AD – and indeed the wider design community – should do to change this situation in the future…

D&AD Awards: The Gold Rush

Earlier this evening a record six Black Pencils were handed out in an unprecedented act of judicial generosity at D&AD’s 2008 Awards. Apple scooped two (making it the biggest single winner of the coveted Gold Award to date, with six since 1999) and it was a very good year for advertising categories, with The Partners’ Grand Tour initiative for The National Gallery picking up a Gold; and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Projector Inc. also winning for online campaigns (no Graphics awards though, of which more here and here). Oh and that Gorilla made a brief appearance as well…

The People Behind Those Biblical Google Earth Images

Moses Parting the Red Sea, from God’s Eye View, a series of scenes from the Bible re-imagined via Google Earth. All works by The Glue Society, unless otherwise stated
The Glue Society, the company behind God’s Eye View, a series of images that re-imagine key scenes from the Bible as if captured on Google Earth (which caused something of a stir on the CR blog at the end of last year) was ten years old last month. This is their story.

The Mighty…errr…Puffs?

Spotted this ad on the telly-box last night. The Sugar Puffs Honey Monster is back and stars in a new ad (created by agency Bray Leino) – in which he is seen making up a whacky rhyme (about eating Sugar Puffs) with some actor who seems to be in every other TV ad at the moment…

New E4 Music idents

E4 Music idents, Production company: Mr & Mrs Smith, Director: Andy Martin, Producer: Ali Taylor, Creative director: Lisa Lloyd, Animators: Lee Cooper, Ned Miles, Andy De Vries
Production company Mr & Mrs Smith has created this series of rather fine new idents for E4 Music, which step neatly into the void recently left by the BBC3 blobs, yet come complete with a surreal twist.

Getting magazine-y

A day spent with an array of leading art directors convinces Violetta Boxill-Roope that there is still life on the newsstand

New Honda commercial

Problem Playground ad for Honda, Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London, Creatives: Sam Heath, Frank Ginger, Director: Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, Production company: Partizan
Following the huge success of Cog, Grrr, and Choir, it’s always interesting to see where Wieden + Kennedy will go next in its advertising for Honda. So it was exciting to receive their latest commercial for the brand at CR towers this morning.
Problem Playground introduces the new Honda FCX Clarity, the first zero-emission hydrogen car to go into production. The ad takes as its theme the idea of game-playing as a means of solving difficulties and is a continuation of the recent print campaign, which encouraged people online to a special website, problemplayground.com. On the TV spot, we find a bunch of boffins using retro children’s games, such as jigsaw puzzles and Rubik’s cubes, to illustrate engineering problems that have been solved by Honda, including the hybrid engine and energy efficient solar panels. They even slot in a small reference to Cog by creating a chain reaction with coffee cups and sugar cubes on a tea break.

BBC Three – Rebranded

BBC Three’s new logo, devised by Red Bee Media
To be completely honest, we’re rather sad here in CR towers at the thought of the imminent demise of the cone-shaped blobby creatures (devised by Aardman Animation for Lambie Nairn’s original BBC Three branding package, delivered almost exactly five years ago) that moved and grooved to the sound of Three Is The Magic Number…

Beautiful New Homeowner Loan Ads On The Telly. Honestly.

Still from one of two new ads written by BBH and directed by National Television of Not To Scale for new homeowner loan comapany, Fair & Square
Let’s face it: the Homeowner Loan sector isn’t well known for its beautifully crafted television advertising. Unless, of course, you feel magically transfixed by seeing Carol Vorderman endorsing the consolidation of all your existing debts by taking out a FirstPlus loan – or cinematically wowed by the ad in which a particularly annoying, apparently football-obsessed wastrel proclaims, “You can really talk to those people at Picture”, while his wife films him on a video recorder they clearly should never have bought…