The life of luxury

If you want to sell your product, call it a luxury product. Over generations, our idea of what is luxurious has changed greatly. Years ago, it was simply having a well manufactured product that does what it promises it will do and better. Now, not only do we want a product that works well , but it is very important that it looks good too.

Brands are putting their money and effort into finding that perfect design team that will make their product as attractive as possible so that it will attract consumers. They have gave that type of " luxury" so much attention , that they have somehow lost the importance of a well functioning and satisfying product.

link:

http://www.harrods.com

what's wrong with plagiarism? By Gunner Swanson

Plagiarism is basically stealing, it is ethically and morally wrong. But does plagiarism include stealing an idea? how do you steal an idea? can't we all have similar ideas?

As designers we view plagiarism in a different way, we need to research and look at other people's ideas and concepts in order to come up with our own. This is where the line between plagiarism and inspiration becomes blurry. However in my opinion , if you put two people's work next to each other it will be very obvious whether it was plagiarized or inspired.

Moreover, hundreds maybe even thousands of people come up with the same ideas in the world but each one proceeds with it in their own way and comes out with a unique perspective of it.

So there is nothing wrong with having the same ideas , as long as you have your own personal process to go with the end result.

link :

http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/02/20/graphic-design-plagiarism-rip-offs/

i heart NY by Steven Heller

In 1997, The City of New york was suffering from a bad economic state, the mayor then offered a reward of 400,000$ for anyone who comes up with the best marketing campaign to attract tourists. Milton Glazer won that contest with his " I heart NY" logo.

The logo then on developed world wide and other cities began adapting their name to his logo, it even went as broad as europe and the middle east, where " I heart NY" became " I heart Jeddah".

The logo then developed within itself to market other campaigns and events in the city such as the tragic event of 9/11. Milton released a new version of the logo : " I Heart NY More Than Ever". Which really touched the people of the city of new york.

in my opinion, the logo has been over used and abused, it was designed as an identity for a certain city and shouldn't be used to represent other cities as well. The beauty of the world is in it's variety so why copy one city's image?

link :

http://www.iloveny.com/home.aspx

Comparison of documenteirs

Although both documentaries were about capturing the passion that goes on into an artists work , " Manufactured Landscapes" was without a doubt so much more powerful than " Running fence". Because it got the audience so involved in the adventure and it truly grasped the message that the artist was trying to convey.

It strongly grabbed my attention from start to finish where as the second one put me to sleep. It wasn't only the subject matter of the first documentary that interested me, it was they way it was presented that brought depth to the issue and pushed me to know and understand more about it.

Running Fence

Running fence is a documentary set in the U.S in the late 70's, the concept was to follow Christo and his wife Jeanne Claude on their adventure of installing their art piece by the name of " Running Fence". The idea behind the project was to get the families of the land that the fence crossed together. This 18 ft. high, 25 miles long fence was made out of fabric and grounded by poles. The fence went through fields and farm lands of many locals and for them to do that , they had to take permission from these locals to build the fence across their lands. It took them 4 and a half years to prepare, months to install and it only lasted 14 days before it got removed.

It was a huge struggle fore the artist to get 59 contracts signed and to fight groups of people who were against it, but the passion that they had for that project made them stick with it all the way through.

After the project was over and done with, they made an exhibiton displaying pictures of their adventure and their piece of art across the lands and the ranchers of those lands traveled far to that exhibition just to see what they were a part of. That alone made the artists very satisfied with themselves.

In my opinion, although the concept of the project was to bring the people of thew ranches together, it had brought more harm than good. It raised contraversy which can sometimes be a good thing but with this project it pushed people to undergo years meetings of arguments around it which only lasted 14 days.

I am all for freedom of expression but at the same time i think even that freedom has boundaries when it comes to crossing other people's space not to mention their beliefs.

link:

http://genevaanderson.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/the-running-fence-at-33-an-extended-family-gathers-weve-all-gotten-a-lot-older/

Manufactured Landscapes

When Ms.Baichwal directed this documentary, i don't think she had any idea what amazing insight she would gain. The concept was all about observing Mr.Brutensky's work as a photographer. Shooting him at work in China and in Afghanistan and trying to make the audience feel the intensity of the shoot and the depth of the experiences they went through.

The documentary was shot in 2005 , it shows the working people of china were suffering from inhumane working hours without decent pay and the amazing and unfortunate footprint they are leaving the environment with. The film captured a very important issue and portraits a message that i think people around the world should be well aware of. The earth is being destroyed by man. Big corporations are well aware of the damages their factories are producing but that doesn't stop them.

That is exactly what the photographer was trying to convey through his photographs. In my opinion, The documentary is much, much stronger than the photographs. Mr.Brutensky is without a doubt an amazing photographer but i think the subject matter is what made his photographs that strong . However, the documentary gave the people of china and Afghanistan more attention and was way more affective in getting me thinking about how important of an issue it is. It had the power of portraying the intensity of the situation and that made it much more intense than the stillness of the photography.

link:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/06/20/movies/20land.html

Responsibly Answers Absurdity By Michael schemidt

As Graphic designers , are we responsible for globalization or not? Globalization is the strategy of making an international influence therefore getting global control. That is a pretty huge thing to be responsible of if i am just a graphic designer working for a company to make a living. However , as designers , if we are exposing our work to the world , we do play a small part in globalization.

The reason why companies want to globalize is because they realize that the consumers have control. They get to decide what's worthy of their money and what's not. Therefore, in order to be worthy of their money they need to meet their needs; find out exactly what their looking for and provide it. especially when it comes to national holidays. Brands realize how important holidays can be, especially religious ones. That is why they wait for opportunity they get to take advantage of that influence. For example, when it comes to ramadan ; the religious muslim holiday , Brands attack it with adds and campaigns, aiming to link their brands with this holiday. The holiday should be all about our islamic and arabic culture and celebrating our muslim heritage so when a brand like Mcdonalds ; an american brand, makes an add of a certain product linked to ramadan that is simply absurd in the author's opinion. However , brands don't look at it from that point of view, they look at it as reaching to that certain society so that they would be appreciated.

In my point of view, those brands can't be blamed or frowned upon because it is their job to reach to the costumers in any way they can and i don't see a problem with Mcdonlads or burger king or any other foreign brands making adds for ramadan , i see it as a respect for our holiday even if that not what they aimed for.

link:

http://kissmyblackads.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html