An easy way to find an ad parody

So in search of an entry i googled "ad parody" and there you have it, a whole website of em. I grabbed a few i find amusing. The thing i love about logos is that everything about the logo that is created will be associated with that product, if done correctly. so even a logo with the most simple approach has aspects of it that is recognized as belonging to that product or company. the examples i picked prove that if you didnt know who they were talking about by the manipulation of the logo, it wouldn't make sense. it's amazing the number of companies i knew they were referring to without mention of the name. How many do you know?
False Advertising

Mad photoshoppin skills....

I stumbled across these while goofing off at work. At first i was just endlessly amused at how they made these celebreties into "ordinary" people. But then i becames slightly offended at the notion that this is what those of us who arent stars stars are represented as. I guess this applies to the class because it is the idea of who is "ordinary" and what that means. How that is represented visually here is really fasinating. unfortunately when i tried to add the pictures they were too small to really appreciate, so you'll have to get there yourself.
Ordinary Stars

dun DUN!

I love this skit. Notice how even though there are no words, you are instantly sure what you are watching by that noise. I think it's very fasinating...

Is That a Prarie Dog?

Of course not, silly. In the vein of our talk of documentary the other evening, here is an ad for meerkat manor. This, as we have discussed in class, is a documentary of the life of a group of meerkats. In this clever ad, the Whiskers, the family who's life we watch, is portrayed like the Soppranos--another family who the American public likes to watch. The ad plays on the simularities between the two families--mainly the territorial nature of both families and the danger that could come of it. Just like in the Sopranos, they fight for and patrol their turf, protect their women and children, and ultimatley want to be the head family. The ad uses the typeface of the Sopranos and uses the same "family" photo type imagery. I dont think meerkats eat pasta, though.

Hope it's the clumping kind....

Here is an ad campaign that takes a new spin on a person's everyday choices by putting a literal spin on it. This ad (and others like it) were run by our furry-loving friends PETA, and true to PETA form, was too contraversal and pulled. I don't exactly know why I feel this is relavant to what we have been talking about it class, but I think it's this: PETA is using the image of a model in a fur jacket, which we take at face value and says "Well, if you are going to wear the fur of an animal, then you should be an animal and possess animal characteristics, so it plays on imagery. Now, I think, unless she was wearing a cat-fur jacket it loses a little in translation, but the jist is there.

The evolution of a lady

Ah, the dreaded starbucks. No offense to those of you who insist on consuming overpriced beverages in today's equivalent of an psuedo-intellectual pick-up bar, but i prefer my coffee at home--maybe in my car--in my little thermos, ground and brewed to my specifications by my very loved cuisinart coffee maker. Anyway, the original logo for starbucks--back when it was actually a quaint little coffee house (why has everything from seattle become so bastardized)--is a little more risque than starbucks felt the mainstream public would like. (i'm not sure if it's the boobs or the fact that they don't stand up like a porn star's that offends). I love how she is holding her tails like "look what i can do!"



Now, im not saying that this hag screams "mmm, coffee!"...maybe "I really need coffee"...but it has an appeal. So, they go to this:


So we gave our siren a little face lift, tummy tuck, covered her boobs, with her now flowing hair, and used her spread "tail" as a little border (just like the arrow in the ub logo, i never realized there was a tail there until i compared it with the older logo). A little bit ago starbucks, i guess trying to get back to its "homegrown" roots, wanted to change the logo back to our coffee-swiggin hag. People were outraged, saying the image was everything from indecent to a ode to witchcraft. So of course the logo stayed, and the public could rest knowing that there would be no sagging breasts hanging over their coffee. Of course, i like the old logo but know that the days of cool logos are over for starbucks. I guess the question posed here is: so what? boobs for coffee-bad. boobs for men's soap-good. witchy woman for coffee-bad. Alyssa Milano as a witchy woman-good. Why are we bothered by a logo taken from a 15th century block drawing (she's a twin-tailed siren, in case you care) but not by the thousands of other images we see every day. How does the american culture pick their battles?

Now, this is a good one--the one that started this rant:

This one cracks me up. notice the nipples are back--for shame!

Bloggin, part deux

As much as i tell myself that i need to get used to this--that i should embrace it, even--it still is very strange to post things to the web. Here is the second installment of the inkognito scriptures. (From the words and images class i took last semester--for of those of you who haven't heard, it's a delightful time). I havent posted to it since May-- it's just kind of a forgotten song in the "big brain," as Dr. Yarrison like to refer to it. We'll see if this blog puts some fire under my tail..

the good ole days...

Blackboard: $34.00
Copies, cuts, binding, begging at kinko's: $42.43
Razors, spraymount, blackboard cutter thingy: $54.00
Band aids: $3.50
Stock Photography I used: $5.00
Stock Photography I didnt use: $855.00
Material for my Project 6 (thank god it worked): $74.88

Not having to take Words and Images again: Fuckin Priceless.
(let's hope)

kisses!

blog o licious.

I feel like i finally am getting the hang of this layout stuff. My last revision on my project was a big success, and am pretty proud of how it came out. So now im trying to do revisions on a few of them, and yes, it's thursday, so it should be interesting. I had surgery on Monday so although i was able to get some stuff done, it was a little more exhausting than i thought. why couldnt i just have a normal semester?
So im not sure why it never occurred to me that others outside of the class may be reading this. Are there?

Ok, so....not so much.

Alright. My "take my own pics" idea did not work out so well. At least they liked the cover....
So, back to square one (ok, maybe 1.5) and I'm figure something out, i hope.
I have decided that i really suck at this. It's ok, and i love the support yall give me when i say "i really suck at this" but i know i really suck at this. Like steve told me on saturday, i have the instinct (i think) but my biggest problem is lack of training. I know how to write, i know how to use all the needed programs (not as well as dave, but, how can i mess with a master like that?), but i don't have any clue how to put it on the paper. I spend too much time fretting over what should be second nature, or at least some level of knowledge so i don't have the time or patience to work through the normal kind of issues that arise.
But im not one to give up so easily (alright, i did have that one episode during the semester, but didnt we all?). This summer im going to get some books, study magazines, and really study all the basics of layout and graphic design. I'm going to eat sleep and breath it. So when fall comes around i'll be better equipped to handle it. I just have to get through the next two weeks....

A PROCLAMATION

I have abandoned stock photography. I hate it. If i was really ambitious, i would provide my own stock photography site for others like me, but im not right now. So my final lil book will contain NO STOCK PHOTOS. ZIP. NADA. I took the pics myself. I'm still laying it all out(because, well, of course, it's Friday and im cool like that) but i think the back and front cover turned out well. We'll see what happens. If it does work, I am banning stock photos from my projects from here out. May even revise my other projects without them. Why didn't i think of this before? Oh yea, same reason my blog sucks, because i dont have a camera or scanner. cheers!

so i pulled it off...kind of.

The comp of my "drinking definition" worked well, it was the first project that i actually had it finished before the crack of dawn on Saturday. Hopefully the second version will come out well. It seemed like this last project was the hardest to come up with conceptually, everything i wanted to do ended up just to be a list. The idea came up at the 11th hour, of course, so i am working on the layout now. I may completely abandon that damn stock photography and take some pics..i have some images in mind. We'll see if i can pull it off. Only a few weeks left...boy, time flies...

imovie mayhem

My story is too complicated for my imovie. So i need to figure out a nice, clean story. I love Dave's...nice and simple, fun. It has a conflict, resolution, and ends nice and neat. My ideas are always too big to make tangible. It's a bad habit i have, i get it from my mom.
It seems that, from what i can tell, the real challenge of the next assignment is getting text on your "thing" that will direct a reader how to read it. I am starting the smart way this time, trying to think of objects that are doable and then moving into what it can represent. Any one want to have a paper mache party?

The hours I can never get back..

..that i've spent looking on friggin stock photography sites saddens me.

Ok. Im better now.

So alright. I slept a little, thought about something other than my projects for a while, and i came out thinking "yea, it is as bad as i feel like it is, but ill live. i think." I thank everyone for the comments on my blog and incidently, my mother was right--i do feel a little better knowing that im not the only one losing my mind. As wrong as that sounds. I also thank you all for the ecard you sent when i missed class...its cool to know that people are behind you.

So i apologize for all the coughing in class..ive been hella sick...as if i have all the time to sit around and steep in my fever. I probably wouldnt have even gone if i hadnt used up my missed class the week before. hope im not an outbreak monkey and get anyone sick. it pissed me off to be sick though because since i psyched myself back up for the class my brain-frying coma made me unproductive again. i cant win. but i figure if i die from my illness i wont have to retake the class. thats my only out.

Ok, so ive also realized that my blog will never be fancy and photo fun, and i know why. take steve, for example, very pretty blog. He's a graphic designer. Me, no fancy graphics, and a lot of blah blah blah. Im a writer. And there you have it. my fancy's in the writing. and although id like it to be more flashy, unless i hire an outside decorator, it probably wont get that visually pleasing--just a lot of blah blah blah.

Now for the exciting news. Yes, i have to finish my ad campaign (that was the bastard that sent me over the edge) and i still have all the revisions to do, but i have some FANTASTIC ideas for my imovie. we are talkin a story of homeric proportion. i just have to figure out the specific conflict--but the characters are already dancing in my head. now, hopefully ill just be able to actually do it. That is my biggest frustration with this class..its like i have all these great ideas for layout but when its time to find images i always fall short. so this way ill be able to make the scenes myself, just have to figure out the details. but the foundation for the next iliad is in the makes. hold on.

Thanks again for the support everyone and have a kick ass time off. see you in blogywood.

You wanted blogs? Here's your blog.

I'm over it. My projects suck and no matter how much i try to work on my stuff, it seems like im in full blown exhaustion and crazy come friday nite. My new goal is to have one week everything i need to have done is finished by thursday...ok...friday morning...ok...friday early evening--6 at the latest. ok, 830. That's my new goal.

So it's friday morning, im working early as hell, and im thinking of completely scrapping my whole campaign and starting over. I just cant pull it together. Ive started the whole "screw it, im dropping the class" thought process, but that's normal for me in a time of stress...it wont happen, its just my strange way of releasing some of the stress the assignments cause me. And i really like stephanie and amy--they arent the problem, i am.

I'm losin it. My mother always tells me "misery loves company," so i'm writing this to publicly display my loss of sanity and try to assure myself i cant be the only one feeling like this. Am i the only one who questions what the hell im doing here? And how the hell im gonna finish the semester...

"YOU ARE ALL PAWNS IN MY DEVIANT PLAN!"

I already knew i'd suck at blogging...

But now i've proved myself. This is a lot of work for a girl who doesn't even check her myspace email (did i say myspace? i meant..uh..oh..who cares at this point). So fine, i'll use the time im supposed to be proofreading financial documents to blog. i'll stop bitching. But if anyone out there gets a prospectus that is for the Mid-Cap Sock Fund, i don't want to hear any whining.

So now that i'm back, i have big plans--but first i have to figure out how to scan things (without a scanner), create links, add pics, and spruce up my blog to be like "ooh, ahh" when you look at it. If anyone can tell me how to do this, i'd be happy. My lonely, one-entried black page is depressing. I want it to be soooo much more. Oh yea, by the way, the amount of work for this class is insane. But that's cool. I'll work it out.

So, i scrapped my boring "category" subject for two reasons. First, there was really no great way to categorize cheese that hasnt already been so done. Secondly, i was going to do it for Bon Appetite, but the pictures in that mag are hella beautiful and short of buying 40 tons of cheese from Wegmans and trying to shoot my own great images, my images from some stock photo place will not compare, thus having a crappy spread.

So, i'm going with a different topic. Being that i worked in the restaurant business for 11 years, i know alot about patrons (or, the guest, as we'd call them) and could identify what kind of table they would be before even taking their drink order. That's because all diners fall into certain CATEGORIES...AH HA! I'm not sure what mag, perhaps Maxim, but if anyone has any suggestions have at it. Steve, i know you're out there...help a sister out.

So i should get back to work. Hopefully Stephanie and Amy will forgive me for my own tardiness to my party. I'll make it up, i swear..

I never have parties. I love to go to them, am often one of the last men standing, but i wont have one. i envy my friend Nicki, she always has these great BBQ parties with this delicious potato salad and cheap beer. To get to the spread of various charred meats and potato salad (which again, may i say, is delicious) you have to weave in and out of these little groups of friends. Threes and fives of people, gathering where there's a table to lean against or a tree to cool. And there's always the group by the beer, for obvious reasons. Most don't even eat, just drink, and talk, and laugh. It's always a good time at Nicki's parties. And as much as i love going, i wouldn't dare have one myself. I'm mortified that no one would come. That's the reason. It's kinda like how i feel about this whole blog thing. On one hand, i'm a little uncomfortable with the fact that anyone can read what i post. But truly, i'm more afraid that no one will read it at all. So here's to my first party. Beer's in the back--who's got the potato salad?