I have always been a proponent of simplicity in design/advertising. I believe William of Occam had it right when he stated, “entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” Most people apply this proposition to scientific and philosophical matters, but I think it makes complete sense the advertising world.

Here is a great example of a super simple, yet effective ad from a paint company.

Mark

In times of recession a blank billboard can be a depressing sight. Auckland based street art collective Cut Collective have teamed up with a New Zealand billboard company to create a series of artworks to fill unused spaces around the country’s largest city. The first piece by the collective is currently for sale by auction on NZ’s Trademe website with proceeds going to the childrens cancer charity Kenzies Gift. Good job chaps!

Matt

In the search for inspiration you always stumble onto some great work. These huge wooden installations are the work of artist/sculptor Henrique Oliveira and are made from scrap wood found on the streets of Sao Paulo. Great stuff…

Matt

The Lance Armstrong Foundation LIVESTONG has teamed up with Nike for their latest campaign to run during this year’s Tour de France (which started on the 4th July). Text messages of hope and support are applied to the cycle route using the specially developed Chalkbot, a kind of mobile, chalk spewing inkjet printer. People who have sent texts are then given GPS coordinates telling them where their message will appear on the route. Check it out…

Matt

Whoops, forgot to post my blog at the beginning of the week. I should have crafted a stop-motion Post-It reminder similar to this imaginative chap at Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.

Matt

Artist Samantha Yhuang has made the ordinary look extraordinary in these beautiful sculptural pieces made from old books. Samantha had an exhibition in London College of Communication in May 2009. I just love them!

Blogger Liz

At TimeZoneOne, we are very proud of the handsome logo we designed for the American Medical Association. Is it becoming world famous?

The Zone

Hi Everyone,

MadMen is one of my favorite shows on TV,  being in the Ad business it is a great look back at how this world worked in the 60′s and how much it has changed since this time…. and how much it hasn’t. With the US team in NZ this week I started to compare our Ad Men to the Mad Men of the show, and so with out further a do, I present to you The Mad Men Guide to TimeZoneOne. So print it out, pin it up, and the next time you call us timewarp back to the 60′s, poor yourself a strong 10.30am whiskey, light a cigarette, and do business the old school way….

Click on the image to embiggen it….

T

Business cards are a funny old thing. I have a bunch sitting in my desk which I hardly ever use, yet for most people the daily exchange of business cards is an important tool in business communications, and for some they are a status symbol, an ego fueled piece of printing made to make them feel good about themselves.

If I ever go anywhere for work I often find I come back with a handful of cards which I usually never look at again, mainly because I have previously communicated with these people on email and have all the details from these that I need to contact them in the future.

So why do we still use business cards? Isn’t the use of email signatures the new business card?

In all honesty, who cares? A deep philosophical essay on business cards is probably the last thing anyone wants to read so I am going to avoid on my own questions and not bother to answer them.  Instead I am going to share with you this funny scene from the film American Psycho, all about…. business cards (yes, just what this blog needs… another YouTube video!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU6SQ_e6VCo

T

It’s been a while since I have written a post so it has forced me to reflect on what’s new in my life since my last blog. COLOUR (or color, for our US readers). For the last couple of months I have taken up a Watercolour Painting Class on a Friday morning (apparently this is what ladies do with their spare time), which has proven to be a very interesting process. 

Firstly, I’m a complete novice and quickly learning that there are two masters involved with watercolour painting, you and the paper.  I’m so used to working on a computer and having complete control over the work that I produce. Working with a medium where the whim of the paper, paint and water can take the work in unexpected directions is very hard to get used to but also very refreshing. Imagine working on an advertisement and then at a seemingly random moment the computer decided to add some lorem ipsum and flip the work sideways and slip down the page! Sometimes the mistakes are happy ones.

Maybe by next blog I might be brave enough to post some examples of my work but at this point please enjoy these artists.

Monet in the making – Kim