This time with less vuvuzelas.

This is an advertisement done by Nike. It's eye-catching, you see just enough of the Nike Swoosh to understand what it is, and it definitely makes you want to get out and play soccer. I think it's also hinting at how much "stronger" those players that play with Nike gear are.

Calendar

I love these building-incorporated advertisements. The design on this is brilliant, it opens up to the windows of the different offices. I'm not entirely sure what it has to do with the product it's offering as the product looks like it's Axe body spray.

Coop Paints/Nationwide

I think this advertisement is amazingly complex. I can't imagine how much money they had to spend to pull this off but it really works. They've even got the bus stop (I think) covered in paint. It's eye-catching, the colors go well together, and the way that it's combined with the Nationwide advertisement is awesome.

Inception

Here's a few advertisements for the movie Inception. While incredibly awesome, I fear it would be very distracting to drivers or pedestrians but then again attention is the entire point of advertising. I think it's very well done and gives us hints about the topic of the movie while not giving too much away. I think it's very high quality either print or paint, but I can't imagine the time and effort that went in to creating it and putting it up.

Milk Carton

I think this concept for a milk carton is brilliant. As the expiration date nears the carton turns colors. It was designed by Ko Yang but I'm not sure if they're actually in production. I like the minimalist design of the carton when it's fresh, but I also like the funky orange color. And since I don't like milk, I'm assuming I'd see the orange a lot. It's pretty effective at what it's attempting to do and it could help children avoid drinking expired milk and getting sick since they would be able to tell that the orange means no.

The police in Sandwich Illinois are called the Sandwich Police.

This is a packaging designed marked as "anti-theft lunch bags" featuring a ziploc baggie with what looks like mold painted on. I think it's a hilarious way to end lunchtime sandwich theft. The packaging is simple, uses the extremely over-used Helvetica font, but gets it's point across. I like that it comes in a brown paper bag because to most of us that also signifies lunch time when we're at work or school. I found this while googling creative product packaging.

Futurama

Going along with the TV show seasons theme of last week, this is the case for Futurama. It comes in a main characters, a robot, head and contains 12 discs and a little antenna for the top of his head. I asked for this at Christmas and as I suspected, haven't actually watched it once. But it makes my entertainment center look extremely cool. Bravo Futurama package designers.

I'd pay 60 bucks for a pretty box.

I can't even imagine paying 20 bucks for a movie at this point, but the packaging for seasons of TV shows gets me every time. I don't even like Six Feet Under but I would if it got me a sweet box like this. This case is awesome because of it's design, the cool tombstone on the top, the roots going down to the bottom and finally the black abyss that surrounds you 6 feet under the earth.

Helvetica

This is an example of a very very bad Helvetica logo. Gap attempted to redesign their logo to this. Gap spelled in Helvetica with a blue gradient box behind it, because Helvetica is so widely used that simply saying "Gap" wouldn't have been that effective or memorable. I feel it's a bad design because it does the opposite of what you want a clothing store to do, blend in with everything else. Also, it makes it look like a bank or a credit card company now.

I find this use of Helvetica to be really well done. There's just enough information to make Helvetica really work. It's not a giant sign that catches your attention, it's the simplicity of the font and to-the-pointness of it. 

Crate&Barrel doesn't look as nifty in whatever font this is being typed in.

I want to buy a ton of things from this store simply so I can have a box or a bag with their logo on it. It's just a simple name in Helvetica yet it's placement and boldness work great. It creates a sense of elegance and trendiness which is great for a store that, from what I can tell, sells decorative things.

When you lose a leg...

I found this on a design blog when searching for some more inspiration and thought it was great for this class. I love the design style and how they have structured the sentence to match the shape of the missing leg. This is a PSA for the banning and removal of landmines. Using a child and showing how acts of war affect the innocent and not just the people we're fighting tugs at everyone's heart. The typography they used looks like handwriting (not comic sans thankfully!), perhaps that of a child's.

IKEA

This is an advertisement for the most fun store in the entire world, IKEA. They have a lot of advertisements with furniture spelling out words like JOY or HOPE. I think the message is clear and it definitely stands out and makes you look at it. It doesn't have much typography besides "Decorate for the holidays" and I think it's well done.

Wake UP.

This is an advertisement for SEIKO alarm clocks. Even the image is painful to look at. It gets the point across that SEIKO alarm clocks wake you up in a less painful way than most alarm clocks. I saw this advertisement on a graphic design forum. I love the design style. Everything is pretty neutral in tone but the black on the mousetrap stands out. The blue in her pajamas match the clock logo.

Salt and Pepper Battery

This is a design for a salt and pepper shaker. It's designed to look like a D battery to give your dining room table a more industrial look. I love how on the side you can see how much salt is left in the shaker. I think the design of the shaker is really cool, the shade of blue and black go really well together.

Headphone Packaging

I think this is an awesome product packaging for headphones. I love the minimalistic design of it and the typography on the black is perfect. The shape of the headphones make out musical notes, though the white one does a more affective job of it, especially with the staff in the background.

Telefonica

This is an advertisement for Telefonica, a Spanish/Portuguese telecommunications operator. The typography is subtle but important, if you don't read it you just see a weird guy with a hair problem. Once you realize the ad is connecting Turkey and Sweden, then apply the stereotypical visions of a Turkish or Swedish person, the picture makes sense. This ad was shown along with 2 others on this website: http://www.ibelieveinadv.com/2006/09/telefonica-lowest-calls/

Remember when they came out with blue ketchup?

And purple and green.. it was horrible. Glad to see they've gone back to the natural side of things with this advertisement.

I saw this advertisement while searching for inspiration on another project and I liked this picture the best, though there are 2 more and they can be found here: http://adtention.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/heinz-no-one-grows-ketchup-like/

I like it because it's clever, it's trying to show the natural, organic side of their product which seems to be trendy in today's society. The typography at the bottom is minimal and to the point, it stands out thanks to the contrast between the red and white but it isn't intrusive.

Teashirts

Have you ever bought something simply because you thought the packaging was awesome? I don't even like tea but if it came packaged like this I would start. These little tea bags come in a bag shaped like a shirt (heh, get it? A "tea-shirt") and are attached to a cardboard hanger that allows the bag to hold on to the side of your cup.

The typography is very clean and minimalistic and the mostly white packaging makes the yellow background and hangers stand out. I saw a link to this on a design forum that I read and more information on it can be found at: http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/01/07/hang-me-some-tea/

I'm not sure if you can actually buy these but it looks very high quality and professional.