Design Blog for Design 1

Volll

I happend to catch this site on the Princss site. Funnily enough I was doing a promotional product for BMW and this site had several, since BMW were their clients. I actually enjoyed this site though I did find it confusing to work with at first. However that’s okay it’s a site that is meant to promote how fun they are. There are little characters to play with throughout their site.

 I love the work they’ve done and they have given me a few ideas for my site (even though it’s almost finished)

I loved playing the flash games. I’ve made a few myself so I think I might be putting them up on my portfolio site later in the year.

Here’s a link to their site:

http://www.volll.com/#section_main

PrinCSS

This site promotes female website designers. To me website design is predominately male (whether it’s true or not is another thing just my opinion) so it’s nice to see a site that promotes female designers. Most of the sites are visually rich and share their lovely graphics. However I do feel that some sites are typically female. I would like to see a site where you couldn’t tell if it was male or female that has designed it.

It’s nice to see what other website designers around the world are doing and would recommend a look!

Here’s a link to the site:

http://www.cssprincess.com

BMW vs Jaguar Advertisment

While doing a little bit of independent research I stumbled across this advertisment from the UK:

I found this advertisement to be absolutely brillant. They are obvisously playing on the visercal of people. Showing a Jaguar car cowering away and BMW as this big mean nasty car. This would really appeal to an alpha male who really wants to compete. Strangely that’s who we felt the target audience was for the BMW 325i.

Technically speaking Jaguar in Australia isn’t a huge competitor for BMW 325i (3 Series). A more useful advertisment if they were to do the same type here, would be the Saab Turbo X or the Audi A4. It probably wouldn’t work since the faces for these cars are a bit more prodominant. Although we found Jaguar and Mercedes Benz to be competitors of BMW they were normally for later models (X3, X5, 5 series BMW aim these cars at an older audience) or bigger competitors in Europe.

Cocolat cards

Yesterday I had to see a family member off overseas. Which gave me the opportunity to have a look at the vendors in the airport. I found some lovely postcards from Cocolat. They were quite simple and conveyed to the viewer what they did and how tempting they are. I believe sometimes the more simple a advertising product is the more effective it could be. This is something I will have to consider with my promotional BMW project and portfolio website.

Here are a few of the cards I collected yesterday:

For a link to the Cocolate site:

http://www.cocolat.com.au/

Rundle Lantern Update

Some people might remember this post about the Rundle Lantern in Adelaide. I’m happy to say that the Rundle Lantern will be running on the 24th of October 2008. People should go see the light up it promises to be an exciting event in Adelaide.

For more information on the Rundle Lantern please visit these links:

http://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/scripts/nc.dll?ADCCBRAND:STANDARD::pc=PC_110113

http://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/scripts/nc.dll?ADCCBRAND:STANDARD::pc=PC_110114

Design Police

I found this site a while back and found it hilarious. It reminds me all the things teachers have told us not to do. It’s a funny site to look at and I will probably be printing a few of these out just to annoy a few people.

Here’s a link to the site:

http://www.design-police.org/

Australian Edge

I found another great design site the other day called the Australian Edge. As the name suggest it’s a showcase of Australian artist and designers. There’s some really inspiring artwork on this site. It’s definitely worth checking out if your in Australia.

Here’s a link to the site:

http://www.australianedge.net

Beer mats and flyers

A short time ago I went to the belgium beer cafe in town, found it a really delightful to have beer and food. However this a design blog and not a food blog. I found it a real novelty to be given mats that went with the beer that I had to collect some. Although only one managed to survive the trip in my bag.

I also managed to gain a few postcards which of course are all beer or belgium related.

Thought Map

I was having trouble coming up with a product for the BMW 325i. Although I knew who we felt was the demographic I was having trouble coming up with a product just for them. The facilitator introduced me to the concept of a thought map as seen below:

For a larger view of the image please click on the image.

From here I was able to come up with several products that could appeal to the demographic. This demographic for me was quite a challenge to come up with a product. Hopefully within the next few weeks I will be able to document my progress in this product.

*Note: This was done by myself since we have now split up from our partners to come up with a product.

Rundle Lantern

I found out about this project a last year but thought it had not gone through cancel. I was a surprisedthat it’s not being made. Adelaide is not really know for it’s architecture triumphs (which is a real shame in my opinion), but that could change with this project.

The Rundle Lantern is designed for the corner of Pultney St and Rundle St. The idea is to liven up the ugly carpark. I think it’s an interesting idea and will be viewing it when it opens. The project was pitch and developed by Fusion an Adelaide design company.  

I was interested to why they were doing this project, since what I’ve learnt in design is nothing is done without a purpose. From the Adelaide council website the purpose was stated:

What is the purpose of the Rundle Lantern?

The purpose of the Rundle Lantern is to invigorate and enliven the intersection of Pulteney Street and Rundle Mall. This is achieved through the delivery of an arresting and unusual architectural form in the daylight hours, which transforms into an illuminated cultural canvas from dusk until midnight. The project was initiated as a response to a recommendation within Adelaide City’s urban master plan to create a convergence point at the described intersection. The vision for the Rundle Lantern was to create an urban design solution that ‘Adds Beauty to People’s Lives’.

For more information on the project can be found on the following links:

http://www.adelaidecitycouncil.com/scripts/nc.dll?ADCC:STANDARD:759832951:pc=PC_151124

http://fuse.fusion.com.au/MagazineIssue.aspx?article=80