Type and Image - Amnesty International

I'm really interested in design which is used to change peoples minds or actions for the better. I'm almost always impressed with the design used by Amnesty International because it focusses on so many human rights issues (Probably the most important issue in terms of world ethics) in so many different ways but always remains impressive and thought provoking. Almost every piece of design is eye catching and many use contraversial content to get their message across in a shocking but effective way which I find really impressive because the designers know just how far they can take a topic before it becomes completely offensive or distasteful.



This is an example of one of the Amnesty adverts that impresses me the most. They disguise the issue of world arms trade as a teleshopping advert to show the relaxed, casual way that arms dealing is regarded. They use teleshopping as an example of how easy it is to buy illegal weapons in mass from different parts of the world and the entire video is made perfectly to look like a typical low budget teleshopping channel.



Again this is another amnesty video advert which shows several types of abuse which amnesty works to fight. It uses the same kind of shock tactics which can be seen in a lot of other amnesty ad campaigns and I think it works really effectively. It covers all ages, races, several nationalities and both genders to relate to as many people as possible and represent different human rights violations across the world.

This is another Amnesty advert but this time in print. It uses a really simple idea but one which is innovative as far as I'm concerned and uses a common existing product with a simple tweak to make it work in the confines of the topic.
The idea behind the campaign is about supporting Amnesty to help rescue wrongly imprisoned people who have been targetted because of ethnicity, gender, religion, language etc.
Just by the simple action of taking the letter out of the envelope, the prisoner who was behind the bars on the window of the envelope is now free in just the same way as Amnesty would like to help wrongly imprisoned people.

Type and Image - 3M Security Glass

The above image is an advertisment for 3M security glass which is part of a bus stop in the US. The security glass claims to be unbreakable, and to show this the company placed real money between two sheets of its security glass and ecouraged the public to try and get the money.The advert works on a lot of levels to show the company in a good light.

The most obvious reason for the advert is that it is straight to the point and completely proves the quality of the product.

As well as showing off the quality of the product, the placement and visibility of the advert make sure it will always have a huge amount of attention which makes for great promotion of the product.The fact that you can physically see and feel and test the product means that you don't have to enquire much further to decide if you want it or not.Maybe the best part about the advert is that it shows off innovation and impressive design, as well as a great sense of humour and ability to force public interaction.

This design is probably more image based than image and type but I think that the type in the bottom left corner of the glass is important for the overall effectiveness of the design. It shows the 3M logo as the largest type in the whole image clearly explaining which company the advert is linked to and states clearly next to it that the product is security glass. By doing this, people know exactly what the product is and who make it, as well as the connotations that the advertisment brings with the understanding that it is security glass and the mass  money behind it.

The reader immediately associates this product with protecting their money, whether they are a large bank firm or even a small convenience shop.

Type and Image - Graphic Thought Facility

GTF are a London based graphic design company that work with many high profile clients across the UK. They work in print, digital media, product packaging, identity and probably touch on everything else in the industry.

Above are  a series of print adverts created for Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Productions advertising a series of theatrical plays for a season called "The Edges of Rome". GTF have clearly looked into roman history and have based the idea on roman grafitti which was common on the streets of ancient rome. GTF have given the grafitti a modern look of grafitti to show that the plays are still relevant and desirable in the present.
Each poster is well linked by sharing a lot of the same composition and format.
The Shakespeare Globe Theatre logo features in the center of the left hand side of each poster and the right hand side is split in to two parts: The image covers about 2/3 of the side and then the short bit of writing sits just above it.

The other important part of the design is the use of colour and the splats of paint across the left side of the advert. Each poster has just 2 individual colours besides black white and grey. This works well to seperate each design and give them a sense of individuality as well as link them again to the modern, colourful and vibrant style of grafitti.
The designs follow an obvious pattern which must have been the order in which the plays were advertised and performed. It is easy to tell the order because of the layers of colours.
Instead of having each advert as an individual design, GTF have taken the previous design and added the next design on top of it for both the colour splat and the image in each design.
The image itself changes for each design and is related to an aspect of each story.

This is another design by GTF for Marks and Spencer Café Revive. The simple design uses cocoa powder in the shape of florar designs using stencils. The designs are used on top of coffee and on the walls of the cafe. The design is simple and really pleasing to look at because of the varied patterns and tones of the cocoa powder depending on the thickness and accuracy of the application.
The design is really clever and quite innovative, though it links to an old post I have on here from a company using the same process to put their logo on the top of cups of coffee.

As well as showing off the innovation and progression linking to Marks and Spencer, the designs are also elegant and suggest some kind of intellectual superiority.