Results tagged “design” from Uncivil Society
To complete today's charity ad trifecta, here's a thoughtful reflection from within the advertising industry on how the business views its charitable clients. The piece is rather eye-opening: according to the author, ad agencies see charity work as "downmarket" and design charity promos more to look good for awards than to be effective. Hence the post's provocative title, "Every time we make a self serving charity ad, a gay baby kitten dies of breast cancer"--
You could argue that, even if the main effect of these ads is to win awards rather than raise money or awareness, no one is really harmed. I’d argue against that. The same agencies that make creatively awarded ads know equally well how to make effective ads. Most of the time, though, they’re not the same thing. So every time an agency pours resources into making a beautiful, moving, and hopefully awarded charity ad, they’re choosing (consciously or not) not to make an effective one instead. They’re choosing not to make an ad that raises money for the charity and saves lives, cures diseases, finds homes for kittens or whatever it is the charity exists to achieve.
For the Significant Objects project, writers purchase objects, create stories about them & sell the objects on eBay--thereby demonstrating how objects "acquire not merely subjective but objective value." Above: Bar Mitzvah bookends, with a story by Stacey Levine.
The Dicapo Opera is, in the words of one reviewer, "the closest thing New York has to a mini-Met." The photo above is from their latest season schedule, which features a fun juxtaposition between their "delectably sexy" production of Dangerous Liaisons and the faux-crayon infused Opera for Kids.
We're all about meaning & community here, but because of massive work commitments I wasn't able to make it to the San Diego Comic Con, where costumes are a standard way of expressing one's identity.
Though let's face it--posting pictures of cosplay is pretty much a convention cliche. Fortunately that's not the only way it's done in the community, so to mark the occasion here are several notable comic & cartoon tombstones!
Richard Morrissey, legendary comics historian & letter column denizen (thanks Michael!):
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny (among countless others!):
Alfred Harvey, founder of Harvey Comics, publisher of Casper the Friendly Ghost:
Heroclix prototype model of the Joker at Robin II's grave:
Mark Gruenwald, comic book writer, who was cremated & had his ashes mixed in the ink for the first edition of his collected series Squadron Supreme--a copy of which was a standard part of my law school classes on corporate life & personal identity!
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A fascinating architectural statement in the East Village, as the owner of Sustainable NYC converts a former synagogue into a transparent penthouse using eco-friendly design:
“I was captivated by the history and grandeur of the facade,” said Ms. Camacho, 40, an entrepreneur who operated a T-shirt boutique on Avenue A before opening Sustainable NYC, an eco-friendly store, last year. “Sometimes I’d pause, walk up the synagogue steps and touch the door.”
Click through for a slideshow.
This I like--McCann UK = the creatives.
A foundation-funded project featured on Information Aesthetics.
Besides my life, it looks like this, a stellar experiment in information visualization.
The social enterprise community has celebrated the power of The Girl Effect, a video that uses Flash typography to make a simplistic yet appealing claim for helping girls become economically independent.
Below: a viral conservative Christian video uses a similar rhetorical technique to different ends:
Are ANIMATED BOLD ALL CAPS really an effective means of persuasion, or do they merely reinforce pre-existing values?
From Muppets Rawk, an art show in which designers muppetized famous album covers.
Brand New provides this instructive look at the process of rebranding Swanswell Charitable Trust. It's exactly the sort of useful experience we tend to miss when we limit social enterprise to organizations that self-identify as social entrepreneurs.
I have exams to grade & meetings to attend, so off I go. In the meantime, check out this Rachel Strohm's guide to African cliches, via Change.org.
So here I am, in week three of the seemingly unending bug or whatever the !*#&?! it is, where just the subway ride to the office pretty much knocks me out for the day. No matter--gotta soldier on, pip pip tally ho and all that. Perhaps I should take the advice of this 1889 British Medical Journal ad and consume some Cadbury Cocoa, noted among the era's doctors for its healthy "Flesh-forming constituents."
Well, maybe not, especially given my recent lack of exercise--but for more on Cadbury's various do-gooding past and present, check out my latest piece on JustMeans.
Also worth checking out:
- Thanks, Mitch Kapor Foundation!
- The Schulz Library
- A science museum angles for visitors with Star Trek memorabilia
- Will government-backed copies of Harlem Children's Zone retain its core practices or dilute them?
- Netflix is now streaming the documentary Helvetica, which describes the roots of the typeface in the social responsibility ethic of early modernist design. If you have a chance to see this film, do.
- A superhero-themed charity race
Note the windows. Design transparency was a key part of the growth of confidence in franchised fast food--sent the message that the place was sanitary and the food, healthy.
The memory of The Jungle was still fresh.
Via Photoshop Disasters, the cover of annual report illustrates how inattention to salient details can diminish confidence.
Via Robot6, this is brilliant stuff--an essential archive for anyone with an interest in the history of charity & public service.
One of the charitable thrift stores near my apartment has apparently found comic books to be a reliable source of income--they're regularly featured in the store window & prominently displayed for sale right by the front door.
Thrift Shop Horrors today highlights a different NYC thrift store that boasts of a sizable comic book & magazine section. However, the shop hasn't figured out that a comic's condition can be a selling point:
McCann Erickson Polska designed this PSA series for the Warsaw Metropolitan Police, in which thought balloons protect cartoon riders.
I like the ads, though it does seem that the designers could benefit from this new graphic technology.
NONPROFIT COMICS EXTRA:
Metabunker has details on the formation of the new Danish Comics Council, which promotes comics art & industry in Denmark.
Broadway has nonprofit and for-profit theaters.
Guess which one is the first to go green?
More about the company here.
I'm just beginning to catch up from a week of being waylaid by the flu or somesuch nasty thing, so my thoughts today will be brief. Suffice it to say that I believe such stories expose as much about our perception of charity as they do concerning charitable organizations.
The following is a particularly interesting exchange from the comment thread. Note the attitude toward business activity--the underlying assumption is that charity is by nature noncommercial, such that commercial activity is equated with deception & self-enrichment:
