February 2013
1 post
BEST AND WORST BOOK COVERS OF 2012
After roaming the aisles of a few bookstores and sifting through a shit-ton of bestsellers list, I’ve narrowed down my picks for best and worst book covers of last year.
This is often my most dreaded entry because I am not the most avid book reader (gasp!), however, I often find some sweet little gems within. Here’s my best/worst list TRL countdown style:
—- 5 BEST BOOK COVERS...
January 2013
4 posts
BEST AND WORST LOGO CHANGES OF 2012
Ah, logo changes! You’re the most fun way to gamble with your company’s money! Easiest way to throw away millions of dollars worth of brand equity out the window if it doesn’t go well foooo sho! Good for you guys.
My picks may entice some disagreements, which is fine, as long you understand that if I agreed with you when you think I’m wrong, then we’d both be...
BEST AND WORST ALBUM COVERS OF 2012
Your CD cover flow interface on your iPod is probably the first and last place you get to see album covers these days. So let’s give them some attention before they peace-out just like CD themselves!
Once a year, I get to a judge a record by its cover, and here’s my mix tape of best and worst CD covers of last year. Start with the good, end with the bad. Enjoy!
—- 5 BEST ALBUM...
BEST AND WORST MOVIE POSTERS OF 2012
The time of year for hatin’ and luvin’ and ramblin’ is here! My retrospective 2012 posts begin now, starting with some fave (and not so fave) movie theather eye candy.
I’m going to keep my inner movie critic away as I look past content and analyze only the art direction, style and design of the posters of the following incredible (and god-awful) movies. Let’s see...
13 tags
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL SAYS ADIEU TO IRIS
So THIS is happening this weekend:
SHOW CLOSES JAN 19! Huh?! WHY!!!!!???? That’s fucking insane!
IRIS is Cirque du Soleil’s first resident show in Los Angeles, a $100 million production that premiered in September 2011. It’s hosted at the Dolby Theatre, formerly known as the Kodak Threatre (you know, where they hold the Academy Awards every year). Here’s the kick-ass poster:
So good! They...
December 2012
1 post
THE END IS NEAЯ. #APOCALYPSMAS
Remember the last holiday card you received? ME NEITHER. That’s because they all sound the same. They’re all meaningful, heart-warming and you know, nice. ZZZzzz.
But with the end of Mayan Calendar coming up on December 21, we’re about to blow up into a cosmic storm of hellfire. So, why not tell people how you really feel before we all depart into, um, December 22? Better...
October 2012
1 post
THE NEW AMERICAN HORROR STORY POSTERS ARE KILLIN'...
If you’ve never seen American Horror Story, you probably sleep better at night. Good for you!
If you have, you know AHS is actually really scary and way dirtier than you’d think. Season 2 is set in the 60’s in a mental institution with some of the same actors from Season 1, who play completely different characters. While I haven’t seen it yet, these four promotional...
July 2012
1 post
(20)12 BEST AND WORST OLYMPIC LOGOS
I’ve been on an Olympic-sized hiatus (due to work, stuff and life), so I figured the best way to get back into things is to talk about what’s super hot right now. And no, I’m not talking about Big Brother. I’m talkin’ about the Olympics, you silly bubba.
Gold medals, world-records, controversies, and the ultra hot divers aside, let’s talk about what really...
April 2012
2 posts
MAXIMUM BAD-BREATH PARANOIA BEGINS!
Tic Tac has just called out (gasp!) people on their bad breath in the best way possible. Check out the ‘La pire haleine du monde’ (The Worst Breath in the World) video below:
Such a good take to the whole stunt/viral video thing AND it transformed something as fucking annoying as flash-mobs and made it cool and not stupid or lame or at all insulting to the human race. Freshness all...
DECAL THIS!
Remember when Lost was the only show in the universe? Now you can get Dharma Initiative Macbook decals and become a Lostie all over again:
Now your life can officially begin.
Altogether now: ‘FLASHSIDEWAYYYYYSSSSSS’!!!!!!!!!
March 2012
1 post
7 tags
UNIVERSAL GOES GOOGLE MAP SATELLITE-Y
Universal Studios is turning 100 this year, so they’ve updated their animated globe logo again! Like, for the 7th time! This new version has detailed satellite imagery as seen from a clear night in space.
The soundtrack has a slight new arrangement. The ‘UNIVERSAL’ wordmark is fucking massive, they really 3D’d that shit to the max. As soon as the ‘U’ comes...
February 2012
1 post
RETROSPECTIVE '11 PART 4: BEST/WORST BOOK COVERS...
I’ve been sorting through hundreds of book covers for part 4 (!!!) of my best and worst list. Yay for you, Zzzzzzz for me! I’ve found some really amazing little gems, and some truly disgusting trash.
They say don’t judge a book by it’s cover but I did, soooo, ‘they’ can just go fuck right-off. Here are my favourite and least favourite covers of 2011:
...
January 2012
3 posts
15 tags
RETROSPECTIVE '11 PART 3: BEST/WORST IDENTITY...
I guess some big-time corporate suits had a change of heart and decided to change up their brands a little bit. This meant great things for those on my best list, but it meant vomit-bag-necessary for those on my worst. All that brand equity… gonezo! But it’s not like they didn’t spend quadjillons of money getting to that point anyway…. RIGHT!
Here are my best and worst 5...
14 tags
RETROSPECTIVE '11 PART 2: BEST/WORST ALBUM COVERS...
I’m guessing album covers don’t get as much credit as they should because we are such music thieves. And cuz of the shift to streaming. But then you look at how dull some of these covers are, all seems good again! Most covers have two categories: 1) i’m-too-cool-to-be-mainstream-so-I’m-fucking-weird and 2) i’m-too-famous-and-I-want-my-head-as-big-as-possible....
14 tags
RETROSPECTIVE '11 PART 1: BEST/WORST MOVIE POSTERS...
Yeah, YOU KNOW movies are getting ridiculously more insulting as the years go by, but who gives a fuck because we’re still going to them! But whatever man, somehow the movie studios still find amazing iconic imagery to sell their movies. Some succeed, others bomb. Some are conceptual, some just look cool.
I can’t hate if I don’t love, so I’m counting down the best and...
December 2011
1 post
10 SUPER COOL TV OPENING CREDITS
You know the shiteous TV opening credits from the 90’s? Thank god those are done! No more horrible show clips/flashing grins+winks/badly-edited swipes, dissolves and gradients/cheesy theme songs! (Yes, I’m talking to you, Full House!!) Goodbye, you ALL fucking suck!
Good for us, TV bosses have gotten over themselves and given us more elaborate, conceptual opening credits. Some also...
November 2011
1 post
TRUTH IN ADVERTISING
A few days ago my phone suffered the drop of doom while I was riding crazy rollercoasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain is Los Angeles. That shit flew right out of my pocket on a ride that went upside 8 times. You say that sucks, but I say about fucking time. See you never, blackberry.
Let’s look back at my phone-losing situaysh and poke all sorts of fun at myself, and not just because I...
October 2011
3 posts
14 tags
GUERILLA DEJAVU
Of course advertising is supposed to be original and fresh, but soooooo sorry to say the following is neither. You know the internet? It’s a good place to start checking for already done ideas. Mega fail, and I’m calling you out right now.
Yo ad kids - if you use the medium as the message, make sure that your idea is very different otherwise you’re just a silly copycat. Your job...
7 tags
7-ELEVEN EAT THIS UP!
I almost never blogged about this and missed out on the greatest, most shameless self plug ever, but you’ll be glad to know that I didn’t. Earlier this summer I was named one of the Top 100 New Creatives as chosen by CMYK magazine. Cool.
Based out of the San Francisco area, CMYK publishes the largest showcase of emerging creative talent. The publication features work selected by...
SEE YOU LATER MR. JOBS
Thank you for making my job so much easier, Mr. Jobs. This post is for you! You put a ding in the universe.
Here’s to the crazy ones.
September 2011
2 posts
FACEBOOK INTERFACE RETROSPECTIVE
In a few days, Facebook will launch a brand new interface a give a couple million people a heartattack followed by a mean tweet or two. But Mr. Zuckerbeg doesn’t give a fuck, yo! He’s done this before, at least once every year since Facebook launched in 2004.
Remember the days of Zombie requests? Status updates beginning with “is…” Yeah, done. Here’s a look at...
RECYCLED MOVIE, DIFFERENT POSTERS.
Here’s some more plagiarism at its most clear and shameful form: identical movies about the exact same thing that are released around the same time.
And because Hollywood loves scamming people and recycling shitty movies into even worse ones (and making them into 3D), I’m going to out them, look at their posters and decide which is better. Simple.
Exhibit 1: Insultingly bad movie...
July 2011
1 post
TIPS FOR BETTER IDEAS
The video for the Rethink Scholarship at Langara College is pretty rad. You’ve seen it before, yeah? Yeah you have! Here it is:
So the video doubles as a call-for-entries and an inspirational resource for anyone in a creative field. I didn’t work on this video, but some really talented people at my work did (my partner Jordan, the amazing superman Rory O’Sullivan and Mr. Dino...
June 2011
2 posts
WEAR WHAT YOU KERN!
If t-shirts can make anything cool, then maybe the T-shirts below aren’t that cool to begin with???? Just kidding, yo, these are fucking awesome. You’d probably appreciate these t-shirts way more if you’re familiar with nerdy typography terms, like, you know, kerning and all its friends…but read along anyway.
Yes, some are better than others, some are funnier than others...
FIRST PRINT
Holy Shit Balls, my first actually cool print campaign is finally done. And it’s running for reals, in a real magazine, selling a real service, for real people. Check it out:
See, now I am officially a legit Art Director. We created all of it - from concept all the way to execution. My supercool partner, Jordan, deserves just as much credit. Follow him on Twitter. (You’re welcome,...
May 2011
4 posts
RUIN THOSE BRUINS
As soon as the Boston Bruins advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals earlier tonight, Boston Vancouver Pizza already changed its name. Check it out:
Ahhhh!!!!!!!! The power of perfectly-timed, amazingly-FREE publicity. This place is going to be fucking busy now just for showing so much team pride. Better start pretending to like their food now!
How much longer until their website crashes?
Go...
13-FRIDAY-SCREAM
I haven’t talked about Scream 4 in a while. And yes, I do still think it’s the greatest sequel ever made, if you’re wondering. Thankfully for today being Friday the 13th, I have one more chance to ramble on about it with sounding too desperate. A lot of people still haven’t seen this movie (why??), so here’s your daily reminder to go see it. If more people go,...
SUBTLE
My last post on the new Time Magazine featuring Bin Laden was bloody, but they managed to keep it classy. But why keep it classy when you can just keep it real? Here’s The New York Daily News cover from last Monday, May 2:
HAHAHAHAHA. Leave it to The New York Daily News to call it how it is! As if this would be published anywhere else other than in New York.
So…. who’s...
X MARKS THE SPOT
Some jobs are definitely worse than others. Take journalism, for example. You’re pretending to give a shit about say, the Royal Wedding, and you’re writing, writing and writing. You probably make a comment about how the wedding probably definitely ALSO was the rehearsal for the Queen’s funeral. Or maybe you make a more appropriate joke, like commenting on Victoria’s...
April 2011
4 posts
SCRE4M INTERN4TION4L
Because I haven’t spoken about the amazingness that is Scream 4 yet this week, here’s another poster-post: Scream 4 posters from around the world. Yes, I’m obsessed. But whatever man, they nailed it and it’s almost the best thing I’ve ever seen.
My overall feedback is that most non-English posters seem to have way too much information, are quite cluttered and way too...
SCREAM 4 WEEK
It’s only a few days before Scream 4 comes out, so I’ll most likely stop with the unnecessary Scream 4 posts. Lucky you! But until then, keep reading.
I told you a few weeks ago a new Scream 4 character poster would be coming out closer to the movie’s release date. Right once. And I said it would probably be really horrible. Right twice. Look:
Neve Campbell: We haven’t...
MASHUPS, MERGERS & OTHER BAD DECISIONS
When companies merge, they worry about numbers, shareholders, and others ways to take over the world. But let’s focus on what really matters: the visual representation of their newly formed megabrand.
Sometimes, the bigger T-Rex company eats the smaller Velociraptor brand. Other times the merger happens between two unrelated brands (hella greed, ya’ll). Either way, the newly formed...
TOUCH MY RAINBOW
You’ve seen the Skittles ads, and you know they are all high on some crazy chemicals. There’s no explaining them.
To add to the crackwhack, BBDO ad agency from Toronto made these interactive videos and posted them on the Skittles YouTube page last week. They continue the creepy and the fucking weird. See for yourself below.
I’ve ordered them from disturbing to less...
March 2011
4 posts
@INTERWEBS TALK
There’s a little bit of confusion in the video below, from the @-symbol, to the Internet, to Katie Couric’s wardrobe (and toupe haircut). But I guess it was 1994, so let’s at least forgive them on one of those counts.
Just watch the video below. It’s pretty funny. The footage was taken from NBC’s Today show, hat occured in between segments sometime in January 1994....
YES, COOLEST THING, EVER
Ready for some stupid cool stuff? I am.
Scream 4 launched a new app today to promote the relaunch of Neve Campbell’s career. The iPhone app lets you make calls to your friends, masking your voice so you can sound like the Ghostface killer from the Scream movies. So, you know, coolest fucking thing I’ve heard in a long time.
You can record your conversations and share them...
ADIDAS GOES ALL IN
Adidas came out with their new commercial today, directed by Romain Gavras, who also did M.I.A’s ‘Born Free’ fucked-up mess. Check out the extended two-minute version of it below. The song that plays is Justice’s new single, ‘Civilization’.
Oh, and keep watching closely, because you might miss the very unnecessary, expensive cameos of B.o.B, Katy Perry, David...
MAJOR NERDERY... COMING UP
I’m assuming typography nerds aren’t as common as I’d like to think, so here’s my post that should convert a few none of you.
I know I ramble about typographic design quite often, and here’s proof that I’m not making anything up. Click this picture and it will give you some interesting information on things you probably never even thought existed:
Then, once...
February 2011
4 posts
SCREAMIN'
Superfandom #7: the Scream movies. So, with Scream 4 coming out you know that shit is getting me really excited, even though the first trailer made me lose hope by a good 300%. But when the second trailer came out and showed a scene where Hayden Panettiere names every horror remake from the past 10 years (probably before getting cut into fish sticks), I basically wet my pants.
Last week, they...
IT'S (MY) BRITNEY (POST), BITCH?
Hey’all, so this is, like, my Britney post that I, like, that about Britney’s album covers and stufflikethat. Nobody does soda-pop like she does, so get over it and read on.
Just last week, the cover from Britney’s 7th album, Femme Fatale, showed up online. Here’s what it looks like:
Semi-okay album title, but really bad layout of it. The title is too big! We know about...
RETROSPECTIVE 2010: THE WORST (PART 2)
Here’s the second part of my best/worst list of 2010. It took longer than expected to compile this list because every time I picked this up and tried to judge the abysmal disaster that most of the contenders of this list are, I kinda lost hope in humanity by another 200% which therefore made me stop altogether, and you know, do other things that don’t make break out in seizures or...
RETROSPECTIVE 2010: THE BEST (PART 1)
To start the new year February, I’m doing one of those exciting (and extremely time consuming) best/worst lists of all things PRNT.D from 2010. Please note I’m NOT judging content. Rather, I’m judging appearance (so shallow like that) and design, but you knew that. I’ve rated my top three picks in every category. And yes, I was 100% objective. But enough explaining, today...
January 2011
4 posts
YO QUIERO UNA LAWSUIT
Yesterday Taco Bell ran a full page ad in major newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today which thanks Beasley Allen law firm for filing a class action against them, claiming their beef in taco filling isn’t beef at all.
Um, didn’t everyone know that already? If you get 3 Chalupas for 99c (total), PLEASE tell me you don’t really expect actual REAL...
ORIGAMI TOOK A BUNCH OF STEROIDS
Some dude by the name of Isaac Salazar got bored while reading took some old books and instead of throwing them out, made some crazy art out of it. Pretty sure he only folds the pages to make the 3D letters (because cutting the pages would be cheating) (as if). These look pretty amazing. Click on them to see it up close.
I bet your newly purchased e-reader can’t do that.
QUIT THE QUITTING
If sixteen days ago you were still disgusting, you probably made a New Year’s resolution to stop your nasty habit of smoking.
Not only did you make that resolution, you’re still owning that resolution. You finally realized nothing is more repulsive than smoke filling your lungs, and that spitting that same smoke out through your nose (or mouth) (or both) is also borderline insulting...
THE FIRST REBRAND OF THE YEAR GOES TO...
STARBUCKS! Here’s how it looks:
An evolution, rather than a re-design. And much more minimalistic, which is ironic, because the stupid annoying retards with two-minute-long drink names definitely aren’t. Decaf-double-ristretto-venti-sugar-free-WHO-CARES.
The company says the “brand has become so widely recognized that it no longer needed to reinforce its name at every turn....
December 2010
5 posts
THE FUTURE IS TYPOGRAPHICAL
Just wanted to post a little something before 2010 expires. On this 365th day of 2010 amazingness, I wish all my PRNT.D visitors a very exciting 2011. Here’s to a New Year that’s more creative than the last. Let’s party!
(credits to Yurik86 and ppwrkstudio)
DOUBLE TAKE
The following probably wouldn’t be identified by a normal human eye with the normal attention span of five seconds or less, but this is the sorta of thing that I pay attention to.
I’ve spoken about the similarity of the orange/blue contrast in movie posters (and you know this because you visit my blog all the time), but have you noticed how similar certain posters are to one another?...
FOUND & LOST
If you’ve been having Lost withdrawl because the closest thing to it - The Event - isn’t even close at all and is in fact a gigantic piece of trash, then look at what will cure your Lost-blues and is probably the coolest thing, in like, ever.
Check out these Dharma Initiative vintage print ads that I found on Flickr done by Adam Campbell. I just stumbled on this today, which is a...
IDENTITY CRISIS
I’ve been working on a few branding projects at work lately and I’ve discovered how painful the process of building a brand can be. So, this feels like next obvious step - bashing other brand’s crappy excuse of branding and identity! But I can’t hate if I don’t love, so I’ll also show some really amazing examples.
I posted an earlier entry on the abominable...
ATTACK OF THE ORANGE/BLUE GRADIENT!
Today I came across a new theatrical movie poster for a movie I’ve never heard of which is an(other) attempt from Michael Bay to stay relevant in the bad-teen-movie category:
Wow, looks pretty bad already.
So perhaps I’ve proved my first point that movies are getting shittier and shittier every year. I AM NUMBER FOUR is another example of how movies still look the same....
