Advertising: Graphic Design vs Art Direction

Advertising, is a mysterious business. In my mind at least, advertising is an industry that no longer exists – it has evolved to become the business – or rather the art of – communication.

In this mysteriously attractive industry, there are people with fancy titles. When I was an art director, my parents could not understand what it meant or what I did for a living. All I could say was that my dad was pissed at the fact that his would-have-been-engineer-son had become a hippie, a total disgrace to the family.

When I proudly presented my first ever job that was published, he was even more crossed and quite disappointedly remarked that he didn’t send his son to the best school in the country to do that kind of thing for a living.

I didn’t see my parents for about 3 years thereafter.

Nope, I didn’t leave the country, but in my rebellious heart I didn’t find a reason to visit them – even for the new year holidays.

Yes, I could be an arse, sometimes. But, that attitude helped me immensely in the business, in the years to come.

Anyhow, there is a huge misconception about the titles in this business. In many places, Graphic Designers get automatically promoted to Art Directors, sometimes by virtue of their presence in the agency, long enough.

Art Direction requires a different skill set to that of a designer. There are many who successfully acquire the above, but some fail miserably.

Here’s an example of an ad that appeared in one of the industry magazines in the Middle East, clearly done by a designer:

The same ad, if it were to be given a touch of quick “art direction” below:

Thousand Rupees, Hundred Mistakes.

I came back from my previous holiday and handed over a new thousand rupee note to one of my buddies as a souvenir. “Maan, this tourist note looks so real, it’s even got a silver strip..!” he exclaimed, while thanking me for remembering him.

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. (I had similar thoughts when I first got hold of the new note, I wasn’t sure if the note was genuine and legitimate. Besides, I was changing some dollars at a dodgy place in Welawatte.)

I told him that the note was not a ‘tourist souvenir’ but a real currency note. He honestly couldn't believe that we had such bad designs mass produced.

Currency notes are like stamps. Some people collect them, cherish them, save them and show them off occasionally. In their vast collections, these notes represent a nation and the level of intelligence of the natives. It’s like the Olympics of the currency notes and this time we have sent an imbecile to run the marathon for us.

The new note looks as if the designer had absolutely no understanding of the colour wheel, or any idea of complimentary/contrasting colours. There are floating objects all over the place, the colour combination looks like puke that comes out of an eighth grader at the Big Match. The designer has no sense of design, and he has no clue of scale or proportion. It is virtually impossible to find a human being with no imagination, how original is it to portray the raising of the flag this way? If the intention behind the design was to encourage someone sitting in a small print shop in Weeraketiya to produce counterfeits, the Central Bank has done a wonderful job.

Enough bashing the new note, Indi’s post here has done a good job of it, already.

We have produced some fabulous notes in the past – the flora and fauna collection with the salmon-pink two rupee note being one of my favourites. We have also been progressive and innovative in our design – the plastic Rs 200 note even had the denomination imprinted in Braille.

So I took this ugly note to a beauty treatment, a quick 5 minute in Photoshop – only to manipulate the colours and make something decent out of it. I added a few touches like the shadow beneath the floating soldiers and fixed the sheath of rice and the pot (pun-kalasa) inside the outline of Sri Lanka. It was very clear to me that this could have been improved a hundred times, if there were people of some intelligence taking care of the business. Easily.

Here’s glimpse of my favourite Sri Lankan currency collection from 1979:

How an entire Country gave birth to an Elephant

She is a healthy one year old female ‘celebrity.’ She was born to a Thai mother, on the 17th of May last year at 8.45, weighing 80 kilos and was on her feet after 20 minutes of her birth.



Belgium’s favourite baby elephant Kai Mook (Pearl in English) was famous from the moment the country saw the first ultra-sound scan. When her mother became pregnant, the Antwerp Zoological Gardens decided to leverage the pregnancy to drive more visitors to the zoo. So they decided to share the news with everyone, got them interested and engaged in the story, making the whole of Belgium feel as if they were involved in the pregnancy.

“So just like any proud future parent, the zoo decided to show everyone the very first ultrasound. The scan was projected onto prominent buildings, along with a URL directing people to a central website, www.baby-olifant.be. On the site, the zoo not only invited people to suggest names for the baby elephant but also kept it updated with developments during the pregnancy. Daily news was posted onto the site, along with information about the mother and baby and a calendar countdown.

“The content was spread via social media with photos on Flickr and videos on YouTube. A tool was created to allow people to create a customized Facebook profile picture that featured their face with an elephant's trunk entering the frame and the message ”I’m also waiting for baby K.”

“When the labor started, interested parties were notified by SMS and invited to watch the birth live. Never before had so many Belgians watched a live event together online. More importantly, Antwerp Zoo welcomed 300,000 more visitors (200,000 paying) in 2009 than it did in 2008.” reports AdAge MediaWorks on the success of the communication campaign.

While ‘advertising’ in Sri Lanka is pretty much confined to traditional media, the rest of the world has moved on to ‘communication.’ It’s not one-way messaging on television, newspapers and radio anymore.

‘Advertising’ has evolved into consumer engagement – two-way communication. The world has moved on from traditional advertising to brand activation, digital marketing and beyond. Now with augmented reality, one could experience true-to-life 3D holographic rendition of any product right in their own hands, at their own leisure, creating an amazing brand experience.

At the same time, on this side of the Indian Ocean, we are led by agencies that are incapable of maintaining their own online presence (for example, JWT Colombo as not updated their blog in over 7 months!), let alone providing any brand with any sort of ground-breaking digital communication solutions.

We have a long way to go, don’t we?

Advertising: Logic vs Magic

Gentlemen,

I felt like sh*t last evening, going home. I was drained, I wished I were sipping a beer somewhere on a beach. Like my home, in Sri Lanka.

Instead, I was driving along the Malek Road, depressed, and feeling dejected.

This morning, I was itching to write what I felt inside.

So I did.

Having been part of the team that worked on (X) Brand Campaign, I think I have the right to express what I felt.

For me, last night was an eye opener.

As an agency, we have reached a milestone.

We are beginning to see Science overtake Art.
We see Logic overtake Magic.
And Quantity overtake Quality.

Last night, there was no Passion evident.
Last night, we have lost Inspiration.

We have become slaves to the system.
We have become the robots of the 21st century that turn out “artwork” – not great advertising.
If I had an iota of a hope of producing something award winning at (X agency), it went down the gutter last night.

I do not know about you guys, but I am a man of integrity and pride.
Yes, pride, not price.
I take pride in what I do.
We create art. We create brands.
We are not growing potatoes.
We sell advertising. Not popcorn.

This agency needs to learn to treat itself with self-respect and dignity.
We need to learn to respect our work, and more importantly, the people behind the work.

Once we learn to respect our work and take pride in our work, we will be able to walk in to a meeting with confidence and sell some great advertising.

But that, begins here.

Learning to treat individuals with dignity and respect starts in front of the mirror.
Learning to treat their work with respect, starts within the agency.

We are not a production line. We are human.
We are humans that are running out of steam.
We are humans of integrity, we are slaves to none.

Creativity cannot be mass-produced, it needs to be inspired.

Going back, the most troubling questions that linger in my mind are:
Is it Science, or Art?
Is it Magic, or Logic?
Is it Quality, or Quantity?
Are we human, or just a production line?

The answer would define the future of the agency.

And when will we begin to believe in our work?

When will we begin to see a genuine smile on a face?

Yes, we are striving towards change: change for the better.
Yes, we are all supportive of the change.

But it should not be at the cost of a single smile. ;)

* * * *

This is a note I sent this morning, after sitting through an internal meeting that demonstrated how disjointed an advertising agency could be. Like every business, we are also aggressive and bullish, but in the process we were making two major blunders: too much marketing knowledge and theories were killing the passion in creativity, and quantity over quality was driving people insane.
And we were forgetting to appreciate the foot soldiers for their commitment and sacrifices they make in their everyday life for the betterment of the agency.

A new kid on the block

There's a (yet another) new publication in town. It's a Sinhala newspaper, called Mavubima (Mother-land) and carries a fascinating tabloid named after a machine gun.

Why, because it wants to be a weapon that shapes the future.

You could contribute your articles, views and opinions to the tabloid - but they'll be published without your name. No credit to the writer. They say, what matters is the substance and the contents of the feature - not the person who wrote the piece.

Pretty neat, pretty cool attitude, I thought.

And of course, I loved the design. In a country where graphic design and art direction is (pretty much) at its infancy, it is heart-warming to see a newspaper tabloid of such quality. I don't necessarily agree with the "new-age Sinhala language" they are using, but I love the design and the presentation. It reminds me of Loaded, and some of those weird German magazines where the new design trends are born. It reminds me of the work that I used to see from AUB and AUD graduates. Fresh, liberal and unconventional.

I hope the good work continues and the spirit never dies. I'm going to buy that paper next weekend.

Of Mascots and their Creators

Sometime back, I read some interesting comments on why Sri Lanka has no good designers (See www.nidahas.com). Lack of training and coaching facilities, no proper design schools, not getting paid well etc. were some of the reasons discussed.

This mascot of the SAF Games - the infamous Pandan Allan Kukula - is a testimony to the calibre of self-acclaimed 'designers' we have today. It is such crap and a load of shite, it makes me want to puke. I'm so shameful to be born in a country that qualifies such crap to be national symbols.

Here are my two cents to the designer. I hope you'll take it as constructive criticism and do something better next time. (That is if there IS a next time)

1. A Mascot is a mascot, not a real animal. Understand your brief first.
2. Create a mascot based on the real animal. Give him a personality, make him adorable. Bring him to life.
3. Inject the spirit of the event to the mascot - if it is sports, make him playful.
4. Give a name. Christen your child. Call him something. I still remember my Mishka (aka Misha) I got from Moscow Olympics, and this year's Football mascot is Goleo vi. His football is Pille.
5. Make sure your mascot is versatile. Remember he is going to be used commercially to generate funds.
6. Make him flexible in application. Make sure the mascot reproduces well in different mediums, processes and material etc.
7. Read, read, read. Do some research and learn what the world has done. Look at the Football World-Cup Mascot, look at Olympic mascots. Learn from them, get inspired by them, and do better than them.
8. Take ownership. Set up guidelines.
9. Offer a digital library of poses and applications. Don't let others massacre your baby.
10. Remember, simplicity is key. Don't complicate your design.

There's more, but at least try to stick to these basics - you won't go wrong.

I wouldn't blame the "designer" for this disaster, the governing body of the SAF Games Sri Lanka should have had some better brains. People, if you know that you are in the wrong job, please, please leave. Leave with dignity - don't hang around and expose your ignorance and stupidity. You are bringing shame not only unto yourself, but to the whole nation.