Advark Magazine #001 by Advark Magazine

ADVARK

#001 lettering vs calligraphy // featured photographer // them trendy yanks // bowie is back // featured illustrator // the rap quotes // smell-o-vision

WE MADE IT! YEP, WE DID IT. BUT WE COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU. SO FOR THAT WE SAY, THANK YOU!

With special thanks:

Dan Lewis from PHP Genie. Giuseppe & Martina from Lettering vs Calligraphy. Lina and Dina Sami from Seven Minutes. David Reeves. Alex Jenkins. Victoria Jones. Emily Lewis. Nora Redler. Ailis Mullins. Tom Hill. Laura Haigh. Christine Webber from Bright Ideas.

get in touch Advark is a magazine written by Newport students for students. We love advertising, design, typography, branding, illustration and photography. Founded by Becci Salmon (@18salmon) & Joe O’Flynn (@JJOFL) to help students voice their opinions and showcase their brilliant work.

We love hearing from you so why not talk to us? We’re always looking for student contributors, especially photographers, illustrators & copywriters. @AdvarkMagazine /AdvarkMagazine contact.advark@gmail.com Please email about advertising enquieries.

table of

contents

3 4 9 10 11 5 7 8 8

Featured Photography David Reeves Featured Illustration Seven Minutes Illustration Featured Studio: PHP Genie The JWT India Scandal A Calligrapher’s Opinion Smell-o-Vision DDB vs

6 7 10 13 17 18

The Rap Quotes by Jay Shells Lettering vs Calligraphy Them Trendy Yanks Mad Men Returns Bowie Is Back The Changing Faces of Bowie

15 13 16 16

Searchy Wordy Recommended Read Events & Competitions Neil’s Corner

This issue has been kindly sponsored by PHP Genie // Cover photograph by our featured photographer, David Reeves.

Man From Another Time

DAVID REEVES FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

Pulled Apart

Our featured photographer for this issue is student of The University of Wales, David Reeves. He is currently in his second year of studying BA (Hons) Photography for Fashion and Advertising and we think he’s damn good, don’t you? We asked David for a little insight in to each of his photographs that we chose. ‘Man From Another Time’ is part of an ongoing project where David looks at interesting individuals who seem as though they are a lifetime apart from most: “I love capturing their personalities as they are what makes my time spent as a photographer captivating”. We love the man in the image, he looks as though he’s got a good couple of stories to tell.

The image you see on the bottom left (and cover of this issue) was created as a homage to British car manufacturers, Jaguar. “It’s an old car photographed in a modern way to emphasise the beauty of the past. It’s also somewhat of a remark on the vulgarity of most modern cars we see today.” ‘Pulled Apart’ is an image which is part of a series which focuses on Momento Mori. It depicts the fragile state in which most of us live our lives with worry, or thoughts of the future and past. “This image serves as a reminder that we all live short lives and we must remember that we are mortal to be able to live life to the fullest”. What does the future hold for David? Well, he is planning a project for this summer where he will travel

around the UK, photographing landscapes and interesting people he meets along the way. He’s also currently working on capturing images in which strange sentiments can be found within the familiar. He will be showing scenarios that we all encounter every day, but highlighting any unsettling qualities. We look forward to seeing the results! Advark is always looking for student photographers to feature in future issues. If you would like to see your work published then get in touch. Send us examples of your work to contact.advark@gmail.com. We are extremely friendly and need your work more than you might think!

contact David Reeves www.davidreevesportfolio.blogspot.com david.reeves.photography@live.co.uk

THE

JWT INDIA

SCANDAL WRITTEN BY AILIS MULLINS

Wise men say the key to creating a great advert is risk-taking. But for JWT India’s team behind the Ford Figo, that risk backfired. Often when theorizing a campaign, creative teams will transform a mundane brief like creating a print ad that highlights a spacious boot,

into a visually interesting campaign. But when JWT India released three consecutive print adverts depicting cartoon men and women bound and gagged in the boot of a car, it caused major controversy worldwide. Said to be the worst of the three, one poster depicted the former Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, with three of the alleged women who caused him to resign. The other two were considered a lot tamer. One shows a grinning Paris Hilton kidnapping her rivals, the Kardashian sisters; the Kardashians have since released a statement stating that they intend to sue Ford for the release of this advert. The final ad depicts the Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher kidnapping his 3 rivals. As a result of the adverts being leaked, which were dubbed extremely sexually offensive, JWT

were quick to “release” the team behind the campaign from their positions. Ten creatives including the Chief Creative Director, Bobby Pawar, were said to have been fired. The adverts were never actually intended for the Ford campaign but were uploaded by the creatives of JWT to ‘Ads of the World’, and quickly went viral through social media. The sexist controversy comes at a particularly difficult time as India struggles with several incidents of violence against women. The well renowned ad agency has been rocked by this recent campaign, and undoubtedly lost a huge client by a misguided action from the junior creatives. Would the same amount of uproar be created if these images were released by a smaller agency, or even student work? Does being higher in the advertising world mean you fall further?

THE RAP QUOTES

by jay shells

Do you like the ‘Rap’ music? So do we! We think it’s very enjoyable actually, and so does this guy... Jay Shells. Mr Shells is from The Big Apple, and he had an amazing, quite literal idea. It involved taking lyrics from the songs of such rappers as: Jay z, CL Smooth, Tragedy Khadafi, Kanye West and Psycho Les. He took quotes from songs that included streets and other area’s names around New York, and put them on signs in those places. Jay’s efforts are interesting because it shows the various locations in a new light and grants passers by with an insight to what they once meant, or do still mean to the artists. Here you can see some of his work. It’s such a great, yet simple idea and we believe it challenges anyone with creative bones to think with such simplicity, but pull something off as innovative as Jay did.

- Advark Magazine

There has always been a very fine line between lettering and A project by Martina Flor & Giuseppe Salerno seeks to explore and challenge the differences between the two disciplines.

calligraphy.

Martina & Giuseppe have just started their second season of ‘Lettering vs Calligraphy’, a project where they are both challenged to draw / write daily. The moderator, often typerelated professionals or calligraphy artists, will give the two a description such as ‘a deconstructed V’ (see right). Once both letterer and calligrapher have completed their challenge, their work is posted online (www.letteringvscalligraphy.

com).Visitors to the site are invited to vote which of the letters is the best. So what’s the big difference between lettering and calligraphy? Lettering is generally seen as the craft of drawing letters whereas calligraphy is seen as the art of writing. Calligraphy relies on a pen or a brush to create letters which suffer from variation if replicated. On the other hand, lettering involves creating a unique typographic image.

A Calligrapher’s Opinion written by ailis mullins

For self-taught calligrapher Shaun, in his mid-50’s, Calligraphy started as a hobby, something he found visually exciting. The combination of reading music sheets and a short lesson in school sparked an interest that he later revived. “I started by practicing letters, and I ended up getting a professional calligraphy set for Christmas”. He began designing invitations for friends and family as his skills began to develop, “I’m a traditionalist, I don’t find modern design as Twitter Opinions @Curly_Katie: I like a mixture of them.The V is the hardest to read on both sides @Sydthehippy: I can’t choose!!

interesting. Even the more modern calligraphy I find less impressive.” “I learnt from books, we didn’t have computer fonts like you have now, everything was hand made, I couldn’t Google a ‘how to’ video either, I used to sit in my local abbey and try and replicate some of the work the monks used to do.” Shaun’s main argument for calligraphy being considerably better than lettering is the sheer skill required and the lack of guidelines with calligraphy. @_Sampagne: With these examples calligraphy, feels like you can express, experiment and explore more with what you’re trying to achieve

written by TOM HILL

It’s Wednesday night and ‘One Born Every Minute’ is on my TV again and I don’t really know why. I am sat watching countless women plopping babies out whilst family members, midwives and channel 4 camera crews look on in awe. There are birthing pools, injections and special chairs; it’s all great fun. I’m sat with my bag of sweets watching a midwife remove a placenta from a new mother’s vagina. “So that’s where all my food’s gone – to that placenta?” she asks. Personally I would like to know what a placenta smells like? Does it smell of pear drops or gone-off eggs? I have heard from a trainee midwife it smells really quite awful. Some people eat placenta. For the rest of the program I couldn’t help but imagine what every part of the birthing process smelt like. I assume talcum

powder, gas and air? Luckily smell-o-vision is currently in development. The “Smelling Screen” invented by Haruka Matsukura at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in Japan and colleagues, makes smells appear to come from the exact spot on any LCD screen that is displaying the image of a freshly delivered placenta covered in blood and fluid, for example. The big question about this technology is whom will it benefit the most? Advertisers or TV/ Film producers? I imagine that TV programs and films would probably smell a bit like your own home, maybe with a bit of Paul Hollywood’s aftershave splashed around or smoke and scotch if you watch anything set in the sixties, seventies or eighties

with added plastic. If you watch anything set in the very far past you will probably be able to smell the pillaging and burning bodies. Nice. On the other hand commercials will effectively be spray fests with children spraying toilet ducks in your face so you can judge how effectively it masks their turds and dickheads spraying deodorant smelling of wood bark and leather straight into your pupils to prove how many women they can attract in 23 seconds (or how fast they can propel themselves into space). If used correctly the latest famous butter advert might just turn out to be a glorious assault on the senses. Tasty images accompanied by tasty scents. The only people who will truly benefit from this invention are fans of the unstoppable force of baking that is Mary Berry CBE. Her programs would smell delightful. A mixture of fresh baking & lavender hand cream.

DDB vs WRITTEN BY laura haigh

and while fast forwarded. The viewers see the car roof retracting slowly, while being invited to VW’s ‘Open Door Days.’

Disney movies don’t make sense when fast forwarded from beginning to end, but it turns out the new VW ad does... The guys at DDB Brussels are the new superheros of time travel, defeating televisions current enemy – the fast forward button. The DDB dubbed ‘Slomercial’ is a semi-static TV commercial which works both live

Those who are happy to blitz through the ads will see the car for a couple of seconds, and see the message as if it was a print ad. All nice ‘n’ legible.

as to whether speedy advertising will become trend worthy. One thing is for sure, whatever the future of advertising is, DDB Brussels have a trump card with this bad boy. Especially when the world seems to be keeping things short, with a 140-character limit for tweets, and the average text message at 160-character limit.

At normal speed, viewers will hear the spoken message and see the roof fully retract, ironically, in slow motion. So whether you are a 3 second, or a 30 second kind of person,VW will have your undivided attention.

DDB claim that their new ad will have 50% more impact than a usual TV commercial, through its reach of the delayed viewing public.

With advertising moving from message to experience, it is debatable

On a final note, let’s keep lexical abbreviation at bay. We all got over that horrible ‘SMS English’. There’s no need for it, kk.

THEm trendy yanks Supreme, Obey, Only NY. You gotta fuck one, marry one, kill one. Go! I can answer this; and so can a lot of my friends. Actually, I’m sure a lot of you could too. Does that make me/ us cool? Probably not. The three in question are in fact what are typically classed as ‘street/ skate’ clothing brands. If you don’t know this, perhaps if someone dangles a cheeseburger at the mouth of your cave you’ll come out and see what you think of them? I guess what I’m trying to say is that I see them at the fore front of what’s very ‘cool’ to todays British youth. Pre-teens to those in their early 20’s are unstoppably wearing the various snapbacks, beanies and T’s that MTV tells them too. Hell, I’m sitting here typing this while donning a grey beanie made by a small time brand based in Cardiff named ‘Square’. Check ‘em out, they’re on the ball. These brands and similar ones such as The Hundred’s, Huf, Hype, Mishka and Crooks & Castles, are proving to be every British teenagers pocketmoney spinner, which for them, can’t be a bad position to be in.

So why are they such a success these days? We have the answer. Advark have deduced a formula for success when your audience is the British youth. Wanna hear it? Look American. It seems that no matter where you’re from, if you want to make some money with a clothing company of any size; it just needs to look American. Each of the mentioned brands in this article have similar characteristics, as well as similar consumers and a definite similar attitude behind them. The fact that the three brands featured in the charming question at the top are so desirable, I believe, is because of a passing trend. This is not to say that people are only starting to wear Yankee street/skate stuff now; oh balls no! People over here of all ages have been sporting the likes of Duffs, Etnies, DC, Element, Enjoi and ye olde favourite Vans, for donkey’s. The beginning of this never-ending love was when Californian skate rats became a

‘market’ in the mid 80’s. Everyone thought their attire was so damn cool, and they always will. There are now TONNES of brands about that fit into the street/skate criteria and even more TONNES of people who are happy to buy and wear them. The fact that this particular fashion has found it’s way onto the Facebook pages of Britain’s coolest kids is, as I was saying, due to a trend. Atop the uncontrollable wave that is high street fashion, the look of American street/skate brands has washed up into shops such as Topman/Topshop, River Island and H&M and subsequently been bought in bulk.Yet what has given the original brands dollar signs for eyeballs is the insatiable need for consumers to go for what’s apparently ‘real’ or ‘authentic’. And with the aid of social media, these brands can benefit hugely as all it takes is one cool kid to inspire his/ her entire list of friends or followers to go out and buy some cool shit with their parents’ money. We’d like to remind everyone that as long as you’re happy and you think what you’re wearing is cool. Everything’s gravy, baby. But seriously, if you want to make money, get a small screen printer, a bunch of blank t-shirts and watch a shit-load of American TV.

seven minutes illustration Ok so my name is Dina Sami, I am one half of Seven Minutes the freelance creative duo! Lina and I are twins born 7 minutes apart, hence the name. Half Palestinian, half American. We are under 30 years old, and over 25 years old. We are free birds, freelancing away with clients ranging from hotels to clinics to jewelry brands and anything we can get creative with!

I am the illustrator between the two of us. Based in Dubai but our designs and my illustrations know no borders. Having lived between New York and Dubai, a short little stay in London, trips to any and every country, my illustrations have a world of their own! I love my pen, and my pen loves me too! I finish sketchbooks off monthly and own a massive collection of pens. Life is always good when I see my lines on paper.

Advark is always looking for illustrators to feature in future issues. If you would like to see your work published then get in touch. Send us examples of your work to contact. advark@gmail.com.

contact Dina & Lina Sami iamsevenminutes.viewbook.com sevenminutes@gmail.com facebook.com/wearesevenminutes

Every issue we strive to give you access to some of the best design studios around. In our debut issue we are featuring the wonderful PHP Genie.

Lately, us at Advark have become friendly with some great people, and we owe more than we could possibly express to them for their help in getting us off the ground. These are the charming people at PHP Genie. In particular, Dan Lewis, the co-founder and Director of Accounts at the company. PHP Genie is a very successful web development agency based in the Langstone Business Village, right here in the centre of the universe, Newport! The agency (now worth half a million) was hatched in the hands of the previously mentioned, Daniel Lewis and his creative partner, Andy Cargill. Both gentlemen are graduates of our very own, The University of South Wales (formerly The University of Wales, Newport).

Their clients include: Brightpearl, International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO), NUS, The Welsh Assembly, FRS London, The Colour Centre and many more. In fact, their account with IBO involvles them travelling to the Netherlands! Every three months they visit the company in the city of Den Haag to consult and plan with the client, IBO. To tackle the work involved with such success, PHP Genie now has a dedicated workforce consisting of: David Jones (Senior Developer), James Pudney (Senior Developer), Stephen Lewis (Web Designer), Sophie Lewis (QA Manager) and Tracey Pickering (Financial Controller). In our meeting with Daniel, he revealed to us his next big move. PHP Genie have developed a

second company, Blurrt, centered around mass sentiment analysis software using Twitter. He says: “It pulls millions of tweets every day, and looks at what people are talking about. It then deciphers what’s good, what’s bad and figures out the jist of mass data. “We had a message from Admiral saying they want to talk to us. Panasonic too, actually! I went into a meeting with the director of Panasonic the other day. It’s crazy! But yeah; it’s a massive, multi-pound business. What we have now is pretty much half a million, but we’re looking to get that up to one million by the end of the year.” Things are seriously looking up for Dan, Andy and their trusty crew. We’ll keep you posted!

Do you want to work for PHP Genie for 25,000 -£30,000 gbp PA? Do you want to work for PHP Genie on a salary of 25,000-30,000 PA? Well then your’re in luck! They are looking for a WEB DEVELOPER who is familiar with PHP and some front end languages, to join them in their Newport office. The perfect applicant would have experience with FuelPHP and Git. They'd like you to have - An understanding of modern front-end desktop and mobile development, using HTML5 and CSS 3. - A good knowledge of PHP, with experience writing your own classes and functions. - Knowledge of MySQL. - Knowledge of JavaScript and jQuery plugins. - An appreciation of the user experience and how programming revolves around the user, not the programmer.

You’d be perfect if you have - Linux server experience - An understanding of security threats and implications of what you write. - Experience with PHP frameworks such as FuelPHP or CodeIgniter. - Other languages that are used in web development, such as Ruby, Python, Django. - Experience with Magento, Shopify and Twitter API. - User experience and user interface design experience. - Some knowledge of Photoshop and artworking. The perks - New iMac and Software - 20 days holiday - Attend conferences & hackathons - Staff socials - Quarterly incentives Interested? Salary is based on experience and skills. To apply, send a cover email and CV to wish@phpgenie.co.uk.

REturns Mad Men is finally back! The sixth series returned on the 10th of May with a two hour premiere on Sky Atlantic. The New York Times seems to think that this season will be more focused on Mad Women. In past series’ we have seen Peggy (Elizabeth Moss) and Joan (Christina Hendricks) push the boundaries of 1960’s female expectance. Are we set to see even more powerful women in series six? AMC released a promotional poster during mid-March (see right) which was created by British 60’s ad-veteran, Brian Sanders. The show’s creator, Matthew Wiener, wanted the promo poster to have the same look and feel as TWA flight menus he had seen as a child. When AMC’s marketing team failed to pull it off; Weiner told the New York Times “They just looked up the person who had done all these drawings that I really loved, and they said: Hey, we’ve got the guy who did them. And he’s still working. His name is Brian Sanders.”

recomMended read

Sanders used the same acrylic technique that he used 50 years ago, often referred to as ‘bubble and streak’. This was to help the audience contextualise with the art direction of the period. Every issue we release has a ‘Recommended Read’. Our first: ‘Mad Women’ by Jane Maas, who could be considered a real-life ‘Peggy Olsen’. She was a female pioneer during the advertising revolution on Madison Ave in the ‘60s. This lady’s a vet. Maas was a young lady in New York when she began her career as a copywriter in Ogilvy & Mather in the ‘60s. She soon became Creative Director before going on to other top creative positions at agencies including Wells Rich Greene, where she worked on the famous “I Love New York” campaign.

For the feminists amongst you, parts of this book might make your toes curl, but that’s just what the industry was like back then. In the book, Maas talks about her first meeting on the American Express account. At first the client thought she was a secretary, so pulled out a chair and offered her some writing paper. We think this book is perfect for advertising students, as it gives a great insight in to what the industry was like during the most important time in advertising history. A true case of ‘The good ol’ days’. Have a read!

we give it:

searchy wordy This is our very own, home made Searchy Wordy. The words you have to find can be spelt forwards, backwards, downwards, upside-downwards, diagonally and backwards-diagonally. Just to keep it simple...

S V S L E S S U R B D C A D B R

A E U S M A T N E C A L P N D E

X B V T R Z Q C X P G Q F O Z E

R W V E Y Y H P A R G O P Y T V

I Q G A N E S D L A D V A R K E

C H N I F M Z R S E R K A N P S

H K B G E N I E E D Q D L N C M

S D A A F D I N D D F U H E D K

FIND 'EM HUF DDB OBEY MAAS INDIA GENIE YANKS

BOWIE REEVES SHELLS ADOBE VANDA ADVARK BRUSSELS

SANDERS MADMEN PLACENTA CALLIGRAPHY TYPOGRAPHY SEVENMINUTES

F G E S N I H J U K N L M M U A

T E F E E A D E Y T O A Y D S P

I K G L M D M C E D E T S A L O

G I F K D L C C B Y N S J M L N

I N J Z K B E B O D A H I X E S

H D G Y W B T Y W Q D P Z J H A

J I Y H P A R G I L L A C B S A

Z A X A V U Z S E R O Z A W V M

WIN STUFF This isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t any ordinary wordsearch. Oh sugar, no! The first person to tweet us a picture of their completed Searchy Wordy from 12pm on 26th April, will win a beautiful selection of goodies, no lie. So get Wordy Searching, Searchy Wordies!

ycn dolce gusto

adobe design achievement awards

Client: Nescafe Dulce Gusto Brief: Create an inspiring visual concept for Nescafe Dulce Gusto. With a chance to win £3,000 and to develop your concept with YCN studio this summer! Deadline: 2nd May 2013

Brief: Adobe want to honor the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, game developers and computer artists. If you’ve completed any projects recently using the Adobe Creative Suite that you’re rather proud of, why not submit! There’s a chance to win up to $5,000 (£3,260 odd) cash and Adobe software!

More Info: ycn.org/kickstart Entry Fee: Free

Deadline: 21st June 2013 More Info: adobeawards.com Entry Fee: Free

COMPET I T E V E N T SI O NS

Typographic Circle JWT Building, London 25 April 2013 - 7:00pm

Pick Me Up

If you’re in to typography and haven’t been to a Typographic Circle event we seriously urge you to go. Hosted in the JWT London offices in shiny Knightsbridge, atendees will be treated to ‘An Identity’ talk by Jonathan Ellery; an artist and founder of acclaimed British design studio Browns. Be quick, non-member tickets are on sale now. @typocircle

kill e r s pace ba r switch to hand tool

Somerset House, London 8-28 April 2013 Pick Me Up is the UK’s original Graphic Design Festival. Now in it’s fourth year, you’ll be sure to find some of the most exciting contemporary graphic art, design and illustration. Award-winning animation studio Aardman will be there, hosting a model-making workshop. Tickets on sale now. @pickmeuplondon

s hortcu ts C o mma nd + Shift + E merge visible layers

D swap foreground / background colour to black / white

neil ’ s corner

bowie

is back

The V&A has opened a stunning new exhibition showcasing the extraordinary career of one of Britain’s most talented and influential visionaries; David Bowie. The exhibition, ‘David Bowie Is...’ explores the man’s creative footsteps left throughout the past 50 years of music, photography, fashion, art and film making. The V&A’s theatre and performance curators,Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh, have chosen over 300 objects to provide an insight into Bowie’s creative processes. Including hand written lyrics, authentic costumes, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set designs, album artwork and personal musical instruments. The exhibition will share with the public a huge range of Bowie’s personal and shared work with artists and designers in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theatre, art and film. Objects within the exhibit include Ziggy Stardust bodysuits (1972) designed by Freddie Burretti, photography by Brian Duffy, album sleeve artwork by Guy Peellaert and Edward Bell, visual excerpts from films and live performances including The Man Who Fell to Earth, music videos such as Boys Keep Swinging and set designs created for the Diamond Dogs tour (1974). Alongside these will be more personal items such as never-beforeseen storyboards, handwritten set lists and lyrics as well as some of Bowie’s own sketches, musical scores and diary entries, revealing the evolution of his creative ideas.

David Bowie Is... Exhibition V&A Museum 23 March - 11 August

THE CHANGING FACES OF BOWIE All this Bowie-mania has spawned from the release of his latest album ‘The Next Day’, which marks his 5th decade as a successful recording artist. A Sonjay Prabhakar remix of the song ‘Sound and Vision’ has also used in the new, beautifully 1been colourful, Sony Xperia TV ad. To commemorate his return, 101 designers collaborated to create a

typographic print for the exhibition in the V&A. The project was commissioned by designer Mark ‘Blam’ Blamire. He approached the designers and asked them to create a typographic representation of Bowie and his ever changing nature. The contributions from the designers were put together

to form a rainbow holographic print which will be sold in the V&A (We want one...). See below for a closer look at some of the designs featured on the print. Did you know? Bowie has a lot of relevance to advertising folk as his first job at the age of 16 was at a small advertising agency in London.

3 1.

Harry Heptonstall Inspired by Bowie’s role in the film Labyrinth.

David Jones A recreation of the Bowie graphic he had painted on his school bag in 1973.

Gareth Wild Inspired by Bowie’s endeavour for a garage sound where he asked his musicians to swap instruments, represented by rearranging type.

James Nelson Interpreted as a totem representing a timeless reminder of Bowie’s legend.

ADVARK