Re-reading Paul Arden

Paul Arden is mostly known for being an author. His 3 most famous publications, ‘Its not how good you are, its how good you want to be, ‘Whatever you think, think the opposite’ and ‘God explained in a taxi ride’, allow Arden to convey his alternative and original approach to life.

Arden is Saatchi & Saatchi’s former executive creative director and worked for the company for around 14 years. His clients included high profile businesses such as Fuji, British Airways and Toyota. In 1992 Arden left Saatchi & Saatchi but remained a consultant until 1995. He passed away 3 years later in 1998.

Whilst recently re-reading Arden’s “Its not how good you are...” I discovered the following description of the Author by former colleague Roger Kennedy:

“Sixty years or so ago, for a bit of fun, God created a prototype man with a mind straight out of Edward Lear. Concerned by what he may have produced, however, he promptly destroyed the mould and threw it away. The result of his labours was Paul Arden. Brilliant, bad, charming, irascible and totally off the wall. An original with extraordinary drive and energy, blessed with a creative genius allied to a kind of common sense that just isn’t, well, common..”

EMP: Bill Bernbach's lasting impression - VW

As previously discussed 1960's advertising revolutionary Bill Bernbach’s work moved away from the use of bold design & illustration and more towards the use of great photography and intelligent copy. The merging of copywriters and art directors is a technique created by Bernbach that still exists today as the most common structure within a design team.

Below are some examples that illustrate how Bernbachs work in the 60’s has impacted the aesthetics of modern day advertising. Its interesting to compare the execution of Bernbachs work for Volkswagen in the 1960’s to the advertising used by volkswagen today.

Here are two 1960's campaigns, one for the Volkswagen Type 2 Transporter (also known as the camper/bus) and the Volkswagen Type 1 (also known as the beetle).


And here are two more recent versions, The top advertising the new Volkswagen Polo, and the lower promoting the Volkswagen Polo ladies rally event.


All of the same principles applied to Bernbachs 1960’s Volkswagen advertising work is evident in the print based campaigns used by volkswagen today; Intelligent imagery that speaks volumes in itself supported by sharp snappy & often witty copy.

EMP: Study theme

The theme of the EMP has been chosen in order to broaden my knowledge of an area of design I hold a particular interest in; advertising. The aim is to conduct a study that would impose a positive effect on the way I approach future advertising projects. Specifically I intend to the way in which the human brain deciphers print based advertising.

The study could assist me in understanding how visual messages of a commercial nature are absorbed and understood by the consumer. The study has scope to explore the effects of content, theme, layout & scale, audience, format, medium to name but a few.

EMP: My visual bombardment poster

In reaction to this I have produced a produced a poster that comments on the mentality on globally recognised brands approach to commercial advertising.

EMP: Defining visual bombardment

Although there is no official definition for this term, within an advertising context, I feel that visual bombardment can be explained via this story from Pete Barry’s book, The advertising concept book.

Barry is asked by a student, ‘Why bother to do anything creative? Why not just keep telling consumers what the product is?’ The student continues, ‘Why not do what our local car dealer does. He has the worst TV ads in the world. He’s on all the time, a different ad each week. Everyone finds him annoying, and yet he’s made a million from it.’ Barry replies: ‘The only reason why he’s making so much money is because his ads are on all the time. He’s boring people into submission. They get brainwashed. They forget whether they even like the ad. Plus, it’s a regional ad, so the media is relatively cheap, and he wont have as much competition as a national brand. But most importantly, I guarantee he’d be even richer in the long run if he did one great ad, rather than a hundred terrible ones’.
Although there is no definition for this term, within an advertising context, I feel that visual bombardment can be explained via this story from Pete Barry’s book, The advertising concept book.

Barry is asked by a student, ‘Why bother to do anything creative? Why not just keep telling consumers what the product is?’ The student continues, ‘Why not do what our local car dealer does. He has the worst TV ads in the world. He’s on all the time, a different ad each week. Everyone finds him annoying, and yet he’s made a million from it.’ Barry replies: ‘The only reason why he’s making so much money is because his ads are on all the time. He’s boring people into submission. They get brainwashed. They forget whether they even like the ad. Plus, it’s a regional ad, so the media is relatively cheap, and he wont have as much competition as a national brand. But most importantly, I guarantee he’d be even richer in the long run if he did one great ad, rather than a hundred terrible ones’.

EMP: Inspiration: Bill Bernbach

Born 1911, New York, Bill Berbach became one of the key figures in the american advertising industry. As a founder of New York based agency Doyle Dane Bernbach he lead the creative revolution of the 60's that birthed a term coined by author Pete Barry as 'Concept Advertising.

After a century of death and destruction the 1960s in America was an era apt to embrace change. The election of the countries youngest president, along with beatle mania and the rise in wealth of the average suburban dweller pathed the way for an advertising revolution. Lead by Bernbach. The revolution saw Bernbach move from adverts usually home to bold design with supporting illustrations, progress towards modern design, with eye catching photoraphy and illtellgent & whitty copy.


The work produced under Bill Bernbach was done by working to no boundaries, rules or limitations. He is credited as saying, 'We must develop our own philosophy and not have the advertising phiosophy of others imposed on us. Let us blaze new trailes. Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, good writing can be good selling.'

He noticed that organisations would spend millions developing a point of differnce for their product, only to then use run of the mill advertising techniques to show consumers how different and great their product was. He states the words to these campaigns would often read something like, 'Look how differnt I am' whilst their advertising screamed, 'Pay no attention to me, I'm really one of the boys'.

Bernbach is also acredited as being the first to encourage colaboration between copywriters and art directors. Two job roles that had before worked as two seperate enteties. A structure that still exists today. He also featured in apples famous Think Differnt campaign.

Famous works under Bernbach include "We Try Harder" (Avis Car Rental),"You Don't Have to be Jewish to Love Levy's" (Levy's Rye Bread), "It's so simple" (Polaroid) as well as extensive work for car manufacturer Volkswagen.

Boundaries Workshop: The constant need to impress.

On January 15th 2009, at 11am, Saatchi&Saatchi staged a 'flash mob' style event in one of Britons busiest rail stations for telecommunications firm T-mobile. The event forms part of their 'lifes for sharing campaign' and was choreographed by Ashley Wallen, one of the countries most recognized choreographers. The piece features 350 people dancing in unison at Liverpool street station to a medley of pop hits being amplified over the stations announcement system. The event left surrounding commuters baffled at what they had whitnessed. The video can be seen here. It was screened first on Channel 4 on 19th May 2008 and lasted over 3 minutes.

Similar to this amazing feat was Hondas slightly more impressive 'Difficult is worth doing' campaign. Honda staged and aired a 3 minute television ad live on Channel 4 during a commercial break.The advert features 19 skydivers descend from 20,000 feet from an aircraft and forming each letter of the word Honda. The stunt was shown on Channel 4 at 8.10pm on 29th May 2008 and was a completely unique form of advertising. The happenings were transmitted live from Madrid, spain and was recorded using cameras fixed to the aircraft, as well as the skydivers, some of who had to travel faster(over 300 mph) than the divers in the formation in order to capture the event. Marketing communications manager of Honda, Harry Cooklin, describes the piece:

"The campaign has been difficult but it was definitely worth doing. We are always looking to move boundaries when it comes to our advertising, and so being involved in the UK's first truly live TV ad is perfect for us."

Here we have two similar examples of how the audience have pushed designer & directors to find new ways in which to effectively make a product or service appealing. No longer does something appeal to a consumer simply based upon what it is, or its physically. The consumer is now demanding a brand that does something for them, it must give them a memorable experience to engage with.

Boundaries Workshop: The evolving consumer - QR Codes

QR codes are those intricate little black and white squares we see now and again, that we are semi-consciously aware of, but never exploit. The Japanese have used them since 2006, and they were surfacing in the UK not long after, however, they've never been entirely mainstream until recently.

Pepsi Have introduced their "Get a kick" campaign, which facilitates the use of a QR code on the side of their can. In a few simple clicks users can snap an image of the icon using their mobile phone, then, use an application that deciphers the data stored within the code which links the user directly to the brands online content. The benefit being the user no longer has to input a web address using fiddly little buttons, simply capturing an image and 1 or 2 taps later they've been hooked.

What does this new technology say about consumers as an audience? It is surly justifiable to assume that consumers are becoming increasingly more aware of technological advancements. And further more, QR codes show that consumers are now developing the skills & confidence to use electronic devices to take advantages of new ways of accessing information & advertising. During the nineteens it was standard procedure for companies like Pepsi to buy into expensive high-profile celebrity endorsement of their products. Now it seems designers are reacting to the fact the consumer is becoming immune to this method and techniques such as QR codes are being birthed.

Boundaries Workshop: The forefront of Advertising - Fallon's hype.

Whilst still exploring the boundaries of graphic design & the work at the forefront of the profession one of the initial questions posed was; What makes graphic design "cutting-edge'. It can be argued that successful graphic design that is both current and cutting edge must be universal. How can something be defined as cutting edge if its not understood by many? A perfect example of a piece of advertising that could have been considered cutting edge is Fallons' Gorilla for Cadbury's. Not only was the ad a phenomenon, it was responsible for a 7% revenue growth for Cadbury's, shortly after a time when their products were being scrutinized for a salmonella scare, it has also received over 10,000,000 youtube views.

Fallon's work can not only be arguably at the forefront of the industry for its popularity and successful track record, but more so for its online following. According to December 2008's issue of Creative Review two of its most recognized projects, the Sony Bravia balls and Play-doh were both being circulated on the internet before reaching the press and television. They became the talking point for internet users on forums across the web gathering hype and creating debate before they had even been aired. Therefor can the award winning work by Fallon be arguably at the Boundary of graphic design?

Smart parking

City center parking can be an issue no matter how large your vehicle can be. Smart decided to push the fact their vehicles can squeeze into the smallest spaces. Jung von Matt were approached to help communicate this characteristic to the public. Their final design solution was an over sized tear off pad each page containing a printed parking space that was perfectly sized for a smart car. Jung von Matt's work for smart shows how a concept can work on various levels, from communicating a USP point to providing a talking point and creating user intrigue.

Cambells: Hunger

Striking installation from Canadian agency Lee Burnett. 4,820 cans of Campbell’s Soup were stacked to create a supermarket installation that spells out the word 'Hunger'. The campaign was created to encourage shoppers to buy a can of Cambells soup and donate it to a local food bank. Over time the amount of cans in the stack reduced enabling customers to see how their own efforts can help tackle the issue of global hunger. Another strong example of a concept and environment collaborating to create impact.

Time for a holiday?

Fine example of consideration of environment. Serviceplan were asked by Munich based travel company Giller to create a regional campaign that created a holiday feeling for potential customers. The campaign was produced during one of Munich worst winters. The campaign makes inspirational use of the surroundings/scenario to channel Giller's message to customers.

WWF: Save trees

Genius outdoor/ambient piece for WWF from creative advertising agency FBC, based in Shanghai. A completely simple yet perfect design solution that raised a smile.

Peugeot: Boxer Van

Outdoor advertising piece by Danish agency of the year, Scandinavian based Uncle. Great use of the large outdoor format and environment as well as the orientation of the design. By reversing the piece and directing it at the construction site passers by are offered an understanding of the traits of the Boxer van.

Sony: London by Walkman

A great effort by Sony to coax all those commuters who don't own the market leading MP3 player, the iPod, to open their eyes to Sony's offering; the Walkman range. Saatchi&Saatchi used walkman earphones and mapped the underground networks of London, Sydney and New York. Its a simply concept but highly universal & impacting.

You know you're not the first

Sharp work from BBDO athens. A cover for BMW's Premium Selection used cars. The concept focuses on a first person sex based scenario headshot an attractive female with the corresponding tag line "You know you're not the first". Works of many levels and refreshing to see a balance between a brave concept and high calibre execution. BBDO athens website opens with the quote; "When advertising does its job, millions of people keep theirs".

Adobe CS4: As real as it gets

A great piece of print based advertising to promote the release of Adobe Creative Suite CS4 From Bates 141. Anyone who has experienced photoshop will find this piece refreshing. The simple concept of bringing the digital interface as we know it to life intelligently communicates Bates 141 proposition from Adobe, "Photoshop in 'real life'". Bates 141 pride themselves in being from 'The Asias'. Shots of the production process can be found here.

Audi: Quattro technology

A campaign for Audi by BartleBogleHegarty design to put to sleep confusion about Audi's use of the term Quattro. Many car enthusiasts see the word Quattro and associate this with the famous 80's Audi Quattro rally car (below), not Audi's intelligent automotive grip system. BBH cleverly link Audi's 'intelligent grip system, with the human intelligence that controls the way humans grip things. Great comparison and striking imagery.

Levi's - Originals never fit

Fresh approach from Bartle Bogle Hegarty, using human reaction to illustrate the idealistic responses received by the typical levi wearing free thinker. Fantasticly intelegent yet simple concept, always raises a smile.

Play-Doh, Sony Bravia

After two great ads supporting Sony's Bravia range Sony have called upon the services of London video based advertising company fallon and leading british animation company passion pictures. The video uses the classic stop motion technique to show the colorful journey of a ball of play-doh across San Fransisco. Over 40 animators were responsible for 189x2ft rabbits, 150x1ft cubes, a 30ft giant rabbit and a 10ft x 20ft purple wave – all made from 2.5 tonnes of plasticine. Never before have so many animators worked together on the same scene. The video, and the amazing website can be found here