DesignYak

Ressesio – Recession is planned

I took this picture this weekend, 'Ressesio is planned.' The person responsible was obviously so angry they made a hash of the spelling. 

Scissors beats paper

I've never seen this before, it's quite clever. Via Flickr

The world map of stereotypes and ignorance

I've been working on this illustration called 'The world map of stereotypes and ignorance'. Thought I'd share it with you, there's a larger version on my website...

Banksy vs Bristol Museum

I finally visited the Banksy exhibition on Thursday at a private viewing organised by Bristol Media. And wow, what an exhibition. I think it fully justifies the unbelievable queues I've seen over the past few months (I'm glad I didn't have to queue though). The exhibition was full of wit and was really entertaining. It was good to walk through the whole museum to spot small adjustments Banksy had made the usual exhibits as well as the pieces he had created.

Firstly, an apology as some of these pics are a bit blurry, I was forced to take my girlfriend's camera as I couldn't find mine, but you'll get the idea. On entrance to the museum you were greeted by this ice cream van.

Some of the best pieces were based around food, these chicken nuggets were amazing, as well as the Tesco's haddock swimming round the goldfish bowl (still can't figure out how it was swimming) and the hot dogs. 

A few pieces concentrated on celebrity and vanity culture.

Banksy is a master of taking an idea and getting the message across in an instant.

Glad to see the environment feature in the show

Detail of a large painting of a monkey filled Houses of Commons.

The show is finishing 31st August, so not long left. I highly recommend getting down there if you haven't already, it's really worth it. 

Crash Gordon

Working on a newspaper, you can imagine not all the pics we produce end up in the paper, this image of Gordon Brown is from about a year ago, it never made the cut but considering recent events I thought it should see the light of day, it's not looking good for poor old Gordon... if anyone’s got a suitable headline give us a shout

Don’t turn it off!

 

Another entertaining and considered article today by Charlie Brooker (you can read the whole thing here), really enjoy his column in the Guardian. His most recent musings were on the BNP’s latest political broadcast; unfortunately (I think) I missed the production but thought it was worth a viewing considering Brooker’s assessment. And the fact that he described designers as having a “thoughtful and inquisitive nature”. 

He described the graphics that accompanied the BNP’s ad as “gaudy and cheap, like a bad pizza menu”, a perfect description I think. The production value is terrible, and like Brooker says, if the BNP were the greatest British party, they’d have the greatest designers working with them, but they don’t.

The whole thing is pretty awful, from the scripts and sound quality to the colour combinations and graphics… god knows what the little blue men represent! It’s pretty shoddy, summed up by the opening line by Nick Griffin… please, please, please “don’t turn it off”. If racism and bigotry isn’t enough to make most people turn off, I don’t know what is. See what you think.

What goes around comes around - Anti-war posters

Big Ant International have created these anti-Iraq war posters, entitled What goes around comes around. The posters were designed to wrap around poles and pillars. I guess they're saying that because America lead the invasion of Iraq, they can expect further attacks on American soil. I think the image of a soldier shooting himself or throwing a grenade at himself is quite powerful, and should raise some passionate debate. 

Maybe these posters are a bit late though, think they would have had more impact if they had been released during the build up to the war. The statement 'stop the Iraq war' is a bit redundant as it's a bit late. However, clever way of getting the message across.  

Click here to see some more examples. 

The end of New Labour?

Is it the end of New Labour? Last week's budget would suggest so. Has the red rose of Labour turned brown? Or is the whole political system we have wrong? I like getting political here at DesignYak, especially if it means adjusting logos.

Financial Times rabbit

Ad that featured in yesterday's Financial Times about the upcoming budget, with creative from DDB London. Can he perform a miracle? 

Boris wants your views

If you caught Dispatches last night, you would have seen a pretty damning review of Boris Johnson’s first year as mayor of London, I’m sure you can catch it again on 4 on Demand; to say it was biased would be a fair assumption.

I missed Boris’s campaign branding a year ago, but last week I received a feedback questionnaire in the post and spotted these silhouettes of him in four different poses. I don’t think they’re that bad… I know the ipod inspired illustrations are pretty over done but they do manage to capture the elements of his character that we’re more familiar with, from left to right, confident Boris, cycling Boris, walking Boris, puzzled Boris.

They also work quite nicely in the four different colours but you can’t ignore the uncanny resemblance to the Reservoir Dogs imagery, see below. I’m not sure who’s responsible for the branding but if you’ve got any ideas give me a shout.