Frank Benavides

Type fight (college edition)

For my Art Director's Seminar class we participated in an in-class type fight. Two students designed the same letter, then the class voted on the design they liked the most. These are my submissions. 

TYPEFIGHT 

I hate blogging, but I am attempting to be more active on here. For reasons that I actually don't know. 

Besides that, here is a cool cover image i found from SBTRKT's album "Wonder Where We Land". 

Agency: Leo Burnett, Paris

Client: Jeep

As an aspiring art director I know the challenges of visually depicting something that is so clear in your head. This jeep campaign has done a miraculous (yes miraculous) job at executing a great concept, of going on an adventure in your jeep to see what you desire. The target of this campaign is targeted towards “Jeep People” who love to explore the outdoors. This campaign shows that when in a jeep the possibilities to explore are limitless.  The visuals are key in this campaign.

  You might have to turn your computer to see, but it shows one animal when you are looking at the ad one way but when flipped 180 degrees another animal is shown. This execution accompanied by the tagline “see whatever you want to see” represent what the brand is all about, exploring and being able to see the things that you want to see. 

Design is supposed to be fun. Simple as that. As a designer it is always a great feeling when people come to you for YOUR unique style. When people want to let you do things the way YOU are comfortable doing them.

Designer Will Bryant is one of my inspirations for the reason that all of his work is done in his unique style. 

He is a designer that designs, because it makes him happy and because he wants to make people happy. This is the reason his work is very powerful; It shows his passion for making, and spreads a positive message that everyone can appreciate. 

Advertiser: AlmapBBDO

Client/Product: Pedigree

Pedigree dog food steps out of the box in this campaign, by selling the idea “A Dog Makes Your Life Happier. Adopt.” This is being advertised because the brand is creating an emotional appeal of having a companion to consumers. They are doing this to persuade people to consider getting a dog because it makes their lives happier, which in turn would create more business for their dog food line.

This ad uses a comparison visual that is very powerful. It is the same exact photo, but in one of the photos a dog is present. These ads are up to the consumer to interpret, but right off the bat you get that when a dog is in your life , it makes experiences much more enjoyable. The only copy in this ad is the powerful tag “A Dog Makes Your Life Happier. Adopt” that really ties the whole message together. The comparison in my opinion was very successful in this situation, because the photo without the dog seems kind of depressing, which could be an effective method of convincing people to go adopt. 

Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt/Alster

Product: Nivea Men Moisturizer

 Nivea is advertising men’s moisturizer in this advertising campaign. This product is being advertised, because I believe men don’t normally think to buy moisturizer; It is not a product that we think of as an essential like: razors, toothpaste, and deodorant. Nivea is trying to show men that wrinkles come with the stress of life and moisturizer will help keep wrinkles away.

This campaign is predominantly visual which makes the message and concept come to life. They campaign pieces shows normal situations that most men encounter daily creating wrinkles on a forehead. The smart visuals pieced together with the tagline “because life brings wrinkles” brings the ad together perfectly, telling men its time to take care of your skin. 

Client: Volvo

Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors

Volvo came out with its new precision steering technology, and wanted to make a campaign that was impactful to the public. Most common people don’t know much (in my opinion) about new technology in the automobile industry, so Volvo was challenged to make this new technology relevant and interesting to the common person. So they decided to video life threating situations that requires the vehicles steering to be precise. The most notable would be the “Epic Split” ad that shows a man doing a split in-between two 18 wheelers while in motion. 

This video ad along with the others in campaign exhibits the power of Volvo’s new precision steering technology. The epic visuals along with amazing copy being spoken in the background support the concept that Volvos precision steering makes a difference in automobiles performance. The media placement of the ad in form of video was amazing because that is the only way to capture the epic moments Volvo wanted to show off its new technology in. In my opinion this ad is not only conceptually brilliant, but a beautiful piece of art. 

Pop culture is a fascinatingly weird topic. Sometimes it amazes me, how we as a culture, are so fascinated with celebrities and trends. We unknowingly base our lives around watching our favorite actors on television, searching what they are wearing, and finding out the latest drama that is going on in their lives.

Illustrator, Allison Kerek takes our fascination with these celebrities and puts her own unique twist on how she pictures them. 

(SARAH JESSICA BARKER) lol ^

This humor blended with her unique crayon styled illustrations make her work notable. She has captured how ridiculous it is, that we are obsessed with pop culture. While still keeping the illustrations true to the characters actual personalities (with a little exaggeration of course). 

   Client: WWF

Agency:JWT Singapore

 WWF is known for its extremely honest advertising campaigns that sometimes are shocking and disturbing. They believe this method gets consumers attention, and sheds light on the fact that we are not taking care of our planet/ the beautiful animals that inhabit it. My favorite campaign that they have done thus far is the “Tic-Tac-Toe” Campaign.”

This campaign takes a whole new direction in comparison to most of their other campaigns, but is still simple and impactful. This campaign was put into effect due to the rising trend of consumers purchasing goods that effect the environment and animals that live in it. This campaign is supposed to show consumers that they do have a choice in what they consume, and should be aware that they can consciously choose to save the environment/animals. The simple tic-tac-toe visual allows the consumer to think of the reasons why they would choose the product over the animal/environment’s life.  The only copy on this ad is the tagline that read “It’s your turn” which is amazing since it is telling the viewer that its basically their move to either destroy the environment/animal or purchase a product. This interactive ad concept strongly supports the message of the campaign, because it empowers the consumer to make a difference.   

Product: Coke

Agency: Ogilvy Australia's 

Coca-Cola has had amazing campaigns throughout time, but its recent  “Share a Coke” campaign exhibits everything that a successful advertising campaign should be. It is unique, created an immense amount of social media buzz, and hits home with a personalized message. Our name is our identity, and when large corporations such as Coca-Cola take notice of us, it feels great as consumers. These genius personalized message is the reason that I believe this campaign really took off. It swapped out Coke’s iconic logos on 20-oz. bottles for 250 of the most popular names of millennials and teens. This execution was genius considering how tech savvy this target market is, and how willing they are to share their life moments on social media.

The campaign organically grew into something more than just a name on soda bottle, but became a movement of coke fanatics sharing their coke bottles with their family and friends via social media/or in person. This campaign brought happiness and unity to consumers, which Coke’s primary message was most of their ads, most notably the “Hilltop Reunion” commercial. Exhibiting that Coke can be shared/enjoyed by anyone and everyone. 

  Lisa Hanawalt (in my opinion) has perfected the craft of meshing the real world with her own, slightly strange, fantasy world. One consistent characteristic you can see in most of her work is animals.

 (& when she doesn't have animals you see her produce work such as this^)

She creates these animal characters in my opinion, to poke fun at the real world and joke about societies issues. This humor added with her major skills/ unique perspective, makes her one of my favorite illustrators on the block. 

I stumbled upon this video a couple weeks back and can't seem to get it out of my mind.

The amount of time this stop motion video took to create is absolutely mind-blowing. I could not imagine pulling each sticky note up, one by one,  placing it in a new spot about 100,000 times.Stop motion is a technique I have dabbled with in the past and is normally fairly simple, but this dude took it to a whole new level. 

Well, if you couldn’t tell I am a sucker for hand-drawn illustrations, textured graphics, and bright eye-catching colors. 

Designer Nathan Yoder is a mastermind when it comes to all of these, and specializes in pen and ink illustrations. His designs are beautifully detailed, and always make me think, “How in the heck did this guy drawn this!” I find myself in awe, thinking about how much time and care he puts into every piece; It shows how disciplined he is as a designer, and much love he has for his trade. 

 this is an example of his work taken from his website

He is not just an amazing designer, but in a way a philosopher (in my opinion) of the design world. He preaches about how we all have our own unique style, and how important it is to stay true to who you are. Recently, he published an audio blog titled, “Honesty.”

It is a pretty long recording, but since I am a fan I thought it would be a worthwhile listen. And to no surprise, it was.  In this recording Nathan speaks about his journey as a designer, and how one can make their passion, a career. He does note that this discipline not only requires passion, but a strong work ethic and talent. He mentions that work created through honesty is work that one should always be proud of and never ashamed, and that technically perfect art is not the only form of good art. These messages are relevant to me as a creative, because they have helped me become comfortable with my own style and not be ashamed to put out work that is "different."

Yoder recently created an illustration piece with the words, “Comfort wants you dead.” This message has really hit home for me because it's meaning is true. Once we get complacent in our lives, whether it is in design, our jobs, or even school; we become comfortable, which ultimately inhibits us to push ourselves to achieve greatness. This lack of motivation can be detrimental to our lives in careers so its imperative that we never become comfortable and always search deep within to do better. 

This message is not only relevant, but also inspirational. As an aspiring creative I believe it's important to push yourself every single day to create better work. It’s important to be innovative, and bring something new to the table, because if you don’t do it someone else will.

Photostory created for my Photojournalism class. (Spring 2014)

Brandi Russell, a model, university student and youth ministry leader, backstage at Spectrum fashion show before walking the runway.

Brandi, 20, works part time at the clothing store Anthropology in downtown Austin. 

Brandi attends a fitting with, clothing designer Anna Lawson, for upcoming fashion show. April 8, 2014.

 A notecard is assigned to each garment in order to keep its place on the clothing rack in the sequence of the fashion show.  

The fashion show’s production manager photographs Brandi to keep a record of which garment she is wearing.

Brandi and fellow Young Life leaders plan the sermon for the annual “Tacky Prom” YL event.

Brandi applies mascara before Tacky Prom. 

Backstage, a hairdresser makes sure Brandi’s hair is in place before hitting the runway.