You look mahhhvelous dahling!
Prada, Christian Dior, Donatella Versace, and Ralph Lauren are some of the names and brands that are synonymous with fashion.

Fashion has a trickle-down effect in the industry. What you see on 5^th Avenue and Paris runways eventually influence what you may see on the clothes racks of your local department store or clothing outlets.
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Let the ads begin!
Fashion design ads are the mainstay for designers in getting the word out about new lines of clothing and coming trends. Fashion advertisements can sometimes run into bumps along the road if attention to detail is lacking in the design phase.

In this installment of Graphic design mistakes and blunders we’ll look closely at some fashion advertisements and see, literally, where things went off course.

Look and laugh but above all, learn from the missteps that can sometimes occur even to the best of us.

InStyle out of style?
InStyle magazine says that it provides ‘…the best of what’s in fashion’ plus glimpses of  ‘celebrity lifestyles.’

In this advertisement from InStyle, Amy Adams strikes a pose for the photographer and shows off her colorful gown. But there is something about this photo that seems odd.

Can you spot the error?

While the lighting for this photograph is good, the pose is not. Amy tries to give her best model pout pose but it turns into something comical because she looks as if she has the beginnings of a headache.

What also looks odd is her posing like a stork–if you look closely she only seems to be standing on just one leg.

We are guessing that Amy’s other leg is exiting out on the other side of the dress but the pose doesn’t indicate this at all.
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Elegant but wait…
In this ad for Calleija Jewelers we see the model in full wedding attire amidst muted pastel pinks. It works well on many levels.

The color palette for the set is nicely done, the pose is good, and the advertisement has an upscale feel to it.

However, there seems to be something a bit askew with the otherwise serene setting of the photograph.

Can you spot the error?

The movie ET, directed by Stephen Spielberg, was a blockbuster hit. The main character, ET (extraterrestrial) is stranded on Earth and longs to find a way back to his home planet.

The model in this ad seems to have taken a cue from ET–she also sports a rather long neck. Was this a Photoshop error or just a bad camera angle? We don’t know but this mistake could have been prevented before the ad was published.
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GQ or DQ?
GQ stands for Gentleman’s Quarterly and is a mainstay magazine for men who are into fashion and the good life. DQ stands for disqualification in sporting events. In this particular GQ ad, we believe it has been dq’ed for bad art direction.

We like the concept in the Ralph Lauren ad but unfortunately the execution of the idea has crashed due to the way the shadow on the wall is depicted.

Yes, it could have been on purpose, but to what purpose we are at a loss to explain. In any event, the otherwise classy advertisement comes off as funny and a bit disturbing.

Graphic design school and advertising
If you are interested in advertising, enrolling in a graphic design college is a good first step in the right direction. You’ll learn about design principles, proper layout, computer graphics, and many other topics that can help you in your design career.

Make an appointment with a graphic design school representative to see how an education in design can help you to qualify for jobs in the advertising industry.

Mistakes on Purpose?
The principles you learn in graphic design school are meant to teach you the basics of design, composition and artistic technique.

Once you know the rules you can sometimes break them for effect.

In this article, we’ll go over a few errors. Can you tell if they were done on purpose or are they real mistakes? (Click on the images to see the larger versions.)

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What’s wrong with this picture?
Nicki Minaj is a successful hip hop singer who likes to reveal her personal experiences in the song lyrics she writes. Her most recent album, Pink Friday, has her posing as a Barbie doll.

Upon the release of the album many fans and non-fans remarked that the doll’s legs were highly disproportional to the rest of its body and that the arms seemed to be missing as well.

Question: Is this design by mistake or on purpose? (Make your decision before looking at the answer.)

Answer: On purpose

According to GL Wood, the photographer who shot the image, the effect of distortion was used to make a statement about the “perfect” Barbie image and lifestyle.

“[Nicki] wanted to rip [the doll's] arms off to really do the whole Barbie theme; [it's] like when little girls trash their dolls. She wanted to look like one of those broken Barbies.

“There [are] people who are going to get it and not get it, but that’s the point. There [are] few if any female artists now who are pushing the envelope. And that’s far from a bad thing.”
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The image is shocking and attention grabbing and many fans say that they expected no less from Nicki Minaj.

Prada goes negative
Prada is a well-known brand among fashionistas. But just how do you publicize the latest fashion line produced by this company? Do you use bright colors or do you use close-ups of the models?

In this ad, Prada decides to go starkly minimalist.

Question: Is this a design mistake or done on purpose?

Answer: On purpose

As a photographer, art director or graphic designer the very idea of not filling in blank space is hard to overcome. However, the concept of negative space can be very effective in emphasizing an idea or product.

In this Prada advertisement the design draws you to the two biggest ideas of the image: Prada and the clothes. Nothing distracts you from these two points.

But one thing does seem to surface as a mistake; the model could have been angled slightly more to the right in order to show her arm instead of an empty shoulder sleeve.

We know — picky, picky, picky.

Graphic design school and the principles of graphic design
Beethoven produced some of the most beautiful classical music ever composed. But music students frequently point out “mistakes” in his harmony such as recurring parallel fifths.

But as one music teacher said, “You need to know the rules before you break them. He knew he was breaking the rules.”

Graphic design college helps you to be proficient in proper layout, design and technique. You’ll also understand that sometimes breaking the rules can be of benefit in designing your graphics.

Speak to a graphic design school representative to see what courses can help you in your design skills.

Next Time…
We’ll take a close look at fashion advertisements and see how too much or too little Photoshopping can hurt a design.

Micromanaging and Efficiency
Joy, a graphic designer, relates this story about her experience with different studio managers:

“We had a boss that was extremely manipulative and controlling. Every aspect of our daily work schedule was managed for efficiency. We could hardly breathe because of the constrained work atmosphere.

Let’s face it, we did it for the money and not for the love of design.

“Our productivity was good, but we were miserable. Then one day, he announced his retirement. Most of us were ecstatic at his decision. A new manager was hired and we held our breaths.

“Our new boss was not a micro-manager and this took some time getting used to. His style was to give us our marching orders—he got out of the way and left the creative aspects, as much as was feasible, to us.

“But then, the productivity reports came down from upper management and we were all shocked about our performance.”

Find out what happened at the end of this article.

How to Get the Best From Your Coworkers
You may be a supervisor, a manager or a lead graphic designer, but the fact remains that you will need to have your co-workers do tasks for you, at some point, in order to complete projects.

But how do you get the best out of your staff? Consider this advice:

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

–George Patton, Decorated WWII General, US Army

His advice seems contradictory and foolhardy. But upon closer inspection what he is saying is to trust people’s abilities and judgment to complete a task; just point them in the right direction.

Graphic Design School and Creativity
Of course, you need a competent staff to fulfill your wishes. But knowing who your go-to people are can save you loads of headaches and anxiety by just letting them create and do what they do best.

The basics and foundation of graphic design often start with an education at a qualified graphic design college.

Those who have had formal training in graphic design can attest to how a graphic design school education can be useful in qualifying for design jobs.

The Rest of the Story
In Joy’s account of her new boss, this is what happened in the performance report. (Names and titles have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty.)

“We felt we were all pulling together to finish the projects instead of being forced to meet deadlines. Our new boss gave us the freedom to be creative. He gave us back our love for design.

“Our boss called us to a meeting to announce the metrics of how we were doing the past several months.

“The report from upper management showed that we had broken every record, in productivity and revenue, set by our previous boss. We did this during the two months our new boss was in charge.

Next Time…
So far we’ve seen how graphic designers do their jobs for the love of the art and creativity of design. But the practical side needs to be presented as well; how much do graphic designers make and what opportunities are there?

Stay tuned next week for the answers.

Until then, keep on designing!

What Do You Do?
People in different cultures greet each other in unique ways. The Chinese ask if you have eaten yet. In Iceland they say “happy.” But in other countries sometimes a hello is connected with “So what do you do?”

The Panasonic Lumix Award Competition asks this very question, but with a slight twist. It wants to see photographs which depict what people do for a living instead of just a verbal answer.

The contest sponsor states:

“Panasonic wants to see what extraordinary jobs and professions can be found and captured on camera.

“Night or day, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world or what time it is: there’s always somebody on the job.

“…This is your chance to show the extraordinary work people do to earn their livelihood.”
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The Contest
You may send in one digital image per month until the deadline of the contest.

Entries will be posted on the official contest website where the public will vote for  their favorite images.

A jury will select the top 100 entries with the highest vote totals and select one winner per month until the conclusion of the contest.

The theme of this contest is “Work.life.”

Contest Guidelines
Some of the general rules for this contest are:

* Submitted images must be a minimum size of 800×600 pixels.
* File size of single images must not exceed 10MB.
* No scanned images of hard-copies are allowed.
* Certain restrictions apply regarding eligibility. See contest rules.

Prizes
According to the official contest announcement the awards will be:

Grand Prize
One LUMIX DMC-GH2 digital camera and one Lumix G Vario HD Lens H-VS014140.

First runner-up
One LUMIX DMC-LX5* digital camera

Second runner-up
One LUMIX DMC-LX5* digital camera

One monthly winner will be announced from now until the end of this contest. These winners will receive one LUMIX Digital Still Camera DMC-ZX3.

Contest Information and Links
You are allowed only one submission per month. If a submission is rejected you may resubmit another entry.

In order to participate in this contest you must register at the official Panasonic website.

The deadline for this contest is April 30, 2011. Winners will be announced sometime in May 2011.

Follow these links for important contest information:
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Official Contest Website
Official Rules Contest Guidelines
Contest Theme Description
Contest Registration and Upload Site
Contest Gallery Photos
Contest Jury Profiles

Billions and Billions of Ads
Carl Sagan, a renowned astrophysicist, astronomer, author and host of the Public Broadcasting television series Cosmos, was fond of using the catchphrase “Billions [and] billions of stars…” in his distinctive nasal pronunciation.

Although there may not be “billions and billions” of ads since the very first one was produced, (probably on a cave wall), there can be no argument that the shear number of them is quite staggering.

Art directors and graphic designers are the gatekeepers for preventing design errors from reaching the final stage of publication in advertisements, graphic designs or other media. But as we all know, sometimes these little gremlins sneak past the guards.

Can you see the errors in the following examples? Look at the ads closely and then read the Do You See It? answers to find out if you are correct. (The mistakes can be seen by clicking on each photo.)

Have fun!

Props R Us
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We’ll start with an easy one here. The photo for this ad from the Banana Republic website shows a woman modeling a pantsuit. She looks happy and the clothes on her fit very nicely.

Do You See It? (Click on image to see mistakes)
All photographers should be able to point out this error immediately. A standard piece of equipment in every pro photographer’s bag is the 18% gray card.

The model is holding it above her head so that a light meter reading can be taken off the card. The resulting information from the meter gives the photographer information on the proper exposure to use.

This photo was probably just a test shot during the photo shoot to calibrate the light meter and was never intended to be used for the website.
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What’s in Your Wallet?
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This is a high profile ad for Louis Vuitton handbags. No doubt the fashionable accessories are well made and highly prized. The staged set is dynamic with the models assuming their standard issue pouting poses.

Do You See It? (Click on image to see mistakes)
One of the hardest scenes to photograph is when mirrors are in the shot. The reflections off of mirrors can show the surrounding studio equipment and camera people. These errant images are usually digitally removed for final copy.

In this case the art director has opted to enhance the realism of the set by replacing the offending reflections with Photoshopped images. The problem with these insertions is that the images do not reflect (pun intended) the actual model posses. The reflection on the left mirror shows the model’s arms together, but in the real scene she has them apart.

There also seems to be some inconsistencies with the reflections of the lights and lamps in the center mirror as well.

Details, Details, Details
None of the errors we’ve seen are deal breakers by any means. But they do demonstrate that mistakes can happen to the best of us.

What is important to realize is although it is important to receive the best career training from graphic design school centers or graphic design colleges; the level of attention to detail is our personal responsibility.
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Next Time…
We’ll post up some more “boo-boos” related to marketing ads in our next installment of Gotcha! Graphic Design Advertising Mistakes.

Until then, keep on designing! (…and look out for those mistakes.)

You Know You Are Good When…
A photography school instructor was fond of saying:

“Everything looks good when you shoot in color. But if you can make it look good in black and white, that’s when you know you’re good.”

Photography has come full circle from black and white to color and back again.

While black and white photography was once seen as passé and antiquated when compared to color images, the original form has returned as a popular medium for artistic expression and dramatic impact.

Blipoint.com is celebrating this unique photography format by holding its Black and White Portrait Photography Contest for illustrators, graphic designers, and photographers.

Contest Details
Submit a black and white portrait that shows the character and state of the subject you are photographing. Blipoint says:

“The black and white portrait transmits an image to us that reveals feelings and moods regarding the photographed person. It gives us a greater insight than just how people look on the outside.

“The visual language that we achieve through black and white photography adds complexity to the subject and gives it unique features.”

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Your images must be uploaded to the contest site. If your images are oriented vertically, the minimum dimensions for your photographs should be 15×10cm. Horizontal images must have minimum dimensions of 13×17cm. Maximum file size should be no larger than 700kb.

There is no entry fee for this contest and you may submit up to two images

Jury and Prizes
The winner of the contest will be selected though a process determined by the most popular images voted upon by the public and a final critique by a qualified panel of judges.

The winner will receive a free premium account to blipoint.com that will allow the winner unlimited use of the Blipoint Online Gallery.

Final Details
The deadline for submitting your digital images to this contest is September 1, 2010. You must open a free account with Blipoint in order to submit and vote for photographs and to access other areas of the contest website.

Follow these links for important contest information and details:

Official Rules and Guidelines
Blipoint.com Contest Website
Registration Page
Contest Images
Contact Information