A recent addition popping up on Fashion Street by T.wat satirises Cameron and Clegg’s AV referendum campaign, which adapts the famous shot of Vinnie Jones man handling Paul Gascoigne.

Escif’s solemn Death Dance piece on Fashion Street has been modified recently with an addition highlighting the treatment of a large corporation offered by the government.

In the 1980s street art was all about tagging, where artists would cover the urban landscape with their name.  Perhaps the more thought provoking messages and detailed designs shown in contemporary street art has helped increase its recognition. London and other cities around the world offer street art walking tours which are proving popular, whilst at the same time people find standard advertising intrusive.  Advertising may never be a pure form of art but taking risks and being expressive seems to have worked for street artists as their engagement with the public continues to grow.

The Pale Blue Door is the pop-up restaurant created by set designer Tony Hornecker.  Tony has created sets for Bat for Lashes and the Royal Opera House but most recently he has invited the general public into his dream world via his amazing pop-up restaurant.

Having just ended a run in London, the restaurant has also appeared in different guises in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Glastonbury and Santiago.  Behind the Pale Blue Door is a bohemiam dream-like world filled with nooks and crannies to explore.  Some may dine on a mezzanine overlooking the drag queen show that entertains between the homely three course meal.  One lucky couple will have their dinner brought up to Tony’s cosy bedroom to share.

While pop-up restaurants are a fairly new concept being popularised in the past decade, this example is a real return to the roots of a meal out being about more than the food, but the event as a whole.  The beautiful design of the entire restaurant transported the starry-eyed diners to a place of fun, flamboyance and freedom.  It showed that design was not only something to be looked at and admired, but something to be involved with, something that affects emotions and actions when done well, and done with conviction to completeness.

See more at Tony Hornecker’s blog.

In the days where we love combining the real natural world with our own imprints here’s another great example using the much loved stop motion technique and something a bit new that we’ll probably see being used in ads across 2011: light stencils!

Also check out Olly’s work at Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival gallery here.

To be honest it’s not often a banner on a website grabs attention.  But today on a sports website (with a highly relevant archive of World Cup videos) this little beauty from the NHS designed to encourage blood donations sure did catch the eye.

• Placed on a video webpage where an above average amount of time is spent.
• A relevant concept to both the immediate website environment and social euphoria of the World Cup.
• Executed well especially in its design and animation, yet the creativity doesn’t distract from the clear message that’s backed up by fact.

DURING THE LAST WORLD CUP, BLOOD STOCKS HIT THEIR LOWEST SUMMER LEVEL IN 5 YEARS.

PLEASE HELP US TO BUILD THEM UP BEFORE IT ALL KICKS OFF.

GIVE BLOOD. Click here to make an appointment today >

Bloody good to see that this good work is for good too!  Deserves to work: blood.co.uk

Emotion, thought and action.

Everyone seems to be raving about the latest John Lewis Ad.  It is a lovely ad, not the most original, but it is lovely.  It seems to be a perfect example of how the execution is probably more important than the idea.  ”Creatives” thrive off ideas and “concepting” the latest TV spot (ideas that probably hundreds if not thousands of people have had already), leaving the menial production and art working to “juniors”.  But back to the John Lewis ad, it’s in fitting with both the brand and it’s services, and it is shot beautifully.  An excellent execution example.  It minds me of the classic Orange Dancers Ad (different yes, but similar).

A great video of ex F1 driver Ricardo Patrese taking his wife for a spin in the Honda Civic Type R that shows the difference between two people’s actions and reactions depending on experience, knowledge, skill and planning.

She sometimes scans things for texture and sometimes scans her own illustrations to create animations.  She sometimes uses Flash for animations and sometimes she’s touching up images using Photoshop and her trusty tablet.  But a tool is just a tool and an artist knows what, where and when to use one.

There’s a real development in her work from her early playful commercial illustrations to her more recent and darker Madonne Indecenti and Green collections, a movement that hopefully helps people realise that people who use can digital tools aren’t just designers or illustrators but are artists  just as much as those who use paints and canvases.

• View her professional portfolio at New Division, AA Reps, American Artist or SAA Illustration Hub.
• See more illustrations and personal artworks on the Monica Laita Designs’ Facebook page.

The multi-talented Monica is currently in Italy working on the interior design of a new bar to be launched soon.

What would be your USP?  What sort of a brand would you create?  Who would you choose as partners and customers?  How far would you go?