The World Art Director

window.onload is so 1.0

There's nothing more frustrating than a computer application that gets in my way. Today, Google has made my shit list.

I recently switched back to Firefox from Safari (which I'm not happy about, but that's another post) and haven't gotten around to setting my home page to a blank page yet. To be honest, I don't really mind the Firefox-branded Google page, it's pretty handy to have a search engine at your fingertips when your browser loads. What's not handy though, is if you already start typing in the browser's search box (top right of the image) and then when the load event fires the focus is violently jerked away from the browser's input and into Google's. How selfish.

And that's not even the worst of it. GMail's login screen is possibly my least favorite of them all. I've lost count on how many times I've typed in my email address, tabbed down to the password, only to have GMail's slow-ass window.onload even fire causing my cursor to be back into the login box. The best part is that half of my password is usually shown in plain text as a result.

Way to go Google.

The louder the better.

Anyone see NYC JCP's latest campaign? It's pretty hard to miss if you're a New Yorker. You'll recognize the adverts as the white-on-red billboards that are all over subways and buildings. I think this has got to be the worst one all summer.

Lets forget the fact that the ads are overscaled, oversaturated, and the copy is weak and meaningless. The whole ad feels flat and lacks any sort of message other than, "Look at our big bright-as-shit logo!"

Ok so maybe I can't let the details go…

Listen, I understand that there's some degree of stretching involved, but the JPEG artifacting is too obvious. If you ask me, this is unforgivable. It's worse than the Wolverine poster for the last X-Men movie.

Contrast is certainly a good thing in the advert space, but for Christ's sake, don't oversaturate your layers! I think this designer must have been over-excited because he figured out that masks come free with all adjustment layers!

And here's another hint, if you put bold-ass adverts up in the subway, make sure you aren't competing with the exit signs; you may confuse the tourists.

And the copy… Imagine the eurekaa moment the art director had when they found out the letters N, Y, and C are in "JC Penny." S/he must have thought that was the most clever thing this season. Kudos!

Attention to detail just isn't enough

I found this little gem on a recent trip to the washroom in my favorite Belgian restaurant. Somebody took the time to not only think of the appropriate copy for this message, but also decided play with the alignment a bit.

Now this reads a bit more like a poem. Allow me to help you read it properly:

Please don't...
Throw.
Any.
Paper into the...
Toilet.

That's deep folks.

Eco-Friendly My Ass

I love it when people jump on causes for marketing and PR purposes because it's usually so obvious it's funny.

The cafe I'm in now fooled me until I ordered today's coffee and it came in this incredible disposable cup. I wonder how eco-friendly the manufacturer is who put those resources together... Either way, this cafe sure gives them a lot of business.