David Airey

David Airey is a design author and brand identity designer. He have a passion for design, and makes a living by creating visual identities for companies of all sizes. His client-list includes the likes of Yellow Pages (Canada), Giacom (England), and Berthier Associates (Japan).

He writes two popular graphic design blogs, logodesignlove.com and davidairey.com, attracting more than 250,000 online visitors per month and approximately 1 million monthly page views. He is the editor at his newest venture, Identity Designed — a site featuring the work of some excellent studios.

I chose to write about this David Airey as I was looking through his portfolio and his advertisements and some of them are really just fantastic. They are humorous and really make you say.. "oh yeah! I get it" Those kind of design to me are the best. Here are a few examples of the ones I found the best below:

Deborah Sussman

Deborah Sussman has worked at the interface of graphic design and the built environment for more than 30 years. She has created striking visual imagery and devised its imaginative application for architectural and public spaces both permanent and temporary, including the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Seattle’s opera house, and Disney World. Throughout her career Sussman has claimed an ever more expansive role for graphic design in the urban landscape.

Sussman uses graphic design to emphasize aspects of the built environment and to provide rich connections to the communities and cultures in which it will participate.

I chose to put Sussman on my blog because she is a legend and shes a woman! Most of the greatest graphic designers are men so I wanted to do a little research on what woman have played their parts in graphic design and how well they have done for themselves and other companies. I am not very familiar with Deborah Sussman but I have seen her work around and about and it is very good.

“Although environmental graphic design started as architectural signage—hence, graphics—a flat discipline turned out to be inadequate in a round world. An exhibition, for example, is more than a book on a wall or an arrangement of artifacts under glass. It is the engagement of people as they move through space. Sussman/Prejza carries this engagement into stores and other public spaces, and into designed events—a contextual approach that brought the company international renown with the 1984 summer Olympics.”

—Ralph Caplan, “Beyond Sussman/Prejza: Jungle Rhythms in Environmental Graphic Design,” Process Architecture 124, 1994.

Marc Quinn

Marc Quinn (born 1964) is a British artist and part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs (Young British Artists)

Perhaps best known for Alison Lapper Pregnant, a sculpture of Alison Lapper which has been installed on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square, "Self", a sculpture of his head made with his own frozen blood, and "Garden" (2000). He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) and is known for his innovative use of materials to make art, including blood, ice, faeces, etc., his use of bringing scientific developments into art, and his designs for "discussion-generating" artworks.




















I have chosen Marc Quinn as one of my artists as I am always intrigued with what unpredictable designs and concepts he will be coming out with next. He always produces exciting statues/ sculptures using different materials.

The thing that I like best about his work is that he has made people such as Alison Lapper feel so much more confident in herself as she was put on the plinth at Trafalgar Square (well her life sized statue was) and people could not see her as being a freak but see her body as being beautiful and see how different yet amazing this art was and how she lived her life with her child. He truely saw something in her that he knew the public had to see. Some say it was cruel, yet others look at her and other amputees in a different light now.

Antony Gormley

Antony Gormley OBE RA (born 30 August 1950) is an English sculptor. His best known works include the Angel of the North, a public sculpture in the North of England, commissioned in 1995 and erected in February 1998, Another Place on Crosby Beach near Liverpool, and Event Horizon, a multi-part site installation which premiered in London in 2007, and in 2010 around Madison Square in New York City.


















Gormley describes his work as "an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live." Many of his works are based on moulds taken from his own body, or "the closest experience of matter that I will ever have and the only part of the material world that I live inside." His work attempts to treat the body not as an object but a place and in making works that enclose the space of a particular body to identify a condition common to all human beings. The work is not symbolic but indexical — a trace of a real event of a real body in time.




















I remember going to see his work in Liverpool on Crosby Beach with my old college friends. It was a good day out, but I was just a little worried if boats were to come in and not see them when the tide comes in as they have no lights on them etc. But they are a spectacular sight to just stand there and watch as the sun is setting.












The sculpture consists of 100 cast iron figures which face out to sea, spread over a 2 mile (3.2 km) stretch of the beach. Each figure is 189 cm tall (nearly 6 feet 2½ inches) and weighs around 650 kg (over 1400 lb).
In common with most of Gormley's work, the figures are cast replicas of the artist's own body. As the tides ebb and flow, the figures are revealed and submerged by the sea.

Quirky yet random design that in my opinion is brilliant.

Niki De Saint Phalle

Niki De Saint Phalle has always been one of my most favourite artists. She was a French sculptor, painter and film maker.

De Saint Phalle rejected the staid, conservative values of her family, which dictated domestic positions for wives and particular rules of conduct. However, after marrying young and giving birth to two children, she found herself living the same bourgeois lifestyle that she had attempted to reject; the internal conflict caused her to suffer a nervous breakdown. As a form of therapy, she was urged to pursue her painting.

After the "Shooting paintings" came a period when she explored the various roles of women. She made life size dolls of women, such as brides and mothers giving birth. They were usually dressed in white. They were primarily made of polyester with a wire framework. They were generally created from papier mache.




















Influenced by Gaudí´s Parc Güell in Barcelona, and the garden in Bomarzo, de Saint Phalle decided that she wanted to make something similar; a monumental sculpture park created by a woman. In 1979, she acquired some land in Garavicchio, Tuscany, about 100 km north-west of Rome along the coast. The garden, called Giardino dei Tarocchi in Italian, contains sculptures of the symbols found on Tarot cards. The garden took many years, and a considerable sum of money, to complete. It opened in 1998, after more than 20 years of work.

I think her work is absolutely amazing and I will be planning a visit there soon to see this spectacular garden.

Here are some pictures below of what is contained in her Tarot Garden in Tuscany:

Heineken Advert 2010

This advert must be one of the most funniest adverts I have ever seen. It does not matter that the beginning is in a different language the communication and the humour of this whole advert is just pure genius!

Cadbury - Spots vs Stripes advert

This is one of the best comic ideas for commercials, managing to both capture attention and generate a laugh. It is a battle of the fish- spots vs stripes. The music I think makes it more chaotic and a lot funnier, also the graphics are very well presented and it look so much better in high definition.

Bacardi Mojito

This advert was brought out in 2008 and is still played occasionally on television now. It has always been a bit of a wow factor for me. For starters I think the choice of music: Kidda - Under the sun, was a perfect choice of song for this advert. It is a very happy song and makes you want to go out and enjoy yourself, it's a bit of a holiday song as well which reminds me of the sun which makes you think about good times which I think helps sell this drink. Also, the way they have made the Bacardi dance in figures of a woman and a man and how they are intergrated together. This is a really beautiful advert that works very well, as it makes me want to buy it!

Rowntree's Randoms

This is another very funny advert. Nothing makes sense what the coach is saying and it makes me laugh how all the players are stood there completely baffled by what he has just said. I think this design is very clever how it zooms up to the sweet which he is about to eat and then it is incorporated in to the advert by talking randomly, which fits in with the name of the sweets. Very clever and funny.

Morgan's Spiced Modern Adventurer Advert

This advert is short and sweet but in my opinion is absolutely hilarious. I like the way they have made it light hearted and a spoof in a way of the hard trek to get to the Morgan's Spiced. Getting chased by ducks and wading through the leaves that are being blown in to them by a gardener. Very comical!

Dub FX - Flow ft. Woodnote

This is Dub FX. I think he is an amazing artist. He creates all his own music with his mouth by beatboxing in different ways to create his music, he then records it using electronic devices at his feet. He then sings, MC's or raps over the top of what he has just created.

On this specific piece of music he introduces a guy called Woodnote who incorporates a saxophone to go with his music.

His lyrics are powerful and as you can see from the video he really gets involved with his music and you can tell that he is really enjoying what he is making. He isn't very well known just yet and I don't think that he gets enough credit for what he actually does. He stands in the streets and plays his music and promotes himself this way to sell his CD's as well as doing a few giggs all over the place.

I can't wait until he gets a little more famous and people start seeing how talented this guy really is, he deserves the best.

Lamb - Gorecki

I have never been a huge fan of lamb, so when I was first introduced to this song I didn't really know what to expect. I sat there and listened at Phil's house (a friend that hosts musicians, mostly dubstep) and I have never been drawn to a song like I have with this one. It is in my opinion the most powerful love song that I have heard yet. Here are some of the lyrics in the song:





If I should die this very moment
I wouldnt fear
For Ive never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
Still in my heart this moment
Or it might burst
Could we stay right here
Until the end of time until the earth stops turning
Wanna love you until the seas run dry
Ive found the one Ive waited for

All this time Ive loved you
And never known your face
All this time Ive missed you
And searched this human race
Here is true peace
Here my heart knows calm
Safe in your soul
Bathed in your sighs
Wanna stay right here
Until the end of time
til the earth stops turning
Gonna love you until the seas run dry
Ive found the one Ive waited for...

The words 'till the earth stops turning, gonna love you till the seas run dry,' is like never ending love and passion for one person you would do anything for. Those words literally will never happen you will love that person for ever, its an amazing way of putting these words together to create something so powerful.

Her voice also suits this song so well as it is quite soft but she is strong with it to obviously show power about how she feels and expresses these words.

Fantastic song.

White Lies - Death (Chase and Status Remix)

I absolutely love Chase and Status they are my favourite band ever! They do genres of music such as drum and bass and dubstep which is becoming very popular over the UK and America. I like White Lies old voice in this. I think it sounds a little like Ian Curtis from Joy Division yet has a new twist of dubstep in the background. It is still a pretty relaxed song and has good lyrics in it such as,"I love the quiet of the night time, When the sun is drowned in a deathly sea, I can feel my heart beating as I speed from, The sense of time catching up with me, The sky set out like a pathway, But who decides which route we take?" It's quite a powerful song, but the remix by Chase and Status breaks it up abit so it's not so sincere.

Florence and the Machine - Blinding

This is one of my favourite songs of all time, the drums make me feel alive and again how she sings you can tell that she's not bored she means every word she sings. It gets me on a very personal level this song its has helped me deal with relationships both friends and love and has helped me think that I am a stronger person and to just snap out of it. I would love to hear this song live as it already sends shivers through my body now!

Florence and the Machine - Rabbit Heart

I like this song by Florence and the Machine. I like the chilled music and how she sings so perfectly and how her voice suits every verse.
A part in the song says,"Here I am a rabbit hearted girl, Frozen in the headlights, It seems I´ve made the final sacrifice." It reminds me of being scared or anxious about something. So I listen to this a lot when I feel like this.

The Tate Gallery

I think that the Tate online is a brilliant place to find out where the latest exhibitions are being presented and who is creating them.

I think it is good because they are not all the same and there a few Tates around the UK, so there will be many different things to do and see.

It also gives you all of the information needed about the exhibition and the artists themselves.

It is also good as it gives you inspiration and makes you go out there and find out things for yourself and see new contemporary art, that may apply to your specific course or just to have a look out of general interest.

world-newspapers.com/graphics

I think that this is a really good website not just for graphic magazines online but for any magazine or information in general. It lists the most up to date information in the design industry on the first page. There are so many to chose from that are all very helpful.

It is good if you are stuck for ideas or inspiration, this is the site to visit.

It shows you all the best graphic magazines not just in the UK but worldwide, where you can also subscribe to them and get them delivered through your door.