Should Have Been Illustrated

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I understand what the United Way Toronto is saying in these ads, yet that doesn't prevent me from thinking I am viewing a very alien/sci-fi scene each time I see one of the posters or magazine ads.

Utilizing an illustrator here could have allowed the concept of transformation to shine rather than puzzle. A softer touch, more abstract perhaps... I keep thinking of the "Uncanny Valley" here, even though there isn't a robot in sight.

College bound to teach a class on Tuesday around 6am I saw this in the subway car:

Pardon the unfocused photo.

From mediaincanada.com:

"The Toronto Blue Jays are hoping for a grand slam by upgrading their end-of-season ad campaign from last year to rally fans to the ticket booths for this season.

The "Hustle and Heart 2.0" campaign starts Friday, when tickets go on sale, with a big push through to opening day on April 1. The buy will be concentrated where the target, 25- to 35-year-old males, are expected to see it, Anthony Partipilo, VP, marketing and merchandising, Toronto Blue Jays, tells MiC.

"Baseball enthusiasts tend to be higher income, so they tend to be very heavy online, they're heavy out-of-home, they're heavy radio, so that's what our media campaign will been focusing on."

Posters, by virtue of size alone, give great opportunity to excite and persuade the viewer. I can't say I'm feeling this here. I won't critique the placement of the text or the cropping of player.  In the murky light of the subway car, in the company of countless photo ads and bad design, how would this image stand out or draw any feeling whatsoever from the observer?

I don't love baseball.  I don't love most of today's players.  I don't love the owners.  I do love, however, the baseball that is in the heads of baseball fans.  I love the dreams of glory of 10-year-olds, the reminiscences of 70-year-olds.  The greatest baseball arena is in our heads, what we bring to the games, to the telecasts, to reading newspaper reports.  ~Stan Isaacs, "Diamond-Studded Memories," Newsday, 9 April 1990

There is a story to baseball, a history, a mythology or even religion. A certain elegance not present in football or hockey. Sounds like perfect fodder for an illustrator to me.

The Blue Jays are targeting 25 - 35 year old males.  With a quick search on illoz, using the search option for images tagged with the word "baseball", I found more than 50 images from differing illustrators that fit the bill.  They all bring their own flavour to images of the game and or players, some had more of a vintage feel, but here are examples below that could have done a great job bringing attention to the team with the target age group in mind.  May I also say that there are many illustrators that could do an incredible job with this, despite the fact that they have no images of baseball players in their portfolios. 

Have a look at the way each illustrator emphasizes the strength, agility and determination of each athlete. There is a story built into the exaggeration of the features, the composition, the light.

There's a lost opportunity here with their new campaign, this poster could have been collectable, something to frame, placed as a banner on their website, elements of the illustrated image printed on t-shirts/hoodies/cups/caps or whatever else they like to sell, a work of art printed and signed by the players as well as the artist.

Image below: Yuko Shimizu

Baseball, to me, is still the national pastime because it is a summer game.  I feel that almost all Americans are summer people, that summer is what they think of when they think of their childhood.  I think it stirs up an incredible emotion within people.  ~Steve Busby, in Washington Post, 8 July 1974

Image below: Douglas Fraser

Image below: Mike Benny

Image below: Joe Morse

I wanted to definitely be a musician or a good preacher or a heck of a baseball player. I couldn't play ball too good - I hurt my finger, and I stopped that. I couldn't preach, and well, all I had left was getting into the music thing.  ~ Muddy Waters 

This is a book I read last year, that I now consider one of my favourites. Painfully beautiful in construction, filled with images that dwell - water and earth repeat throughout... So many passages struck me that the further I read, the more empty the cover became. 

The girl on the cover is thin, holds a huge flower and sports a vintage hairstyle.  On the whole, the image says nothing of the experiences found inside, apart from the prop of the flower.

In my opinion, glancing occasionally at the cover while reading a book is part of the ritual of it (for me at least). As I read it began to feel like sad window dressing to me - as I read the book and the characters, the places started to breathe, the image became irritating. I wanted more, I wanted the image to have its own interpretation of the story, the character.

I will post my own visual response to this book soon.

Is it the white paper that it comes in?  The nostalgic red script?  Redpath has a museum found within its factory down on the waterfront in Toronto, but everyone has their own history with the sweet stuff.

This is not about art direction (or lack thereof) gone wrong, it's more about potential.

The packaging actually has a blue band around it (or is it red?) which I completely forgot.  I just remember the feel of the paper itself, how easily the package opens and how clean the paper remains when the sugar is poured out.  It always gets poured out, you don't want ants to find the path in summer.

Last summer Ryan and I discovered Sugar Beach on our way to catch a ferry to Toronto Island...

"Located at the foot of Lower Jarvis Street adjacent to the Redpath Sugar Factory, the 8500 square metre (2 acre) park is the first public space visitors see as they travel along Queens Quay from the central waterfront. The park’s brightly coloured pink beach umbrellas and iconic candy-striped rock outcroppings welcome visitors to the new waterfront neighbourhood of East Bayfront.

The design for Canada’s Sugar Beach, by Claude Cormier Architectes Paysagistes draws upon the industrial heritage of the area and its relationship to the neighbouring Redpath Sugar factory. The park features three distinct components: an urban beach; a plaza space; and a tree-lined promenade running diagonally through the park."

Between this, the museum found within the Redpath factory and everyone's own story of sugar, there is much to play with visually here.  The paper package itself makes me think of a colouring page, a poster - hell, a connect-the-dots would be fun and remind you of the granules.  Could the imagery be historic/modern/playful?  Animated, interactive components could be incorporated on their site - think the Zimmer Twins.  Ghostmilk comes to mind, as does Leo Espinoza.  Monsters on the waterfront, eating the Redpath factory... You've got the nostalgic elements here, now bring some contemporary edge.

There is room for concept overall and within the imagery here. Go full on with creating your story Redpath, sugar is fun and illustration could help you show how much.

I'd love to see the team at House & Home take a risk and do an illustrated cover. When you go into a magazine store, there are countless home decorating monthlies with a photo on the front. Using illustration would be a great opportunity to speak narratively, conceptually, about a chosen lifestyle or season.

Like a theatre poster, let your customer dream a little - you already pack the inside of that magazine with 'where to buy' pages. Doing this would help you create a beautiful object, rather than another magazine in a pile.

When I think of live theatre, the magic is in being there, the energy exchange that happens between the audience and actors. So, forgive me when I say that when confronted with photos of the actors in their costumes in some weirdly lit box, frozen in a pantomime - it is not enticing. You took the mystery away, deflated the magic. There is no longer a connection, supposed or wonder conjured by me, the viewer.

That said, I've seen a recent series at the Canadian Opera Company, and an older National Ballet poster that utilized photography in a way that is far more interesting:

From 2008, grabbed off of Nicholish's Flickr photostream.

In my opinion, The Soulpepper theatre remains the reigning local king of posters.

The illustrators they've hired for each season:

• 11 Season: Chris Silas Neal
• 10 Season: Brian Stauffer
• 09 Season: Sam Weber
• 08 Season: Edel Rodriguez
• 07 Season: Balint Zsako
• 06 Season: Autumn Whitehurst
• 05 Season: Daniel Bejar
• 04 Season: Brian Rea

“[Soulpepper] comes off as being atypical of the typical work experience with clients,” says Brian Stauffer, this year’s artist, on the phone from Miami. “They say, ‘Look, we’re treating our audiences like morons by not expecting that they’re going to want to really see some brilliant, innovative, thoughtful stuff.’ These guys are putting a lot of time and effort and blood and sweat into putting these productions together. To not represent it in an equally creative way, it just feels like a missed opportunity.”

From Pod 10, creator of Soulpepper's identity:

"We’ve worked closely with the Soulpepper Theatre Company over the years, beginning with a comprehensive identity makeover in 2004.

Executed in conjunction with Jenny Armour Design, our approach references classic theatre poster illustration but with a modern twist, drawing on the work of contemporary illustrators who we commission to provide original works based on a close reading of the relevant play.

The eye-catching posters form the basis for each season’s advertising campaign, and the aesthetic is carried over to the usual range of collateral – brochures, business cards, letterhead – and the company’s website, which we designed and built."

This example came in the weekend Globe and Mail. I kind of like the large neon numbers, but the image/photo is not really saying anything about the symphony, the music, Toronto or it's history overall.