I Love Fluevog Shoes!

I'm rocking a funky bright red pair of John Fluevog mary jane shoes today, and decided to add John Fluevog to my twitter. And then got caught up in browing the beautiful shoes on their website. An hour later, I discovered their open source adverts. They put an open call on their website to designers to design a poster for a specific new launching shoe.

This makes sense - who better to advertise for them, than devoted fans? Why spend gobs of money on advertising when there's bound to be hundreds of graphic designers who would love the chance to take credit for designing one of their advertisements? I love the concept of bringing the company and the consumer together. If you win, you get the bragging rights of claiming you designed their ad. You also get a $1000 credit to their store. They get awesome ads, you get fame and shoes. It's win/win.

I looked at two styles that will be launching soon - both with a due date of August 31, and figured this will be my summer craft project. I don't have a LOT of spare time, but this shoe spoke to me, and I've practically got that money spent. The shoe I'll be designing an ad for is the On Course Portside shoe. It's funky and linear and will be the first pair I purchase with my money once I've won. Check it out: http://www.fluevog.com/code/fc_briefs.php?brief=20 (link goes to the design brief in case you want to be my competition for the ad)
Here are some other submissions: http://www.fluevog.com/code/fc_gallery.php?brief=19

May the best design win!

Subliminally Yours...

When I was a kid, my mom had a book in the house called Subliminal Seduction. A book about subliminal advertising that had glossy photos in the middle of the book showing how an ice cube in a whiskey advertisement spelled out the word "SEX", how the camel's hump on the pack of Camel cigarettes looks like a breast. It was a mentally titillating book.
Whether or not it works, whether or not it's intentionally placed there by corporate giants looking to brainwash the masses, or just bored artists and graphic designers is for the experts to discuss doesn't matter to me. Hidden images exist, and I love finding them. It's like the grown up version of "spot the 10 hidden images" on the back of Highlights magazines when I was a child. Google "subliminal" to get yourself started. Then you'll be searching every ad for hidden meanings, messages and images. Just like me. (Can you spot the hidden image in the above image? Look really closely, and if you need a hint, the picture at the bottom of the post.)