You can be a photographer without knowing how to take good pictures.

Adobe is releasing it's Creative Suite 5 in 19 days. From what I hear from friends, many of them still haven't upgraded to CS4, and some of them have just started getting used to CS4. All of a sudden, BAM, the new CS5 is coming out! According to Wikipedia, CS4 came out in October 15, 2008. It has been only been 18-24 months, and they already have a new upgraded version? Talk about speedy technology!

With Photoshop CS5, you can be a photographer without knowing how to take good pictures, because Photoshop automatically creates it for you with its Content-Aware Fill tool! Yay everyone can be a photographer now! NOT.

This Content-Aware Fill raises a question that I never really found the answer from - what is photographic truth? From internet research, I found that photo manipulation has long been used for propaganda, nowadays, anyone who purchased Photoshop are able to manipulate photos in any way they want to. How can we trust photos anymore? Photography, in comparison to other art forms presents to us more truth than anything else. Now with CS5, it seems that photography is falling into the same category as painting and drawing.

Another problem I have with the new CS5 is that it is so easy and simple to retouch a photo, that anyone can do it. What about the people who work as a 'photo retoucher'? Is a photo retoucher an occupation anymore?

IKEA Subway Display in Paris

This campaign ended yesterday in Paris. I love love love the idea of putting IKEA furnitures in the subway station. Although some people would probably see it as taking up space at the stations, I absolutely love it, I think it's very clever. This probably isn't the first interactive promotional campaign, but it is so different and so eye-catching and will most probably work. It's amazing what ad men come up with. There are so many ads everywhere nowadays, it's hard to stand out from the crowd of ads, yet IKEA did it.

Source

Business cards

Business cards of higher cost

Business cards of low / no cost

My business card

Calvin Klein X Underwear

I was watching Family Guy on Hulu, and this Calvin Klein X ad kept coming up in the commercial interruptions. I usually don't mind advertisements because I love them and I myself is interested in going into the ad industry, but this really bothered me, I'm not sure if I like it or not. The ad is probably doing it's thing because I am posting this on my blog, and ranting about it and so more people see it and know about it. But it's content is so sexual I feel like it degrades Calvin Klein in general. I've always seen CK as a high-end brand, which guys wear their underwear to show off. But then I did some Google research, and noticed that many of their ads are rather sexual.

These print ads I don't mind, but the video commercial? I really don't know how I feel about it... Although many of my friends love it....

Perception

We were talking about how different people perceive the same thing differently in class. It is viewers who make the meaning from the work we produce. To a certain extent, I feel like with the process of making art, a large part of it is to figure out a way to communicate the message clearly to all audiences without being cliché. From my experience in a photography class, we first think of a theme and idea we want to explore, figure out what we want to say about it, then think of different ways to convey this message. But when everyone perceives things differently based on their own life and past experience, isn't it the viewer who decides what they get from the work of art? Without the little information cards on the side of the work, and without the audio commentaries provided at museums, there is a large possibility for viewers to interpret differently for one work.

Take Jackson Pollock's work for example, he is a very influential painter in the art world, being a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. His 'action painting' has changed how some people view paintings, is it merely paint on canvas? Or a painting of an object or a person? To many people in the art world, Pollock is a hero, but what does his work mean to someone who doesn't have a background knowledge in art history? They might see it as just some guy splashing paint onto a canvas, it's just a mess... why is it in a gallery or a museum? I think with artists, a lot of times they don't have to take into account viewer's perception that much in contrast to advertisers or designers. Advertisers and designers purpose to produce work is to communicate visually, bringing the message across. Whereas for artists, it is more about their own interest in art.

UPS Logo

My friends and I were walking past a UPS store, I told them that the UPS logo recently changed, it used to be a box and a shield, now it's a swoosh with a gradation. My friends, who studies business and commerce at Purdue saw the old logo and was appalled at how ugly it was. I was immediately taken a back, because the UPS logo, designed by Paul Rand is one of the best and most famous corporate logos in the design world. It's simplicity in showing what UPS is all about is – a carrier/packaging company that you can trust. I'm not saying that I don't like the new logo, the new logo does show the expressiveness of it's service, and it is true that hardly anyone uses strings to tie a package. But the bow in Rand's logo is so iconic that I find it pitiful they removed it in the newer logo. I was thinking why my friends would prefer the new over the old. Perhaps it's the 2D flatness in it, perhaps there isn't the 'modern' gradation, perhaps it is too traditional. Perhaps the wider audience find 3-dimensional images more 'cool' to look at.... perhaps I'm just being too nostalgialistic.