One of my favorite ads, though I may have posted it before. I think I only saw it once on TV, but every couple of months I get the urge to watch it again. The song in the ad, by the way, is by Mint Royale, an electronica duo turned solo act based out of Manchester, England.

It’s easy to get used to seeing ads in the context of which laundry detergent, pet food or fast food restaurant you should prefer, but there are often times when advertisements mean much more. They can be used to educate, warn, make light or terrorize us on a particular topic, and to me, that is when they can truly become powerful in a way that commercial advertising can rarely touch.

The above ad is one of three, found via Adverbox, created by Amnesty International in protest of the olympic games taking place in China, due to the reported mistreatment of social and political workers there. We all saw the commotion that followed the Olympic torch around, though the effectiveness of those displays is arguable. Are these any more so? Judge for yourself.

Bottle designed by the firm Capsule, it’s almost like a perfume bottle with how jewel like it is. Would probably hate to throw this thing away, much less break it over a bar and threaten some over aggressive drunk with the jagged edges like I usually do.

I’m working on a blog redesign for Galison, the company I work for right now. It’s something a bit different from what I usually do, but it’s always fun to switch things up a little bit. This is what the mock looks like for now, hoping to get approval to go ahead tomorrow.

Updated screenshot of the JLS project, main page is done. Now comes the heavy lifting and the photo editing. More screenshots as the project continues.

Currently working on a site for JLS Designs, an architecture firm based in Queens, New York. They previously had a site, but it was nothing more than a few images on a page along with contact info. The image shows the beginnings of the navigation system, which was meant to look “constructed”, hovering over a menu link caused it to become highlighted with what hopefully appears to be an under-light. Hard to get the effect across without being able to interact with it, it’s nothing ground breaking but I think it adds a little interactivity without getting tied up in Flash components. Anyway, there’s still a whiles to go, but now that the skeleton is in place, progress should be quick.

I love this simple ad by designer Jun von Matt for Ikea. They are a series, so check out the others on the Bad Banana blog.