Creative Commons in the Philippines.

Most creative warriors ought to know about Creative Commons by now: a set of licenses to let you release your creative outputs with open free-culture principles.

Still, a lot of Filipinos using CC licenses don’t realize that they’re using general-use unported licenses. There are now versions of CC licenses adapted to Philippine laws. You can see the ported licenses at the Creative Commons International - Philippines site.

On a related note, do check out Philippine Commons–a local movement advocating open content and free culture.

Design basics tutorial.

*Jozzua has recently posted the slides to my design basics presentation I recently made for the Internet Marketing Bootcamp.

While the presentation isn’t exactly as verbose as I’d want it to be (it was a short 15-minute talk), and the slides posted don’t have explanations or annotations, I hope it offers a modest insight into the basic web design process. Also, I obviously advocate grids a lot!

Check it out here:
8 basic steps to web design →
(jozzua.com)

Sunsilk’s new clothes.

Here’s the new redesigned Sunsilk bottle, in line with their new campaign.

Unilever recently launched the Sunsilk “Life Can’t Wait” campaign, which presumably aims to revitalize the Sunsilk brand and conquer new markets. Quoting Wikipedia:

The Life Can’t Wait campaign features three of the world’s most iconic women; Madonna, Shakira and Marilyn Monroe, who all symbolise the power of expression and making life happen. (…) the campaign showcases these universal icons and reveals significant and life-defining moments in their lives. (…)

Sunsilk is targeting 20 something girls across the world, giving them the opportunity to share with each other their own life stories fitting the Life Can’t Wait theme – of how they have thrown caution to the wind and taken a chance which resulted in a life changing experience!

Now, let’s distill this to a cliff-notes of the creative direction for this campaign. From the snippet above, we can say that the “Life Can’t Wait” campaign is about:

1. targeting young 20-something girls;
2. screaming out a bold message about “power of expression” and “making life happen;”
3. taking a personal approach with focus on an emotional marketing message.

Whoa, what a modern and energetic direction to take! Their new bottle, though, seems to steer off-course.

The good (sort of): the patterns

If there’s something in the packaging for me to say something positive about, it’s the use of trendy patterns clipped on the “S” shape. It helps in bringing the brand some character. One of the aspects that the campaign promotes is power of expression, and this is their answer to that.

However, these patterns today are cliche and dated at best. Good (enough) idea, but lackluster execution.

The bad: the typography

Have a look at the old logotype for comparison. That old “S” definitely brings a good feminine touch to the style, while the contrast in stroke widths bring out a nice overall elegance. These traits are perfect for a brand that positions itself to a market of young, hip women.

Now, have look at the new logo. This is definitely a step backwards: from slender and elegant, to stark and lifeless. On top of that, it also has absolutely no character, completely going against the creative direction to be expressive and vibrant.

The ugly: the what?

Oh, you know I’m going to say it. What on earth is that thing in the middle? It looks like a punctuation mark with an identity crisis–as if it can’t decide if it’s a question mark or an exclamation point. It’s an abstract shape masquerading as faux typography, the result is that it screams out to the eyes in a bad way,

Going down one more level of nit-picking, this is a horrible contrast between a sharp shape and a round circle. The “S” curve seems to be aiming to bring in an graceful, refined rhythm, but it’s too thick to do so.

Bonus: the lack of coherence

To top this failure off: this bottle, their TV commercial, and their campaign website (lifecantwait.com) have no coherence at all. The font styles used all jarringly differ. Their TVC aims for retro, the site aims for modern, and the bottle is lost somewhere in the middle. Even the campaign taglines aren’t used consistently.