Great Design! EF: Live the Language

If you like good clean design and fantastic video work, check out the great campaign “Live the Language” for the company EF Inter­na­tional Lan­guage Cen­ters, which is, according to their website,

…is the world’s largest privately held education company that specializes in language training, educational travel, academic degrees, and cultural exchange.”

See Ad Credits…

I’ve only embedded the “Paris” one, my favorite, but you should really check out all the videos in this campaign.

• Barcelona
• Beijing
• London
• Los Angeles
• Paris
• Sydney
• Vancouver

The campaign was created by the Swedish Agency Camp David, and I love, love, love these ads. They are beautiful, no doubt, but more importantly they totally sell the idea of travel. What I mean by this is, that when we think of traveling to a foreign country, what do we think of? Not the little annoyances of lost luggage, spending too much money or the difficulty in finding the rest room, no we think of adventure, new vistas (literally and figuratively) and even romance.

These ads are perfect because they function as a gorgeous short hand for the mythology of travel; they show you exactly what you expect to see, what kind of experiences you want to have and the life changing perspective you will gain. Watching these amazing ads is sort of like implanting memories of a summer studying in a foreign land with out leaving your computer. Kind of like Total Recall‘s Blue Skies of Mars.

I am very impressed with the art direction of these spots, all the elements of the production enhance and support the over all theme of “Living the Language.” They are beautifully shot with a photographer’s sensibilities, enhancing both the alluring locations and actors. The music is catchy, hopeful and wistfully evocative of expanding horizons. Also, as a typophile I particularity loved the classic yet vibrant typography. Note how each ad uses typography to sell the idea of the city without being cliché. The productions are certainly top notch.

All advertising is, at some level, manipulative, but in this case I don’t mind, because one, I am aware it is mythologizing travel and two, I love that myth. Mythology is the way we humans organize our fears, desires and hopes. They are ways we explain what we go through in life and what we hope will happen. These myths matter, as Joseph Campbell so eloquently explained. As these ads remind us, there is plenty of adventure left to have in the world, it’s just right outside and all we have to do is open the door. Or, I suppose, if you’re on a budget and have broadband just click play. Either way, it’s a good way to look at the world.

You can check out the complete series and more cool videos on EF’s Live the Language YouTube Channel.

Paris Commercial Credits for EF International Language Centers.
Directed by Gustav Johansson (gustavjohansson.com)
D.P: Niklas Johansson, fsf (niklasjohansson.com)
Typography: Albin Holmqvist (albinholmqvist.com)
Music: Magnus Lidehäll (twitter.com/?magnusthemagnus)
Produced at Camp David (campdavidfilm.com)
Client: EF International Language Centers
Campaign site: ef.com/?livethelanguage

Polyphemus Gives Odysseus’s Men a Hand

Design Something Everyday: 12/365

Here’s a little sketch for my design something every day project. Imagine yourself as one of clever Odysseus’ men in the cave of the Cyclops, and one-eyed Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, reaches down to devour you, or as Samuel Butler gruesomely put it in his translation:

The cruel wretch vouchsafed me not one word of answer, but with a sudden clutch he gripped up two of my men at once and dashed them down upon the ground as though they had been puppies. Their brains were shed upon the ground, and the earth was wet with their blood. Then he tore them limb from limb and supped upon them. He gobbled them up like a lion in the wilderness, flesh, bones, marrow, and entrails, without leaving anything uneaten.” — Homer, The Odyssey Book 9, trans. Samuel Butler.

Links:

The Odyssey, by Homer Translated by Samuel Butler via the Classics Archive at MIT.
Free online audio version of the Butler translation of They Odyssey at Librivox. Although it is great to read Homer, one should listen to a good reading of his epics. Considering that’s how most in the ancient world were exposed to them, I find it fun to listen to them being read. It makes me feel like I am walking in their shoes, er sandals.

A Map of the Underworld according Virgil’s Aeneid Rendered as a Subway Map

Design Something Everyday 11/365: In honor of my love of maps, information graphics and Virgil, I decided to imagine Aeneas journey as if it were a subway map. So enjoy. Don’t forget your subway token’s for Charon!

I have always loved maps, as a child I would look at our world atlas and ponder the far flung reaches of the globe. Then I discovered a historical atlas at my school and realized that maps could not only take you horizontally across the globe but also vertically in to the distant past.

A period I found particularly fascinating was the Roman Empire. I’d gaze at the maps showing the roads stretching out from Rome like a web uniting the disparate corners western world under the the banner of The Senate and People of Rome – SPQR.

The great poet Publius Vergilius Maro, better known to us today as Virgil wrote his masterpiece the Aeneid at the same time Rome was nearing the apex of it’s power and confidence. This magnificent poem was written to, amongst other things, create a mythologized past for the Romans of the first century CE, particularly for Virgil’s patron, the Emperor Augustus. As such, the poem depicts the Romans  as a people not great at skill in art, destined to rule.

Let others better mold the running mass
Of metals, and inform the breathing brass,
And soften into flesh a marble face;
Plead better at the bar; describe the skies,
And when the stars descend, and when they rise.
But, Rome, ‘t is thine alone, with awful sway,
To rule mankind, and make the world obey,
Disposing peace and war by thy own majestic way;
To tame the proud, the fetter’d slave to free:
These are imperial arts, and worthy thee.”
–The Aeneid, Book 6 Translated by John Dryden

This passage takes place during a conversation between Aeneas and his dead father Ancheises in the underworld. This is direct allusion to Homer and The Odyssey. In Homer’s work must his hero Odysseus must visit a cave where he will summon the dead seer Tiresias (amongst other dead celebs). By doing this he will gain the knowledge to compete his quest and finally reach the far shores of Ithica.

In the Aeneid, Aeneas has the same quest but he actually has to travel through the land of the dead, instead of just waiting at the gate like Odysseus. This is one of the most important and vivid parts of the poem. His journey has inspired artists and poets for centuries, now it has inspired a daily design and underworld subway map!

Links & Sources:

• The basic outline of the map was taken from Alice K. Turner’s truly amazing book A History of Hell. It would be devilish of me not to recommend it.
• The Aeneid translated by John Dryden via The Internet Classics Archive at MIT. The recent Robert Fagels translation looks really good too.
• Free Audio Version of  The  Aeneid via Libravox.org (also the Dryden version… yeah Public Domain!)
• Underworld & the Afterlife: A good article about Greco-Roman ideas of, well the underworld & the afterlife via Carlos Parada of Greek Mythology Link. I used a little of this for the subway of the underworld map.

Design Something Everyday: Retro Stephenie

Day 7 and still designing, though 2 days behind schedule in posting. Be that as it may, in honor of tonight’s premiere of Survivor Heroes vs Villains my design of the day is a little WPA inspired retro-esque poster in honor of one of my favorite players, Stephenie LaGrossa. Star of two previous incarnations of the show.

She was a contestant during seasons set in Guatemala and Palau. In Palau she was the last surviving member of her inital “tribe,” a first for Survivor. On Survivor: Guatemala she placed second and was robbed of victory by a petty and annoying jury. Hopefully, as in my digital doodle, Pallas Athena will be her aegis and like she did for clever Odysseus, guide her to victory. Survivors ready…

Survivors ready?

Tools: Adobe Illustrator

Links: Pallas Athena Clip Art via Arthur’s Clipart

Design Something Everyday: Day 5: Bali Hai

I’ve been working on stuff everyday, but I haven’t been posting daily, so I’ve got a bunch of stuff to put up.

The first of these is a digital doodle of a song from the wonderful 1949 Rogers and Hammerstein play South Pacific, Bali Hai. I was inspired by the production I saw last weekend at Seattle’s Fifth Avenue Theatre. Of course, I was familiar with the song and the play mostly through the 1958 film version, but seeing it live was a thrill. Bali Hai is a mythical and mystical island that represents an unattainable paradise. That image of a hazy double volcano island has formed a core of the Tiki and Polynesian Pop mythos.

The song is a classic in American Musical theater, and for me the best part is very influential in the world of Tiki and P0lynesian Pop Culture. Below you can see the wonderful scene and listen to the song Bali Hai from the 1958 film, do you hear it? It calls to you..

Tools: Adobe Illustrator

Links:

• Bali Hai: Mythical and mystical island, if you listen it will call to you…
• 5th Avenue Theatre
• Rogers & Hammerstein
• South Pacific (1958 film)
• Tales of the South Pacific, the 1946 Pulitzer Prize winning  book by James Michener, source for the film and musical productions.

O Devine Poesy…

Mosaic of the Muses, Roman Museum of Sabratha, Libya. by Sebastià Giralt

Make this site live for us in its many bearings, O Muse…

In the great book “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield he details how he begins any creative venture by calling on the muses for success. He does this by reciting the opening lines from the T.E. Lawrence translation of The Odyssey; when Homer calls on the muses to speak through him and aid him in reciting the tale of the return of clever Odysseus to Ithaca. This seems like a good idea to me, especially for my first post. So here is my call on the nine muses for aid and inspiration for this blog, portfolio and podcast.

“O Divine Poesy, goddess, daughter of Zeus, sustain for me this song of the various-minded man, who, after he had plundered the innermost citadel of hallowed Troy, was made to stray grievously about the coasts of men, the sport of their customs, good and bad, while his heart, through all the seafaring, ached with an agony to redeem himself and bring his company safe home. Vain hope-for them. The fools! Their own witlessness cast them aside. To destroy for meat the oxen of the most exalted Sun, wherefore the Sun-god blotted out the day of their return. Make this tale live for us in all its many bearings, O Muse…”

- from the Odyssey, by Homer; Translated by T.E. Lawrence