This week FdA Graphic Design and Advertising jetted off to the USA to visit the big apple! While we were there we visited design agencies Pearlfisher and Droga5 as well as being typical tourists and doing some serious sight seeing!
Pearlfisher was the first agency we visited and we were given a talk about the company and shown a presentation on all of their latest work. Pearfishers approach was simple and effective: we are designers, we believe, we create. From the work we were shown, my favourite was their branding and packaging design for Go Macro, organic protein bars which help to boost the immune system and provide the body with essential nutrients. The packaging had friendly illustrative style images which really reflected the 'innocent, no-nonsense' organic ingredients. I also really loved the logo, which used the infinity symbol to represent an infinite healthy lifestyle, thanks to these tasty bars.
Next up was Droga5. This was the largest design agency we'd visited, with studio's in New York, London and Australia. We were given a tour of the studio (after having to prove our identity at the buildings entrance!) and a presentation on their latest advertising campaign: Newcastle Brown Ale, No Bollocks. They'd played on the Geordie word 'bollocks' and created a whole campaign on the basis of humorous honesty.
Take a look at the TV ad here:
http://www.droga5.com/#/work/newcastle/nobollocks/nbgreattimes
New York was full of culture with something to see on every corner! My favourite part of the trip was seeing a break-dancer on the subway, dancing for tips. We crammed as much sight seeing as we could into the four days we were there and managed to visit: Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Station, Macy's, Rockefeller Square, Bloomingdale's, SoHo, Central Park, MoMA and Ground Zero, as well as the design agencies! It's safe to say I was absolutely knackered by the time we got home and slept most of the weekend. I would highly recommend New York to anyone and would love to go back as I feel there is still so much more to see!