Our Blog
Our goal in posting our blogs is three fold: To introduce timely industry news that is relevant to our clients; to post items we find interesting and entertaining, and finally, to give you a glimpse of TSW US “Behind the Curtain”. We take the business aspects of what we are doing very seriously, but we like to have fun, hopefully that shines through here.
Our Blog is a puzzle being assembled. Sometimes the individual pieces of the puzzle don’t look like the whole picture once completed – You have to keep adding pieces one at a time to make the image clear. We hope you keep coming back to see how the TSW US puzzle takes shape.
Power of Imagery - Rorschach Plate VII
In a segment The Specialist Works US calls the Power of Imagery we look at Rorschach slides to inspire our conversation on advertising images and layout elements. This week's Plate VII, though evocative, is sparse in its color and its presence.
Is less more? In this case it likely is. Do advertisers take on too much in a single full page ad? Is the suggestion more powerful than the disclosure?
Subtle vs. Blatant. Weigh in. We'd love to hear from you.
Wit & Wisdom Wednesday - Caldwell on Listening
"I was not a writer to begin with; I was a listener."
Erskine Caldwell
We love Southern literature at Elarbee Media. Erskine Caldwell's God's Little Acre was the first "First Edition" purchase we made. Erskine Caldwell himself gives us a truth in his statement that is so powerful it is easy to overlook.
Listening is an Art. You can not understand how to deliver the cure if you don't listen to the symptoms of the disease. It is all too easy to try to push solutions without listening to problems.
Listening is not about hearing the words, it is also hearing the cadence, and tone. Language is a gift, tool and weapon. Listen and hear so that you are prepared. People tell you more than you imagine in a simple sentence.
Happy Birthday U.S. Navy
Elarbee Media is excited to say Happy Birthday to the United States Navy. We appreciate the service and protection they offer this great nation. Cheers!
Happy Oktoberfest!
It’s the final day of Oktoberfest, a special time of year for Elarbee Media. We are sad to have to put away our Oktoberfest steins and our dirndls for another year. To our German clients colleagues and friends, we want to leave you with one final Prost! before we close it out.
Throwback Thursday Sean Connery for Jim Beam
It is Throwback Thursday at Elarbee Media, and true to form, we are featuring a vintage print ad. We pick ads from the past that we rate as timeless or that are extremely timely to a period and no longer have relevance, but are very amusing. Today we are feeling timeless.
Today, we selected one of our favorite celebrity endorsements to highlight. Sean Connery for Jim Beam. This ad hits on all levels and if we put Sean Connery's updated photo with a beard in the same ad today it would sell many fifths during the holiday season.
Simple and clean. Image-heavy with limited copy. Definitely aspirational.
Throwback Thursday Oktoberfest St. Pauli Girl
In honor of Oktoberfest, we thought we would use Throwback Thursday to highlight some beer ads. This St. Pauli Girl ad is from 1990.
Simple, but witty. Creating a woman out of the beer is brilliant, and allows the consumer to indulge in a romance with the product. Silly and cunning all at the same time. We love it. The fact that the art execution is also clean and well done is a fine by us too.
Prost!
Art Tuesday - Color in Advertising
It is Art Tuesday at Elarbee Media and we want to talk about color. We know that in advertising darker colors like green and blue are used to convey the feeling of stability. Favorites of financial institutions these "cool" colors are often also defined as masculine.
So what happens when you combine these stable, masculine colors with chaotic pattern, or with the freedom of no pattern?
Is a lack of control executed in blue jarring, whereas a lack of control in red is anticipated?
We found this blue piece by Shelly Leitheiser to be so organic in its appeal that we simply did not care, Not normally buyers of Blue art, we threw caution to the wind. Sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone.
For more on how color is used in advertising:
http://www.blurgroup.com/blogs/group/the-impact-of-colour-in-advertising-marketing-and-design/
Cocktail Friday Lone Star Bottle Cap #213
It is Cocktail Friday at Elarbee Media, and we are closing shop early today to go our annual Pig Picken'. But we wanted to leave you with a brain teaser from Lone Start Beer before we left. Here is # 213.