GAUGE presents Kali Nikitas (Feb. 16, 2012)

Kali Nikitas is Chair of the Communication Arts department at Otis College of Art and Design. She previously served as an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Visual Arts at Northeastern University in Boston, chaired the Design Department at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and was on faculty at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Kali has curated two international design exhibitions: "And She Told 2Friends: An International Exhibition of Graphic Design by Women" and "Soul Design." Her work has been published in Emigre, Eye, I.D. and the AIGA Journal. She has received awards from the ACD, AIGA and the Type Directors Club. Kali has been considered to be one of the best and well known designers in the Los Angeles/Chicago region. Because of her vast reputation, it was an honor for her to come give her inspirational speech at cal state LA. (Wikipedia)

As a cal state LA design student, I felt privileged to be part of this Gauge event. Throughout her presentation, Kali gave a sense of gentleness when it came to her work, especially when it came to her personality. Kali started off her presentation with an interactive exercise which many thought to very interesting. The exercise was very personalized. During the exercise, the audience had to write down three descriptions of a personal, professional, and global nature. At first, I couldn’t see where she was going with it but soon became clear. She had us jot down our future ambitions pertaining to our view of the world, our career and ourselves. She instructed us to store these cards away, forget about them, then see if you were to run into them again that these ambitions would have came true. This exercise seem to be an activity in which one can help better themselves both personally and socially. An exercise in which she claimed helped her out in her own life. Kali also tried a second exercise with the audience. She took 5 different ideas from the audience and choose one that the audience thought was most important. For some reason everyone choose the idea of owning a Panda Habitat. She then made the audience pull out their smart phones and laptops and post this idea on face book. This exercise seemed to touch on social involvement. Many believe that the purpose of this exercise was to take an issue/idea and try to get an reaction to the topic. Maybe to get people to engage on an issue never thought about.

Despite her creative exercises, Kali gave an intriguing presentation. During her presentation, the audience can see she is very personal and very family oriented. This seems to be her main inspiration for all her work. Kali isn’t like most designers out there. Most the designers seem to lean more towards the professional side of design whereas Kali seems to lean more towards the personal side. Her design seems to work more in her favor than for the client, she seems to be more of an artist rather than a designer. Throughout her presentation, she made many references to other designers, artists, events, and work which many found very helpful. She also mention her excursions in Europe where she met new and interesting artists/designers. Kali must of gained great inspiration from those travels. It seems like she applied a good amount of European design style in some of her work. For example, her line of bag designs seem to be very European oriented. Kali’s Fashion for Love project was also very interesting. I believe the most successful type of creativity is the one where people can interact with. This project has many people involved and engaging in this activity. It is cleverly fun and highly interesting. Kali has a very effective way of interacting with her audience, creative engagement, and most importantly gaining student reaction.

Kali Nikitas was a very inspirational speaker. She made me feel a bit more secure in choosing the field of design. Before her presentation I wasn’t sure in which direction of design I wanted to head for but then she gave me hope. She mentioned that many people tend to get in the field of design without a sense of direction. Fortunately, she expressed the fact that obtaining and education in graphic design/visual communication can help open doors to other interesting careers. One can use what he/she learned in design/art and apply it to another type of career. As designer, she made me realize there is many options to choose from and many open doors available. It all just depends one’s ambition and desire to push forward. She made me realize the importance of getting evolved and participating in the field of design. Inspiration must come from everywhere.

Advertising Formula 409 Cleaner. (Feb. 13th, 2012)

Those for you who do not know, Formula 409 was created in 1957 by the Rouff brothers, three scientists from Detroit, Michigan. The brothers worked for Gem Products, an industrial cleaning solution manufacturer. As their intention was to create a heavy-duty degreaser for commercial de-greasing, alkaline was a main ingredient in this powerful cleaner. Gem Products sold Formula 409 to Chemsol in 1960. Chemsol toned down the chemical content of the formula in to a product gentle enough for standard home use. In the mid-1960s, entrepreneurs Harrell, Woodcock and Linkletter bought the product and promoted it on the national level through television commercials. Clorox eventually purchased the Formula 409 brand. It was named 409 because it was not until the 409th try that Gem Products was able to discover the perfect chemical mixture for degreasing needs. The first appearance of the product was in an 1960s television commercial for Formula 409 featured animated pinup girl Betty Boop singing as she cleaned with a hulky bottle of the solution. (wikipedia)

Researching Formula 409 is no easy task. There isn't much information out there regarding the advertisement of 409 or its demographics. But when looking at past ad campaigns, one can see that 409 is mainly for house wives and house mothers (age ranging between mid 20s to late 60s). There hasn't been any other 409 campaigns to prove otherwise. So if 409 were to start a new campaign anytime soon, they might want to think about using other demographics. The product should not only communicate to a female audience, it should also communicate to the men. 409 can also target men (ages 20-60). 409 is an all purpose cleaner, therefore should be treated as such. For the new 409 ad campaigns, the product should express a more masculine point of few. For example, showing a man who has a giant mess to clean up after having a huge party and the only solution to clean it all up with is 409. This type of campaign will involve a great deal of brainstorming, sketching, and male opinions to get this campaign right.

Adverting the Legalization of Marijuana. (Feb. 6, 2012)

For the past several years, the legalization of marijuana has been a highly controversial issue in the U.S, in this case California. Because of it's intensity, the issue of legalizing marijuana has reached new heights, especially when it came to advertising it's legalization.

Radio and magazine ads are just the beginning of what promises to be an intense and expensive campaign. One supporter promises to spend a million dollars of his own money to legalize marijuana. If successful California would become the first state this century to legalize marijuana, and tax it. Many proponents claim legalizing the use of marijuana in California is one way to help solve the state's budget problems. And they say it's one way to make life easier for police. So supporters of what is being called the regulate, control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. have a former reserve sheriff's deputy and school policeman as their voice. One radio advertisement broadcasts: "Like many other cops, I've seen firsthand that the current approach on cannabis is simply not working. It's led to violent drug cartels, dealers in our schools and our streets." What law enforcement in the state and nationally is focused on is the cultivation and the large-scale smuggling operations of marijuana. Millionaire Richard Lee bankrolled much of the petition drive that got the measure on the November ballot. He started using marijuana medicinally after a back injury. Now he sells medical marijuana and promises to raise at least $20 million to legalize marijuana. Lee believes that taxing marijuana will make the proposition more attractive to voters. However, many opposers ask "if we as a society want another intoxicant legalized." "Once we get a consistent voice, I think the public will realize what's really at stake here is the social fabric of the state," said KIm Raney, head of the Covina chief of police. Fourteen states, including California, allow marijuana for medical use. Alaska tried legalizing it for recreation in 1978. The law was repealed in 1990.

With feelings as strong as those you can get some idea how tough the campaign will be on both sides of the legalization issue, especially when advertising comes into play. When advertising an issue such as this one, both sides must figure a way to persuade their audience in believing their campaign, mainly through advertisement. This is where visual and verbal communication is key to winning over your audience. When designing an ad for the legalization of marijuana, one must chose imagery, wording, and especially type very carefully. It is important for the designer to visually capture the viewer's attention and persuade him/her in the cause. A designer's main focus in designing ads is make their audience think, communicate, and persuade. The designer will know when he/she has succeed in this approach. When an ad turns out confusing, unnoticeable, and unattractive, that is when a designer will know when he/she was unsuccessful. And this goes back to the layout of the ad's design. Design and copyright have to visual work together. Color, positioning, typefaces, imagery, etc must work together to create visual interest. In the aspect of advertising either pro or con legalization, one must consider what will visually capture the viewer's attention. For pro, a designer would need to create some positive imagery and copyright promoting the positives of legalizing. In the case of con, one would need to focus on negative imagery to promote the negatives of legalization. Depending on the audience, the campaign would need to understand the extent of their ads. For example, in the case of pro, designers might want to focus more on expressing the benefits of legalizing marijuana with a strong sense of maturity (since most of those who might oppose are in the age range of an older crowd). In the case of con, one might want to express the negatives with a sense of fear and negativity (since most of those who are for marijuana are in the age range of a younger crowd). But despite the differences from both sides of the issue, they can both agree on one thing- having successful advertising is key to winning.