These are not your McDonalds or KFC’s though, Im talking about Perfect Fried Chicken and Chicken Cottage, you know the ones, offers like chicken and chips for a pound adorn the window. It got me thinking though who designs their signs.

Morris Cassanova (aka Mr Chicken) designs and makes signs for around 90% of the fried chicken shops in the UK his company is called MBC Signs. Siâron Hughes a designer from London has written a book on the subject called  Chicken: Low Art, High Calorie.

One thing you notice is that nearly all the signs have some reference to America, whether it be name, colour scheme or general design. Mr Chicken said on the subject “The majority of shop owners out there they want for some reason or other, because Kentucky Fried Chicken is an American company, they want to give the impression that they are linked with the American fast food chain. In the past Kentucky usually have a little logo, a little slogan, “American Recipe,” people used to copy that. I mean a lot of people still try, and we say, “Oh that’s old fashioned, people not using that again.” Because they try to pull the wool over people’s eyes, you get your Dallas, it’s American, you get your California, it’s American, you get your Mississippi it’s American, and so forth and so on, and people just use those names to link with America just as well as they’re using their recipe, y’know. You hardly ever see a sign saying English Fried Chicken, or with an English name or anything like that”.

All in all I think credit is due, most of the signage appears the same but there are differences, subtle as they may be.

3D Glasses on myself and 3 friends watched avatar at the Vue in Leeds, the whole film experience was immersive and soon we sat in awe as the characters on screen were interacting in an alien world. Having seen other 3D films years ago… Jaws 3D springs to mind. I wasn’t expecting the depth every shot has, and it’s not just large objects that appear to be 3D, everything from the countless ferns swaying in the breeze, the floating mountains, the millenia old giant trees, the waterfall cascades, even the bioluminescent nighttime landscapes all pop out.

Obviously without a story all this wouldn’t make Avatar a great film. The basic plot is that of an indigenous race (The Na’vi) under threat from a superior force (Humans). It’s technology vs the ecosystem, people who want to ravage an environment and mine it of it’s resources and aliens who are happy coexisting with it. Paraplegic hero Jake Sully learns to become one of the Na’vi tribe through his Avatar body and…. well I won’t say any more just in case you go see it.

Any bad points to Avatar, well some of the dialogue is a bit cringe worthy “Come get some” should never be shouted under any circumstance and the main bad guy is a bit cartoonish and obvious, neither of these point ruin the film though.

So in summary, go see the film and even if your not amazed by the story the visuals are well worth the ticket price alone, it definitely wont be as impressive on dvd at home with only bifocals on.

The top 10 snowflakes, as voted for by visitors to the site, receive a box of snowballs to eat!

This campaign is very fitting at the moment considering the snowy conditions we have been having.

To take a look at some of the other entries or to submit your own click here

Some people go crazy decorating the outsides of their houses. Some houses and streets even work together to create a row of lit up houses.

Some of these houses do go a little bit mad with their lights and decorations – a little too mad if you ask me.

The craze for decorating the outside of houses first started in America but has made it over to the UK in the past few years with it now becoming more popular than ever over here.

Most of the time the home owners have collection boxes outside their homes to raise money for charity as they receive so many visitors coming to look at their creations.

I bet their electricity bills are massive for the month of December!

‘Ben’s just making sure I give him  some love’ said by Sally

‘You’re quite needy today’ By Haley to Ben

‘If you want some effort putting in that cup, I’ll put some effort in’ By Matt

‘You’ve got to pull one off too’ By Sally

These Panasonic Nose Hair Trimmer Billboards designed by Saatchi & Saatchi very cleverly use electrical wires and poles as part of the ad. More than just been amusing, they are memorable and caused quite a stir in Indonesia where they were placed.

VW Dream Bubbles

Car parks are rarely used as places to advertise. When placed above an inanimate object such as a car these clever little ads give it a voice of it’s own, they might even make you feel a prang of guilt. Being just above eye level they are unmissable as well.

2012

2012 is a film about a group of people who must deal with natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, typhoons and glaciers. Creating a flat static ad that coveys disaster isn’t going to have much impact, especially when it’s a very visual effect laden affair. This ad very effectively uses a metro tunnel as the scene of a flood.

The aim of any ad is getting the ‘customer’ to remember the product, so when they are in a position to buy whatever it is the ad is selling, that product pops to mind first. This is done through repetition or a clever idea. The above ads definitely come under the clever section.

Every Creative Challenge begins with the brief.

Each team member takes a look at the brief and carries out any background research necessary before the first team meeting -  the first brainstorm. This is where we get all our first thoughts and ideas onto paper, we then find that from these first initial ideas a few stand out.

The next stage is go away and work on the ideas that stand out. This is when we get out our paper and pencils and begin to sketch (some better than others!)

After a few more meetings we then decide which ideas are the strongest to take forward and these get worked up on the macs. While this is happening we also begin work on our presentation.

Once all the groups have done their presentation in front of the directors and presented their strongest idea we all wait in suspense to find out which team has won the directors award and why.

We will be posted all briefs we receive on here so you to take part and send us in your ideas. We will also be posting the winners work with feedback from the Diretors as to why it won.

“Can you plug it into some wi-fi thing?” Another classic from Louise

“I wasn’t ‘owning him’ as you say” from Sally

Our newest member of staff Haley made it in to the book in her first month with these…

“There’s a good caravan shop there”

“I’m starting to like the knowledge turnip”

and

“It made sense to me in my head”

check back next month to see if Haley is more careful with her words!