Bad Commercials, Good Design?

It seems to me that the most annoying thing about any radio or TV programming is the commercials. Most the time I just change the channel or turn the radio off when they start but when I do listen or watch the only ones I ever remember for long time are the ones that are just terrible. Its great when a funny or intelligent commercial comes along but they don't stick like the really bad ones. It makes me wonder if a terrible commercial with a ridiculous jingle is a more successful design for an advertisement than a brilliant idea or hilarious punch-line. More often than not its local commercials who obviously don't have a huge budget for advertising so they throw something together using what little resources they have and voila we're blessed with a terrible commercial that makes you want to turn the TV off and ask the people wtf they were thinking? But that stupid commercial was so bad or so annoying that you just won't forget it, not for months probably. I use the General car insurance image as an example because of they're awful jingle and cheap 3D graphics they use in their commercials. Both of these are so bad that the General I think will forever be stuck in my head.

 We know advertising works otherwise companies wouldn't spend millions on it, so I wonder how effective a commercial is that is just so terrible you can't forget it.

Design in Society

Design is everywhere in our society. Everywhere we look design is affecting us and we are affecting design. From the clothing we wear to the buildings that surround us all are 'designed' with a purpose or function. Once you realize what design is and how much of our society is actually designed it can almost be overwhelming and hard to decide what is and isn't design. Almost anything that is man made seems to have some designing involved. Even a blank wall has a design aspect because it probably has some kind of paint or texture applied to it to make it look good. Why is this? I think its because we as humans have a desire for things to be aesthetically appealing. So in society, we as designers make things in order to appeal to the majority of the people because they're who make our designs popular. In a way society helps shape design since the designers are a part of society. At the same time design is designing for society, designers are also pushing society in new or different directions.

First Encounters of Design with Dr. Seuss

I was having a difficult time with this until reading Housefield's blog where he talked about a book being his first encounter with design and I realized mine was too, at least that I can remember. I'm sure I had a lot of encounters with other things designed with me in mind, but nothing that I can recall like Dr. Seuss books. I can remember reading the ridiculous rhymes and studying all the pictures and their colors. Like Housefield said it taught me to link words and images and fed my imagination. I had no idea then and didn't realize until now actually, that these silly books were designed for my learning. I can remember the bright illustrations on the cover and the crazy titles like Oh, the Thinks You Can Think, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Hop on Pop, Fox on Sox, and a bunch of others that I can't remember anymore. Everything was so simple but at the same time he created an elaborate amazing world of imagination that made learning fun for young young young readers. They also taught some little life lessons every now and again. I'm sure people have read into deeper meanings in all the books like people do but I'd like to think that they can pretty much be taken for what they are. The illustrations in the book were simple and consisted of tons of imaginary creatures, 'people', and places. Some were nearly recognizable, others were pure fantasy. The colors and patterns could be completely random unless color coordination was necessary. The architecture hardly made sense and seemed to break all laws of physics. All of this accompanied by crazy rhymes and stories that combine to create a timeless successful design for a children's book. It's nuts to realize that we are all affected by design pretty much the second we're born.