What Design Communicates
Jun. 26th, 2006 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsFor the past month, I have been haunted by ads for Las Vegas. They're billboards scattered throughout Seattle, and they say things like "I had to unbutton my pants," "We did it until we dropped," and "I joined a threesome."
It's obvious, in retrospect, that the quotes are meant to imply sex. And yet, my first thoughts, upon seeing them was, in order, "... because I ate too much," "Shopping," and "Bridge? No, that takes four. Ah, golf. Ha ha. Not funny." And indeed, in small print at the bottom, there's a line that reads "Visit Las Vegas. Let dining be your excuse." (Or shopping, or golf. I got all three right.) The campaign is known in the business as the Alibi campaign.
If salaciousness was their intent, they failed miserably, and it is the fault of the graphic designer. First, the text has no caps. Second, it's done in a very 70s-ish blocky but not gothic sans-serif typeface. And third, the background is nothing but a black wallpaper with big, dully multicolored dots on it meant to imply poker chips. My first impression upon seeing the billboards was they were a desperate attempt to update something out of the 1970's. It still looks 70's-ish, but it fails to look updated.
You know what all this communicates to me? Just as America is discovering that kidulthood may be a necessary survival component of our modern and increasingly changeable world, Las Vegas wants to remind everyone: Las Vegas is for OLD PEOPLE. People who remember the 1970's. People in their sixties and seventies. People who aren't embarassed to admire John Travolta's first movie career. People who identified with Maude.
It may be just because the very first one I saw was the one on the freeway ramp as I head out of my neighborhood, which has the "I had to unbutton my pants" line on it. I saw that, in its typeface and with its background, and my extended reaction was, "... because I am a fat, bloated middle-aged American who can't control himself."
The previous campaign, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," was successful because it did have that powerful wink and nod to sex. This campaign does not, and it is the graphic designer's fault that it does not.
It's obvious, in retrospect, that the quotes are meant to imply sex. And yet, my first thoughts, upon seeing them was, in order, "... because I ate too much," "Shopping," and "Bridge? No, that takes four. Ah, golf. Ha ha. Not funny." And indeed, in small print at the bottom, there's a line that reads "Visit Las Vegas. Let dining be your excuse." (Or shopping, or golf. I got all three right.) The campaign is known in the business as the Alibi campaign.
If salaciousness was their intent, they failed miserably, and it is the fault of the graphic designer. First, the text has no caps. Second, it's done in a very 70s-ish blocky but not gothic sans-serif typeface. And third, the background is nothing but a black wallpaper with big, dully multicolored dots on it meant to imply poker chips. My first impression upon seeing the billboards was they were a desperate attempt to update something out of the 1970's. It still looks 70's-ish, but it fails to look updated.
You know what all this communicates to me? Just as America is discovering that kidulthood may be a necessary survival component of our modern and increasingly changeable world, Las Vegas wants to remind everyone: Las Vegas is for OLD PEOPLE. People who remember the 1970's. People in their sixties and seventies. People who aren't embarassed to admire John Travolta's first movie career. People who identified with Maude.
It may be just because the very first one I saw was the one on the freeway ramp as I head out of my neighborhood, which has the "I had to unbutton my pants" line on it. I saw that, in its typeface and with its background, and my extended reaction was, "... because I am a fat, bloated middle-aged American who can't control himself."
The previous campaign, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," was successful because it did have that powerful wink and nod to sex. This campaign does not, and it is the graphic designer's fault that it does not.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Some of the old people are sexy...
Date: 2006-06-26 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-26 09:55 pm (UTC)But I got to Vegas mainly for conferences - and watch married business men get drunk and paw at women. Sometimes guys I know, and I know they're not poly.