Need a little ad hoc inspiration?
- Luke Telford
- 12 August 2009
Photo credit: vikush @ sxc.hu
Sometimes it just needs a little encouragement. When you're lacking that brilliant concept, taking a bit of inspiration from others is always a good way to get the ideas flowing.
Lürzers Archive
is a
magazine that documents all the high-end contemporary concepts in the advertising world. It's released quarterly and is quite expensive, although it's well worth the Euros for its value. Luckily, they select a few of the best campaigns for you to
look at on their site. If Lürzer's is talking about it, it's going to be good. Quite apart from the inspiration and work aspect, the sheer inventiveness of the campaigns make the mag and its website enormously entertaining to browse through.
The only downside to the Archive site is that the amount of content featured is quite small and all of a ‘high end' type. Not so with Coloribus, who boast over two million print, outdoor, viral and video ads to sift through for inspiration. Its easy to find what you're looking for, as they
group the campaigns according to business sectors, brands, countries, agencies and award winners. The range of variety is important, too: they don't just upload the award winners. The only downside is that 1,900,000 of their 2,000,000 ads require a
subscription to view. Still, an excellent reference tool.
On to Ads of the World, then. This one doesn't
require a subscription of any sort to view the campaigns. It's extensive, smartly designed and has a good range of different ideas. AotW is also community oriented. The site features a blog detailing curious developments in the advertising industry.
There're also forums for discussing trends and prominent campaigns, as well as one on which you can post your ideas for critique. An indispensible resource, to say the least!
If you can't be bothered working through these sites, and simply want a reference point to put your ideas in perspective, then check out Copy Paste. It's a Spanish blog that is dedicated to the weirder side of the advertising world. Well worth a look.
Well, go on! Get creating!
