Creative Advent 2008: Lauren Krause

Don’t be afraid to try something different in your designs, especially if it’s silly or crazy.

I had an eccentric professor for quite a few of my portfolio classes in college. Among other things, he taught a small unit on photography. For our assignment each week, we were given one word and we had to photograph that however we saw fit.

Trying Something New or Different

One week, the word was ‘spice.’ I built a little scene out of all kinds of spices—mustard, rosemary, peppercorns, fennel seeds (the birds), paprika, cardamom, whole cloves and baking powder (ok, not quite a spice). The final result is a little silly and I was embarrassed to show it, but my professor thought it was pretty fantastic (the idea, more than the actual execution). And I was the only person who went this route. Other people took pictures of spice racks and such, but they were kinda boring.

The lesson from that? From that day on, I started seeing food used to create ad illustrations. Do you remember the ones from the Chex Mix ads? They created faces out of the Chex Mix and animated them using stop motion camera work. It’s an interesting personification of food, don’t you think?

So what started out as a crazy idea—using actual spices to create an illustration—is actually being used by professional agencies in brand advertising! And you know Marian Bantjes, right?

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