The singer song writer Catherine Feeny asked Special Machine to design the CD-Packaging for her up-coming CD. An almost overnight success in Belgium, Catherine need a cd cover that was slightly more European in flavor so she could market herself more effectively.
Her lyrics and melody inspiried us to use warm red and orange shades with a cold greyish blue in photography.
"I turned to my friends at Special Machine, who have helped me in so many ways, to create cd packaging that would appeal to European sensibilities. I'm very happy with the end product, and it seems my new fans are as well."
March, 2005
Special Machine was commissioned to design a series of posters for the annual art exhibition at the
HfG, Karlsruhe. The slogan we were given was "Students exhibiting". With that in mind we had a photo shoot with some of the students at art school showing their colorful inside by sticking out their tounges which we adorned surprisingly colorful furs. The aim was to symbolize creative minds turned inside out.
In the end the project grew into a series of 12 posters with an array of students. The resulting buzz created because of this campaign was outstanding. Many of the people asked, "How could you put that fur in your mouth?"
February, 2004
Special Machine Media took part in an international contest to design a advertising campaign for the United Nations World Food Program. The task was to design a television spot, the "Citylight" poster and billboard.
To avoid the tragic, although cliche, image of starving children in Africa, then one must show the opposite: waste and gluttony. To this end, we stage a photo shoot of an eating contest. In our short movie, we sequenced the consumption of a strawberry cake, in the shape of Africa, backwards. Instead of eating Africa, we gave them a rather lavish piece of food in return - almost like birds feed their fledglings. Our thought was that if we were all to become aware of the problem, and think of these other humans as a part of our larger family and not just some ghoulish image we have been inundated with over the years, the issue of starvation might one day be solved.
For the jury, the image of our cast eating Africa (albeit in reverse) was a bit too hard to swallow. Although ours was not chosen, the production did receive honorable mentions and the audiences reacted with great applause.
July, 2005
The Special Machine was asked to design the cover and inside navigation for a double DVD featuring 20 short-films produced over the last 3 years at the HfG Karlsruhe.
The DVD is designed so you can look further into it, bringing the inside out. Our design is purposely very reduced because if you design for artists (even becoming ones) your own design shouldn't overpower their work. We still managed to make the outside appealing with the see-through effect. In the navigation, we didn't want to put the student movies in a sort of list or hierarchy, but in a randomized, "shotgun" disorder. At the same time, it was important to keep the navigation logical and intuitive.
The DVD is used by professors for promotion of the school. Students apply for jobs with this DVD in their hands and movie enthusiast order the DVD online. Sales have been brisk. The DVD costs 5.- euros and can be ordered at Medienkunstsekretariat.
June, 2004
In this category we display smaller projects from various clients in various media.
Flyers and posters are especially fun to design. We like to show off our talent and flex our muscles with these assignments. Since production costs of flyers and posters are comparatively low, we try to lead clients to more unusual ideas. These ideas, more often than not, pay off because unusual ideas break through the clutter in the world of advertising. Generally, we play around with unusual formats, colors, printing techniques, textures, and extreme visuals.
Even though we lead our clients to unknown territory where they at first might not feel so comfortable, they tend to want more of this vibrant design and quickly embrace this tactic of innovation as opposed to following trends.
2003 - 2006
