A Cannes Titanium Badlander

By now y'all know that the Titanium winner this year was the Japanese company Design Barcode for inventing and implementing cool designed bar codes.

Naturally, we've seen this before. (More inside)

This series done by Berlin graphic design posse Pfadfinderei for the techno record label BPitch Control.

Or this one done by Asteriks design studio. Seems we share the same taste in bobbleheads as I got the BoneDaddy as well. ;)

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hlebarov's picture

Who told you "that the Titanium winner this year was the Japanese company Design Barcode" ??? There si no such winner at Cannes 2006 web page ???

AnonymousCoward's picture

Oh...didn't realize those were working barcodes, too. In that case, the Titanium for originality is anything but.

Thanks.

Dabitch's picture

BPitch Control barcodes are also afaik working barcodes incorporated on the sleeve art of the albums released under that label. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

AnonymousCoward's picture

Cannes & Titanium conspiracies aside, there is one very important difference in the Design Barcode work...these are actual working barcodes, not just designs based on the barcode motif.

So beyond a clever design idea, it turns those ambiguous and ubiquitous little collections of stripes into artful, working symbols of the brand.

Whether or not that makes it Titanium worthy is anybody's call. But there is a big difference between incorporating a common motif and really re-inventing something as mundane as a barcode.

LPikon's picture

Dabitch, I'm sure you are correct in why they awarded it - the jury even said that rather than just a campaign, the Japanese team had developed a piece of I.P. that becomes a protectable business in it's own right.
And to be honest, when I first saw it I was blown away with the simplicity, brilliance, and what I originally thought of as, originality of the idea .
However, I also felt that it made the Titanium Lions as a category somewhat confusing, especially as this is winner is a clever piece of 'design' rather than what we might conceive of as 'advertising'. Having said that, maybe it's absolutely right for the Titanium Lions to be the 'anything goes' or ' none of the above' category of Cannes.
All that aside though, in light of the points I raised earlier, and the jury's original and strong reasons for awarding this entry in the first place, do you really think they can let this year's decision stand?

Dabitch's picture

See stealthman, you touched on part of the problem right there - there's a titanium shortlist. You have to send your work to Cannes to get on this shortlist. I'm sure BPitch control never even considered sending their sleeve designs and barcodes (can it be considred their corporate id?) to Cannes.

Also, I'm wondering if this was rewarded because they made the barcode design a business. Its not just some fun design examples, but a business where clients lease the rights to the barcode rather than pay the agency for the X hours they spent on drawing a stringy-barcode pizza. Think tetrapack - it'll have this company rolling in dough if it takes off. Its the best part of the idea.

PS there's also Barcode revolution page to view the japanese ones.

LPikon's picture

Here's some of the original explanations given by the Titanium Lions Jury for awarding the only Titanium Lion to Design Barcode:

"The jury all agreed that the Design Barcode work was a totally original concept, which is exactly what the Titanium was all about".

kurtberengeiger's picture

Now matter how you look at it, this is just embarrassing.
Who sat in the jury for the Titanium Lions?

Andreas-Udd's picture

BPitch Control and Design bacode have the same exact idea. But if we judge on good looks alone I think that the last one, from Asteriks design studio, is the real winner. It's a notch above the others.

claymore's picture

AdLand - home of advertising and primal scream therapy.

areia's picture

It's not mentioned there because adforum sucks. ;)

adscam's picture

Hey... It's not a "Rip-Off" It's an "Homage"... Much classier in French. But as Zippy the Pin-Head would say "It's Yogi-Vue all over again!" At least it ran, (I assume) unlike half the shit that wins awards these days. Either that or they're English language ads for Cambodian Tattoo parlors which appeared once in Lurtzers Fucking Archive Rip-Off! Whew, I feel better now I've got that off my chest!
Cheers/George

claymore's picture

Questions are good. Couldn't leave that one alone though.

We're always glad to provide you with a superior link experience.

hlebarov's picture

OK, sorry for my question - I used this link
http://www.adforum.com/creative_archive/award/award_detail.asp?tb=6&ID=1...
and this company is not mentioend there at all

makethelogobigger's picture

You crazy? That’s nothing like the other work.

(Yeah right.)

;-p

Dabitch's picture

Oh wow, Claymore and me seem to be like synchronized swimmers today. Heh! That comment wasn't there when I made mine. I swear.

Dabitch's picture
claymore's picture

Such outrage, hlebarov! Well, here's something to get even more upset about - I'm going to provide the URL to the Cannes Titanium winner page with Design Barcode on it, but you'll have to cut and paste it instead of clicking on it. That should really get your panties in a bunch.

http://www.canneslions.com/winners_site/titan/

AnonymousCoward's picture

this is great... some titanium award... hahahaha

Dabitch's picture

Brandflakesforbreakfast just posted little surprises that create delight - which lead us down the rabbit holes to JKR.co.uk and their post on cute barcodes. Looks like "Esquire magazine has been quietly playing with its barcode for a while"- which is sweet and all. I'm all for more creative barcodes, as long as Esquire doesn't win the Titanium for the idea. ;))

joelapompe's picture

You have to see that, I've done this barcodes in adv compilation in 2007 :
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=190549&l=903a229aa1&id=710303247

Dabitch's picture

Oh wow, that's so many more. We could go barcode-hunting forever.