Sunday, April 29, 2007

Beautification

All across Kenya (except for in the most remote corners), advertising colors the cities and villages. Shops agree to a fresh coat of paint in exchange for the paint advertising a product or service. (Some villages are "Coke" and others are "Safaricom.".)

There is a new building being built in the complex where I work. For safety reasons, a corrugated steel fence blocks the building site from the rest of the complex. Someone decided to trade the raw-steel-look for the Crown Paint look.

"Crown" is the brand. "Vesta" is their economy product line.

Notes:
1. The signs were totally painted by hand - no rulers or any other guides were used.
2. The little white rectangle below the "gloss" is where the paint color would be written on the can. (I might not have thought it to be central to the design enough to have included it in the advertising reproduction.)
3. I enjoyed the artist's version of the crown's glow.

1 comment:

Marti said...

I saw the same penchant for selling ad space - getting things painted - and recreating advertisements with laborious handwork - in India. It is kind of impressive, though one's first response, as a Westerner who secretly hopes to go where no one [at least no one like us] has gone before, the first glimpse is accompanied by disappointment in some settings. "Aw, why'd they have to ruin it?" At least, when it's something from home, like Coke, it seems disappointing. But like you I can come to appreciate these things on their own terms as well!

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