Customer Reviews

Brain Darts: The Advertising Design of Turkel Schwartz & Partners

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I came across this book while searching TURKEL's Web site. It's a nice retrospective of the agency's work over the years for some pretty impressive clients. Granted, there's not a lot of cutting edge guerilla/viral stuff like Crispin does, but this book was published long before anyone knew what that was! Still, you'll find solid design and well thoughtout strategies to inspire you.

A towering monmument to mediocrity. With the exception of a handful of first-rate ads (Designing Eye furniture, Discovery Channel, The Peabody Hotel), the creative showcased in "Brain Darts" is devoid of wit, daring or originality. It's second rate stuff that doesn't begin to compare with the breakthrough work routinely created by fellow Miami agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky. I can't believe they honestly believed the ads for Bet Shira, Bacardi and Multivision - to mention just a few - actually merited publication in a book. This shows a shocking lack of judgement on the part of the authors.

it's just rehashed, old and boring.....it is chest beating at it worst...It is like a glorified portfolio for the company.

For me, this book was a bust. It's not that the creative is terrible: it's just not terribly good.So why give it one star as opposed to, say, two or three? Because of the utter lack of originality that pervades much of the work. For example, the Elbow Beach Resort ads are a pale imitation of Goodby Silverstein's far superior NCL campaign. Likewise, the work for Bet Shira is a shameless ripoff of Fallon's lauded Espiscopal Church ads of the 1980s. And the cover? It seems like a swipe from Target. As a marketing ploy designed to raise the agency's profile and impress potential clients, the book is undeniably brilliant. As a collection of original and daring creative, however, it is sadly lacking.

After reading some of the reviews here I was left wondering if I received a different copy of brain darts?
It sounds like two were written by frustrated creatives from shops who lost out to the Turkel ad team. Ouch.

But this book is great and well worth the price of admission.
I enjoyed it completely.

Brain Darts is an excellent overview of a diverse, international collection of work from a great Miami based agency. I dug the cover, and then found the work inside to be refreshingly conceptual, and very well executed. This would be a great book for students, as well as practicing designers and advertising creatives.

"With Brain Darts, Turkel Schwartz & Partners helps people better understand how simple and magnificent creative thinking and problem solving can be. Bruce Turkel's illustrations make the complex and esoteric very clear. His style and humor make the process of learning a joy. Of course, you can't articulate this stuff so well and make it so real without walking the walk, and Bruce Turkel does that part with long strides and a nice bounce in his step. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to get the most out of this visit to the planet..."