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FADA Gallery showcases the art of Humanism
A retrospective of work by Gerry Human, Ogilvy South Africa's chief creative officer, is currently up on exhibition at the FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg, until 13 August 2008. Humanism - the art of selling exhibition comprises work from his student portfolio in 1983 through to current advertising for major brands.
Since 1988, Human has worked at big name agencies such as TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris and Net#work BBDO, and in 1998 he opened the hot shop HarrisonHuman. In 2003 Ogilvy acquired HarrisonHuman and brought Human on board as executive creative director of Ogilvy Johannesburg. He was appointed chief creative officer earlier this year. His work has been honoured with a multitude of creative accolades, including three Grand Prix and over 40 Gold Loeries, 20 Cannes Lions and a Grand Prize at the London International Awards, to name but a few.
In 2003 Human served on the Cannes Film Jury and was chairman of the Creative Circle from 2004 to 2006. He currently serves on the holding board of Ogilvy South Africa, the executive committee of the Creative Circle and the board of The Loerie Awards.
Insight into advertising
According to Human, an alumnus of Wits Technikon, which is now part of the University of Johannesburg, the university still places significant emphasis on the basic foundations of design, which is vitally important for advertising and design graduates entering the workplace. He says the primary intention of the exhibition is to give young, talented people some insight into the world of advertising. And hopefully some inspiration, too.
To exaggerate the point that effective advertising needs to break through an immense amount of clutter, the contemporary gallery space has been specially rigged with a variety of sound and visual aids that make reference to the chaos of commercialism and advertising.
A multi-channel audio track relentlessly churns out garbled commercial messages. The press and poster campaigns are set on a background of wallpaper made from advertising clutter (a reference to the advertising cliché that most formulaic advertising is just like wallpaper - it's there but nobody really notices). And to escape the madness of the background noise, headphones are provided so that television ads can be viewed on a giant bubble floating in the middle of the gallery.
The exhibition opened on Thursday 24 July.
