11-Sebelas-Eleven in 3D

Today the world celebrates the most anticipated date of the millennium… 11-11-11. My math sucks, so don't ask me numerology or counts on this occurrence. Nevertheless, it was a good day for me.

It was also the day that Malaysia's premier English newspaper, the New Straits Times (NST) made its relaunch with new masthead, typeface, overall content design and approach to reach wider audience and having more international look. And to further enhance the relaunch, today's issue featured anaglyph images or 3D as we know it, in most advertisements and pictures, as well as editorial contents.

I know people are all in awe of NST's 3D experience… but you know what, the pain of creating 3D ads were hard to bear than said. At the creative unit where all 3D ads are designed, designers and us (copywriters) rolled our eyes, adjusting our sights and visions, tracing, constructing anaglyph images layers by layers, scratch to scratch. Head spinning, neck pain, back pain, stress were staple; worse came when clients became fussy, ridiculous comments swirled, unreasonably demanding, being dissatisfied (obviously, they knew nothing about 3D and its technicals) and changes that kept recurring. Grr! The designers got to tag along sales people to explain design technicalities: colour coding, layering and masking, pixelation, resolution, inks and papers used... oh, I wish I could write a manual to assist them.

But when all is well, there came compliments, appreciation and felicitations from our top management. Pours of congratulatory wishes showered us all, and we were treated with feasts and pats on our backs, acknowledging our hardship in producing the first 3D feature in our history. Oh, we truly enjoyed our fruits of labour.

If you got the special 11-11-11 NST, grab them. It came once only. The best thing is, you can keep the free glasses to view 3D mags or films at your leisure. And if you have sharp eyes, try to spot me among these people.

Again, kudos to all designers and sales colleagues who made this happen. It was indeed a special day for all of us at Advertising Department and the whole community of NSTP.

Forza Creative Services!