It’s that time of year again – The Chicago Auto Show rolls into McCormick Place, filling the convention center with the latest and greatest rolling examples of style and engineering the automotive industry has to offer.

This year seems to be a particularly strong year for the auto manufacturers. It’s no secret that the industry is still recovering from a tough few years. A reeling economy and a couple bankruptcies later, there is a new lease on life on the show floor. The atmosphere was universally optimistic – domestic manufacturers are rolling out new products set to compete on a global scale while up-and-comers like Hyundai is going full steam ahead with the expansion of their increasingly popular line of cars and crossovers (I’m personally smitten with the new Elantra GT that was unveiled last Wednesday).

It’s easy to get caught up in the spectacle that is the Chicago Auto Show. After all, almost 1,000 vehicles cover 1.2 million square feet of McCormick Place during the ten day event. There are numerous new product reveals, all the technology demos you could wish for, and plenty of drool-inducing concept cars. But as the auto industry moves forward, and the playing field continues to level out, the differences between brands become ever slimmer. The details that designers and engineers alike implement into each vehicle become increasingly important.

As a lover of all things with headlights and four wheels, I always enjoy the annual auto show, but this year I tried to take a slightly different approach to the experience.

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Let’s be honest. This year’s Super Bowl ads fell short of expectations for most. Sure, there were a few laughs. An arguably meaningful moment. But, for the most part, companies (and their agencies) seemed to miss the mark. Or, did they?

Super Bowl ads are a different ball game. There are different expectations. Different rules. Friends gather and expect to be entertained. Expect something they haven’t seen before. But, what did we get this year? We saw familiar characters thanks to E*Trade (Talking Babies), Career Builders (Monkeys), and Coke (Polar Bears). We saw nostalgic throw-backs thanks to Acura (Seinfeld), Honda (Ferris Bueller), and MetLife (Cartoons). And we saw the resurgence of what has been conveniently categorized as “sex”.

Go Daddy can’t seem to detach domains from bodies. H&M wants us to think their underwear will turn us a soccer-like physique. And Teleflora, well… they’re just straight-up selling sex.

So, here’s the question. Does it still work? Does sex sell? Do ad agencies know their audience(s)?

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Why do we go to the movies? This is a question I have been pondering over the last week as both myself and Justin settle back from what has now become an annual trip to the Sundance Film Festival – seeing 18 films in 4 days. I know. It sounds exhausting. It is. To sit and watch movie after movie after movie is hard work. But before you scream foul, let’s consider the real question – “Why?” Why immerse yourself into what is seemingly an over-hyped, celebrity infused, celebration of entertainment (other than getting our pictures with Chris Rock and Ty Burell of course)?

Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s because it’s not about entertainment.

Sure, this is not the case for all movies. Anything being released from the Big 6 (studios) is ultimately banking on you buying an experience in “entertainment”. But for a significant portion of the independent filmmakers that find themselves at festivals such as Sundance, it’s about something else. And it better be, as out of the 10,000+ films submitted and the 114 films that make it into the festival each year, less than half get acquired for distribution (45 films in 2011). Actually, the percentage of films being sold has historically been more like 10% (14 in 2010). All this to say, if filmmakers are creating films with the hopes that they get bought, they are better off playing their local lottery.

Fortunately, this is not the drive for most. Filmmakers are artists. They are ultimately about expression. Expression of an idea and form. An idea that happens to get disseminated through a visual medium such as film. An idea that’s tethered to a passion. And whatever the angst, in a space such as Sundance, the ideas emerge via story form. Stories about social change. Stories about life’s complexities. Stories about relationships. Stories about what could be.

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In 1912, the Titanic sank, Woodrow Wilson was elected President, and painter Jackson Pollock was born. Also that year—on Valentine’s Day, no less—the United States lovingly opened its arms to welcome Arizona to the Union, making it our 48th state. The people of Arizona have lived through so much and have an abundance of unique stories to show for it. Along with Arizona writer Lisa Schnebly Heidinger, O’Neil Printing, Roswell Bookbinding, and countless photographers and historians, Rule29 worked to collect those stories in Arizona: 100 Years Grand—a commemorative coffee table book to celebrate the State’s centennial.

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We often say on this blog that design can change the world and we frequently encourage our designer & non-designer friends out there to use their talents to do just that. In this post we wanted to take a look at designs that have in fact changed the world, specifically graphic designs that have had a large amount of influence either on our day-to-day experience or our view of the world.

In our search we have made a couple realizations. First, graphic design, while it can be a means to its own end, can have extraordinary power when used as a vehicle for communicating an idea. Considering this, we have found that the most influential designs are born from a very potent idea that resonates with a large or influential group of people. This is not to say that these designs cannot take on a life of their own outside their original purposes, as many of these designs have done just that. Second, when you encourage people to go out a make a difference, you are taking a risk. Not all design that has had impacted the world has been for good. And not all creators of these designs have understood their potential.

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