Destructive criticism

These ads for Dublin Port started appearing in newspapers a couple of months ago.There's a lot of good work being produced in design, illustration and advertising these days and occasionally some bad work. Bad doesn't come close to describing this stuff though. Previously I'd only seen the Joyce and Behan versions but this morning I spotted the Beckett one on a bus shelter. I did a bit of research when I got into the office and discovered that there's another 4 to come. And they're getting worse. The illustrations are terrible, the colours make me queasy and the hierarchy of the text is all over the place. There's no consistency in the message that's being communicated and even the copy itself (with the exception of the extracts from the writers themselves) looks like it was written by a 12 year old. From Lithuania. No offence intended to any Lithaunian readers..

According to the blurb over on Dublin Port's website, The campaign reacquaints Dubliners with the humour, wit, irreverence, vision, and insight which has endeared these Irish writers not only to the Irish but to the world at large. Dublin Port Company’s aim is also to capture the imagination of the travelling public and to encourage them to follow in the footsteps of these great writers. The campaign will bring Irish writers to the public in a new, more accessible way.

Weaving these portraits together with some of their famous quotes we see that Art, Literature and Sea travel can be combined for a great textured life.

Yeah, that's great and all but why are the illustrations so bad? And why is there no consistent message? And why is there a need to tell us that Oscar Wilde spent several years in the closet? I haven't seen bad work on this large a scale for some time.. I don't like to put people down and God knows there's lots of bad work that we could pick on but I mean, look at these..