Back to School

Apart from the traveling (or how I like to rephrase, to make it seem a tad more optimistic, the "4 county challenge"), this week has been, so far, great for many reasons. The biggest obviously has to be working with Cate. We have settled very quickly into our new team.

I've decided that I wouldn't bore you with placement details but I will bore you with what i've learnt instead. After all it's now about the next step and pretty much forgetting everything you've been taught at Uni. A big old slap from the real world.


Day 1- Don't be kind to kids.
When returning home on the train,when asked by an innocent small kid, "is that paper?" (glaring at my scamp pad) why yes, (brain kicks in... oh samaritan moment ).. "would you like some?" Kid takes paper. Next moment, one scamp has become 100 mini scamp pieces all over a Great Western Train. So now i've learnt just don't be nice to kids, they waste your paper.

Day 2- Room to grow.
When the office is full up, the cafes a great spot. Especially on Oxford street. Star gazing central. Stars so far seen...
Tim Westwood, Willow (From Willow) oh and Lawrence Fox. Cate had to explain who Fox was but i was still impressed without knowing who he was.

Day 3- Uri Geller
This week has been a crash course with Cate. Luckily things are going well and one skill we now both share, telepathy. awesome. So, if you ever see us looking at each other with blank faces, they aren't just moments of complete blankness but we are simply just telepathically communicating.

Day4- Exhaustion strikes
Shit days happen

Day 5- It's a small world
Today we met Paul and Dani at Inferno. Over a drink (We owe you one) and got chatting. I have to say you both talk a barrel load of sense and we both came out feeling very inspired and nudged into a good direction. Thanks guys, and I hope we can buy you a drink back very soon!


So week summary:
Uni doesn't really teach you jack all

A True Trooper

I thought I would make this post a homage to the grasshoper that survived a 90 mile journey on my wingmirror. Against all odds, 80mph winds, stopping and starting he made it.

Apart from all my UK galavanting, I will finally be starting a placement joining Cate at HS&P on Monday.Hurrah

Today's Nude

Whilst I have been sat around waiting for placements to start I came across a Channel 4 series called Life Class: Today's Nude.. It's a series where for 30 minutes a well known artist talks through and draws from a nude model. Artists have included John Burger, Judy Perbeck, Maggie Hambling, Humprey Ocean and Gary Hume. It's filmed mainly looking at a still frame of the nude model so viewers at home can join in and draw with the artist.

Louise France from the Guardian described the series as "Full frontal nudity! On Channel 4! Before lunch! You can imagine the knee-jerk reaction already but a wonderful new series on daytime television makes for some of the most unusual, thoughtful programme-making you're likely to experience. Meditative, slow-moving, repetitive - Today's Nude is everything that most television output isn't, and all the more magical for that."

I think what I like about it, is that it brought back the 5 years I spent at life drawing classes. I decided that I would perhaps persue a more conceptual art career in favour of fine art. But I do miss that silent, break in the day when it was just you and a massive board with crisp white paper stretched on and usually a piece of charcoal and 2 hours drawing would fly by. But apart from nostalgic reasons, I liked the TV format, which seems like a unique concept (and having nude people on at 12:30 pm!) It's kind of like a cook-along show but for life drawing. It certainly breaks up the normal morning TV shows we are used too.

Catch up with the series here

Gordon

I have just finished listening To Gordon Ramsay's Humble Pie Audio Book. Its a really fantastic listen. I admire his gutsy work ethic and of course his voice so I have been drawn to this new advert for Gordons Gin! I don't think the concept for this advert is at all ground breaking but because it is Gordon Ramsay and the art direction and sound works lovely together it makes for a "tingly tum" ad. It was directed by Jay Gelardi, written by Jim Stump, Jay Gelardi and Phil Wilce (Agency Republic) and feature music from The Switches. I think this advert pushes my buttons because I can practically feel exactly what Gordon is feeling when the Gin gets poured over him ( See my cannes lion film in previous post.)

Being observant

My new found love comes in a small, orange, course textured pocket sized bird book. I'm not one for twitching, but this book is gorgeous! Sat lonely on my mums table, next to the window, facing the many bird feeders in our small garden (usually being traumatised by cats) lays The Observer's Book Of Birds, a second edition published 1954.



I have to admit, I usually just walk on past, ignoring the book as one of my mum's bird paraphernalia. But on this one occasion, the book caught my eye and within minutes I was hooked. Firstly the illustration of the birds are hand drawn with beautiful details in both colour and black and white. Then there's the copy, the layout of the text hasn't really been considered with 'widows' and 'orphans' flying everywhere and the type size varies from start to finish. But this unfinished type style adds to its appeal. It gives it a somewhat more personal, naieve feel which stands out in an arguably "over designed" modern world.





Even if you don't like birds you can't help but love the "notes" section. In this section each individual bird song is described. Now, please read the following out loud.....

* Raven - A deep "Honk"
* Brambling- A long drawn "weeeeee"
* Yellow Bunting- The song is " tit, tit, tit, tit, tit, tit, tee"
* Great Tit - "Si, si, si" and a sharp "chink"

Perhaps the best...
* Song Thrush- Sometimes resembles " did he do it, did he do it, judy did" and "come out, come out" (Poor Judy, what did she do and where was she hiding!?)

After looking at all 236 species, for immature reasons the "Shag" bird has to be one of my favorites. Everyone's familiar with the common Tit, but the Shag brings out another humorous side to British Birds. For instance did you know the song of a Shag is described as " an occasional deep croak" and it "wears an erect crest on it's head"? I supose if you had to write 236 descriptions on birds, you'd quiet like a small joke to lighten things up a little. So next time, when you see a bird casually gracing your garden, have a look, have a listen and ask yourself how would you spell out it's song in words?


Above - The common Shag Bird

But apart from the birds, after a little research I discovered there are actually 100 different Observer Book titles. These include topics such as Fungi, Cats, Ferns, Geology, Grasses Sedges and rushes, Mosses and Liverworths, Architecture, The larger Moths (not the little flappy small ones) and even the 99th book is named The Observer's Book of Observers books. So I've decided, I'm going to collect the beauties. If anyone has an Observer Book, i'll be interested in grabbing it off you, or keep a eye out in charity shops etc, and I will love it if anyone manages to get there mits on them. I will need some help, there are 100 of the buggers, and I have, well one (if I steal mums). This shall keep me busy until I get a job!

pen to paper

I appreciate that to some, this post may contribute to a "mundaine Monday", but if you share my love for stationary, then you will forgive me!

On a recent early morning trip to london, I thought I would treat myself and get some new marker pens. Having spent the last few months at uni perfecting ideas to mac standard, I was in need of going back to basics and scribbling. For some peculiluar reason, when it comes to stationary, im like a fat kid in a sweet shop; overwhelmed and usually stunned in sheer excitement. Oh dear.

I arrived at a well known graphic stationary shop, bang on ten, first one in and started my quest. After testing the pens on most of the free paper and my hands, I found the perfect scamping pens... double end brush tips...mmmmm.

Meet Cate

It's been a week of ups and downs. Firstly, i've had to move back home; something that i'm slowly adjusting too. I don't think parents will ever really understand what job I'm trying to get into. And as any good parent would do, my mum has started the search of alternative jobs for me, the best one she's shown me is this local job shown below.

The ad reads:
Calling all Male, Female and Trans-Gender Witches:
£50k* Job opportunity now on offer.

Witch of Wookey Hole Auditions
A great opportunity to become the famous face of wookey hole where you can add your personality into this world renowned, historical character.





Thanks mum, although the pay aint half bad!


Then there's Gyro. We got a second interview for the placement but I had to let them down as I'm no longer with Aaron. which was a disappointment but I was told I may be able to re-interview at a later date.


But the good news... I've found myself a copywriter, Cate.

I'm over the moon that i've managed to be able to quickly find a brilliant and ambitious writer. I've known Cate for a while and met at Uni. Like me, she was widowed from her creative partner. Cate graduated a year before me and has since been on lots of placements. We met up this week and hit it off. We have a lot in common and share the same career goals. Luckily cate is already on a placement so I will join her next week!

So now we will have to combine our portfolios and create new joint campaigns and get the placement ball rolling.

Sour Marbels

I really love these press ads by Ogilvy & Mather, India. A nice concept and lovely art direction. I can imagine this concept working really well in tv format. Imagine trying to get a scenario which would last 30 seconds of animals spitting out another animal, which would spit out another animal and so on, which eventually leads to a human spitting out a sour marbel, done in a kind of "walking with dinosaurs" realistic animation style. It reminds me of the kids rhyme "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly, who swallowed a spider, who ...."

end of a era

It is with deepest regret that I have to announce and myself and Aaron are no longer a team. Despite our recent sucesses Aaron has decided he would like to work outside of London and unfortunatley I want to work in London. It is a shame, and I have tried everything to persuade Aaron to come to London. I guess it's just not for everyone. I would just like to say a few things about our time together (sob)

Here are the highs and a just a few lows from our partnership:

The Highs:
* Aaron's constant hard working ethic and commitment to our portfolio, even when he was feeling really ill you never let me down!
* Aaron was always the first into the studio and last to leave.
* Our joint love for "princess" the coffee lady who kept us going upto the deadlines
* The themed music days- Power ballad days were my favourite!
* The damn right blunt but brutally honest way we had with each other and the chilled out way we could say no thats a shit idea.
* And of course... the pencils!

The Lows:
* My really bad date keeping duties! oops
* My website idea- still not finished and caused alot of stress for alot of people!
* The end of "churchesmccarthy"

Overall, best of luck mate, it's been a fantastic year and you will be missed!

What a week.

Monday
After quickly setting up our stand and art directing it, The stand looked great. We got some lovely comments about it. So all geared up with 100 business cards and portfolios bound we waited for the VIP night to begin and to hopefully grab some agency's attention. We got a bit of interest and a few contacts which we can follow up. Special mention to mike and phil. Nice to see you guys.





Tuesday
A day of rest/check out the competition/British Museum. Commence photos...






Wednesday
Portfolio surgery with Augusto from Mother. Wow, what a cool guy with a great Brazilian accent. He gave us some tips and said that our book is better than his was when he graduated, so that gave me a warm fuzzy feeling but we know we have a hell of a way to go until we are really happy and proud of all our work. Later that night I was off to see Madonna at Covent Garden, well some naked photos of her. The pictures were taken before she was famous at the age of 20 when she posed as a nude model for just $30. The photographs have only just been released for the public to see. Really nice photography by Martin Schreiber, I just wish that I had the finances to purchase a print.



Thursday
Today begun with a few workshops. The first being a session giving tips on interview skills and presentation techniques. I really enjoyed it and both Mandy Wheeler and Patrick from NavyBlue made all those pre-book crit worries fade away with their advice. I left feeling positive and ready for action. The second workshop consisted of ex students describing how they made it and tips to get into the industry. Both of them had different experiences of how they got in, but it both came down to hard work and persistence that got them a job.

The week was topped off with the award ceremony in the evening. My heart was pounding and with two categories to sit through, I was getting more and more nervous by the second. But the results... well I am now a proud owner of TWO D&AD PENCILS!