The Idea Bakery

Life is looking Good.

2011-12-12T03:16:00.000-08:00

Another campaign that involved a Bike Launch for Honda across Europe. This time, it was for the brand new Honda Integra. A Honda that doesn't really have a category within bikes. Its a bit like a scooter but with the power of a bigger bike and was created to bridge the gap between the everyday need for practicality and the desire for a more powerful, refined ride. The Integra is the considered choice for any discerning rider. We needed to communicate to the audience a stylish, cool and sophisticated bike. No spotty teenage, hairdryer scooter riders here! Photography and film by Adam Swords.

AND Honda

2011-12-12T02:39:00.001-08:00

Below are some pieces from a Campaign we did to launch the new NC700x and Nc700S across Europe. The concept revolved around the insight that the NC700 can used for anything from an everyday commute to a trip in the countryside. To show the versatility of the bike we decided to amplify the roads and areas the bike can go to. Each cgi "AND" has been lovingly crafted by Chris Labrooy. Each typeface has been created by objects or items found in each environment. The press was also accompanied by a product film (see previous blog post)

BT DMA awards 2011

2011-11-14T03:37:00.000-08:00

Our campaign this year involved a online battle between fans to try and claim a virtual wall with their favorite artist poster.

Italy

2011-11-14T03:20:00.001-08:00

Two new product videos i art directed in Italy in the summer for two Honda Bike Launches. The Integra and Nc700S/X.
Press ads to accompany the films coming soon.

CRV HONDA Press Ad

2011-05-03T02:11:00.001-07:00

The CRV is capable of driving on a variety of road surfaces and weather conditions. We wanted to dramatise this product truth. The illustration style comes from looking at old national geographic and technical geology drawings by the likes of James Sowerby. Again each illustration was produced to mimic the car's overall shape. For example the worm is used to highlight the top of a Tyre.

Honda National Press Ad

2011-04-15T02:44:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of our national press ads. The idea is that we have taken a product truth and amplified it. So the jazz is has magic seats that can change to 180 combination, enabling you to arrange your car around your life.

The style was influenced by Swiss style art direction, every object and layout is engineered and considered. With classic red Swiss typeface overlayed giving these ads a non traditional car ad feel. Each illustration was also painstakingly considered and drawn with a technical, lifelike style. Each object also resembles or hints to the cars shape and defining features to make the whole piece succinct. Come back to see the rest of the series soon.

BT DMA Awards

2011-04-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

Here's some work we produced as part of the annual BT Digital Music Awards. The purpose, to get fans to vote for their favorite artists and increase awareness of the awards.
Our idea was to hero the fans,after all it's the fan's who make the artist. See the video for a better overview.

BT DMA Case Study from Crayon London on Vimeo.

Inspiration is everywhere

2011-01-18T04:07:00.000-08:00

I can now finally show you the video from a DM pack I did last year for Honda. Thanks to Hattie Newman and her team of lovelies for the amazing paper world illustrations

Paper World from Crayon London on Vimeo.

Vaio Videos

2010-10-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

Our videos have gone live now. See link here to view.

A little bit of self indulgence.

2010-10-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

Been an awfully long time since the last blog post. Mainly because since winning a Sony Pitch 6 months ago, it has been a little non-stop since.

So here's the work that came out of the long slog..
The campaign was entitled "welcome back emotion", the idea comes from the basic insight that we increasingly want more and more from entertainment, we want to experience heightened emotion more that ever. We want to be scared more, cry more and laugh more and now with all the laptop's gadgets and gizmo's watching films, listening to music and playing games has never been so god damn good. In fact your more involved, more entertained and consequently you experience more emotion.

With this concept in mind, we knew that we wanted to make our campaign stand out amongst the competitors. Firstly we wanted colour. So many laptop adverts are full of techy language, mainly black and dull. So within our campaign, we chose 5 emotions to match the top 5 features on the laptop and to make each unique we chose a colour with portrayed the emotion best.

We commissioned Mitch Jenkins, an absolutely fantastic photographer, with a lovely team who was great to work with, completely knew what we wanted and achieved stunning photos and films. We wanted to keep the adverts quite basic and make the portraits and emotions be the focal point.

so here's part of the final result... The films are currently playing on underground digital escalators and will be available to view online soon as rich media and website formats.

The Prose and cons of it all

2010-08-25T03:13:00.000-07:00

The poem.

Poetry was possibly one of the more interesting parts of my English class but equally one of the hardest to crack. With the recent spate of verse and rhyme hitting our TV screens it’s also becoming something of a creative’s favorite. So why's it become so popular?

The poem does make a nice change to heavily music-laden ads; verse gives an ad substance, rhythm and a reason to believe. A poem, particularly the way they are used, helps a brand to become more approachable as they directly speak to the consumer. Enabling the audience to relate to the brands home truths.

This down to earth approach suits the brands that have used this style and the messages they’re trying to communicate. But, like most advertising trends (which seem to occur as some kind of collective creative subconscious that we all tap into at the same time)becomes harder to distinguish between brands that use the same treatments, styles and tone of voice.

Personally, I like this style of narration; it communicates in a kind of honest yet fun tone. However as it has become so popular it means it’s becoming a little bit like literacy pretty but beige wallpaper.

Here's a collection of some adverts that use poems...

Original:

And if you can't join them, mock them:

Honda DM pack update

2010-07-30T02:31:00.000-07:00

Our latest pack has won DM Campaign on the week: Woooooola

The ideal formula

2010-07-15T02:01:00.000-07:00

This is a very long overdue post, of which I have had in my blog drafts for a while. Never the less it's still a very debatable subject. Creating the perfect portfolio always seems to be some sort of magical formula where only a magical circle of creatives can tell you that your book is great. The fact is there really is no right answer of what you should include. Back in May, I read a post on Hey Whipple's blog. Where he talked about what makes an ideal creative candidate and how digital knowledge and work are becoming increasingly important yet this alone will not make you hirable. It's the strength of creativity that makes you worth a paycheck and yes a Creative and not a digital programmer or coder.

I agreed with this post, for example the other week I went to crit some graduate books and I was gob-smacked at how they all looked like Wired magazine. Cut 'n' pasted and slapped into plastic wallets. Did a portfolio full of different new medias impress me? Well er... NO. I know the range of media platforms available to me and so do, it seems, most of the media savvy students. So, out of all the books the one that impressed me the most was actually pretty much straight forward press ads, with a couple of inventions thrown in. This got my attention as it showed they can think, solve problems and persuade people without the crutch of a gimmick or new media.

So back to basics I say, just show people you can think and that it's not the medium that carries your idea. In actual fact the media could be anything and it would still be great. I would like to see brave young creatives go back to basics. By all means show that they feel confident about how to use different media and digital platforms, but an Idea should be able to be written in a few sentences and work without any execution or technique.

Look what we did...

2010-07-08T02:02:00.000-07:00

Been a long time since I last posted but work has got its very large claws stuck in me at the moment cos it's been blumin busy around here!

So Here's a little glimpse of a project we did for Honda. We were briefed to come up with a new creative DM pack to display the whole Honda car range and brand. The Idea- "Inspiration is everywhere". Inspiration for making the cars often came from looking at the world around you rather than just staring at a blank piece of paper. We commissioned Hattie Newman to come up with these gorgeous paper sets to which would home the cars. Each set would fit with the characteristics and personality of the car and each set also tells a small story about other Honda products and antics.

There will be a making of video to follow showing the final shots.

Wanted Ads brief and viral

2010-05-21T09:01:00.000-07:00

Our work can now be seen here.

The peoples choice is also up. Pick us if you like it. Thanks

A change of name

2010-05-19T04:28:00.000-07:00

From Last week, Cate and I now work at "Crayon" as HS&P got re-branded to help encompass the group under one roof. Crayon will offer a full digital and direct service for clients such as Sony, Honda, Axa, BT, British Gas and Diagio.

Mussels in Brussels

2010-05-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

Last week saw Cate and I scooting off to Brussels for a few days to take part in the European BestYET competition. 18 teams took part to battle out for title of "BestYet team of the year"

We ended up staying in Luven, where Stella Artois is made. So you've guessed it, our brief was to advertise Stella Artois. The proposition, as it were, was to show Stella in a premium light showcasing it's "authentic quality." We had about a day and half on the brief including a trip to the factory itself and a lesson in pouring the perfect pint. Check out the photos below of the trip. Unfortunately we didn't win, but the trophy still came home to the UK with Julia and Gav picking up first place. We had a really enjoyable trip thanks to the precise planning from Lucy and our delegate Rob at the Newspaper society and the lovely company of Julia and Gav. So thank you!

What did we learn from this trip:

Keep things simple. As is always the case with great adverts, but especially true when communicating to Europe.

Keep smiling. The work that got the most praise made the audience chuckle.

Keep drinking, beer tastes better in Belgium. And that's strong stuff coming from a Cider drinker.

Keep perfecting quickly, 24 hours seems shorter abroad.

Keep chatting, amazing what you learn from your foreign counterparts that are merely just across the English Channel.

More work and info can be found here.

The People's choice

2010-05-04T03:30:00.000-07:00

The Chip Shop people have decided to let the public get their smitty paws on the entries this year. So in pure competitive spirit here's the link.

All you have to do is press the star rating on our entry (Alka Seltzer app) and that's it. The formula below makes it seem tricky but very intelligent. I think it just means rate/votes= average. Thanks

***The final results will be assessed using an algorithm designed to weight ratings to include factors like how many people actually voted for a piece of work.***

The formula we will use is: (WR) = (v ÷ (v+m)) x R + (m ÷ (v+m)) x C

* R = average for the piece of work(mean) = (Rating)
* v = number of votes for piece of work = (votes)
* m = minimum votes required to be listed in finalist table
* C = the mean vote across the whole judging process

it's called...The...You...Tube

2010-05-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here is our video from the Wanted Ads on the Newspaper Society Reel. *cringe*. You can see all the other 18 teams by pressing this link. I think the work will also be uploaded soon as well so you can then put a better picture to our ramblings.

We are off the brussels this Thursday for the next stage to represent the UK at Best Yet . eeeps!

Campaign clipping

2010-04-22T02:47:00.001-07:00

Here's some more info about the Wanted ad comps from todays Campaign. Hopefully the website with our work on will be running soon.

chip shop Nominations 2010

2010-04-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

We didn't get our entry into this years nominations. But big congrats to HS&P'S other entries from Jules, Chris and Nick for there nominations in "most shocking copy" and "best politically incorrect" and "best consumer campaign"

But take a look at our entry below for the Mobile App Category. The App was for Alka seltzer called 'Memory Aid' which acts as a lost and found app for the day after a heavy night out.

Wanted Ads- Young Team of Year 2010

2010-04-19T05:25:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we entered the wanted ads Young team year contest.

We rolled up at 9.30 for a long day of pressured thinking and manic scamping.
The brief was set by Al young, Creative Director of St Lukes which was to advertise Strongbow within a local media context. Immediately I was happy as it was a brief for cider and so I felt on very familiar grounds.

So after a long day trying to get to grips with the brief we quickly scamped our campaign and then presented it dragon den style to 5 judges. Not sure how it went we then sat down with the other 20 teams for the results... a few words from the judges and by-eck we won! surprised? We were too!

So next stage is Brussels in May to represent the UK in the Best Yet Competition.
We are very excited and we will be joined by runners up Julia and Gav.

Overall fantastic day and we met so many lovely and talented creative teams. Be great to see everyone again soon for another drink. I will post up links of work once they have been published online.

Reel them in

2010-04-09T04:39:00.000-07:00

I'm a sucker for a show reel and if it makes my heart skip a beat i'll post it. This one has to be my reel of the month. Nando Costa.

Nando Costa Reel 2010 from Nando Costa on Vimeo.

Spontaneous Combustion. The Birth and Death of an Idea.

2010-04-08T13:48:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across an article in the Metro last week that struck a chord with me. The article suggested that brainstorming restricts creativity. It caught my attention as I had spent two days locked in a room brainstorming with a few people on a tough brief that didn't want to crack easily and so I was in a collaboration mindset.

The article read:

Brainstorming 'makes you less creative', researchers say
It will come as no surprise to those of us who have groaned at the thought of another session of ‘blue-sky thinking’ – brainstorming does not work.

Far from generating a raft of brilliant new ideas, thrashing out random thoughts in the boardroom on a Monday morning is counter-productive.US researchers have concluded we get the best ideas when sitting quietly on our own.
‘Fixation to other people’s ideas can occur unconsciously and lead to you suggesting ideas that mimic your brainstorming partners,’ said psychologist Nicholas Kohn.
‘You potentially become less creative.’
He and his colleagues at Texas A&M University carried out three experiments using groups of two, three and four subjects and found working together caused a gradual decline in the number of fresh thoughts they came up with.
Brainstorming can lead people to becoming fixated by just one possibility, blocking out alternatives and eventually leading to conformity.
‘Exchanging ideas in a group reduced the number of domains of ideas that were explored by participants. Additionally, ideas given by brainstormers conformed to ideas suggested by other participants,’ said Mr Kohn.
The study concluded that group creativity may be an overestimated method to generate ideas and individual exercises may be more effective.

So, what do I think? Working with a copywriter everyday often means we collaborate on briefs and so discussing concepts is a natural daily event. I however can understand where the research rings true. Often break-through moments for me come when i'm alone, completely absorbed and train of thought is clear from conflicting conversations and distractions. This is usually when i'm maniacally scribbling with a good Spotify list blasting through my headphones to keep me ticking along, or on the tube where no one actually cares if your unsocial and lack of eye contact is encouraged. For me I feel I have to have a moment alone to absorb the brief and think it through myself. However I see these first thoughts as just germs of ideas, I think the ideas come alive when people collaborate and expand on them. Often steering ideas into a clearer and stronger direction.

Here's a little more research (found here) that also suggests mainly negative outcomes of brainstorming.

In a [1987 study, researchers] concluded that brainstorming groups have never outperformed virtual groups. Of the 25 reported experiments by psychologists all over the world, real groups have never once been shown to be more productive than virtual groups. In fact, real groups that engage in brainstorming consistently generate about half the number of ideas they would have produced if the group’s individuals had [worked] alone.

In addition, in the studies where the quality of ideas was measured, researchers found that the total number of good ideas was much higher in virtual groups than in real groups.

So the evidence is there. Poor little Brainstorming (or "Thought Showers", if i'm to be politically correct) is getting some right jipp. However I find it hard to believe that the greatest adverts of all time came from one person's vision alone. Often anyone that's at the top of their game has a fantastic team supporting them. Also, if the method of brainstorming didn't work so well then perhaps the "creative team" structure wouldn't have passed the test of time as being a winning formula to produce award winning ideas in agencies that we still see today.

Jimmy the Jester

2010-04-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

A little bit coincidental, but after posting Brooker's attempts at pulling apart adverts, I noticed Jimmy Carr had a go On Creative Review Blog. Carr's attempt is a little more involved but I think Brooker wins hands down for comedy value. Jimmy just doen't seem to hit my funny bone and often I did that slightly amused snot of a laugh that never progresses to a full chortel. Sorry Carr, I'm with Brooker on this one and thats not just because I like a good swear word or two.

what a cock up!

2010-04-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

and just incase you thought women escaped.

Screw you Darling

2010-03-29T06:01:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's just me being from the country and all that but I really like this new tv ad below from Magners and the strapline, "There's method in the Magners" Well done Cider people you make me proud.

Mystic Meg

2010-03-26T02:57:00.000-07:00

It's like the world's going to end in some sort of advertising armageddon. I agree with most of this video as alot of agencies might die off if they don't fully embrace digital. But I think it's also very patronising. Everyone has already started to get geared up and planners know that consumers have more knowledge and access to brands, it hasn't just happened over night. It's just a shift in where most of communication targets lie. However you can't deny that posters still work in their functionality, and DM packs still get more consumer attention than say an email. Also TV will never die, it's just moved to a digital scape.

Don't get me wrong, I love digital, it's advertising without limits. But I'm predicting once the newness has rubbed off there will be flip back to traditional ways. Bit like organic vs processed food movement. Albeit traditional will become more of a niche, but you cant rule them out. At the end of the day all products are different and it's what ever medium gets the message across best to the right audience. I believe most agencies will become integrated and very few will specialise. But if agencies do stick to their ground, I can imagine them surviving on their expertise alone. It will be interesting to see who's brave enough to stick it out.

Mad Men's so fake.

2010-03-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

Plastic fake. Love it. Bit creepy but Don still looks the shit even in a hot pink polymer sort of way. And Joan, loving the tailoring but just not enough curves!
In Order from left, Joan Holloway, Roger Sterling, Don Draper and Betty Draper.

Wanna be in my gang?

2010-03-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

So it happened. The first slice from a scalpel blade. Suprised it took me this long actually. But now I feel initiated into the role of an art director/mock-up queen. I think I came off fairly well, no stitches just a nice flap of skin and most importantly not a drop off blood on the work! So professional.

Sacred Spanners

2010-03-20T17:02:00.000-07:00

This is all new to me when I spotted it in Lyme Regis, but Spanners are saved for future generations like some dying breed of fisherman's tool. Nice. Donate Generously people!

Patternity at Supermarket Sarah

2010-03-09T04:29:00.001-08:00

Another beautiful wall from Supermarket Sarah in collaboration with Patternity. The wall this time explores you guessed it patterns.It's a really fantastic kaleidoscope display of patterns (see the making of the wall below) and yes it's all for sale! so... LEG IT!

A new bit of Silverware.

2010-03-05T03:00:00.000-08:00

A Little bit of good news.

On a whim I thought I would enter a brief set by the Idea Bounty.
The brief was for the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation to promote students to enroll in their education program in South Africa via text and press.

My solution was to create a bit of excitement and release hundreds of ribbons with the text number on over the schools. The action would be filmed and photographed to form viral videos and assets for press.

So I was pleased to hear that I got a Silver award from the competition. Not bad for my first bounty.

book vs blog

2010-02-25T09:48:00.000-08:00

Despite the decline in pure creative advertising blogs, the growth of design blogs has flourished. However,I'm a bit torn by these design blogs. They quickly inform me as an art director of all the talented designers, illustrators and photographers out there, fantastic you would think, your jobs done, easy, wal laa!
No.
It means I have more of the same choice that everyone else has. Of course nothing is original, but everything is becoming mainstream. For an illustrator or designer its perfect to finally showcase yourself but at the same time it can become boring. Once, beautiful design and illustration used to move me. Now, i've become a bit blasé, which is outragious considering the majority of work is brilliant. Perhaps I'm just overwhelmed in a overcrowded marketplace and its become much too easy to look at new trends and styles for "inspiration", that also go out of fashion as fast as they have come in.

So this week, whilst trying to tackle a full on brief I've returned to books to try and find something original, (if that's at all possible). Yes, its taken me longer, but it has proven very refreshing and feels like I'm discovering great work myself, in my own time. Also, I find that when looking through books you seem to have more time to consider and think about the little leads that crop up inside your head and although it takes longer it feels as though you have a wider spectrum to think in. Where as on the computer my thoughts feel confined to the frame of the computer screen, with the finger on auto pilot scrolling through pages and pages of new work, my brain just flicks from one thought to another, treating peoples work like " throw- away" design.

The only benefit I can see from these blogs is that standards are generally raised. Everybody is aware of what other people are doing and everyone can see the quality they need to reach, or mimic in some cases, in order to compete in the creative industries. Work is compared and critiqued internationally within seconds of being published. This type of blogging to me is all about showing your work off at its best in the quickest and most interesting way to a huge audience.

Despite the pros and cons, the pace of producing adverts has accelerated and so the speed at which looking for new illustrators and designers needs to be faster than ever. Blogs give you the ability to keep up to the speed of production whilst keeping one eye on trends. So perhaps blogs are a very useful tool to get the job done, but this doesn't necessarily mean the best. However, with books or blogs, its the end result that matters. Its not about what you've fffff-Found and more about how you've aaaa-Applied it (possible sister site suggestion ha ha?)

Now where did I leave my library card?

"Question everything generally thought to be obvious"

2010-02-18T14:50:00.000-08:00

I took a stroll to the Design Museum on Sunday to have a gander at Dieter Ram's exhibition. Despite only a small part of the gallery open due to preparations for Designer of the year, what I did see was really great and this time I did actually spend longer in the gallery than in the amazing design shop. That's always a good sign!

I knew little about Dieter Rams apart from a few Braun products and some furniture design, so I didn't really know what to expect but from the start your greeted by a snapshot of his 10 point design ethos expressing what makes good design:

Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design makes a product understandable.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is long-lasting.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Good design is environmentally friendly.
Good design is as little design as possible.

Here's a few of my favorite pieces. I think its easy to see where products such as apple get their minimal style influence from. For me, feeling like i want to own all the retro pieces (especially a Braun radio) shows that the design hasn't dated and still could remain in a modern market place whilst the balance remains prefect between both style and practicality. Have a look at a short interview with Dieter Rams below.

"Good design - real design is centered on the user."
At the exhibition there was also a mini section exploring ergonomics. Ergonomics looks at problems or situations that can be improved through design. There was some really interesting experiments that included looking at how medical emergency equipments works and how it can be improved for efficiency to studying the layout of a Sky remote control. I particularly liked the experiment that looked into trying to stimulate what its is liked to be an older driver with ailments such as arthritis and restrictive movements. The result was a funny looking suit below that mimicked these restraints however the real world use is in fact that these studies will improve safety and car design for the older generation.

So the lesson, brilliant design is a solution that is both innovative and serves a purpose. The best of last years design can now be seen at the Brit Insurance Awards. Which funnily enough, for a brief, I was sent there yesterday. See the next post for more details.

The age of diversification

2010-02-17T03:56:00.001-08:00

Coming from rural roots, I know alot about business' diversifying, especially farmers. But the creative industries also seem to be at it. It's not a new phenomenon but why does it happen? Whether its an entrepreneurial act for financial survival or simply transferring existing skills and creating voluntary collaborations, everyone in the creative sector seams to be exploring other fields.

Take Rowan Moore, an architect with several buildings to his name, he has branched from exterior to interior design. His designs include the 2009 Oscars ceremony, the stage production of Legally Blonde and the interiors of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants. Moore claims its not about making shed loads of money, but instead the result of natural progression as a result of "staying curious" and open minded to opportunities creativity can produce.

Likewise in Advertising, agencies no longer wish to pigeon hole themselves into boxes, instead they choose to be more expressive and encourage communication through the medium which works best for the brand, not the agency. Spanning from music videos, magazines, installations and product design. Personally I think this is probably the best way to express creativity, after all don't clients and budgets restrict the brief enough already? It seams to be changing the shape of advertising just as it has through the history of Art, where many new movements happened due to accidental experimentation.

However, as conceptual thinkers this would suggest that creative people should be able to move into any creative area, but this doesn't mean you will succeed in all. Here's a classic example, take Celebrities Dancing On Ice, each celebrity already has a 'talent' of some sort in predominantly the entertainment industry but that doesn't mean they can all skate.

So, does this mean you should stick with what your best at? Of course not, but as long as we explore, experiment and stay open minded when answering a brief, you never know where it might lead, but almost certainly it will lead to somewhere new.

Love is in the air

2010-02-13T14:35:00.000-08:00

So tomorrow is Valentines day. Florists will have Cheshire Cat smiles, restraunteurs are clinking champagne glasses and Anne Summers gets another *ahem* boost. But if the love of your life doesn't magically appear tomorrow or of those petrol ridden "special coronations" aren't quite cutting it, then heres some advertising attempts instead to help celebrate this most special time of year.

First up, Heineken's Beer flavored lip Gloss:

Next, nicely directed ad from Seat, Ibiza " See it, Love it."

Finally, once for the boys, Hard Chorus by Puma. Cleverly taking advantage of Valentines day falling on a match day.

Bring on the Pancakes!

A happy accident

2010-02-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

Well the battle of the blogs is over and indeed I lost to the boys who regained a lead in the last hour. Well done.

Apart from rallying blog votes this weekend, I visted a photography exhibition by Matt Stuart at the KK outlet titled "Happy Accidents". It was nice to view an exhibition where whilst trundling around you'd hear discussion and laughs from other visitors. A light hearted subject certainly lifts the mood of a gallery space.

Matt Stuart's exhibition is about being an opportunist with photography and either through composition, people and props quickly take a photo that gives the subject another meaning or life. Considering most photography is staged and meticulously fussed over it's refreshing to see photos that are less staged and comprise of natural and accidental compositions. It just shows that with a little patience,luck and an observant eye, great pictures are out there waiting to be captured.

The invisible Man

2010-02-05T09:54:00.001-08:00

tip- digger one, look by the tyre

Scampers hands

2010-02-04T04:01:00.000-08:00

Pattern V8476

2010-02-02T04:31:00.000-08:00

I've finally got around to starting my sewing. I got a Bernina Sewing machine that my dad fixed for me for Christmas. So I started my first pattern, a " Vogue Easy" Blouse. "Easy" mmm, tad misleading as this has not been the case with Pins flying everywhere, but I'm enjoying it.

I spent all last Sunday picking a pattern out and I just fell in love with the illustration style on the pattern packs. It's kind of classic technical illustration and the style hasn't really changed over the years, only the figures silhouette and hairstyles. Check out the more retro patterns below and I will keep you updated on my progress.

a Starbucks tutorial

2010-02-01T03:07:00.000-08:00

This morning started with a little lecture in Starbucks ordering. As you can see, with this comprehensive guide there will be no more excuses for wrong orders. Take note Cate!

Best creative blog battle

2010-01-31T12:05:00.001-08:00

Not too sure how this happened but the battle is on between the Idea Bakery and Mike and Phil to discover who has the best creative blog.

If you'd like to vote for the Idea Bakery please click here or press the flashy pic to the side.

Thank you

get up and go

2010-01-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

It's grey and grumpy outside, the alarms on constant snooze but it's time to get up and face the crammed tubes, cold winter walks and long dark days whilst along the way make some good old adverts. It's January and maybe those new years resolutions didn't quite go to plan (cue. cupcake, nom nom nom) and perhaps the client still hasn't raised their budget. But still there's a willingness to learn, create and inspire, with big adverts still making its way out of industry meetings and even agencies rebelling against the credit slum.
Take Iris for example, with there big bold move to employ 57 new people and to make their mark in such gloomy times. I like the balls they have to pr their company in this way and whoever signed it off.

It is lovely to think that despite and the gloom and doom, great work is still getting filtered through and creative conscious isn't forgotten despite budget. In any case it forces people to think more creative. For example, take Sid Lee. Formed in the 90's recession a few talented graduates couldn't land jobs so decided to set up their own company. Ten years later, they are producing top notch work for well regarded brands.

But under all this success. There has to be personal internal motivation. People don't win awards out of luck or politics alone, but because of sheer god damn hard work. So this leads me on to why work in an industry that can eat you up and spit you out, that's if you ever become appetising enough to eat in the first place? So what are your reasons? Enter in the poll opposite.

Nolans extra strong cheddar

2010-01-27T04:02:00.000-08:00

For a moment I was filled with fear.

a visual reminder

2010-01-26T03:01:00.000-08:00

Good golly!

2010-01-19T05:44:00.000-08:00

Anyone else appalled by this?

Parkour motion reel

2010-01-18T08:27:00.000-08:00

really nice animation technique.

parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.

Homemade

2010-01-13T06:47:00.001-08:00

so this is it. We can finally show you the first piece of work Cate and I did here at HS&P. It was a campaign called Honda Homemade and included press and a dm pack to promote Honda now being made in the right here in the UK. This also isn't just a clever CGI or photoshop image but was lovingly hand stitched and so is actually authentically a homemade advert in itself too. Take a look below at a sample of the press which now sits right outside our office floor.

whistle while you work

2010-01-13T06:05:00.000-08:00

music and creativity. Goes hand in hand.

What do you listen to, whilst you work and why?
I'm currently enjoying a bit of Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybear. Some upbeat tracks to beat the big (or minute, if in london) Freeze.

A rotating kitchen

2010-01-13T04:07:00.000-08:00

thats right. Literally a rotating kitchen. A strange concept but highly addictive viewing.

This installation is by Zeger Reyers and is part of the exhibition Eating the Universe at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany. It will keep rotating slowly till February 28th 2010.

rotating kitchen from Zeger Reyers on Vimeo.

Antoine Bardou-Jacquet

2009-12-29T05:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to the Idea Bakery in 2010.

Work is calling and just to finish off the blog for the new year I thought I would look at the poll I set up asking which ad you thought was 'ad of the decade'. The winner, with 50% of the votes goes to Honda Cog, which totally contradicts ITV's Ad of the Decade Hovis, Go On Lad. (Although granted my sample size is minute!)

1. Honda Accord- Cog
9 (50%)

2. Hovis- Go On Lad
2 (11%)

2. Skoda Fabia- Cake
2 (11%)

4. Cadburys- Gorilla
4 (22%)

5. Compare The Market- Compare the Meerkat
1 (5%)

After a little research into this 6 million pound ad I discovered It was directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet.
Bardou-Jacquet now works for the production company Partizanlab.

Antoine certainly boasts a healthy CV, jam packed with campaigns he's directed such as:

Impressive stuff and it's easy to see why he's a top agency favorite.

Spam

2009-12-23T05:35:00.000-08:00

This fake spam giveaway from mother has had some mixed reactions on Creative Review. Although it is highly likely to be staged, I still love the strategic thought of using spam and twisting it's negative connotations to become a leverage to highlight something positive, generosity. Not sure I would have replied to the email myself, but really does challenge your perception of genuine generosity and giving at Christmas. But despite some people's negative reactions towards the idea of using spam, it's still certainly a unique way for an Advertising agency to send out their Christmas greetings.

ITV, Ad of the Decade goes to..

2009-12-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

dah dah dah.....Hovis, Go on Lad.

Outrageous. Who the hell voted for the Hovis ad? Kim Marsh? Steven magic boy? Antony Worrall Thompson? Ben Shepard? George Sampson? Or any of the other shite C listers they got critiquing the ads?

Mirrored by the classic Hovis ad from the 70's, Go on Lad relived the same journey the boy took but over 120 years, passing through numerous decades to bring the loaf to the table. I think it's a nicely directed advert and a medioca concept, but to beat Honda Cogs, the iconic Gorilla or even VW Dancing in the Rain, leaves me feeling a little disappointed. The top 5 ads "voted" were as follows

1. Hovis - Go On Lad
2. Skoda Fabia - Cake
3. Compare the Market-Compare the Meercat
4. Honda Accord - Cog
5. Cadburys - Gorilla

So mini poll opposite- who's your number one advert of the decade out the top 5 shown?

The process

2009-12-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

A nice and perhaps very honest illustration of the creative process.

End of the Airbrush?

2009-12-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

Twiggy before

Twiggy after

Oh dear, Twiggy may have screwed up the use of airbrushing in adverts.

Well, of corse not Twiggy herself, but her picture of perfect eyes in the new Olay advert got more than 700 complaints.The excessive use of airbrushing has over exaggerated the look of Twiggy in the image, misleading the products abilities and sending out a message to women that is completely unreal and unachievable to obtain by using this product. These complaints have since prompted the ASA to ban the advert.

From my point of view, a little airbrushing doesn't hurt. After all nearly everything, from cars to food are smoothed out, made brighter, made sleeker and exaggerated. Its an after affect technique like any other, done to make the product appear at it's best. However, I agree there does need to be a point at which the ASA notices that over exaggeration of products has turned into lies. The question though, where?

Advertising Agency of the Decade

2009-12-15T07:09:00.000-08:00

Well done Mother. See their show reel here.

Trunkated Trunk

2009-12-15T02:09:00.000-08:00

Eugenie Scrase wins School of Saatchi with her found tree trunk on a fence. Not a fan of Scrase's earlier work( including a whistle hanging from a rail, a zoo without animals) and I was tad annoyed she won the whole show. But her last piece, shown above was probably the best at the final exhibition *dammit* It was a bold move and I have no idea how she persuaded the council to let her cut the whole trunk complete with two fences. Who said found art was lazy?!

Website collection:Platypus Services

2009-12-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

Some beautiful retro wit.

Be judged by what others do.

2009-12-10T08:29:00.000-08:00

We were lucky enough to go to the DMA awards 2009 last Thursday, for a night of entertainment, posh nosh,awards and dodgy dancing.

We both had a great evening and saw some interesting work to get our cogs ticking. Overall though, the night was dominated by Proximity London, who with their RNLI campaign won the Grand Prix prize and NINE GOLDS! The campaign quite simply used famous video bloggers and got them to spread the word about RNLI to the Vlogger's followers. They did this by sending the Vloggers a small package with which they had to open online. Not only did they reach there target audience, they reached alot of people and with a very small budget. click here for all the winners.

in awe.

2009-12-10T05:21:00.000-08:00

probation over.

2009-12-08T02:37:00.000-08:00

Phew!
Artist impression- By head of copy.

An Ogivly Christmas

2009-12-07T04:39:00.000-08:00

Nice little iphone app from Ogilvy. It creates snow over images so everyone can have a white christmas. Simple and sweet.

The toughest brief yet.

2009-11-30T07:24:00.000-08:00

... the annual Agency Christmas Greeting.

Didn't think it would be this hard, the jolliest brief of the year, but when the client is your employer, boy things get tough!
The challenge is to find an original thought about christmas (if that's possible) but still keep its relevance to the agency and promote its creativity. So far we have been failing with this and not getting the balance quite right.

So we had a week on it, researched and found there's a whole load of agency christmas love out there to contend with. See here for a big list of them form 2008.
Some of my favourites are below..

I'll keep you updated on how our first agency christmas card goes. eeps.

School of Saatchi

2009-11-24T05:30:00.000-08:00

*Gasp* no unfortunately not the notorious Saatchi and Saatchi but the Charles Saatchi of Saatchi Gallery type of school.

Did you catch it? Last night on BBC 2, the new Xfactor style art programme aired. Twelve young artists will battle it out every week to convince a panel of judges including Tracey Emin, Kate Bush, critic Matthew Collings and collector Frank Cohen and ultimately Charles Saatchi to let them exhibit their work in the Saatchi Galleries.

I watched it with baited breath, thinking this is either going to be a flop, exploiting young artists and showing some really poor executed pieces (bit like the recent Philippe Starck 'Design for Life' show on BBC2) or a triumph showcasing interesting and thought provoking art. But much to my surprise it was the later. There was a wide range of talent and I fell in love with Tracey Emin and I have gained some more respect for her. She reminds me of a great creative director that can smell shite a mile off and isn't afraid to question peoples reasoning. She was informative, clear and straight to the point. However having been through art school and such I do have a keen interest in contemporary art but some pieces I just don't get despite the explicitly clever reasoning behind it.

They also got the artists to do a life drawing lesson. Most of them couldn't draw, and some were shockers but the point was it was more about the skills needed between the eye and the hand and discipline in drawing. Which brings me to my daily drawing of scamps, which believe me could do with some discipline! what's your scamping style? illustrative? Stick men? freestyle? and does it really affect how well an idea gets sold to the client?

More on this soon.

Graduate.Definition: person who completes education, pursuit.

2009-11-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

Chameleon Comedians

2009-11-16T06:07:00.000-08:00

Could comedians cut it in the advertising world?

It could be argued that comedy has many parallels to advertising. Apart from the fact they both try to sometimes make you laugh, it seems that both succeed on finding an observation, truth or insight about a situation/product/person and exaggerating this to an audience. One to get laughs the other to get sells or both in some cases.

For example Lee Evans takes the simplest of observation and truths about "home cooking":
“I love restaurants, and that’s the thing now, they always boast about now, restaurants…home made cooking…I don’t want home made cooking, that’s why I’m here! ‘cos I don’t like the shit at home! Yeah…you know! And they don’t say who’s home it is, do they! Could be a mental home, couldn’t it!”

It's small insights, such as questioning what "home cooking" really means that could be a great starting point for say an organic restaurant company trying to outshine its fast food chain competitors. A small truth that has a broad appeal.

I then found a blog post on Nat and Lol's blog, Smells like team spirit. on campaign where the girls have been going to sketch writting classes and analysing sketches to see why they are successful. From these classes they noted that:
"I was struck by how similar this is to writing an ad campaign. The joke is the central thought, or strategy. And the variations are simply different executions of the same thought - just as three posters in an ad campaign are basically escalating the same concept in different ways."

Of course it also works the other way around- Copywriters can turn to comedy. Take Steve Patterson for example, a Canadian comedian once a copywriter who was fired because he was" shamelessly trying to inject humour into an ad ". So too much humour can also be a turn off.

I also remember watching a documentary where the comedy duo Smith and Jones get challenged with writing an advert. (Youtube and Google searching unsuccessful with referencing, please inform me if you remember it) However after a good start all I remember is that they found it really hard trying to tone down the laugh appeal and focus on the core message.

So lessons learnt...
Comedy can swing both ways. Perhaps the common denominator in both careers is finding that insight that people can connect with which makes something ordinary have appeal. Perhaps advertising is trying to find that balance between laughs and sales. Either way usually the funniest adverts are the most memorable.

Crazy Gideon

2009-11-11T06:42:00.000-08:00

update

2009-10-30T09:20:00.001-07:00

I've found a update in the Lite message board section. I promise to upload lots of useful blogging material soon. As i'm quite busy and have a lot of blogs saved as drafts I though i'd let the "shy" entertain for now.

Oh dear.

2009-10-29T07:34:00.000-07:00

A beer jumper

2009-10-14T02:23:00.001-07:00

These knitted jumpers came to my attention earlier this week. Perfect for the ever increasing cold weather and cosy nights in the pub. Think id need a cider one though.

Not much really to report my end. But things are busy with a new account we have been given to work on. I might be shot if i reveal just yet who that is but we are really excited to be doing work for them. Its certainly a challenge but we have taken quite a different route. Instead of just getting a brief and asked to come up with a creative solution, we actually collaborated with planners to come up with strategies and mechanics. We found this method really insightful and made us much more wary of the brand and the target audience. We have to admit some of it was gobbledegook and a few marketing diagrams whooshed past our eyes making little sense. But it was nice to get an input into direction and approach. This ended up with us being able to define a brand tone of voice, look and feel which we later presented to the clients. It was nice to get insight and feel fully involved from the start and seeing how a planner mind works.

As another week unfolds, hopefully soon i will be able to post up some work we have done. Meanwhile i finally take the leap and move to London on Sunday. So i'd like to say thanks and goodbye to the following people that made my commuting lets say somewhat entertaining:

To the pair of guys traveling back from a night out drinking expensive saki. You did indeed have curious minds and my argument supporting advertising I hope did somewhat help convince you not all is evil in ad-land. I thank you for your in depth thoughts about digital advertising coming from as you named yourselves "cyber-geeks" and i certainly loved your theory that the recession is the beginning of World War three. Heavy stuff for a late night commute.

To the man in the tweed jacket. Your spatial awareness for leg space I found particularly bemusing.

To the men who love a window. I do hope your neck doesn't ache to much from the 45 degree angle you liked to posses for the duration of the journey. Or perhaps sit the opposite side of the train on the way back to at least keep some balance.

To the tutting men who missed their VERY important meetings. You can't beat a good loud British TUTT.

To the voluptuous family from Brum who decided to penn me in, now that was a cosy trip.

To the 26 drunken viking girls.

and finally

To the commuters who every day flock to find a seat they can claim their own for the next 60 minutes. I found coach D was the favorite hotspot for a good scramble. Its a tough game commuting and it wont be missed. Bring on the bicycle!

Behind the Idea

2009-09-29T07:35:00.000-07:00

I was surprised to find a new weekly section has been added to the Metro, "Behind the idea".
Supported by D&AD, every Tuesday an advert will be chosen by an expert and analyzed. The first feature is by Paul Brazier, AMV/D&AD president. He focus on a viral ad which involves sheep with LED's on being chased into shapes. (see article below or on emetro date 29.09.09)

I'm intrigued to see how the public view this new feature, so I will be paying close attention to how long people spend reading the page and wondering if they are generally interested or they may in fact just be another ad man commuting to work finding a common interest. Advertising critiques are no longer tucked away in marketing trade mags, blogs and advertising sites. I think it's great as advertising should be a worthy page filler, becoming an industry that people like to follow and have an opinion, just like cookery,fashion,arts. It does however mean we might, if glossy mags take hold, we could start to see big red circles round typo errors and bad art direction or having such headlines as "when good concepts go bad".

Either way, its great that the industry is getting national publicity. It may also mean my mum might know what my job involves now and what makes a great ad!

Aim, Fire, SHOOT

2009-09-26T02:47:00.000-07:00

My first month came to a fantastic end when i got to direct my first photoshoot. Once the work has all been completed and available I will post it up. The shoot, yet pretty simple in its direction ie,no awkward angles,specific lighting techniques or models/animals to consider. But it was great to work with a really experienced photographer,Alun Crockford.

Meanwhile I found this "Ten things I have learned" by Milton Glaser. His words insightful and i particularly like number 10- tell the truth. Glaser talks about how its the designer's responsibility to the public to tell the truth. I think this really applies to nowadays when people want to know more about the product than ever before- where its made, organic,fair trade, eco, efficiency and so on. Consumers can see a porky even if its not staring them at the face. However with increased consumer and product relationship I think more than ever before its the product's truths that advertising can exploit to build strong brand appeal, history and product differentiation. The truth has become a powerful tool.

Overall it just shows that with the nature of this industry, everything is constantly changing and indeed everyone is always learning something be it big or small.

10 things I've learned- Milton Glaser:
1
YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE.
This is a curious rule and it took me a long time to learn because in fact at the beginning of my practice I felt the opposite. Professionalism required that you didn’t particularly like the people that you worked for or at least maintained an arms length relationship to them, which meant that I never had lunch with a client or saw them socially. Then some years ago I realised that the opposite was true. I discovered that all the work I had done that was meaningful and significant came out of an affectionate relationship with a client. And I am not talking about professionalism; I am talking about affection. I am talking about a client and you sharing some common ground. That in fact your view of life is someway congruent with the client, otherwise it is a bitter and hopeless struggle.

2
IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.
One night I was sitting in my car outside Columbia University where my wife Shirley was studying Anthropology. While I was waiting I was listening to the radio and heard an interviewer ask ‘Now that you have reached 75 have you any advice for our audience about how to prepare for your old age?’ An irritated voice said ‘Why is everyone asking me about old age these days?’ I recognised the voice as John Cage. I am sure that many of you know who he was – the composer and philosopher who influenced people like Jasper Johns and Merce Cunningham as well as the music world in general. I knew him slightly and admired his contribution to our times. ‘You know, I do know how to prepare for old age’ he said. ‘Never have a job, because if you have a job someday someone will take it away from you and then you will be unprepared for your old age. For me, it has always been the same every since the age of 12. I wake up in the morning and I try to figure out how am I going to put bread on the table today? It is the same at 75, I wake up every morning and I think how am I going to put bread on the table today? I am exceedingly well prepared for my old age’ he said.

3
SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM.
This is a subtext of number one. There was in the sixties a man named Fritz Perls who was a gestalt therapist. Gestalt therapy derives from art history, it proposes you must understand the ‘whole’ before you can understand the details. What you have to look at is the entire culture, the entire family and community and so on. Perls proposed that in all relationships people could be either toxic or nourishing towards one another. It is not necessarily true that the same person will be toxic or nourishing in every relationship, but the combination of any two people in a relationship produces toxic or nourishing consequences. And the important thing that I can tell you is that there is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life.

4
PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT.
Early in my career I wanted to be professional, that was my complete aspiration in my early life because professionals seemed to know everything - not to mention they got paid for it. Later I discovered after working for a while that professionalism itself was a limitation. After all, what professionalism means in most cases is diminishing risks. So if you want to get your car fixed you go to a mechanic who knows how to deal with transmission problems in the same way each time. I suppose if you needed brain surgery you wouldn’t want the doctor to fool around and invent a new way of connecting your nerve endings. Please do it in the way that has worked in the past.
Unfortunately in our field, in the so-called creative – I hate that word because it is misused so often. I also hate the fact that it is used as a noun. Can you imagine calling someone a creative? Anyhow, when you are doing something in a recurring way to diminish risk or doing it in the same way as you have done it before, it is clear why professionalism is not enough. After all, what is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail, it is to repeat success. So professionalism as a lifetime aspiration is a limited goal.

5
LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE.
Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realised that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless. But it sounds great because it contains within it a paradox that is resistant to understanding. But it simply does not obtain when you think about the visual of the history of the world. If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realise that every part of that rug, every change of colour, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. That also goes for the work of Gaudi, Persian miniatures, art nouveau and everything else. However, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. ‘Just enough is more.’

6
STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
I think this idea first occurred to me when I was looking at a marvellous etching of a bull by Picasso. It was an illustration for a story by Balzac called The Hidden Masterpiece. I am sure that you all know it. It is a bull that is expressed in 12 different styles going from very naturalistic version of a bull to an absolutely reductive single line abstraction and everything else along the way. What is clear just from looking at this single print is that style is irrelevant. In every one of these cases, from extreme abstraction to acute naturalism they are extraordinary regardless of the style. It’s absurd to be loyal to a style. It does not deserve your loyalty. I must say that for old design professionals it is a problem because the field is driven by economic consideration more than anything else. Style change is usually linked to economic factors, as all of you know who have read Marx. Also fatigue occurs when people see too much of the same thing too often. So every ten years or so there is a stylistic shift and things are made to look different. Typefaces go in and out of style and the visual system shifts a little bit. If you are around for a long time as a designer, you have an essential problem of what to do. I mean, after all, you have developed a vocabulary, a form that is your own. It is one of the ways that you distinguish yourself from your peers, and establish your identity in the field. How you maintain your own belief system and preferences becomes a real balancing act. The question of whether you pursue change or whether you maintain your own distinct form becomes difficult. We have all seen the work of illustrious practitioners that suddenly look old-fashioned or, more precisely, belonging to another moment in time. And there are sad stories such as the one about Cassandre, arguably the greatest graphic designer of the twentieth century, who couldn’t make a living at the end of his life and committed suicide.
But the point is that anybody who is in this for the long haul has to decide how to respond to change in the zeitgeist. What is it that people now expect that they formerly didn’t want? And how to respond to that desire in a way that doesn’t change your sense of integrity and purpose.

7
HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN.
The brain is the most responsive organ of the body. Actually it is the organ that is most susceptible to change and regeneration of all the organs in the body. I have a friend named Gerald Edelman who was a great scholar of brain studies and he says that the analogy of the brain to a computer is pathetic. The brain is actually more like an overgrown garden that is constantly growing and throwing off seeds, regenerating and so on. And he believes that the brain is susceptible, in a way that we are not fully conscious of, to almost every experience of our life and every encounter we have. I was fascinated by a story in a newspaper a few years ago about the search for perfect pitch. A group of scientists decided that they were going to find out why certain people have perfect pitch. You know certain people hear a note precisely and are able to replicate it at exactly the right pitch. Some people have relevant pitch; perfect pitch is rare even among musicians. The scientists discovered – I don’t know how - that among people with perfect pitch the brain was different. Certain lobes of the brain had undergone some change or deformation that was always present with those who had perfect pitch. This was interesting enough in itself. But then they discovered something even more fascinating. If you took a bunch of kids and taught them to play the violin at the age of 4 or 5 after a couple of years some of them developed perfect pitch, and in all of those cases their brain structure had changed. Well what could that mean for the rest of us? We tend to believe that the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind, although we do not generally believe that everything we do affects the brain. I am convinced that if someone was to yell at me from across the street my brain could be affected and my life might changed. That is why your mother always said, ‘Don’t hang out with those bad kids.’ Mama was right. Thought changes our life and our behaviour. I also believe that drawing works in the same way. I am a great advocate of drawing, not in order to become an illustrator, but because I believe drawing changes the brain in the same way as the search to create the right note changes the brain of a violinist. Drawing also makes you attentive. It makes you pay attention to what you are looking at, which is not so easy.

8
DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY.
Everyone always talks about confidence in believing what you do. I remember once going to a class in yoga where the teacher said that, spirituality speaking, if you believed that you had achieved enlightenment you have merely arrived at your limitation. I think that is also true in a practical sense. Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience, which is why I find all firmly held ideological positions questionable. It makes me nervous when someone believes too deeply or too much. I think that being sceptical and questioning all deeply held beliefs is essential. Of course we must know the difference between scepticism and cynicism because cynicism is as much a restriction of one’s openness to the world as passionate belief is. They are sort of twins. And then in a very real way, solving any problem is more important than being right. There is a significant sense of self-righteousness in both the art and design world. Perhaps it begins at school. Art school often begins with the Ayn Rand model of the single personality resisting the ideas of the surrounding culture. The theory of the avant garde is that as an individual you can transform the world, which is true up to a point. One of the signs of a damaged ego is absolute certainty.
Schools encourage the idea of not compromising and defending your work at all costs. Well, the issue at work is usually all about the nature of compromise. You just have to know what to compromise. Blind pursuit of your own ends which excludes the possibility that others may be right does not allow for the fact that in design we are always dealing with a triad – the client, the audience and you.
Ideally, making everyone win through acts of accommodation is desirable. But self-righteousness is often the enemy. Self-righteousness and narcissism generally come out of some sort of childhood trauma, which we do not have to go into. It is a consistently difficult thing in human affairs. Some years ago I read a most remarkable thing about love, that also applies to the nature of co-existing with others. It was a quotation from Iris Murdoch in her obituary. It read ‘ Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real.’ Isn’t that fantastic! The best insight on the subject of love that one can imagine.

9
ON AGING.
Last year someone gave me a charming book by Roger Rosenblatt called ‘Ageing Gracefully’ I got it on my birthday. I did not appreciate the title at the time but it contains a series of rules for ageing gracefully. The first rule is the best. Rule number one is that ‘it doesn’t matter.’ ‘It doesn’t matter that what you think. Follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid. If you were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don’t get that promotion or prize or house or if you do – it doesn’t matter.’ Wisdom at last. Then I heard a marvellous joke that seemed related to rule number 10. A butcher was opening his market one morning and as he did a rabbit popped his head through the door. The butcher was surprised when the rabbit inquired ‘Got any cabbage?’ The butcher said ‘This is a meat market – we sell meat, not vegetables.’ The rabbit hopped off. The next day the butcher is opening the shop and sure enough the rabbit pops his head round and says ‘You got any cabbage?’ The butcher now irritated says ‘Listen you little rodent I told you yesterday we sell meat, we do not sell vegetables and the next time you come here I am going to grab you by the throat and nail those floppy ears to the floor.’ The rabbit disappeared hastily and nothing happened for a week. Then one morning the rabbit popped his head around the corner and said ‘Got any nails?’ The butcher said ‘No.’ The rabbit said ‘Ok. Got any cabbage?’

10
TELL THE TRUTH.
The rabbit joke is relevant because it occurred to me that looking for a cabbage in a butcher’s shop might be like looking for ethics in the design field. It may not be the most obvious place to find either. It’s interesting to observe that in the new AIGA’s code of ethics there is a significant amount of useful information about appropriate behaviour towards clients and other designers, but not a word about a designer’s relationship to the public. We expect a butcher to sell us eatable meat and that he doesn’t misrepresent his wares. I remember reading that during the Stalin years in Russia that everything labelled veal was actually chicken. I can’t imagine what everything labelled chicken was. We can accept certain kinds of misrepresentation, such as fudging about the amount of fat in his hamburger but once a butcher knowingly sells us spoiled meat we go elsewhere. As a designer, do we have less responsibility to our public than a butcher? Everyone interested in licensing our field might note that the reason licensing has been invented is to protect the public not designers or clients. ‘Do no harm’ is an admonition to doctors concerning their relationship to their patients, not to their fellow practitioners or the drug companies. If we were licensed, telling the truth might become more central to what we do.

I spy with my little triangle eye

2009-09-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

Maybe a current mini trend sweeping the design industries. Those 3 sided polygon wonders are making a big appearance.

Here's some i've noticed:
Melbournes new identity by Landor:

Kate Moross' logo:

Fashion Label Lacoste:

Barbican Art Gallery:

And for Advertising, Stella Artois:

When I grow up I want to be...

2009-09-21T05:54:00.000-07:00

... self taught, title sequence extraordinaire... DAH DAH DAH... Danny Yount.

My gosh he has some skills. Beautifully directed titles to such films as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Reaping and tv shows such as Six Feet Under. I find the whole idea of being a title designer exciting, a mini film to set the mood about a film. Danny got media attention with his interactive portfolio all the way back in 1992, way ahead of his time.

Turn the volume up!

Week 2

2009-09-12T02:59:00.000-07:00

Blumin ell, what a rollercoaster of a week.
So the first week nerves are dissapearing and actual REAL jobs and the deadlines they bring with them are emerging. Some deadlines like to come alone whilst other like to clump together.Proceed stress.

So the next thing i've learnt that education doesn't teach... being able to juggle multiple jobs. At uni it's just one brief at a time, progression from scamp stage non exsistent and progression from yourself non exsistent. So its been a tough step this week, learning just how the process from an idea being scribbled down on the side of a napkin to the same idea being produced and all the quality control it has to go through before it can be given the seal of approval and released to the masses.

Secondanly, your part of a team. You and your copywriter. Yet your roles are very seperate and being the art director you have alot of responsibility seeing a job go through. I didn't quiet realise how much I would be solely responsible for and how much longer a job will be lingering around whilst a copywriter once words are done and approved can get on with the next job. Its kind of like if an idea was a kid, the copywriter will leave the kid at nursery whilst the art director takes the kid to nursery and then works at the nursery. But at the end of the day you both go and collect the kid and take it home.

However my week was topped off on a high note when I got to visit the opening night of Ryan Mcginley's new exhbition Moonmilk in Alison Jacques gallery. McGinley has done work for vaious adverting photography for Levis, Wrangler, NY times.

Moonmilk is about "crystalline deposits found on the walls of caves, once believed to be formed from the light of celestial bodies passing through the rock to the darkened worlds below." Here's some of Moonmilk... imagine each image about 6ft high and they take your breath away.

Week 1

2009-09-04T09:13:00.001-07:00

It's been a short week, mainly due to the bank holiday but also because time has flown. I was dreading the working hours, simply as before this job I was acting a lot like a cat, moving only for food/washing and sleeping in sunny areas of my lounge. But, this maybe just a first week novelty, but drawing scamps and generally daydreaming/chatting mixed with the odd meeting and the 3.30 complimentary snack break the hours just disappear. This is despite me still seeing both sunrise and sunset on my 2 and half hour return journey to the capital. Yes, a house in the city is my priority at the moment.

So Monday I turned up all eager and still confused that I was quite literally walking into my first job. I was shown my computer and desk and was quickly hurried into a meeting to get briefed. I sat there, not quite knowing how these things run, but it went as follows,(in Chuckle Borthers style sketch to-me-to-you) account man-cd-us-cd-accountman-us-senior-us...US...oooh US, and at the end of 30 minutes we had our first complete job, starting from scratch with job number and a job bag! OH yeah!

I also got to art direct my first piece of work to a designer to mac up. Again a little odd as im used to just directing myself but was great watching an expert do their own thing and make ideas come to life as you visioned.

So here i am, first week down, absolutly shattered and still holding onto my Saturday job to make ends meet, with one day to rest, I will start all over again on Monday.

Job Title

2009-09-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since my last post but a lot has changed.

Firstly, I have a job! A proper salaried, sick pay, holiday pay, rent pay job.

Yes. Im as stunned as you. It all happened very suddenly but from today I'm getting paid to be a junior art director. It's a very odd feeling and I think I'm very fortunate to be offered a job so quickly, especially in the current crumbling economy we live in.

So, where do I go from here? Well I sure have a hell of a lot to learn and it's time to move to London.

Variations on the Normal

2009-08-22T02:40:00.000-07:00

I got shown a great blog awhile back (Thanks Angus) I don't really ever comment about other blogs, but this one I thought deserved a little mention. The blog is by Dominic Wilcox. He is "an ideas man who works within the area of the ‘everyday’. Everyday objects, environments, buildings, human interaction, no area of normality is out of reach. His work, which is usually layered with an ultra dry wit, places a spotlight on the banal, always adding a new, alternative perspective on things we take for granted"

Here are some examples of his thoughts and ideas from his blog:

It's precisely this kind of lateral problem solving style of thinking that I really like. Just the simplest of thoughts mixed with genius moments makes me sick with jealousy and envy.

This is what happens if I don't leave Somerset!

2009-08-21T06:01:00.000-07:00

Now my big sister always advised me to leave Somerset asap. It's a tad small and not alot to do! I thought I would share this little activity that fellow somersetarians like to do... dress up the sheep. Yes, that's right dress up some sheep sculptures that are on a roundabout. christ. Heres just some of the outfits they have done...

...GET ME TO LONDON!

Above the line, through the line, below the line, what line?

2009-08-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

I was having a chat with Cate about our possible options of what type of agency to choose. We have a few things lined up but we aren't sure what direction to take. I compared it to the military, yes that obvious connection. Its like you want to join, but which part, (no particular preference applied here) army (through), navy (below) or airforce (above) and the SAS (digital, the section of the military that everyone talks about but no one quite knows what they do!) Without experiencing each part how will you know which area to join? After all you don't want to stay in the airforce but have a fear of flying! So in other words, we need a few other placements to decide where we want to settle.

But back to the present. We have a book crit at Leo Burnett next week with Ed morris. So, I'm currently residing at Cates to get our book up to scratch and in tip top condition.

Supermarket Sarah

2009-08-15T01:14:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't it be lovely to set up your own agency in your front room? Well it could be possible (that's if i actually owned a property). Sarah, from Supermarket Sarah, shows just how lovely it can be done. Yes, it's not a agency but I just love the way she's took initiative to set up a shop on one wall of her house. The wall changes according to stock in and colours. Each item can be clicked on and bought. Ahh tis lovely and double bonus she invites people around for tea and cake (by appoitment only)

Show and Tell

2009-08-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

Ahoy there,

I'm back from my travels. I've seen pirate ships, towers, shores,the high seas and parrots, lots of parrots.

Along the way, my attention was quickly grabbed by the maritime flags used on ships to communicate messages. Each flag denotes a letter and/or message. A prize will be awarded to who works out what the above maritime flags spell out, answers on a postcard please (or comment)! I find this type of visual communication intriguing. I think it's the interactive, code breaking instinct bit that interests me. Brings me back to the old theory days of semiotics and reading the signs. In this case more consciously reading the signs than subconsciously. But never the less its a successful style of communication that has stuck out the years.

so my actual holidays are over and in between Cates holidays and HS&P placement, I'm now having a go at sorting "emilyandcate.co.uk" website out.

Websites, Blasted things. I think maybe my over ambitious website plan maybe indeed scrapped. ooops. So for now I'm going to put together a simple website just to get the ball rolling. However, one would suggest using a website template guide such as Carbonmade, saves time and looks sleek. But im developing a nasty taste for ".carbonmade" sites. The reasons you may ask? Well i've decided, its simply lazy and lacks any personality. I know that pretty much everyone in my class had one. I'm starting to think its the black, polypocket filled portfolio of the online world ;boring and lacking any sort of creative finesse. I would like to know other peoples opinions on this subject... am I just jumping onto creative snobbery land? Or, as creative and Juniors at that are like pack hyenas,slobbering all over the same placments and jobs, that we should be making more effort with our self promotion from the pack and avoid pre-made sites?

hmmmm rant over... I did have a relaxing holiday, honest!

Take a Break

2009-08-03T15:14:00.001-07:00

I'm on holiday this week. Bournemouth in fact. Been sunny thus far!

Back to School

2009-07-31T09:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-25T02:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-10T02:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-07-03T04:11:00.000-07:00

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!

Clippings

2009-06-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

As requested here's some clippings of our Lloyds TSB pillow in the latest Digital Arts magazine. Feels great getting to see our work in print.

I'm about to pack for New Blood and have just about finished scamping. I'm frantically trying to get some ideas we've had, drawn for our portfolio surgery appointment at New Blood. Greatly we got an appointment with Augusto Sola of Mother. OH MY! I'm really looking forward to meeting him.

I thought I would post a video which may pretty much some up my next year of placements and job hunting. I'm sure indeed after many a crit and disapointment this video might be relevant and a good slap in the face!

She Says

2009-06-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

I have been contacted by She Says. An organisation that put on events where top females in the industry share their thoughts and help people to either get started or work their way up.

I have been invited to present my work as part of the next event showcasing new female creatives. She Says looks at the digital side of the industry. At the moment digital probably makes up only 25% of our portfolio, so I think we can definitely get our teeth sunk into more digital work.

Whilst I am preparing a presentation and trying finish our website, one week remains until the New Blood exhibition and one week until we hear our nomination results; commence fingernail biting.

Published

2009-06-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

We are very happy to announce that we will be in the graduate guide of Digital Arts magazine, released on June 25th. The Lloyds "comfort for the real world" pillow has been chosen to feature.

Wow, this site has made me into a nervous wreck!

2009-06-17T01:46:00.000-07:00

Oh my! All the awards have been put on the student awards site. Ours can be found by clicking the 'Ambient' section and the 'Product Design' section.

There is some tough competition and and really nice work so all fingers and toes crossed until Thursday 1st July.

Exhibiting

2009-06-16T03:29:00.001-07:00

Everything is go at uni. We are all getting our books together. Above is a little glimpse into our theme. The wallpaper patterns will form a unique pattern for everyone's portfolio book. I'm getting very excited about London now and the New Blood 'tick list' of jobs to do, are finally getting ticked!

Wanderlust

2009-06-12T15:38:00.000-07:00

I was very happy to find out that the video Wanderlust, for Bjork, directed by Encyclopedia pictura and produced by Ghost Robot got THREE D&AD yellow pencils! Just a really nice dreamlike video and lovely animation. The making of the video is really impressive, see below. Here is s short preview about the story behind the video, as told by Encyclopedia Pictura to Dazed and Confused:

"Björk is an archetypal nomad, shepherding giant yaks through the Mountains. She does hydromancy to decide whether to take them down a river or not.

A second self, the Painbody Backpack, sprouts from her like a growth and then engages her in an action play which displays their relationship.

The force which compelled Björk to go down river begins to manifest itself in Björk's head and in the physical world. This character, the Rivergod, is a transcendental attractor which pulls her into the future."