Not so innocent

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Most of you will have heard of the fantastic and very worthy idea by Innocent Smoothies to raise money for Age Concern . Every winter, they invite eager knitters to knit little woolly hats that are then adorned to bottles during Novemeber. For every bottle sold 50p goes to the charity. Novel idea and very in-keeping with the brand. But as with all good ideas, people are soon jump on the bandwagon. Now Origins beauty and Skincare have done the same thing with their perfume bottles. Except it's not as imaginative, and doesn't have the same community feel that innocent create by inviting their fanbase to join in. I suppose it's still all in a good cause, but points lost for lack of marketing originality.

Creative Futures

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Tuesday was the Creative Futures event by Creative Review, at the 3Rooms (which by the way was a very cool space designed by Tom Dixon). But the main point of the evening was two talks by up and coming creative types. First was a presentation by a Danish photographer, Popel Coumou. Her work consists of dramatically lit empty interiors, often with one piece of furniture and an opening of some sort - a window or doorway. But what was different in her work was the process by which she achieves such images. To look at the images at first, they have a somewhat illustrative or painted feel. Yet the lighting and sharp edges suggests it is actually a three dimensional form that has been photographed. But, during the big reveal in her presentations, (a few has floated around the room) She showed us that in fact she created all of her interiors on 2D collages on a sheet of A4 paper. by cutting out various types of paper, sometimes including squashed clay forms eg. to make a mattress, she then lights from behind, and the side to enhance the shadows and forms. the result is quite mysterious, almost solemn spaces, that Popel says, contain stories that can be interpreted by the viewer.
For me it was intriguing and nice to see original artwork, what with all this talk of copying going on.
The second talk was by Samuel Akesson and Tomas Mankovsky of Fallon, the two creatives behind the beautiful Orange 'Magic Numbers' campaign and the recent Sony Walkman ads.
They shared with us their sources of inspiration and some of the pictures that they collect that later end up being used in some of their briefs for Fallon. they also told of some amusing stunts they did in Sweden while still at college, one involving changing all of the signs on the underground, in order to bring Venice to the city, resulting in a lot of confused commuters. They are obviously talented young guys, with lots of energy still to give.

Fancy some soup?

Winter is officially upon us, our fingers are frozen and bellies constantly hungry (well mine is anyway!). It is officially soup season too. Earlier this year I was asked to design and illustrate a Soup Recipe book for a beautiful health retreat at Buckland Hall, Wales. As well as taking in the fresh views of the wintery landscapes I got to savour the very yummy and warming soups. The book was sold to visitors of the hall and those on the retreat.I still have a number of the small booklets left if anyone is interested in purchasing one, for the bargain price of £5.50 (postage inc). they are beautifully illustrated by yours truly, and they are a good waty to save money on those lunches at this time of year. Just email me at jodmd@hotmail.com with your details, and I'll pop one in the post!

A special pack designed for one client who had a very messy daughter!

We all need a bit of stimulation

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The idea that we all need to keep our brains active is nothing new. With the craze of Suduko, brainteaser books and now Nintendo's Brain Academy game all in the media, we are reminded that we need stay stimulated to improve our memory and not develop other degenerative diseases. But when reading 'A User's Guide to the Brain', the author John Ratey explains in detail how and why this occurs. It fascinated me and with this knowledge, things all started to slot into place.
Brain development begins as soon as conception has occurred. and during the first weeks 250, 000 nerve cells are created every minute. These nerve cells (or neurons) then travel to various points in the brain to differentiate and form their purpose. From the beginning, the brain is a social brain, with cells all interacting with each other, talking to each other, and it is these messages that allow many functions in the body to occur. The cells develop in sophistication over time, branching out, and developing more cells in the areas that are frequently used. Likewise, those that are unused become couch potatoes and die off. Think of it like a big social party. If no one is talking to you and you end up in a corner alone, you soon choose to go home. Those having fun chatting and dancing often end up going on somewhere else.
So this all got me thinking about how our brains develop from an early age, and how the simplest actions are taught to babies and toddlers in order for them to grow and learn. Sorry if I am being obvious here but I haven't really thought about it before.
As science has got more sophisticated, and they know how the brain works, it has helped to inform the ways we teach, and communicate. That is why for instance if you go into schools now, books and things on the wall look so much more interesting than when we were at school. I'm sure some of you were taught from plain books with no pictures or diagrams. Now we know that since babies first use their eyes to understand, before the more complex process of speech and hearing is developed, visual stimulation is the way to teach from a very young age. That is why picture books are so effective, with words being gradually introduced. So for all those traditionalists that moan that copy is a dying art in advertising, I think it has changed out of an understanding of what generations respond to more effectively. We find pictures easy on the eye, process them quicker, and for some don't feel the struggle learning that can be associated with unhappy school days. Don't get me wrong, copy has it's place. Especially for more intellectually aimed brands, but in this fast paced world, we do have to move with the times and interact with people in the way they are comfortable with and used to. That is why digital media is fast becoming the media of choice. For that is what the next generation is familiar with.
On that note, here's some pretty pictures to keep you visually interested:

The whole "Art 'inspires' Advertising" fine line.

The 'Hot' copies:

• Lowe's John Lewis ad vs Noble and Webster (See other replicas here)

• Honda 'Cog' vs Fischli & Weiss

• Sony 'Play doh' vs Kozyndan
  
  

Generally I think all creatives agree that they are inspired by, and interested in Art and Design (just look at all the links to my blog!). Especially if you are an art director, visually you have to have an artistic eye. As a creative team, your originality should be in the idea. That is, solving the problem of the brief, and thinking of a unique way to sell the product. If in the next stage you reference an artistic style in history I don't think that it's a problem. But if your ad is either influenced by or remotely resembles another piece of art that has gone before I think it is time to admit defeat and go back to the drawing board. We are supposed to be creative and so our ideas should be disposable. I know in some cases creatives may be unaware of work that has gone before them, as it is impossible to keep track of art everywhere and ads worldwide. But I think we have a responsibilty to our profession to try and keep things fresh, and not forget that if your gut feeling is 'it feels done before', then it probably has been. Replicating work means artists lose out, and the brand/ ad agency gets credit for great work that the public may not have seen anywhere else before.
Advertising may be a business, but the creative dept is the exciting bit, so lets keep it that way.
Read more of this debate on CR blog here.

Peepshow Collective

I haven't had a look at these guys for a while, but while going through my favourite links to put up, I took a little tour. They have some great design, illustration and general creativity. For instance the origami Evisu shoe. Inspiring stuff.

http://www.peepshow.org.uk

Facebook now dominating online advertising

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Cartoon by Dave Walker

I know this isn't the latest hot topic, but I'd still like to get my spoke in - after reading a bit more into it and discussing it with my new blogging friends of the breakfast club.
For those not in the know, Facebook has launched its new initiative - facebook ads and business pages where brands/ companies can now target customers more directly, based on what interests they post in their profile. to the marketers these sounds like a dream, especially with online advertising being more quantifiable.
however as a user of facebook, I am some what sceptical and put off by the whole idea. I mean I am used to flashing ads and banners on sites and if you respond to these then you are more likely to respond to the FB ads. However, it is the invasion of my interests that I dislike. For me facebook began as a nice way of communicating with friends old and new, and setting up nights out with the odd poke here & there. Now it is overloaded with games (at least it is all for fun) but when the ads start to appear inviting you to this page and that it will get in the way of what I essentially use it for which is to chat to my friends, NOT inform them of the latest gadget out or top to buy. What if my friend isn't interested?

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the site assures, "The ads are going to feel like content to a lot of people." I can't help but feel used for being a marketeer for the brand instead of a consumer - can I get a percentage of their income from the link to their ad?
I do admit it is a clever system. The amount of data on the site that everyone has very openly volunteered must save thousands in focus groups. Plus as Zuckerberg puts it,
"Social actions are powerful because they act as trusted referrals and reinforce the fact that people influence people."

So the new system replaces the cold feeling of advertising messages broadcast by large companies to warmth from that of a recommendation from a friend. Advertisers will also be able to tailor messages to users via information they have received about that person from a friend. This is all getting a bit big brother isn't it - except it feels like your friends are snitching on you without them even realising.
I don't know, I see the potential for tailored advertising, but I don't believe it will ever take off as consumers are ALWAYS in charge of their choices, no matter what you put in front of them.


Quotes from full article on Portfolio.com

Fire Kills Children!

Discovered this box of matches at home and love the original shout-about-the-product packaging. It's re-created everywhere these days in spoofs so it's nice to find a real piece. I especially love the very direct warning & illustration on the back.

CON MAN

This is game a created spurred on by my increasing frustration with Mr Livingstone and his irritating rules affecting the way Londoners can move around the town. Obviously it is a take on the seventies classic, Pac Man with Ken Livingstoone as the ghosts that chase you around as you try to escape out of the congestion zone.
Con Man must collect as many £1 coins as possible before being set free.
Ghost Ken's eye's bulge as you feed Con Man. For every £8 (current congestion charge) you collect, a wall will open up, allowing you more access to be set free from the lingering ghosts set on keeping you in.
Ideas for other levels involve encouraging you to go to expensive tourist attractions, and the congestion zone expanding on harder levels.

My second related game still to be developed is based on the bloody oyster card that is also another one of Ken's flawed systems. Watch this space.

What the blog's it all about?

I am starting to feel like a computer geek who is permanently attached to the internet all day and night - for that is what I have been doing for the past twelve hours. Reading, researching, joining file sharing sites, registering for this blog, and that site - just to be in the blogging know! I feel like a teenager who has developed late, while everyone is else is getting off at the party. I think I'm bloggerfordummies most frequent visitor, as well as testing bloggerbeta and blogger tips and tricks and that's just been to set the whole thing up - before I start mingling in the blogging community, and adding my snippets to everyones else's sites in the hope that they visit mine. God it really is like a party that you've invited yourself to, and you have to make an entrance, and be full of interesting gossip! Except it's all virtual. I think I prefer to meet people face to face. I can see exactly why Russell Davis set up his coffee mornings now - and look at him - he must be the most famous serial blogger of the creative community. Now that I've spent all of today within the confines of four walls I owe it to myself to get out there and experience life so that I have comments of my own to post and don't become a blogger who is just excellent at trawling other sites and referencing them. (it's very easy to slip into). Plus I do actually have to get on with some real work, so that I can post more recent stuff on here. In the meantime, to show for my past twelve hours of 'research' I have a very full delicious page if anyone wants some links!

Make my logo look bigger

Here's an amusing vid I spotted on creative social blog if any of you don't already go there. Clients will get their way in the end!

Easy Living

Here's the TV campaign for Easy Living Magazine, a pitch we won while at WCRS. As ever it's not quite the idea we started with due to 'housewives' in research, but it does the job.


There is also a 20sec and 10sec cut. We had a glamorous style arranged for the photography of the print however the client panicked and ended up requesting more informative 'Out Now' posters.

Paul Rand

If you are into your graphic design here's a great animation put together by Imaginary forces to promote an exhibition of the late Paul Rand. It's a clever collage of the seminal fu=igure who, along with his work for the big Bernbach, also created the very reconisable logos of the 60's.
I just personally love the scrap book feel & jazzy symbols that accompanying this that remind me of cartoons when I was growing up. Take a look:

This smoking ban is really getting out of hand!

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..if i do say so myself. Well the client and team at OpenAd seemed to think so. This was the winning campaign back in November last year. The Integrated work consists of print, posters, DM, banners and tube panels to promote thisislondon.co.uk, an online entertainment guide created alongside The Evening Standard. As the winner, I not only received a very nice sum of money but also the clients at A.N.Media can further pay me for the licence to publish the work. Incidentally I haven't heard much since, so it just remains as a nice piece in my portfolio. You can read the press write up about it here below the picture of my lovely face.





The idea did get used however when I first came up with it whilst doing a stint at W & K London when they had ANM as a client. I developed these small space ads to promote thisistravel.co.uk

Shesays

For those of you interested in advertising, I went to a talk last night organised by the lovely Ale and her friend Emma of Shesays; a project set up to encourage more women into digital advertising. Since I'm having trouble finding work in ABL and Integrated where my experience lies, I'm trying to venture into digital and adjust my portfolio as so. It's actually a lot of fun (maybe because it's new & the novelty is still there! ) and I feel a lot more up to date with what audiences are doing and bothering to interact with, advertising wise. It's about being a bit more clever with your way in and not annoying - I for one can't stand the endless emails I get from brands that have got my details from something else I signed up for.
Anyway, Wednesday's talk was all about how to work better with clients and productively achieve what you both want. The general consensus was that there needs to be more development of the briefing at an early stage and collaboration with the other aagencies involved, so that the digital arm doesn't end up having to just create an extension of someone else's idea - I tell you - if you were from an ABL agency you would have got trampled on by all the digital girls with their broomsticks! All in all it was a good evening , I met some lovely people and look forward to the party !!!

Incidentally - here's an article I saw in Thursday's Evening Standard promoting the very point that Shesays is all for:

Re-cycling.

I'm loving this blog - it's like an online sketch book - If I think my ideas are decent I'll share them, do the 'overnight' test, then delete them if I think they are shit. So here's my latest thought:
While on my bike the other day, it struck my how much body power I was using to get from A to B. Those mad people in gyms, cycling away don't get anywhere. Why don't they use their energy to solar power the building? In fact, we could take it one step further - address the current problem of child obesity and hook up all the school kids to the national grid. Hey, while we're at it (since the govt is SO green all of a sudden) why not use the energy to break down all the rubbish that we're dumping. Brings a whole new meaning to RE-Cycling...

Jo calling web, come in..

I'm still waiting for the technology to come along that will allow you to transmit your thoughts from your mind to the internet. We have mobile phone to web, tv to web and camera to web- how long before human to web? I tell you- it'll be a lot easier to keep up with this blog, as I always seem to have thoughts, even conversations in my head, usually when I'm not on my computor so it'd be really handy if I could just teleport my ideas over. I've even started keeping a notebook next to my bed when insomnia strikes - this really is getting obsessive! Well at least the ideas keep flowing - even if the majority of them aren't any good. Maybe the micro chip thing for humans will cipher out all the crap and only publish the witty good thoughts? Here's hoping.

eco-nike

This was a small booklet my partner and I made to change people's views of Nike as a capitalist, globally-hated brand. The tone of voice set was akin to their Run London campaign . We came up with the thought 'Share Your Air', based on the fact that when we run more, we are helping trees by breathing out more CO2, which they like to breathe in...and so helping the environment. It also highlights the fact that if you run in a park or near trees you are inhaling better quality air.