Oh crap.
There almost always comes a time in a creatives' career when an idea that they had many moons ago sits idle in their book/ bottom drawer and it isn't long before someone goes and bloody makes the thing. Is that flattering or just a case of ideas existing out there somewhere and people tapping into it as and when appropriate? In my case it was a campaign I thought up for Topshop to make the shopper's experience more bearable and convenient for those with fast paced lifestyles. It was more a technological solution as such than a conceptual idea, but it was based on the frustrations many feel (especially in winter) at having to undress and re-layer up to try on an outfit, This way,m with my special mirror, shopper's can try on clothes of their choice with minimum effort.
However with ever changing technology and brand competition it was only a matter of time before something similar was made:

Created by Russian agency AR Door

Using Microsoft Kinect and augmented reality, Topshop's flagship store in Moscow installed their very own virtual fitting room last month. A built-in camera recognizes a human body and superimposes a 3D model of a garment; allowing shopper to try outfits, switching clothes using simple gestures.

And below was my campaign thought up last November, quietly shown in my portfolio:

(All work shown above is original ideas by myself and not reproduced to the best of my knowledge at the time of production)

Had I had the contacts in the right places, who knows my 'Topshop Express' could well have come to fruition!
Oh well. Back to the drawing board.

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neat stuff

This rather neat deskstop app for Ikea by Hungarian agency Laboratory uses a very similar idea to that in my Muji 'Obsessive Compulsive Order' campaign. Only they have the technical know-how to make it happen. Neat.

What does a Story look like?

Is it piece of music, or collection of sounds? Perhaps objects or collection of data (personal or otherwise).
Or it is a person's experience recorded, played back or re-enacted through a game, play or written word?
It can of course be all of these things, and it was a collection of talks about individual projects like this that I heard about at last week's conference 'The Story 2001'. Top speakers took to the stage to tell us of their own (or others) stories, and it was a superbly awe-inspiring day.

First up, were Lucy, Ben and I to showcase the wonderful project, The Ministry of Stories, that I regularly mentor and illustrate for. The aim of the Ministry is to provide children with access to free writing and storytelling workshops, to unleash their creativity and give them the confidence to believe in themselves and their potential.
As a mentor, I certainly see first hand the difference of a young shy child, or someone who has no self-belief, open up, have fun and enjoy being creative. The school trips also involve a refreshing break for kids to experience the Monster shop and mystery of The Chief behind closed office doors. It's great fun, and I enjoy going as I get to be a bit of a kid again!
I also illustrate for these youngsters, who challenge me with their wild ideas of creatures with fans for faces, eight legs with upside down knobbly knees and inside out toes! We put this simple task to the test at the conference, giving the audience the chance to create their own monster. They too were certainly imaginative. And there it is: The Pedicurist.

It's eyes, round and yellow like pickled onions; it's mouth as vicious as an amoeba with a head cold, with teeth as hairy as a hippy's armpits.
It has three nostrils, all of varying sizes and its arms are as irregular as the Lib Dem's coalition promises. It's body is wrinkled like
a condom stuffed with walnuts, and it's tail, long and sharp. It has extremely beautiful feet.

Karl Jones contrasted the morning with his very powerful and emotional Dialogue Project, whereby he collects and records conversations with individuals. He is more of a story listener than a storyteller. He talked about the power of listening, and that all we have after listening is the change it has created : be it the support it has provided, reassurance, or focus it has given the other person. He played extracts from conversations that were very moving, about schoolchildren who felt isolated and and treated like "something on the bottom of their shoe". Yet there was a feeling of hope for these kids as they realised as they were being listened to, the respect that they may not receive could be a result of respect they don't give out. So if we're better story listeners, it may well affect the outcome of the stories that are told.
Next we had Turner prize winning Cornelia Parker. It was great to see her talk about her work so modestly, yet also to hear the explanations behind her 'stories' first hand. She talked about her beginnings as an artist, and how she loves used objects - how they all have a story to tell. It's the life & death of objects that she was concerned with in her well known artworks of an exploding shed, fragments of ashes from a church spire & bricks from a building, adding "Friction starts a good story".

In 1997, she decided she'd take a closer look of Einstein's theory under a microscope. The piece makes the chalk marks from his board almost look like fluffy clouds (a much lighter hearted way of looking at it).

This was just one example of how looking at objects (or pieces of art) can be interpreted differently. each person has their own version of the story to tell. For instance she displayed a two beautiful metal shapes cut to form a Colt gun the pro-gun brigade thought it was “beautiful”, the anti-gun lobby were pleased Cornelia had “aborted” the gun before it became a dangerous weapon.
Another example of her dry wit was her piece in the Tate where she wrapped Rodin's famous sculpture, 'The Kiss' in rope and called it "The Distance (A Kiss with String Attached)". Her sideways approach really shows that objects are not necessarily what someone says they are - you can give it a whole new story.

Right, I've been rambling on so much, I think I'll have to finish this report in parts. Stay tuned!

The Creaturezoid

It must be the influence and imagination of all the wonderful kids at the Ministry of Stories where I have been mentoring, that I came up with my own creature - a sort of flying monkey that is very in touch with outer space. It travels between prehistoric times and the future, so has unique animalistic characteristics that adapt to it's environment. You never know, I may just write my own short story, but for now, it has become a submission as part of The Creature Curiosity Project; a non-profit collaborative venture bringing illustrators and children together with an aim to spread creativity and self-expression. Artists are invited to create the first (or back) half of a creature, then through workshops children will be invited to complete the other half. The project aims to use self directed learning to bring out the creative strengths of each child, and brings together an array of talents, organizations and teachers.
The project aims to hold an exhibition of the final work and hopefully a printed publication.

The Creaturezoid

notanyoldjotter

Were you one of the lucky ones to receive one of my branded handy notepads this new year? If so, do let me know if you've used it. Even better take a picture of how you have put it to use & upload it to my twitter page - I'd love to see. If you didn't receive one and  you're feeling very jealous, drop me a line & I'm sure I can sort you one out. Notanyoldtomdickorjo gets one you know!
 

I can draw the internet

If you don't know what this is all about, read more here. But it's all over the industry sites: Saint's competition pitching creatives against 10 year old's and their interpretation of what the internet is. Here's mine:

!!!!!VOTE FOR ME!!!!!!

notanyoldorangead

Thought I'd pop this up here as I enjoyed creating my own mock ad of the familiar Orange 'I am' campaign that ran a few years back. I was sitting waiting to be briefed all morning at the agency I was freelancing, had researched all I could, and while I had access to all the lovely artwork, I decided to do my own 'I am'. It was my own little way of introducing myself & saying "I'm here". Made them smile anyway.

My Website

It struck me that while advertising everyone else's great work I have failed to post my own up here for a while. So here's a quick self promotional shout : MY WEBSITE IS LIVE! Go forth and take a look. Thank you.

www.cargocollective.com/notanyoldjo

Stop and Smell the Stilton

Pat on the back for me as I was pleased to discover the book I did for Nexavar, 'Stop and Smell the Stilton' has received critical acclaim at some industry awards. It won an RX Gold at the RX Gold club awards and a New York Global for excellence in direct marketing. The book is aimed at oncologists treating terminal cancer patients, and is designed to help patients cope with the little time they have left in an uplifting way. The book is full of real patient anecdotes, illustrated or created with unusual popups, or craftwork, making it a delightful little read.

Watch a short clip here:

Stop and Smell the Stilton

My own craftywork

While I wait for the final publication of the book I worked on at Langland, I thought I'd put up an element of it that I worked on, that wasn't my usual art direction. This, I carefully handmade with hundreds of sequins and some beading. It will be form part of the pages in the upcoming book 'Stop and Smell the Stilton', aimed at oncologists who deal with terminal cancer patients. It is then aimed at the patients to give them a positive take on their remaining months, once the initial shock of the diagnosis has set in. The book will make more sense once I put up the final piece, due out at the end of July.

Spreading the Love and Creativity

It's that time of year again where everyone is under pressure to either send/receive/avoid sending/ waiting to recieve/ deliberately not sending, hesitating, do something/ not do something romantic - God love is complicated huh?
Well no it isn't. Just send a bloody card and be done worth it! Everyone likes being told they are special, so wear your heart on your sleeve and spread the love!
To help you along, I'm donating one of my designs I created for the online card company that I'm illustrating for. I would say click there and buy it, but they haven't got themselves organised (and so are missing out on one of the biggest days in the greetings card industry!) Which means my stack of designs shall have to wait 'til next year. So I'm sharing my work for free. All I ask is that you credit me and don't pretend it's your own work! (Be creative on the inside, that's the bit that counts)

Just click the picture to get a larger version, and drag to desktop/right click..then print!

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!

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.

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.

thisisadamngoodstrategy

..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

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.

TV debut

Here's the cinema ad I did with my partner while at WCRS in 2004 - Vote No for the EU Constitution. It could run again really with the current state of affairs!

Read the review from The Telegraph's Ad of the week here.

Gola Work

This campaign was for a pitch won while at design agency Point Blank. It was to follow on from the spiral campaign Gola had previously developed. The idea was that the powerful colours of the trainers lit up and 'powered ' the streets.






















Final design by members of Point Blank and, as pointed out to me later - an image from the fantastic Trevor Jackson.

Earlier work

Campaign for all lovers of Muji products, 'Obsessive Compulsive Order'

Swatch. Telling Time With Colour

Saab drivers apologise to all beings that it offends by driving a car from the new Saab 9.3 Sport range. If they are going to drive a sports car, they're going to be polite about it.