The Best Analogue Social Networking Site...

Found around the Interwebs.

Flawless logic in my view...

My time at Moving Brands - A few numbers.

Day Five - A new LEGO desk mascot.....

Day Four - Dominoes Pizza Ambient?

Day Three - Caffeinated gems

Day Two - My 8-bit desk mascot

Day One

Over the next month I’ll be documenting my placement/freelance time at Moving Brands with a daily photograph (of which will not disclose any information regarding the nature of MB‘s clients - got to keep some things confidential in this post-digital, hyper-connected era!).

For anyone over 30 in advertising….

I stumbled across a box of old Radio Times and TV Times from 1970 and set about absorbing the nostalgia!

Lots of ads for alcohol (mostly port or whisky), lots of coupons and TONS of cigarette ads with no health labels on them - I think about 1 every 5 pages is a cigarette ad…

A magical new-fangled thing called ‘colour television’ is all the rage, the excitement is noticeable throughout the pages - this thing we know as the ‘Internet’ is but distant dream. and print was still a trusty old delivery system (some of the ads however look no different from today).

Lots of classified ads for miners, manual workers and car factory workers.

The women in the ads look normal (I think I only saw a single ad for a slimming product).

Petrol for 55p a gallon, a pint for 4shillings, a new house for £75k, a new FIAT for £1099, cigarettes for 23p and a bottle of port for 63p.

Lots of long-gone airline carrier ads - when flying was glamorous…

I felt the urge to preserve some of the better ads and present them here scanned and descreened at 300dpi for your enjoyment…

I like the boldness of this one, (and the funky beer cans - that came in cardboard?).

A new thing this 'colour TV'...

A classic here, Benson & Hedges with their usual quirkiness.

My dad talks a lot about these (Facebook petition to bring them back!).

Old school Lego (note the old logo and lack of colour choice).

This makes the 70's kinda...cool.

Eat it now...or else (I'll need a coupon with that too).

...and get punched in the face because of your sexist euphemism.

There are a few more snaps here from pages I didn't surgically remove from the magazines.

For people with 'nerves'...

I've been to BBH and it's great actually...

If only...

This prediction was pretty accurate according to the BBC...

Project 300...Aftermath.

Phew! 24 hours of continuous brainstorming later and Project 300 is over. Although the initial target of 300 ideas was not met in this instance, over 100 ideas have been scribbled down in an inch-thick book that could be applied to the brief in question (including one or two that are campaign-worthy).

The project even attracted the attention of Dave Trott himself whose input I’m very grateful for.

The experience has given me a deeper understanding of how valuable good ideas really are. Sitting at a desk trying to force them out gets you nowhere. This insight serves to strengthen my belief that creative agencies must hire ideas-driven people.

On method of thinking that served me well during the project would probably best be described by the diagram below - Universal thought beyond the ‘nth’ dimension, (rather than a linear chain of thought) to achieve a stream of consciousness.



By grouping relevant associations together a fuller picture can be achieved…which in turn can be grouped with another idea to form an even richer and/or multi-dimensional one. Similar to the model of the human brain, interconnecting ideas from any source can combine to create stronger networks. More importantly, are the ideas RELEVANT and useful to a Creative Director?

One last thought…during extensive brainstorming sessions keep plenty of plasters close to hand to apply to hand blisters…

Rich ideas, not big ideas.

Ideas can come from anywhere - it's one's ability to internalise those ideas, expand on them and articulate them relevantly that make 'ideas people' valuable to a company.

How far to do want to push your idea?

This far?

Or this far?

Guess the Ad Agency.

A pictorial mnemonic puzzle whereby the images represent the name of a famous advertising agency - perfect to rid those Monday morning blues.


Some are phonetic, some are representative - there's even an 'Easter Egg' agency in there somewhere...how many can you solve? Good luck!

Why I love Advertising.

THIS is why I love this industry so much - The craft and tradition that is all but lost in the age of pixels. Paint turns the message into art. This is the honest and passionate side of advertising that so many people don’t see, a craft that I hope will be around for future generations to experience.

After a trip in NY back in 08 I came across the same wall (or at least I thought it was the same wall), with a giant GTA4 ad on it. At first I thought it was vinyl (the details were incredible), but after realising it had been hand painted I thought ‘my God that’s even more incredible’. Great ads it seems, really do add to the personality of a city.

Although it’s sponsored by Stella Artois and created by Mother NY…the video 'Up There' on Vimeo still documents a universal slice of advertising that too many Copywriters, Art Directors, CD’s (and Clients!) forget. This is advertising at it’s best, ever since they daubed the name of Pears Soap onto the painting of the little boy (rumoured to be one of the earliest 'mainstream' advertisements in the UK).

To all those working in the industry…remember what you stand for - you are in charge of what future generations will look back at to gauge a sense of history. You are the gardeners of the zeitgeist. Remember all that has gone before you; all the great men that have worked hard to create something great, something memorable, something genuine (regarding the medium) that outlasts the lifetimes of ourselves and transcends into the picture books of history, a gift to the ages.

Never forget that what we do is an art…

Why did you get into advertising?

Project 300

Over the last few months I’ve been proactive on various freelance branding projects and really would like to produce more work in order to create a reputable portfolio.

Project 300 is an attempt to appeal to agencies who use graduate creative in an attempt to be accepted onto a portfolio crit. The idea is simple…it’s a self-set brief of mine that I’d like agencies to participate in. Basically, I ask that agencies submit a single creative brief to me (old or preferably live) and within the space of a single day, I will try to create 300 ideas for the brief in question.

That’s one idea every 4 minutes...

I will then post off all 300 ideas back to the agency. All briefs are of course kept confidential and no I will not demand any payment, just a portfolio viewing. What have agencies got to lose? Nothing, that’s what.

A project overview can be seen here.

The idea came about after watching the film 300 - except instead of hoards of Persians attacking…its other graduates attacking agencies. Like a self attributed creative Leonidas, I’ll struggle against the odds to produce work that will impress an agency enough for me to be considered for employment (or at the very least, a placement).

With my mighty yellow pencil and trusty sketchbooks, victory against tyranny and mysticism will be assured.

Android 2.2...the Demise of the iPhone is at Hand.

Droid are getting their game together now that the latest update has Flash video compatibility…not even the iPad has it. Along with the fact that Google have just released the tools to create apps open source means there’ll be a boom in Droid apps very soon, mark my words.

A few comparisons….

It costs a lot of money to be an Apple app developer, not so with Droid.

No crappy ‘vetting’ scheme with Droid (Apple kills apps before they’ve had the chance to shine based on their commercial potential or what Apple deems appropriate).

No iTunes proprietary software with Droid.

Your Droid app is not limited to a 1cm squared homepage thumbnail as it is with Apple.

No SD card in iPhone (so no easy sharing of files either, and if the cloud goes down you’ve had it).

No ‘grip of death’ with Droid.

Affordable and reasonable tariff with Droid.

Removable battery with Droid phones (so no expensive replacement fees).

Widely available tethering software for Droid OS enables further customisation.

How long have 5mpxl cameras been around? Apple’s planned obsolescence at its best, unlike the Dell Thunder, whose specs already trump the iPhone.

Corporate Identity

A few examples of live and self-set coporate identities I've completed for clients.

Corporate Identity - RedTed

A corporate identity for RedTed while on a placement at 300million's studio. The client was a small music and film production company who specialised in sound engineering. The identity reflects this (taking inspiration from a music-beat 'bar' display that can be animated) and has a degree of flexibility to its useage. Stationary is printed on a 200gsm matt stock with the colours coated in a UV varnish.

Early type treatments.

The digital screen display could also be sound sensitive - the bars movement would be dictated by how much sound is made in the immediate area.

Work update - Interflora

I've updated the Interflora campaign concept after taking a few portfolio crits.

Clockwork Amoeba - Work we like.

Some good work here from one of the friends of i10. Clockwork Amoeba is a small production company based in Herts, Beds and Bucks (although they've gone as far as Africa to shoot previous scenes!) that specialises in music videos with a background in drama productions, corporate films and animation. This is a grass-roots style company that has recently created some pretty impressive videos with a next-to-nothing budget. If you know someone who requires music video production, give them a call. Keep it up guys!

New Work - Campaign Concepts

Surprise of the Ordinary - The Humble Leather Shoe

I’ve had these shoes for around 6 years now, Size 7 Lambretta slip-ons brought from Brantanos in Aylesbury. After a full life serving their master, I was going to throw them out but remembered a BBC Documentary called ‘Blood Sweat and Luxuries’. Essentially the show was about a group of spoilt rich British kids working in the same conditions as Madagascan Sapphire miners, Ethiopian Leather producers and African Gold miners. The leather episode has by far the most impact.

The Ravages of time

Detailed stitching

We seem to forget in our busy lives where exactly the goods we buy come from (as Alain de Botton’s excellent book ‘The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work’ and Monocle Magazine have touched on in the past). We are detached from the efforts that went into their creation (can you name the man who made your kitchen table? What is your MacBook made of and by whom? How long did it take to assemble your car and where did the raw materials come from?). We seem to forget that the materials to make that leather jacket you may be wearing once belonged to a living, breathing, pulsating animal with limbs, organs, brains and bone. It knew not of self-consciousness. The flesh of the animal is flayed off, organs and feet discarded by hand, dipped in an acid bath to remove the hair, and coloured using dye. Watching that documentary made me realise the value of the material and to respect where it came from. As such, rather than discard the shoes, I wanted to (and felt compelled to) recycle them into something new, something beyond their original function.

All I needed was a sharp scalpel….

The shoes are exceptionally well made, it took a whole hour to dismantle them. The leather has aged well, after years of polishing and care, and (judging by the warp in the material) I now realise that my walking gait was somewhat off. An old shoe saying whose source eludes me - ‘It’s better to have 3 pairs of shoes that last 10 years than 10 pairs of shoes that last 3 years’.

Its incredibly interesting dismantling something you never thought you’d ever take apart, to realise just how much time and effort went into making it. You’d be amazed how many YouTube videos there are about shoe / leather craftsmanship, tools and ‘skiving’ (thinning leather by hand or machine).


It’s no longer a shoe, it becomes something else, mere sheets of worn leather, ready for a life anew beyond the original life of the object. This begs the question - does the form dictate what an object is despite its material construction? Is an object’s identity merely dictated by its function?

A thought I throw out to all Copywriters. Next time you’re stuck for ideas, try dissecting something you plan on throwing away. You may learn something.

The essence of a shoe ready for a new life