I aspire to be an organised creative; this has proved difficult though. Walking and talking simultaneously is often tricky, so remembering deadlines, tasks, meetings, quotes and other vital daily pieces of information is almost impossible. Thankfully I now employ a variety of applications which effectively are my electronic managers. They tell me where to be, who to invoice, who I have to speak to and about what. It’s a system that works most of the time, so I have decided to list the software I use, mention some apps that I’ve heard are useful, and make an appeal to programmers for an application which I think is missing…
What are the chances eh? You just happen to be at one of Manchester United Soccer School’s training days, and then you just happen to catch a little kid scoring a HUGE goal, right in front of your camera. Tch. This film is obviously just a great piece of luck, and not a viral which [...]
Creatives have a reputation for whinging. It seems we are never quite happy – our work never quite good enough. Some would say this is what keep us improving; this continual dissatisfaction. Just sometimes though, it might be nice to sit back and be able to say, “Yeah, actually, I’m the dogs. Back off!” I [...]
December 30, 2009 – 2:14 pm
It’s time again to reviews the reviews of 2009. Some have been good, some bad. Overall they have all been reviews, and reviewing them only serves to review the fact that they have, all in their own way, been reviews. Some have been lists, some have been long-winded TV shows hosted by Jimmy Carr. Here [...]
September 28, 2009 – 9:12 pm
Yes, yes, I have been going on about this. But what the hell, it was fun. Last Monday Mi shot a music video starring Richard E Grant, and I was Creative Director. There is more of a story about it all here. My last two posts were my attempt to blog from my phone on [...]
September 21, 2009 – 1:22 pm
So, not halfway through yet. And behind schedule. On the plus side the catering was really good, and our Hollywood star is being brilliant. Especially considering he spent all morning getting slapped……
September 21, 2009 – 10:45 am
So you spend months planning, re-writing treatments, getting crew together, juggling budgets, hunting locations, and all other manner of stuff, and then eventually the shoot day arrives. Then, really, you are at the mercy of time, and Lady Luck. Today is that day and so far things are good. I’ll post again in a bit…….and [...]
September 10, 2009 – 10:18 am
If you have read this article, or maybe this one, or even this one, you’ll know that I have been lucky enough to become Creative Director at Mi. I have a degree in animation tucked away somewhere, so after 10 years in advertising, design and digital agencies, this is me going back to my roots. [...]
August 10, 2009 – 10:06 am
Selling. It is sometimes easy for creatives to ‘uncouple’ sales from what we do. Preferring instead to discuss craft, user experience, or brand awareness. But ultimately, everything we do comes down to sales of one sort or another. It is also easy to fall into the usual agency rhetoric: “Of course our campaign will sell your product, trust us”. However, if asked, would most creatives put the selling power of their design to the test?
Bill Bailey is a nice chap. Here he is playing the point at the camera game at last night’s Big Chip Awards with the gents from Creative Spark and ahd mi. I am chuffed to say that ahd168 won two awards; Best use of Animation and the Anthony Wilson Original Modern Award. I am slightly [...]
The Chip Shop Awards took place at Fabric in London last night. (10th June). Depending on your point of view the Chip shops are either pointless, just a bit of fun, or a serious attempt to show how creative the industry can be unhindered by budgets or (ahem) clients. They are certainly getting bigger and [...]
Advertising and design has a lot of awards. A lot. Adforum lists 170 award shows from around the world. The Drum lists 15 award shows (at time of writing). They are big business, and they are here to stay. But are they are good thing? Do they benefit the industry? Maybe it’s worth having a proper think about them. I have listed 10 pros and 10 cons, in true sit-on-the-fence style….
Ideas. Tricky little blighters. If you are a creative it’s your job to come up with them everyday. Relevant, interesting ideas; and usually within a tight deadline. There are lots of techniques out there for idea generation, from books and from tutors and from colleagues. Ultimately though, I think it is a personal process; creatives utilise what works for them, individual combinations of methods. You may even have a process of no process – and if it works, good for you. But I find I need structure, over the years I have developed my own steps, they work for me, and maybe they could help you. I have used the example of having ideas for an ad campaign, but the process can be applied to lots of creative tasks………
Remember poor old ahd168? The robot from ahd imaging’s Christmas viral? Well 2009 has been pretty good to him so far – he has secured the leading role in a music video. The Chemists are an emerging band signed to Distiller records, who toured with Feeder last year. The record company approached ahd after seeing [...]
February 2, 2009 – 7:02 pm
Yes, it’s award deadline time. So creatives up and down the land will be tweaking layouts and frantically trying to convince their bosses to part with the entry fees. Well, at work they will – in the pub they will be telling any other creatives that awards are rubbish and pointless. After a decade of [...]
