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…
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 [...]
February 2, 2010 – 10:37 pm
Alpacas are not llamas. Llama fleece is not alpaca fleece and alpaca farmers are not llama farmers. Which is a shame really, as writing this would be far easier with alliteration on my side. Anyway, I recently designed and built a little website for Farrlacey Mill to direct people to their shop selling alpaca duvets. [...]
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. [...]
Designers know all about typography. (Well, some at least). But some typography techniques that I’m sure a few of us were taught are now often sadly neglected. Maybe the digital age is slightly to blame for this, but I suspect that budgets and deadlines are more of a factor. A lack of time does lead to a lack of craft. And if anyone thinks I am being a bit grumpy old man about this, well, I probably am. Er, Sorry. I have just listed 6. I am sure there are more………..
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………
Founded by ex LOVE and The Designers Republic people; Golden is a very exciting start up. Soon to be based in Leeds, this studio is already winning business and looking to staff up. This is a great opportunity to get in at the start of something which could be the next great design agency of [...]
Well this re-design took no time at all – seems I am getting much quicker re-coding CSS. The old layout of this blog was starting to feel a bit well ‘bit-y’, so this one is back to clean design basics, except of course the big chopped up background images. As monitors and internet pipes get [...]
After a month or so of pixel tweaking and CSS changes I have decided the Hoggblog needs a much more serious overhaul, so it’s going to be in a bit of a state for a couple of days. The start will be the worst, getting rid of all the old code; dust and rubble everywhere. [...]
