Friday, 26 March 2010
Perhaps my greatest achievement?
Wow! I have just completed my first ever Rubik's cube! How impressed!!! :)
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Drummond Central here we come...
Today we had a trip over to Drummond Central to show Steve Drummond our book. To be honest, we both got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning and weren't really in the mood for it. However, we weren't about to waste this opportunity, so we forced the smiles onto our faces. We didn't need to force them for long though, as Steve was extremely impressed by our book and gave us some very positive feedback. He even predicted that our Metro campaign would get at least a nomination in the D&AD Awards (wowza!) - what a compliment! Perhaps we need to arrange to get him onto the judging panel to improve our chances? Steve also said how he knows the Marketing Manager for Metro itself and would gladly pass on our designs to him. What an opportunity!
Steve wasn't too open about giving us a definite date for a placement, but told us to go away, work on more campaigns and come back to see him in a couple of weeks. However, when we got back to college; Claire, the placement organiser told us how Steve had been on the phone to tell her how he would love us 2 to go in for a placement sometime, but couldn't confirm dates as he already has a few booked. Overall, what started out as a pretty crap day ended on a huge high for the both of us. Perhaps finding ourselves a job at the end of this course won't be so impossible?!
Steve wasn't too open about giving us a definite date for a placement, but told us to go away, work on more campaigns and come back to see him in a couple of weeks. However, when we got back to college; Claire, the placement organiser told us how Steve had been on the phone to tell her how he would love us 2 to go in for a placement sometime, but couldn't confirm dates as he already has a few booked. Overall, what started out as a pretty crap day ended on a huge high for the both of us. Perhaps finding ourselves a job at the end of this course won't be so impossible?!
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Football Spirit
The brief we are currently working on is for Pepsi and as Nic said, it's all about keeping the spirit of football alive. So here is what i believe to be a fantastic (not to mention utterly hilarious) example of true football spirit.
Now if that's not football spirit, i don't know what is.
Now if that's not football spirit, i don't know what is.
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Pepsi!!
Hmmm.... well I think we need to crack on with this Pepsi brief! It's just the whole idea of actually making the film that's putting us of! Everything we seem to come up with will be impossible to shoot, and shoot well! We do actually want to be in with a chance of winning after all! We want to show how the football spirit is carried on when the big match is done with, we don't just want to show a group of mates kicking a football round. I've ear-wigged a bit to see what other people are up to and I think we're all coming up with the same starting points, we just need to push it a bit further and do something less expected. After all-like I've shown in the Boursin ad-unexpected is always funnier and more memorable. I think we have something we can work with, it's just going to be difficult to shoot the frames precise enough so when we edit it, it'l match. After all-the success or failure will be all in the edit for our film. Suppose we need to get cracking, because it's going to be a lot of trial and error!
Monday, 22 March 2010
Du Tracteuurrrr!!
I love the shock factor of this ad - it totally takes the viewer by surprise and adds a whole different personality to the brand. This definitely shows how ads are more memorable when the unexpected happens, and the viewer hasn't seen it before-or even felt like they've seen it before.
Grab a quick bite!
The D&AD student awards are an amazing opportunity for students like us to get work seen and judged by top creatives. Not to mention the opportunities that can prevail for those whose work is selected as some of the best in the bunch.
We selected the Metro brief to work on, mainly because of its category – poster/outdoor advertising. Nichola and I both feel confident working on poster ads, as we know a lot about the restrictions, limitations and possibilities existing for this type of media.
The brief was to create a transport advertising poster campaign and strapline that cuts through the visual noise of the everyday commute promoting Metro as the best way to get up to speed with the latest news in the morning.
This is what we came up with.
We used breakfast foods like toast, fruit and cereal to represent something quick that you need in the morning. Metro’s target audience are busy people and don’t have time for big breakfasts before work – just like they don’t have time to read big long stories in newspapers. They need something quick and light to set them up for the day (just like a bit of bite sized news).
I think our campaign answers the brief effectively. We kept the tone of the campaign fresh and fun, which is what was specified in the brief. We also kept our campaign very simple visually. We left quite a lot of negative space, as we wanted our ads to be reflective of Metro – which is very concise and not at all cluttered. In fact, if you removed all of the advertisements from a Metro paper, you would be left with a hell of a lot of negative space.
Hopefully our campaign will be well received by the D&AD judges (fingers crossed anyway!)
We selected the Metro brief to work on, mainly because of its category – poster/outdoor advertising. Nichola and I both feel confident working on poster ads, as we know a lot about the restrictions, limitations and possibilities existing for this type of media.
The brief was to create a transport advertising poster campaign and strapline that cuts through the visual noise of the everyday commute promoting Metro as the best way to get up to speed with the latest news in the morning.
This is what we came up with.
We used breakfast foods like toast, fruit and cereal to represent something quick that you need in the morning. Metro’s target audience are busy people and don’t have time for big breakfasts before work – just like they don’t have time to read big long stories in newspapers. They need something quick and light to set them up for the day (just like a bit of bite sized news).
I think our campaign answers the brief effectively. We kept the tone of the campaign fresh and fun, which is what was specified in the brief. We also kept our campaign very simple visually. We left quite a lot of negative space, as we wanted our ads to be reflective of Metro – which is very concise and not at all cluttered. In fact, if you removed all of the advertisements from a Metro paper, you would be left with a hell of a lot of negative space.
Hopefully our campaign will be well received by the D&AD judges (fingers crossed anyway!)
To be or not to be (an art director or a copywriter) - that is the question.
Is it necessary to label creatives as either art directors or copywriters? I guess there is no definitive answer to this question, just many varying opinions. Here is an article on the matter from an old issue of Campaign – it may be a little outdated but I personally think it hits the whole art director/copywriter nail on the head.
Is it correct to distinguish art directors from copywriters? (job titles of creatives in advertising agencies)
Publication: Campaign
Publication Date: 09-JAN-98
Author: Archer, Belinda
COPYRIGHT 1998 Haymarket Business Publications Ltd.
The old job titles are less valid as teams share their skills. Think of some successful creative pairings. Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO's Tom Carty and Walter Campbell, say, or Robert Campbell and Mark Roalfe of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe. Or Will Awdry and Rosie Arnold at Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Now, try to remember which one is which. Is Carty the art director or is it Campbell? Does Arnold do the writing or is she in charge of visuals?
Tricky isn't it? Not since the likes of Tony Brignull, Dave Trott and Tim Delaney have creatives been famous for a particular discipline.
It seems the inhabitants of today's creative departments are less likely to clarify exactly who does what in their partnership, insisting, with an admirable generosity of spirit, that they "both do everything", or perhaps individually claiming, "I do a bit of art direction but I'm technically the writer." Many creatives even demand that both names be listed alongside both discipline when it comes to credits in Private View or the D&AD annual.
In addition, there appears to be an increasing trend for creatives to be working on their own, effectively partnerless and doing two jobs in one, while more and more new partnerships are made up of two art directors, or two writers, in what seems to be a quiet revolution of creative department working practices.
Richard Flintham, officially the art directing partner of Andy McLeod at BMP DDB, comments: "I'm only doing art directing for about 5 per cent of my time. The currency is ideas and 95 per cent of the time I'm thinking of ideas for ads. I often might have an idea for a headline and Andy might think of a picture."
His view is supported by Don Smith, an art director at Faulds Advertising who, together with his partner, Ged Edmondson, won gold at the Aerials radio awards earlier this year for an Irn-Bru commercial.
"You could ask what art direction there is in a radio ad, but until you sit down and do an ad there is really no distinction between what the copywriter and the art director does. At the ideas stage there is no difference between us: we are both just talking about the best solution to the brief. I do not become an art director until I have to art direct the idea," he says.
Jon Canning, the new creative director of Court Burkitt & Company, has worked on his own for the past 19 months. He says: "I effectively do both jobs. The skills are really interchangeable. I trained as an art director but then I became a writer. In any case, if you have a partner you can easily learn about the other half of the job."
One explanation for the change in the way creatives are working is that the advent of technology and the Mac culture has, in the case of art directors, meant the basic skills of being able to draw are no longer necessary. The focus for today's art director is being able to think up ideas, rather than being a dab hand with a magic marker.
Another theory is that there are more young people in senior positions, all introducing fresh approaches to the challenge of how best to devise ads.
Keith Courtney, creative director of Leagas Shafron Davis, says: "So many young people are now running advertising businesses and they tend to be a bit more forward-thinking and think outside the box. I have young teams who really don't distinguish between who does what, and I don't even know which is which."
Courtney welcomes the development, adding that creatives can be used far more efficiently when they are not pigeon-holed, and that the art director would get "pissed off pretty quickly if you just used him as a wrist".
Given how increasingly difficult it is to get into advertising, the pressure seems to be on colleges to produce multi-skilled creatives rather than specialists.
Smith comments: "Colleges have to set you up with as diverse a range of capabilities as they can. You are more marketable if you are good at everything and people want to become creatives rather than specifying either copywriters or art directors."
This seems a far cry from the 60s when the copy department and the art department were housed in separate parts of an agency and writers would hand their scripts over to the artists, barely exchanging a word in the process. Some purists mourn the passing of those days, claiming the two skills are quite distinct and should remain so. Nevertheless, it would seem that labels still have their uses.
Flintham admits: "In any good team the roles really should blur, but I still like being called an art director. Within an agency, it helps to have a label." Courtney adds: "I may use the titles when the ad is in production and you have a practical need, say, for the art director to come down to the studio." Clearly defining the roles also aids accountability and means that someone takes responsibility for a specific aspect of an ad, observers claim.
Perhaps the new wave of creative talent will eventually do away with the separate disciplines altogether and alternative ways of working will begin to be the norm, but it seems there's some life left in the traditional pairing of creatives.
Up until now, Nic and I have avoided defining ourselves in either of these roles. Whenever we’ve been asked who does what, we say ‘we both do everything’. We both think of ideas, we both draw up ideas, we both work on layouts, and we both come up with lines. I think this makes us better creatives and a stronger team as such. But as we are now approaching industry, I think it is about time we figured out who is going to take responsibility for each role.
So how exactly do we define who is the art director and who is the copywriter? Personally I want to be both. I think this probably has something to do with the whole right brain/left brain thing. They say art directors are right brain and copywriters are left brain – well, I seem to be an equal amount of both! Nic on the other hand, probably leans more towards right brain (left brain being rational and logical and all! haha) So I guess for arguments sake this would make me the copywriter of the two. Right Nic? Well I guess that’s that sorted then (eventually!) ☺
Here’s to me being a great copywriter with some great art directing skills. And here’s to Nic being a great art director with some great copywriting skills.
Is it correct to distinguish art directors from copywriters? (job titles of creatives in advertising agencies)
Publication: Campaign
Publication Date: 09-JAN-98
Author: Archer, Belinda
COPYRIGHT 1998 Haymarket Business Publications Ltd.
The old job titles are less valid as teams share their skills. Think of some successful creative pairings. Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO's Tom Carty and Walter Campbell, say, or Robert Campbell and Mark Roalfe of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe. Or Will Awdry and Rosie Arnold at Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Now, try to remember which one is which. Is Carty the art director or is it Campbell? Does Arnold do the writing or is she in charge of visuals?
Tricky isn't it? Not since the likes of Tony Brignull, Dave Trott and Tim Delaney have creatives been famous for a particular discipline.
It seems the inhabitants of today's creative departments are less likely to clarify exactly who does what in their partnership, insisting, with an admirable generosity of spirit, that they "both do everything", or perhaps individually claiming, "I do a bit of art direction but I'm technically the writer." Many creatives even demand that both names be listed alongside both discipline when it comes to credits in Private View or the D&AD annual.
In addition, there appears to be an increasing trend for creatives to be working on their own, effectively partnerless and doing two jobs in one, while more and more new partnerships are made up of two art directors, or two writers, in what seems to be a quiet revolution of creative department working practices.
Richard Flintham, officially the art directing partner of Andy McLeod at BMP DDB, comments: "I'm only doing art directing for about 5 per cent of my time. The currency is ideas and 95 per cent of the time I'm thinking of ideas for ads. I often might have an idea for a headline and Andy might think of a picture."
His view is supported by Don Smith, an art director at Faulds Advertising who, together with his partner, Ged Edmondson, won gold at the Aerials radio awards earlier this year for an Irn-Bru commercial.
"You could ask what art direction there is in a radio ad, but until you sit down and do an ad there is really no distinction between what the copywriter and the art director does. At the ideas stage there is no difference between us: we are both just talking about the best solution to the brief. I do not become an art director until I have to art direct the idea," he says.
Jon Canning, the new creative director of Court Burkitt & Company, has worked on his own for the past 19 months. He says: "I effectively do both jobs. The skills are really interchangeable. I trained as an art director but then I became a writer. In any case, if you have a partner you can easily learn about the other half of the job."
One explanation for the change in the way creatives are working is that the advent of technology and the Mac culture has, in the case of art directors, meant the basic skills of being able to draw are no longer necessary. The focus for today's art director is being able to think up ideas, rather than being a dab hand with a magic marker.
Another theory is that there are more young people in senior positions, all introducing fresh approaches to the challenge of how best to devise ads.
Keith Courtney, creative director of Leagas Shafron Davis, says: "So many young people are now running advertising businesses and they tend to be a bit more forward-thinking and think outside the box. I have young teams who really don't distinguish between who does what, and I don't even know which is which."
Courtney welcomes the development, adding that creatives can be used far more efficiently when they are not pigeon-holed, and that the art director would get "pissed off pretty quickly if you just used him as a wrist".
Given how increasingly difficult it is to get into advertising, the pressure seems to be on colleges to produce multi-skilled creatives rather than specialists.
Smith comments: "Colleges have to set you up with as diverse a range of capabilities as they can. You are more marketable if you are good at everything and people want to become creatives rather than specifying either copywriters or art directors."
This seems a far cry from the 60s when the copy department and the art department were housed in separate parts of an agency and writers would hand their scripts over to the artists, barely exchanging a word in the process. Some purists mourn the passing of those days, claiming the two skills are quite distinct and should remain so. Nevertheless, it would seem that labels still have their uses.
Flintham admits: "In any good team the roles really should blur, but I still like being called an art director. Within an agency, it helps to have a label." Courtney adds: "I may use the titles when the ad is in production and you have a practical need, say, for the art director to come down to the studio." Clearly defining the roles also aids accountability and means that someone takes responsibility for a specific aspect of an ad, observers claim.
Perhaps the new wave of creative talent will eventually do away with the separate disciplines altogether and alternative ways of working will begin to be the norm, but it seems there's some life left in the traditional pairing of creatives.
Up until now, Nic and I have avoided defining ourselves in either of these roles. Whenever we’ve been asked who does what, we say ‘we both do everything’. We both think of ideas, we both draw up ideas, we both work on layouts, and we both come up with lines. I think this makes us better creatives and a stronger team as such. But as we are now approaching industry, I think it is about time we figured out who is going to take responsibility for each role.
So how exactly do we define who is the art director and who is the copywriter? Personally I want to be both. I think this probably has something to do with the whole right brain/left brain thing. They say art directors are right brain and copywriters are left brain – well, I seem to be an equal amount of both! Nic on the other hand, probably leans more towards right brain (left brain being rational and logical and all! haha) So I guess for arguments sake this would make me the copywriter of the two. Right Nic? Well I guess that’s that sorted then (eventually!) ☺
Here’s to me being a great copywriter with some great art directing skills. And here’s to Nic being a great art director with some great copywriting skills.
Friday, 19 March 2010
Effortless!
I love how this ad was made in one take and it wasn't CGI! I think it makes the ad seem so much better when you find this out - a bit like when you realise the Sony Bravia ads were all made and weren't computer generated. I feel as though the makers are respecting their viewers more as they're not trying to fool them.
To say it's effortless is a bit of a stretch as that poor guys every movement being watched by that many people, just waiting for him to cock up doesn't shout effortless to me! But.....the overall finished take does look effortless!
Decision Time!!
Right Danielle, I think we need to make this really important decision we've been putting off!!
Are you Copywriter or Art Director? or should I say am I Copywriter or Art Director?
Well.... I'm going to take control and make this Exec decision! Danielle you are the Copywriter (if u don't mind! but tough!) and that leaves me to be the Art Director! Done!!!
Are you Copywriter or Art Director? or should I say am I Copywriter or Art Director?
Well.... I'm going to take control and make this Exec decision! Danielle you are the Copywriter (if u don't mind! but tough!) and that leaves me to be the Art Director! Done!!!
Different!
Today we went to Different to see Mark Martin the CD, we were really quite nervous cos the email we received from him was really blunt! But, in real life he was lovely! Definitely knows what he's talking about. It was an eye opening experience to see how differently local agencies work and crit the work to how the agencies we saw in London did. Mark wanted to see more finished artwork in our book and for us to have a much greater volume, which I completely understand; we did try and include a lot of different medias such as: direct mail, website, press, billboard and interactive sites.
He appreciated that we'd looked into the work his company does and had a shot at one of his clients (which actually turned out to be his company!) He wanted to see a much bigger range of products and said that we have stopped at the first concept for a few of our products-which is understood for the parcel force one as that was a last minute thing to replace the Polaroid campaign that we desperately wanted out of the book!
Good point - he said we could call back when ever we wanted and get our book looked at again once we had made the improvements!
He appreciated that we'd looked into the work his company does and had a shot at one of his clients (which actually turned out to be his company!) He wanted to see a much bigger range of products and said that we have stopped at the first concept for a few of our products-which is understood for the parcel force one as that was a last minute thing to replace the Polaroid campaign that we desperately wanted out of the book!
Good point - he said we could call back when ever we wanted and get our book looked at again once we had made the improvements!
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Hmmm......
Ha very well explained Danielle! I think u hit the farm nail right on the head!
Hmm.... how it came about? Well that was completely by accident, it was set as a task when I was at placement; to make myself a business and design the logo and stationary to go with it! Simple you think? Me making a business really? So.. the daft mood I was in, I decided to take the p**s slightly and do something completely random. The idea behind the cow? well that comes from Daisy - a foot tall cow from Mexico (but that's another story!)
So the amazing mac skills needed to be unleashed! May I say I got slightly carried away with drawing the farm animals and drew; a horse, a dog, a couple of ducks, a chicken laying an egg, a pig and many more.
The idea of calling us the imaginary farm was a joint decision as a ploy to make our book that bit different and to make us memorable when we visit agencies. Especially with our fab t-shirts! :)
Danielle started off being a black sheep but once she saw the pig wiggling its bum how could she say no? Very fitting too! Me, I couldn't be anything else than a dozy funny looking cow! (well apart from a chicken-but then again it would have to be a cooked chicken wouldn't it Danielle-and we only get living ones on farms!)
I really think the whole imaginary farm concept and design represents us completely-totally random, very silly and light hearted. It shows that we don't take our selves too seriously and can have a good giggle!
yup think that explains it?!
Hmm.... how it came about? Well that was completely by accident, it was set as a task when I was at placement; to make myself a business and design the logo and stationary to go with it! Simple you think? Me making a business really? So.. the daft mood I was in, I decided to take the p**s slightly and do something completely random. The idea behind the cow? well that comes from Daisy - a foot tall cow from Mexico (but that's another story!)
So the amazing mac skills needed to be unleashed! May I say I got slightly carried away with drawing the farm animals and drew; a horse, a dog, a couple of ducks, a chicken laying an egg, a pig and many more.
The idea of calling us the imaginary farm was a joint decision as a ploy to make our book that bit different and to make us memorable when we visit agencies. Especially with our fab t-shirts! :)
Danielle started off being a black sheep but once she saw the pig wiggling its bum how could she say no? Very fitting too! Me, I couldn't be anything else than a dozy funny looking cow! (well apart from a chicken-but then again it would have to be a cooked chicken wouldn't it Danielle-and we only get living ones on farms!)
I really think the whole imaginary farm concept and design represents us completely-totally random, very silly and light hearted. It shows that we don't take our selves too seriously and can have a good giggle!
yup think that explains it?!
This is the imaginary farm!
So then… this is our blog. Up and running at long last! ☺ I guess you might be wondering about the whole imaginary farm thing, so here’s the lowdown…
Imaginary farm is the place where all our ideas are born, grown, or laid (as you will soon see, our ideas come in many shapes and forms.)
We have lots of livestock on the imaginary farm, but we only breed our best.
Sometimes we plant seeds and see things slowly grow.
Sometimes we lay eggs and sit on them until they hatch.
Occasionally we step in cowpat, which is quite unfortunate but rather inevitable given our line of work. We never let it faze us though - we just change our shoes!
So that is the imaginary farm. For those who might be confused or think we’re a little bit crazy – well, you may well be right – but basically it is a metaphor for our lives as advertising creatives. Simple! (Or not) Anyway, it is what it is (or maybe it is what it isn’t – seen as it’s imaginary??) Ahhhh I’m beginning to confuse myself now, so I’ll stop…
As for how we came up with the imaginary farm thing in the first place and the purpose of it all, I’ll let Nic take care of that one!
Imaginary farm is the place where all our ideas are born, grown, or laid (as you will soon see, our ideas come in many shapes and forms.)
We have lots of livestock on the imaginary farm, but we only breed our best.
Sometimes we plant seeds and see things slowly grow.
Sometimes we lay eggs and sit on them until they hatch.
Occasionally we step in cowpat, which is quite unfortunate but rather inevitable given our line of work. We never let it faze us though - we just change our shoes!
So that is the imaginary farm. For those who might be confused or think we’re a little bit crazy – well, you may well be right – but basically it is a metaphor for our lives as advertising creatives. Simple! (Or not) Anyway, it is what it is (or maybe it is what it isn’t – seen as it’s imaginary??) Ahhhh I’m beginning to confuse myself now, so I’ll stop…
As for how we came up with the imaginary farm thing in the first place and the purpose of it all, I’ll let Nic take care of that one!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
