Art director, designer, copywriter, illustrator, artworker, creative director – I have a question for you. When you first started in the business, were you lucky enough to sit at the feet of an expert? Did someone give you a helping hand and teach you the ropes? Well how about you tell us about that person and give them a well-deserved pat on the back.
Author Archive
Who was your mentor?
Friday, February 3rd, 2012How to sell football boots. Nike’s top four telly ads.
Friday, January 27th, 2012
The year is 1988. Dan Weiden, creative director of ad agency Wieden and Kennedy is attending a meeting at his client Nike’s offices. He and a group of employees are seated around a table and the employees are explaining the Nike approach to marketing sports shoes. Dan Weiden is impressed with their can-do attitude and says, “You Nike guys, you just do it.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Why has British TV advertising lost its sense of humour?
Friday, January 20th, 2012
Last year, Nick Gill, executive creative director at BBH, was writing about the 2011 Arrows Awards. He made some interesting points about TV and how we seem to be watching more of it these days, rather than less.
The Artist. Why the producer deserves the loudest applause.
Friday, January 13th, 2012
In case you’ve haven’t noticed, there’s a new silent film called The Artist and it’s getting some rave reviews. Not only is it silent, it’s also shot entirely in black and white. It doesn’t have any big name actors in it and the storyline is about a 1920’s Hollywood star.
Creativepool Horoscope 2012. Your guide to the year ahead.
Friday, January 6th, 2012
They gave us a crystal ball and an instruction manual. We switched it on and turned out all the lights. We stared into the void and there in front of our very eyes, images began to take shape. We saw symbols, colours and shapes. We saw events unfolding as though viewing a movie. We saw Saturday’s lottery numbers – 3, 14, 22, 23, 36, 41. And then – open mouthed – we grabbed a pen and started writing.
Compromised. The joy of having my gmail hacked
Friday, December 16th, 2011
When you’re self-employed there’s little that can upset the equilibrium quite as much as someone from Timbuktu taking over your email account. Last week this happened to me and let me tell you, it is damned annoying. In fact in the annoying charts it up there with Robert Preston, Gordon Ramsay and people who meow. The reason I’m suffering is simple – since the day of the hack nothing has happened. No word from Google as to when my account might be restored. No help. No advice. Just a friggin tick box to fill in.
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Words are pictures – Craig Ward, master of typographic design.
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
Typography is not a dying art. It’s changing and evolving, and today we have a number of designers who are passionate about pushing type to its limits. Leading the way is Craig Ward, a designer who has a very special awareness of words.
How cool is your office?
Friday, November 25th, 2011
It’s a well known fact that some agencies spend huge chunks of their hard earned money turning lifeless commercial spaces into bastions of creativity. These interiors provide insight as to the breadth and depth of their thinking and creative execution. They create spaces to envy. Places to shout about – loud.
Turning litter into literature. www.throwawaylines.org
Friday, November 18th, 2011
Over the last few weeks 26 writers have been charged with the task of writing short stories based on various scraps of paper found somewhere between Waterloo and Clerkenwell.
The rain-swept, wind-strewn, handwritten scraps had been collected by Andy Hayes, the client services director of Quietroom and they form the basis of Throw Away Lines, the latest project from the writers’ collective 26. I thought I’d ask him how he came up with such a rubbish idea.
Tall tales in graphic design. Tickets for Aaron Draplin in London.
Friday, November 11th, 2011
Prolific, loud, anachronistic, profuse, profane, subversive, adamant, and very, very talented – Aaron Draplin is one of America’s most opinionated Graphic Designers and he’s bringing his hilarious “Tall Tales from a Large Man” presentation to the UK for the first time.