For me it was Terry Lovelock. The guy who penned Heineken Refreshes The Parts Other Beers Cannot Reach employed me as a junior copywriter way back in 1980.

I was just 20 years of age and he chucked me into the deep end. It wasn’t your typical junior copywriter role – in fact Terry called it “an experiment”.

His idea was to take four very young creative people from the opposite ends of the spectrum, chuck them into soundproofed, windowless meeting room and watch what happens. Every now and then someone would walk into our room with something called ‘a brief’ and we’d try and crack it. Two or three times a week, the door would be flung open and Terry would enter with the words, “Anything award winning happening in here today?” and then stroll around, raise his eyebrows at the mess and check to see if we’d stolen anything from the boardroom.

He’d cast his eyes over some ideas lying about, “Who did this one” he’d say,“Is this you Fountain?” and I’d hide under the desk as he started tutting and screwing up his face. “Long way to go,” he’d mutter.

Sometimes he’d just sit in the room with us and start reading a magazine. He’d listen to our conversation, join in, tell a few anecdotes, or simply take the piss out of people in the agency. He’d always get us laughing and we four juniors always enjoyed his wit and his company.

Did Terry’s mentorship work? Well Graham Fink was one of the junior creatives in the room with me and he did ok. In fact all four of us managed to build successful careers thanks to the confidence we gained through Terry’s experiment.

Mentoring is important for any person wishing to find the best and fastest way to develop their skills and some creatives have a natural ability to be great mentors. The trouble is when you’re young, finding a good mentor isn’t always easy and in most cases can be simply down to luck.

Anyway, would love to hear who pointed you in the right direction and helped you get where you are today. Just put the names of those that helped you in your career in the comment box and tell us how they helped. Thanks.

John Fountain is a freelance copywriter.

follow @fountainjohn

However, their battle cry was taken as literal inspiration by many punk disciples, who adopted anarchy as a philosophy and lifestyle. Crass, the Essex band and communal collective, were the prime movers in this politicised brand of punk rock – with long-established counter culture pamphleteer Penny Rimbaud as their guru. Adhering to a determinedly alternative lifestyle and agenda, their music was raw and basic, but their presentation bold and intelligent.

Dave King, a former college mate of Rimbaud’s was already living in the Crass commune when Penny asked him to create a logo for his (Penny was a man) essay ‘Christ’s Reality Asylum’. As King explains:

‘The logo was designed to be easily stenciled, a quality that would become very valuable later on. Its basic elements were a cross and a diagonal, negating serpent, formed into a circle, like a Japanese family crest.’

A few months later, when the band was formed, the logo was adopted for that project too. Over the next thirty five years, the Crass symbol became internationally recognised  as an indicator of the counter-culture in all its colours, appearing on flags, jackets, college bags and tattoos, time after time. As a brand, it has been a considerable success.

Naturally, because the design is a token of freedom and anarchy, King never registered the design as a trade mark nor applied any sort of copyright to the image. But this hasn’t been a problem until now.

Recently, London fashion house Hardware co-opted the symbol, added a chain and copyrighted the symbol for use on their delicately named “Whorewear” range.

Unsurprisingly, King sees a deep irony in the addition of a chain to a logo for a band and movement which strove so hard to crash through what they saw as society’s restraints. Although he can hardly take action as he has no legal claim on his original design, having set it free all those years ago, his indignation is understandable.

Almost every successful corporate image, from the golden arches to the Nike tick, can only be deployed with the consent of the copyright holder – or hefty legal remedy is sought. But this logo isn’t corporate, quite the opposite, so an interesting question arises. If, from a sense of benevolence or adherence to a political creed, one releases one’s work to the world without a handy little TM, is it fair game for another entity to seize it and register it as their own?

I’m not sure there’s a precedent for this unless we include the crucifix (and any attempt to register this would surely be rejected). Legally, it appears Hardware are on pretty solid ground. The design is in the public arena, has no owner and is there for the taking. Morally, they may well have been smarter to offer King some recompense for the use of his work (if he rejected such capitalist notions, they could have offered a sum to a charity or cause of his choosing). The attendant PR would have benefitted their business and deflected any accusations of sharp practice.

But creatively, the clothes company has exposed itself. As designers of edgy outfits they must surely wish to demonstrate their originality and imagination. By purloining another designer’s concept for their label, they are merely illustrating their lack of creative thought and inspiration, as well as a dearth of integrity and respect.

As I write this, it seems Hardware is about to bow to pressure from online Crass supporters and relinquish their claim to the logo, but this does little to dismiss their rather shoddy attempt to rip-off a talented and skilled designer.

In short, the fashion house has made itself look cheap and grasping, while King emerges with his dignity and art intact. One of punk’s mottos was ‘do it yourself’, perhaps Hardware should take that advice.

Magnus Shaw – writer, blogger and broadcaster

www.magnusshaw.co.uk
www.creativepool.co.uk/magnusshaw

Previously working within the realms of painting, sculpture and installation, the latest project is designed to be an easily accessible collection of caricatures such as Obama, Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Burton’s Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.

The big heads are Spitting Image-esque and easily recognisable, but a closer inspection reveals the world-famous characters partaking in some unlikely activities. Pope Benedict XVI is holding Batman’s joker instead of the baby Jesus, Mona Lisa is break dancing, Caravaggio’s Medusa is ready to pierce or tattoo somebody whilst Frida Kahlo is doing stunts in roller-skates.

Bassim likes to comment on today’s melting pot of culture within his work, whilst celebrating art as a timeless concept. He spent many months studying Renaissance art, finding out what gives it its special theatricality and warmth and then translated it into a more accessible and fun format, he finds that children are amongst his most excitable and honest fans.

As a neutral Venezuelan artist, Bassim finds it hard to gain recognition or have any opportunities open to him. But through these fun illustrations he proves that even walking on the most dangerous side of political art is not without its fun and light heartedness.

Jessica Hazel

Writer, blogger and director of Smoking Gun Vintage

http://creativepool.co.uk/jessicahazel

Stop-motion clips seem to popping up all over the place at the moment. With the popularity soaring for this fantastic technique, the bar has really been raised for the standard of clips. From individual projects to all the way to company adverts, here are ten of the coolest stop motion clips around.

Gulp (The world’s biggest)
Setting the standard for the big scale stop motion production, this clip makes great use of filming downwards from a bird’s eye view.

Dot (The world’s smallest)
The biggest was included so it’s only fair that the smallest stop motion clip gets a mention as well. Featuring the main character running over objects as small as coins, this must have been one fiddly clip to make.

The Seed
Beautifully put together in the simplicity of the design, this clip shows the life cycle of a humble apple seed. The way they have animated the human organs is a real stand-out section of the clip.

In Your Arms music video
Two words; jelly beans. 288,000 of them to be exact. This clip is a triumph of the sheer number of man-hours that went into making it.

DEADLINE post-it stop motion
It’s amazing that working with post it notes can produce such a smooth looking animation. A wall, a desk and big pile of post it notes are all it took to made this great clip.

The original human tetris
There are loads of variations on this clip floating around on the web. This is one of the simplest and the best, and lends itself to being a stop motion video incredibly well.

xBox – Stop Motion Commercial
The animation of the Shrek section of this clip is particularly excellent. The only problem I have with this clip is why didn’t the games at the end of the clip be ordered left to right in the order they appeared in the animation?

Stop Motion With Printer
If you get over wincing at the sheer amount of ink and paper that must have been used to make this then you will be in awe at the sheer scale of this video.

Stop Motion
This does what it says on the tin. The clip is simply called ‘stop motion’ and that’s exactly what it’s a perfect example of. The credit really has to go to the amount of ground that was covered following the main character round of this average day.

Moleskine: Stop Motion video
A really nice idea behind this clip where the contents of someone’s diary come to life through some superbly executed animation.

by Chris Fiander

It’s more than just a laugh, though. In Ghana, in fact, it is quite the reverse. The concept of constructing fabulously imaginative coffins started in the 1950s as a way of honouring the dead. Ghanaians believe strongly in reincarnation and that the dead hold a powerful influence over the living, so it’s in the interests of the living to give the recently departed a darn good send-off. And although burying someone in a coffin shaped like a Mercedes might seem not only funny or bad taste to us, it’s of great spiritual importance to them.

The Paa Joe workshop is one of the most respected coffin makers in all of Ghana, following in the footsteps of Kane Kwai – said to be the first coffin maker in Ghana. So famous is Paa Joe’s, in fact, that they even have some items in the British Museum’s permanent collection. As one might imagine, the design and construction of these coffins is very labour intensive. Each one can take literally months to make. Naturally, the bespoke designs are all hand made at every stage.

Of course, not everybody knows when death might come, so it’s more than possible that the corpse is kept ‘on ice’ at the local morgue throughout the months of design and construction. There’s even a recorded example of Paa Joe being asked to design the coffin for a queen of a neighbouring tribe, but, due to the different wishes of two rival factions, they couldn’t agree on the design for TWO YEARS. What was the final result? A coffin that was half fish and half chicken. Classy. Let’s hope she wasn’t a vegetarian.

Closer to home, you can order a bespoke coffin from ‘Crazy Coffins’ in Nottingham. The Corkscrew below was created in honour of an exhibition they held in Cork, imagining how a wine connoisseur might want to be buried. The cork opens up vertically…so presumably that means the coffin is reverse-screwed into the ground…?

This guitar is my personal favourite:

The undertaker supplied the photograph for this Silver Ghost, which took months to build. After the funeral, the body was laid out in the Rolls-Royce in a conservatory overlooking a garden before being buried in the grounds.

I quite like the idea of the egg, I must admit. Made from solid elm, it’s a reincarnation believer’s dream, of course. And logistically, you’d probably have to bury the person in question in the foetal position too. Mind you, if my egg looked as beautiful as this – and was as luxuriant inside – I’m not sure I’d want to ‘hatch’.

This is Paa Joe’s favourite coffin design. The lion is a universal symbol of bravery and strength.

Ghana is a large cocoa producing country, of course, but this is quite an expensive choice for a farmer. Nonetheless, the cocoa pod is still a popular choice, even though it can cost up to three years’ worth of wages.

Is that extravagant? Well, yes, maybe. But then what are Egypt’s Pyramids but massive tombs? And go into any large church or cathedral in Europe and look at the incredible craftsmanship dedicated to tombs and memorials of the world’s great and good (and not so great or good). Death is an expensive business. Presumably, if so inclined, one could go for a Manchester United coffin if that’s been your lifelong love. Where does one draw the line at taste when it comes to death? A John Lennon or Elvis coffin might be somewhere towards it. But frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if that had happened already.

by Ashley Morrison

ashleymorrison72@gmail.com
www.creativepool.co.uk/ashleymorrison

The rest, as they say, is history.

The Nike story is impressive. After stumbling badly against archrival Reebok in the 1980s, Nike rose about as high and fast in the ‘90s as any company can. It took on a new religion of brand consciousness and broke advertising sound barriers with its indelible Swoosh, “Just Do It” slogan. What’s more, Nike managed the deftest of marketing tricks: to be both anti-establishment and mass market.

From the beginning, “Just Do It” was brought to life by celebrity sports figures such as Michael Jordon. If Jordan can play an entire NBA season in a pair of Nikes, weekend warriors can also trust the shoes’.  Celebrity endorsements appealed to the consumers’ sense of belonging and “coolness” as Nike became a self-fulfilling image prophecy: if you want to be hip, you are probably wearing Nike.

The company turned sweaty, pain-ridden, time-consuming exercise into something sexy and exciting. Most importantly, even those who were not in fact exercising (the vast majority) still wanted to own them.

Today, no one sets the bar for sports clothes commercials higher than Nike. During the last 10 years or so their creative work has not only turned up the heat, but blown much of the competition out of the water. And their TV ads for their football boots are perfect examples of a brand pushing the boundaries with moments of absolutely mesmerising television.

4. Secret Tournament
Terry Gilliam shot this for Nike back in 2002 and star of the show is footballer, poet, actor and politician Eric Cantona. We see him swinging a cane inside an old cargo liner while putting some of the world’s finest footballers through their paces. It’s magnificent, and even if the idea of 2002’s finest footballers doing flair tricks in a cage doesn’t appeal at first, it really is worth your time.

3. Airport 98
Shot by John Woo, here we see the 1998 Brazil football team waiting for a plane to the World Cup, and get bored…This was a great era for Brazil, when Ronaldo was young and Romário was still playing and it just can’t get any better than this. Unless it had a King Eric cameo in it. Oh wait, it does. Perfect.

2. Take It To The Next Level
This spot, centered around the rise of a mysterious young Arsenal star, features WAGs, flash cars, random vomiting and some of the best on-pitch camerawork you’ve ever seen.
In other words, it’s the best thing Guy Ritchie has ever done.

1. Write the future.
Directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu, this spot shows what the future may hold for today’s soccer superstars. Whatever they do in the present will have a consequence in the future. It is a work of genius and every moment should be savored. Still loving that Rooney beard. And the wedding. And Ronaldo on The Simpsons. And the table tennis….

John Fountain is a freelance copywriter. Email: johncopywriter@gmail.com. Follow @fountainjohn

Only fool wouldn’t come to the conclusion that the industry’s finances are sinking faster than Simon Le Bon’s yacht. Still, any seasoned freelance copywriter has seen all this before. Recession follows boom as surely as a belch follows a can of cola and things will surely come right. And they will.

But in the meantime, what’s happening with the clients, the agencies and firms once so ready with their copywriting budget? To some extent, they are simply producing fewer campaigns or even going out of business. But those who aren’t are making a very risky decision. They’re writing their own copy.

When compared with design, art direction and web development, copywriting has always faced an uphill struggle. Most clients are happy to admit they cannot draw, cannot use Adobe CS5 and have not the faintest idea what HTML even stands for. But they can write. That is to say, they can place fingers on keyboard and produce words. Occasionally, they may even scribble sentences on paper with pens. This creates an unrealistic confidence. If they can write a letter or a shopping list, they reason, they can write decent copy.

So why is this so risky? It gets the job done, it’s quick and easy and, most importantly, it avoids those inconvenient fees. Well, if marketing and advertising is about anything, it’s about communication. Advertisements are created to convey a proposition, a reason to buy, a message to buy into. This demands a compelling message is first identified, then summarised and finally conveyed in an attractive and compelling way. Jumble the vocabulary and the message is confused, ramble and the message is wooly, fail to understand how people read advertisements and the message is lost.

Worse still, if a ‘writer’ misuses grammar, misunderstands the nuanced meaning of language or, heavens forbid, misspells any words – then the credibility of an ad, a product or a brand can plummet like HMV’s share price.

This week, a large print ad appeared in Metro, the commuter freesheet. It sat proudly to left of the TV listings and was a lovely bright yellow, all the better to catch the reader’s eye. Full of natty product shots and calls to action, it seemed to be working quite hard – until one noticed the headline, resplendent with a massive spelling error. It was only three words long. That’s a third of the headline shouting ‘We are so incompetent, we cannot even write our own sales message’. Is that a reason to buy or a reason to be very wary?

Equally, I have worked with many people in advertising and marketing agencies who, although quite smart and quite capable, could not spell for topheee. One colleague would regular email to say the lottery syndicate hadn’t been ‘two’ lucky that week.

Clearly, most people in business can write, but that in no way guarantees the can write copy. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that only copywriters can write copy. The clue’s in the name. When others ‘have a go’ in order to save money, the perceived saving is often as false a Cher’s nose.

Copywriting has been defined as ‘the art of arresting the reader’s attention just long enough to persuade them to act’. That is as perfect a description as one could hope to find – it’s that simple, it’s that difficult – and only a few people can do it well.

Magnus Shaw – blogger, writer & broadcaster

www.magnusshaw.co.uk
www.creativepool.co.uk/magnusshaw

Jenny Odell is an aspiring artist in San Francisco who has been developing her work alongside a full time job. She didn’t think she would ever become an artist until she stumbled upon the idea of using the internet and it’s geographical tools to inform her work.

In here latest project, ‘satellite connections’ Jenny has collected various snapshot images from Google Earth, in most instances man-made and industrial structures which are grouped together in collages to make statements about the ‘human stamp’ we have put on the earth. Regarde…

Sports pitches…

Golf Courses…

Satellites…

Chimneys…

Stadiums…

Pool park slides…

In another series, entitled ‘all the people on google earth’, Jenny collected pictures of crowds collecting in areas such as parks, piers and stadiums. She removed everything but each person from the frame, even people’s dogs and walking sticks and what she is left with are these strange pixelated snapshots…

Another project Jenny took on was a book entitled ‘travel by approximation’ which documented a road trip which never actually took place. Jenny used the internet to obtain pictures of tourist attractions and used sites such as Trip Advisor to make up anecdotes about her experiences, she Photoshopped herself into pictures.

In ‘re-enactments’ Jenny visited places she had located on Street View and attempted to recreate the moments the satellites had captured people, noting that it is impossible to exactly recreate these moments in time which Google freezes…

In ‘satellite tourist’ Jenny spent hours scouring Google Earth for oddities, mistakes and weird instances of splicing…

A car is duplicated…

The end of the world according to Google Earth…

A man stands alone in a stadium…

Jenny is fond of Google Earth because it gives us such a different perspective on our everyday surroundings, one which we would never otherwise experience unless we flew directly over our own house, place of work etc.

She imagines herself as an ‘alien anthropologist’ when creating the work, gathering photographs which are honest and true, taken by a machine so that no artistic direction is there at all.

Jenny’s work develops as the technology advances. She is currently scouring Google Earth for images of billboards and other smaller structures, now possible thanks to the new 45 degree imagery that has been introduced.

Watch this space for more awe-inspiring takes on the wonders of the earth.

http://www.jennyodell.com

Jessica Hazel

Writer, blogger and director of Smoking Gun Vintage

http://creativepool.co.uk/jessicahazel

Animated music videos only crop up once in a blue moon but when they do they can really bring a song to life. As the number of animation techniques and styles has increased over time, the videos on offer have become increasingly diverse. Spanning through the decades, here are fifteen of the best animated music videos for your viewing pleasure.

Black Label Society – Concrete Jungle
Zakk Wylde from Black Label Society is a rather unpredictable character. From the angry viking image he creates for himself you wouldn’t expect the mock 70s, kung-fu video for the song ‘Overlord’ and you probably wouldn’t expect the best to experiment with an animated video here either for the song ‘Concrete Jungle’.

A-Ha Take On Me
The song is just truly awful. But it’s a classic and probably the textbook example for animated music videos.

Queens Of The Stone Age – Go With The Flow
A nice touch with this clip is how the colours are reserved to red, black and white until the end of the video where an array of colours suddenly emerge.

Daft Punk – One More Time
Daft Punk are no strangers to an animated music video and here is one of their strongest examples. The video for ‘One More Time’ has some really nice animation work very characteristic of their style.

DJ Q-Bert ft Buckethead – Inner Space Dental Commander
Here’s probably one of the strangest music videos you’ll see, not just in the realm of animated videos but videos generally as a whole. This video may not have been animated rather than filmed for stylistic purposes but rather through necessity due the highly surreal and bizarre characters.

DB Boulevard – Point Of View
I had this one in my head for ages before I could remember what it was called. But it finally came to me. The song would have probably been long forgotten if it weren’t for the video, which goes to show the marketing power that a well animated video can have for it’s song.

Lamb Of God – Ghost Walking
This animation has everything you’d expect form a metal band; gory violence, highly stylised scenes. The animations have an incredibly clear and crisp style which makes this one well worth a watch.

Robbie Williams – Let love Be Your Energy
This is hands down the best Robbie Williams video as well as song …easily. I think there’s a ‘outtake’ accompanying set of clips for this video floating around somewhere on youtube.

Pearl Jam – Do The Evolution
This is one of the most cited examples of a great animated music video which says a lot given it was made a good while ago now.

Superman Lovers – Starlight
This one is a bit of a blast from the past. With a really unique animation style, this wall a surprisingly cool video.

Pink Floyd – Welcome To The Machine
Ah.. the don’t make them like this anymore, and probably never will do again. Pink Floyd’s accompanying movie for ‘The Wall’ featured a lot of great animated sequences. Unfortunately, these scenes were interspaced by clips of Bob Geldof trying his best at acting. Here though, is the video for ‘Welcome To The Machine’ from the album ‘Wish You Were Here’ which features some characteristically Pink Floyd-esque imagery.

Massive Attack – Atlas Air
This is probably the coolest of the bunch, which is to be expected when the video is coming from Massive Attack. Through the strobe-like effects throughout the video, some of the awesome animations can be lost in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it style. But it’s worth keeping your eyes peeled throughout as the animation on display here is truly awesome.

Red Hot Chili peppers – Love Rollercoaster
I always preferred the Red Hot Chili Peppers with Dave Navarro rather than John Frusciante. Controversial I know, but here’s another reason to add to the list; the Navarro era of the band gave rise to cartoon shenanigans.

Radiohead – Go To Sleep
This animation is unusual in that is goes out of it’s way to make it look like an animation and less life-like through the harsh jagged lines that the people are sculpted with. Not like this is a bad thing though as the video looks excellent.

Korn – Freak On a Leash
I saved this one for last because it does things a little bit differently to the rest of the videos here. By only using animated sequences at the beginning and end, the video resolves and concludes really well when it re-enters into the animated scenes. The non-animated middle section of the video is also a delight to watch as well with the fantastically filmed slow motion bullet sequences.

by Chris Fiander

The apartment is available for rent between now and December. Or was, I should say; every single night for this year sold out in minutes. At £300 a night (meals not included), the experience isn’t cheap, but I dare say that even a fairly modest room at the Savoy on the opposite side of the Thames could cost more than that. And it certainly didn’t put off the punters who fancy a unique stay in the capital in any case.

The £300 price tag doesn’t apply to everyone, though. If you’re lucky enough to be a famous musician or writer (like Jeanette Winterson, say) then you might be lucky enough to stay there for free – to be creative. Authors will work there for several days while they write a new work. At the end of their experience, a reading of the work will be recorded in the octagonal library and broadcast as one of twelve instalments of A London Address.

One musician per month will also stay in the Room. At the end of their stay, they’ll give a performance called Sounds from a Room, which will be streamed to international audiences over the internet. Artists will not be left out either but they’re not expected to knock out another Canaletto version of the Thames. Instead, their instructions are that “they should use the opportunity to imagine something new that can be shared – in an echo of the golden age of nautical broadcasting – by way of the digital space.”

As to the boat itself, it is called Roi des Belges after the boat which Joseph Conrad sailed up the Congo before writing his 19th-century novel, Heart of Darkness. With its magenta and turquoise timber interior, it sits precariously atop the famous Queen Elizabeth Hall, as if it’s just been washed up there by a tsunami – right in the heart of one of London’s bustling cultural centres.

If I were staying there, I doubt I’d do very much but sit and look at the view all day and into the evening, watching the world go by at various times of the day in this most privileged of positions. With the City and St Paul’s to the right and the Houses of Parliament and London Eye to the left – and high above my favourite walking route in London – I could never tire of that view.

In fact, that is very much the point of the apartment. Residents are asked to complete an entry in the boat’s log book, writing down what they saw, how they felt, what they thought… or even what cloud patterns they observed. The writing desk provides one of the capital’s most stimulating vistas.

Architect David Kohn acknowledges the influence of revered architects Sir John Soane and Nicholas Hawkswmoor. The pyramidal steel mast makes reference to one of London’s architectural highlights, the spire of Hawksmoor’s Christ Church. Kohn wanted to create a unique and intimate space in which to enjoy the wider landscape of London, in the same way that a boat can feel small and isolated on the sea. “The interiors feel comfortable and you know what to do there, but it’s not just an easy or twee kind of comfort. You are connected to the Thames, to a wider world, also to what one thinks of the world. You have a relationship to disputed, uncertain territory.”

A Room for London is just one of six highly original residences designed by world-class architects available for rent across the UK. There are two in Norfolk, one in Suffolk and one in Kent, all available at considerably lower prices than A Room for London. Another will be available in Devon towards the end of 2012. For further information including prices and bookings, click here.

www.aroomforlondon.co.uk

by Ashley Morrison

ashleymorrison72@gmail.com
www.creativepool.co.uk/ashleymorrison