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3rd and 4th Day @ the agency

sorry for the delay, i've had a looooooooooong weekend... which is not over yet. The 3rd day at the agency was very intense... That pitch for next week is very hectic for everyone in the agency. I am very glad I got into the agency at this point because I think it is perfect timing to learn from scratch how are things done. On thursday we sat down on a meeting to come up with the concept from 3 pm until 9 pm!!!!!!!!! I mean WOW!!!!!! Bono was expecting me to speak up and contribute with ideas, but it was so overwhelming! As a sat there trying to think over the ideas that were being shoot at a ratio of 10000:0 lol.. I did pay attention, however, to how they developed ideas on top of ideas. If i said one sentence was too much... but I did enjoyed it. By the end of the meeting my brain felt completely dried up and I was extremely exhausted.... apparently the work was not near being done so the CDs and the VPCD decided that who ever wanted could work on the 4th and 5th. Naturally I did volunteer to come in on saturday (I have to show that I want this no matter what!!!!). Saturday was here and after a nice 4th of july I was sitting down at the agency again. Our day started at 10 am and yeah we did worked like crazy!!.. we sat again on a meeting for at least 4 hours and got our selves busy with the executions. I was extremely exited because Monica asked me to execute on of the banners for a web page for the pitch... I sat with one of the art directors and came up with a pretty nice idea and when i putted into my lovely photoshop it was AMAZING :D.... and Monica loved it, and when I sent it to the big boss he liked it too... so I was very very happy and proud of myself!! It was another looong day and we didn't get out of there until 9:30 p.m. Tomorrow I'll be back and 'll be doing some research to wrap up the presentation for the pitch... I love it!!!!

DON'T GET ME STARTED � A PODCAST

Atlanta is known for a few things. A huge airport. Even bigger steaks. And The Creative Circus. So a little while back Ignacio and I braved Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, dined at Kevin Rathburn Steak and dropped into the bustling ad school.

While there we toured the school, sat in on a few classes and even offered some words of wisdom to the school population. A full report will be posted shortly as there are some big things happening there.

We were also given the honor of participating in the school's podcast. By doing so we were in good company - past guests include Jeb Quaid, Dave Holloway, Don Shelfold and many more. So click on the link below to listen in as Ignacio and I talk shop with Creative Circus Teacher/Department Head/Resident podcaster/Hockey fan Dan Balser.

Don’t Get Me Started • A podcast about advertising

It's Episode 31: The interwebs are here to stay.
And while you're there click subscribe, you won't regret it.

Second Day @ the agency.... "Holy Crap"

I am very excited to keep writing since apparently there is people that are actually reading my blog :D that makes me happy! :D..... plus I have waaay too many things to post!!! Yesterday was my second day at the agency and I loved it of course.... I don't really like the fact that I come to the agency at 2 pm because I am kind of in the middle of the whole craziness but I have to be at my regular job in the mornings (I have to pay rent somehow). I walked in and I loved the fact that I wasn't a gost anymore... :D actually many people in the agency already know me... Bono has done a great job being my PR rep lol... (I am kidding). As soon as I walked in I went to find the team to talk about the booth that we are putting together, but they were at lunch (I didn't go lost this time!! wohoo!). When I went back to my desk I had an e-mail from one of the acct executives and she told me to call her as soon i came into the agency to meet and talk about the project so I did. I met with her in her office/desk and since I missed Tuesday ( I had to be @ my other job) things naturally progressed and I was a little behind and I had to catch up. Susana, the acct executive, spoke to me at a rate of probably 100000 words per second!!!! i mean woooow!! but i took notes and payed attention. Apparently they took a different direction from what we initially discussed and my beautiful t-shirt designs are in jeopardy :( they did love the designs, I had many many compliments about it but I guess for $$ reasons they are not really sure if they can or cannot print new shirts... :'( Now I bumped with a new obstacle... money money... as brilliant as the ideas can be if at the time of the execution are too expensive they will not be done... I hate budgets!!!!... specially in this case since we have to pull this off with basically no money. Susana gave me the schedule, how they divided the work and my assignmentSSSSS (notice the SSS). Time to do some serious work. They are giving me a lot of freedom to do the booth, which I love but at the same time I feel a bit lost to have that much freedom with no budget! I don't even have money to buy printable pictures!!!! so yeah the challenge is pretty big... I spent about 4-5 hours doing some collages to decorate the booth... but I have to admit it.. I got bored.. there was a point were I just had to go for a walk around the agency because I was getting sick of staring at the same thing... I had to do other things like signs and simple stuff so I decided to do them and keep working on the collages today. Do you remember what I said about me and my big mouth telling Bono that I have done a project for school about one of the pitches that they are about to do? weeeeeell....... Bono wants me to kindda preset waht I did in from of all the creatives.... OMG!!!... I am pretty good presenting in public but.... I do feel a lot of respect for this team and I don't want to sound like the newbie that wants to impose... I am supposed to present today and I am soooo scared :(.... I feel like it might sound cheese to them..... Yesterday when walked into the agency I did noticed that the bathroom was out of service... so naturally I follow the "DO NOT USE" sign at the door but for some reason 2 girls from digital went in there and found a nice little present in the floor..... LMAO.... I could not stop laughing when they came out of there completely disgusted. Apparently someone had to go to the bathroom but didn't got the time to actually sit on the toilet and decided to just poop on the floor... EEWWW... lol.... what made the situation even funnier was that as clever as they are in the creative department they did this sign..... which is WAAAAYYY too funny... I love that place... there is never a routine!!! I mean hopefully people pooping on the floor is not a routine.... XD! (I had to take a picture of the sign!!!) The end of the day was here and I had noticed one creative director whom has never been nice to me... I have seen her a couple of times even before I started the internship but she kindda always give me the stink eye... I saw her sitting on her office and I went to her... I felt that it was up to me to brake the ice. I knocked on the door and ask her if she wanted me to help her with anything... she (for the first tme everrr) smiled and said " no I think I am fine" I walked over Bono to se if he needed something else and thats when he gave me the lovely news about me presenting today. I was walikng over my desk to pick up my stuff and Monica (the art director) came behind me and asked me if I did copy or art direction... and I said both... not because i am cocky or anything... only because I want to try a bit of everything and get a taste of everything that is going on at the agency. So she told me that I could help the copywriting team come up with a 30 sec radio spot.... wohoooo!!!.. I am beyond exited to get radio experience since I don't have any. I am pretty positive and I proved it to myself yesterday that it is up to you to find the opportunities within the agency and show them what you can do. Because a certain art director gave you the brake to do the internship in the agency it doesn't mean that you cannot help other CDs. When I was done talking to Monica and the copywriting team I saw that Bono was next to us paying attention to what I was doing and he smiled at me like a proud papa... it is very nice to feel that he does believe in me and my talent.... I went home and I had a very nice surprise... the other day I wrote to Jancy in the "ask Jancy" section of the ihaveanidea website. Not to ask her anything but more to thank her for all the inspiration and the advise on their book "Pick Me" ... this is what I wrote: Dear Jancy, this is not really a question, more over a thank you. Since I read your book my life changed completely. Now I am about to start my first internship with DDB Alma in Miami.... Thanks to every single page in your book I found the courage and strength to stick to what i do best: being and advertising creative. Wish me luck!!!!!! Claudia And this was their response: We officially wish you luck. What a great email--thanks for making our day!---Nancy It was nice to see that as busy as they are, Nancy and Janet took the time to response to my e-mail... and the motivation just keeps coming from all kinds of sources :D!!!

My First Day @ the agency!

So.....

Yesterday was my first day at the agency and I absolutely fell in love with it.... this is what i want to do for the rest of my life!!!! (not the intern part but the agency part). I came into the office on time and I wasn't sure where to go since I knew my mentor (Bono) was not going to be in there so early in the morning. So i got a chance to meet other people in the agency that i haven't met before....

The girls from the digital dept adopted me for most of the morning since I was kind of lost and no one seemed to have time to give me my assignment... and then I sneaked my way into one of the creative's desk... and he showed me some of the stuff he was working on. I felt like one of those cartoon that when they are in love little hearts start popping out out of them... that was me... every passing second I loved it more and more.

The CD's were done with their "big guys" meeting and Bono finally called me :D... time to work!!! my first real meeting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wohoooo!!!!... i sat down on a small corner and listened very carefully to what everyone had to say. They all seemed to have something very smart to say... love it, love it, love it!!! it was funny because the agency is competing to get one account and I had done that same brief at school for a project... I mentioned to Bono maybe they could simply read it... maybe it had something they could use... why not right? After that meeting Bono dragged me down the hall into one door, trough a conference room ans some how I got to the next meeting... I still don't know how t get to the same spot.... oh yeaaahhh i got lost many times in the agency, it was hilarious!... I could only laugh at myself.

My new meeting was with 2 account executives and 2 creatives... the assignment was to create this booth for the agency within a convention in Boston (i think).... one of the creatives kind of slipped out of the meeting... but we kept going on developing the idea for the booth and the idea we wanted it to transmit. The meeting was over and yeah..i had a work-overload... oh well... while i was coming up with a list of people that they asked me to, the other creative dropped all his work on me..apparently he had to work on another campaign... but I loved the task!!! designing!!!.. so I said sure. i spent approximately the next 6 hours doing the designs but many creatives that passed by my desk complimented my designs :D yeeeaaahhh!! so I guess it was now me and the 2 account executives... i wonder if they would take me to Boston for the booth.... (that would be sweeeeeet! but I doubt it).

It was much easier that I though to get to meet people within the agency... they all seemed pretty immerse on their own little world to pay attention to me... but surprisingly they were very nice.... I went to lunch again with the girls from Digital... I guess i clicked with them...

I took in count all the advises form Jancy and their book Pick Me... I completely forgot about going home @ 5 (which I usually do) but actually the day went by so fast that when 5 came around I didn't even noticed, and actually I didn't want to leave. For some reason after 4 people starts to get bored so they decided to start skate boarding aroud the agency... all of a sudden everyone was a skater on the office... I could not stop laughing!! I loved it even more!!!!! after 11 hours i n the agency I had to go home not because I wanted (because I actually didn't want to leave) but because my body was about to collapse... I guess to much excitement and work came to me at the same time.

I am sooooo looking forward to Wednesday!

The First Meeting.... OMG!

I have to say it was intimidated, come on, face it!!!!!!! sitting in front of a CD who you probably think is a GENIUS and your goal in life is to be like him.. yeah it is a bit intimidating! The agency was all that I expected and more.. I WAS IN LOVE!

I could not bring my book because Bono caught me by surprise about the appointment. We sat down, talked for a while... he wanted to know about me.... blah blah blah... It did surprised me that he was so human, i guess i had the wrong idea about CD's. He was very interested in who I was and what my goals were in the future. So yeah, having your goals crystal clear do count. He introduced me to his funky looking boss.... i guess my future boss too :D, and he introduced me to some of the members from his creative team... my dream was becoming into a reality.

He still wanted to see my book (for obvious reasons) and I wanted him to see it too. So he set up another appointment for us to sit down at the agency and take a look at it. He said "next Tuesday at 5... but call me first to confirm". Next Tuesday came around and I called... he was scheduled a meeting at 5 so he could not see me... (heartbreaking) BUT......... ohhhh... we could meet at a Starbucks!!!! and so we did.... that Tuesday at 9:30 pm after his classes and a long day...he still had the desire to see my work (WHAT AN INSPIRATION) I was glad to see the impact that I made on him to take the time and patience! or maybe I was too annoying, but in anycase he was in front of me looking at my book.... MISSION ACOMPLISHED!

i went over every piece, explained it a little bit and as uncertain of it as i was, it was my book and I had to be proud of it. I finished my "presentation" and he said "ok now, do you want me to take it down piece by peace" ooohhh lord!!! and i answered with a big smile on my face "sure!" but with my heart pounding 1000 bpm. It was amazing how he could take each piece and take it to the next level, i mean WOW!!!!! i listened very attentively and learned... after all that is what i want... i want to learn as much as I can!!!!!

He took my internship paperwork from school and he said "ok i will call you" ..... so i was on limbo again....

Getting the CD's attention

So i have decided to blog my journey trough my upcoming internship with one of the best agencies... AlmaDDB.... following Brendan Watson's advice... here we go....

I am an average advertising student...no wait... actually I am not, my obsession with advertising sets me apart from the whole, seriously... I have been called a stalker by my peers, only because every time i meet someone i have to go behind them and ask for a business cards and let them know my name (in the event that i don't have one of my business cards with me)....

That was exactly what happened..... after making my fame as a stalker, I had lo live up to it... LOL... One of my teachers invited 3 speakers one day to my school simply to talk about the biz and how the real world works... I was very excited and very attentive. At that time i had a bit of a revolution going on at my school since i didn't feel that i was getting the most out of it, but thats a whole different story....see i wasn't kidding when i said i was obsessed with my career!

Any way, we had one of the account managements form OutOfTheBlue, a lady form CP+B whose title i cannot recall because it was waaaaay too long and the guy that would become the source for my inspiration; Eduardo Bono from AlmaDDB. Since I met Bono, he has been nothing but an inspiration for me... so after he was done speaking i went over to introduce myself. Shockingly enough he was very very nice...! i told him that i really appreciated the fact that he took the time to come over just to speak with us. He looked at me and said "why don't you come over the agency one day? and bring your portfolio along!" i was very excited about the offer to get his opinion about my book (or somewhat-book at the time). He gave me his business card and my mission was completed... he knew who i was.... ooohh! BTW i wasrned him about me being a pain in the ass... i was probably going to bother him quite a bit until i got to sit down with him and have him look at my book. He said it was fine, in fact that was what he said in his speech at my school... permission granted and I was going to take advantage of that.

I wrote him an e-mail the next day, thanking him again. I sent him some samples of my work. He said that he was very busy and he didn't had time to go over them ... that he wanted to take the time to sit down and do it calmly. Yet again, he offered me to stop by the agency. I was very excited and took his offer. He didn't answer me back for 3 or so weeks. I found him on Facebook and added him to my friends... i wrote on his wall, I sent him emails, i called him... almost every day, but no answer... just when i was about to give up...BAM!!!! there he was, he was on vacation but he was back to biz... and he finally gave me an appointment to go to the agency.

The day that i walked into AlamaDDB, i putted one foot in and my heart knew i was on the right place at the right time and this is where i wanted to be. BTW, i am still thinking about the chili at the entrance. (??)

Weezy Blog #1 - Thank You

The description reads "Lil Wayne's first exclusive blog thanking all of his fans for the first week sales of The Carter 3 - A MILLIE!!!", but I say "thank you" Lil Wayne for this video.

There's a new leader at The Ad Battle.

Some of you were upset at last week's leader. Well...there's a new leader for the top ad at theadbattle.com. Congrats to Mathias Lamken from Kemper Trautmann in Hamburg Germany who submitted this ad for Comedy Central:

Submit your ad today to see if it can face the Ad Battle. The person with the top ad at the end of July will win an iPod Nano.

- Jason

Food for thought

Here is a quick little rant about restaurants:

Many of the chain restaurants have implemented ‘do it yourself’ appetisers and entrees. You know exactly what I am talking about…. you go to the Keg, order Fajitas and get some tortillas, salsa, chicken, cooked vegetables, guacamole and you put everything together to make one fantastic hand-held meal.

I am perfectly ok with that, it is a fun sensory experience that everyone can enjoy. Over the past couple of weeks however I have been dinning out quite often and it is starting to get a little over done.

Last week I ordered bruschetta and it was presented with toasted bread, a bowl of diced tomatoes, and a spoon. Yesterday, my colleague went to Starbucks and asked for a toasted bagel with cream cheese and was given a Toasted bagel and packages of cream cheese.

I am starting to get annoyed with how lazy some companies are getting just to push food out faster. What’s next – a pot of boiling water, raw pasta and some tomatoes? Come on…I ordered bruschetta not the ingredients for bruschetta!

As for Starbucks charging $6 (or what ever it is) for toasted bread and packages of the cream cheese… for a fraction of that I could go to Tim Horton’s and get it done properly.

Bon Appetite indeed…

It is not lonely to love

It is not lonely to love

" love " It is a lonely word, so need two people to gather around.

Her outstanding custom woman, on the contrary, quite outstanding, the persons who pursue gather. And she, arranges and opens everybody, with him resolutely. At that time, he penniless, work as a temporary labourer in one factory, it is enough that income is food and clothing to solve two people. For him, she loses relatives, has lost the work.

They have taken advantage of the warehouse for a friend, after tidying up briefly, as the bedroom. The warehouse of the severe cold is like an icehouse, there are not a bed of warm bed clothes that are wrapped up in the body, she is often frozen to wake up in the midnight. He embraces her tightly, tries hard to stick her on one's own chest, makes her warm with one's own body temperature.

One day, she came back from the outside, looked in a trance, pale. He asks her, what's the matter, ill? She says, free, a little tired. Later draw out a red important money from the pocket excitedly at once, shake before his eyes, say excitedly, we are rich, go to buy a bed of warm cotton-wadded quilts. Does he say where money come? She says, earns. Does he say how to earn? It is so easy. She says, sends the advertisement to somebody, send one by one, stand from morning to now, earned the tip of 100 yuan. Two people have gone to buy a bed of cotton-wadded quilts in the street, can not stand selecting, take according to the price of 100 yuan. From then on, in winter of severe cold, there are a bed of cotton-wadded quilts, she was no longer frozen to wake up at midnight.

A few years later, he takes a favorable turn slowly, rich, oneself is open in the company, has just bought house and car. They have said good-bye to the day when lived in hunger and cold originally. Equipment of family, he stress extremely, ceramic tile wall paper import, even faucet is the most top-grade. He wants to give to a most warm family of her. Live in such an environment, some of her are not knowing which way to go. While moving, the thing in fact in the warehouse is abandoned completely, and she insists on keeping that bed of cotton-wadded quilts, in the past few years, they were using, already broke several places. He says, throw away, go to buy one more bed newly. All graceful things everywhere, put this, hinder eyes. She says, does not throw away, how many winter of severe colds this bed of cotton-wadded quilts accompany us to pass by, cover it on the body, always so warm. He shakes the head, does not insist on again.

One day, he come back from the outside, hand mention one bed new cotton-wadded quilt, require her throw away not old, change the new one. She has no idea, can only obey. From then on, retreated down old, changed the new one. Every night, she is not so easy and comfortable as to sleep usually, she skims over a silk and pains in the heart, often in night, hurt and wronged tears bedew pillow unconsciously. She says in the heart, as you know, how much efforts this bed of cotton-wadded quilts pass, just buy? , what small advertisement I have not go, take place no at all, left and sold the blood! Sell the blood for the first time, it is for buying a bed of cotton-wadded quilts! How important to me this bed of cotton-wadded quilts are! And you, regard as the rubbish and throw away. She does not think he loves her for minding her as before, though is covering the new cotton-wadded quilt, but not the warmth in the past.

Once, he goes to the toilet, forget to turn off the portable computer. She finds unintentionally, he has opened the personal blog, insists on keeping a diary every day. In a diary, he says, that day, she came in from the outside, pale face, gave me a start. In order to make it is enough to buy a bed of money of cotton-wadded quilts, unexpectedly she sends the small advertisement to somebody. That evening, we slept new cotton-wadded quilt below, how warm, she has never slept so smoothly. Unintentionally, I find, she has a piece of red swelling, has been pitched by pinprick. It is actually her mild and roundabout lie to send the advertisement, she has sold the blood. This bed of cotton-wadded quilts are actually that she takes the blood and brings! Her health is so weak! In the night, I have cried for one night secretly, I swore, must be outstanding, it is happy to give to her. Through the efforts during these years, I accomplished at last. At yesterday, I went to the blood station too, asked them to draw blood, I only wanted to experience, that tiny pinprick was pitched while entering the blood vessel, that ice-cold pain, let me make no adequate defense, however, mp3 playersso happy. I hold the money, have gone to buy this bed of cotton-wadded quilts Her eyes have been already fuzzy, originally, his heart was as the same as his love to her, so fine and smooth.

In cold winter, he gave a bed of warm cotton-wadded quilts to her, even brought the whole spring.
http://flyshy2008.zigblog.net/

Is this real?

I'm not sure if I'm dreaming.

We had a sit down on Monday to discuss all the projects that we are going to be working on in the next few months. Not a single one is a stinker. Plus one of the projects is TV with a modest budget, my first ever. (Well there was one other one... It was actually eight 15 second spots that had to be shot in 4 hours by the local TV station. It hardly counts that as TV experience)

So anyways, never before in my career has this happened. Were crazy busy, all with projects that are interesting and have some chance in hell to be pieces we would want to enter into award shows.

In fact one of our clients has given us so much free reign I'm getting very suspicious. Are they spies from some sort of client watch dog just waiting to see if we take advantage of them and actually do something interesting that gets them noticed?

If it is all real all I can say is we had better not f*@& it up.

The Ad Battle .com - last week's top ad

5 weeks to go and one lucky person with the top ad at the end of July will receive a free 4GB nano.

Here is the last week's top ad for theadbattle.com from Alison Stanley at Moorhead State University:

Visit www.theadbattle.com to submit your ad today.

TheAdBattle.com - Win a Nano if your ad is the best

Professionals/Students:

It's time for THE AD BATTLE folks. Goto theadbattle.com. Upload your best print ads and let the world decide your fate.

Best of all.....win an Ipod Nano if your ad is on top at the end of July.

Students welcome ofcourse.

www.theadbattle.com

- Jason

Purolator is Ship

I recently had a wonderful encounter with a shipping company that has a business model of getting a package from point A to point B within a “guaranteed” time frame.

Here is a little bit of background: over the last two weeks I have been running events that took place across 6 major cities in Canada. Months of logistical work went into these events to ensure that each event would execute flawlessly. A major part of this was shipping our supplies from one venue to another giving about a day/ day and a half buffer to accomplish this.

As it turned out very integral décor element did not reach one of the destinations on time. I did what any other person would do – call and find out what happened. As to my dismay, I was told the package was picked up on time but had yet to leave the originating city. As you can imagine, this was extremely frustrating and impacted our event negatively. At any rate, Purolator was kind enough to credit the shipment and I brushed it off as saying ‘sh*t happens’. Following this, I made the very poor decision to continue to use this courier.

Let’s fast forward to last night where we had the largest of our 6 events and yet again Purolator messed up on an extremely important shipment. Since the guaranteed time was 5pm and it was only 3:30pm I figured I would give them a call just to check in on the status. This very important shipment never left the originating city…again! I asked to get this issue escalated and the conversation went something like this:

Purolator: How can I help you?

Me: Well I had a shipment that was guaranteed to arrive by 5 today and I understand that there has been a mishap?

Purolator: Yes, your boxes missed one of its connections

Me: Perhaps I do not understand this correctly, you are responsible for shipping parcels and ensuring that they arrive on time?

Purolator: Yes but yours missed their connection

Me: This is the second time over two weeks that this has happened with parcels that are vital to execution of my event…

Purolator: Well sir Purolator ships millions of parcels a day and I would say that only missing two is not that bad

Now correct me if I am wrong, but does that last sentence exemplify a company that is ‘where business is going’? Well I guess that is an ok slogan, but it should probably read ‘where business is going a day later’.

Today I made a call to have them redirect the same shipment – since it is no use to me at the venue where the event happened last night – and of course they could not accommodate this whatsoever. They offered to charge me an additional fee and inconvenience people that work at the event establishment.

Late Deliveries + Guarantees that mean absolutely nothing + Horrible customer service = Purolator, a company that’s ‘not that bad’ for business

Bake Sale Non-Fail

A huge thank you to everyone who's given four kids from the Creative Circus the chance to see Cannes from somewhere other than E!

Thank you everyone who offered to buy cookies from us, gave us advice or just passed along our flyer. Our bake sale was a huge success.

Specifically we'd like to say thank you to Kara Taylor, Mark Tutssel, John Condon and Debbie Bougdanos at Leo Burnett who footed the bill for our flights. Also, huge thanks to Ajaz Ahmed and Lars Bastholm from AKQA and MaryAnn Frerman at 22squared who came up for us big. And more thanks to our personal friends Dave Holloway at Publicis, Jannie Gerds of Matheson Gerds Advertising, Jeb Quaid with DDB, Duane Hawkins from the Creative Circus.

Thank you everyone for your illogical appetites for our ridiculously overpriced cookies!

Also, big ups to Ignacio and Brendan here at ihaveanidea.

We'll be updating you all more as the events unfold. See you in France on Monday!

Four Circus Students, Two Future Lions and $6000 in airfare

Winning an AKQA Future Lion is a rare occurrence. Having a school win two out of five in the entire world is a rarer occurrence. Having a school win two out of five in the entire world two years in a row is, well, a rarerer occurrence.

But that's just what happened.

We found out yesterday that we won two Lions. The problem is, the Lions are in France, and we're in Atlanta.

So, in the spirit of any classic fundraiser, we're holding a bake sale to scrounge up a few bucks.

Please pass this along to anyone that has a good soul. The Future is now. But the Future is poor.

Cookies for Cannes Bake Sale

Contact Susanne DeLoach, president of the Norm Grey Foundation, for more information. sdeloach@creativecircus.com / 404-606-1103

My Mom Thinks I'm Awesome, So I Need Your Help

Intro

The wind was tearing through his hat, rustling the straw and biting his face. The snow was falling sideways. And there he was freezing: A battered leather briefcase, crummy leather gloves, and a black jacket that he�d scored in Sweden for twenty bucks.

He squared his scaly shoulders and looked around.

He was in France, on a bridge that was covered in snow. To his left was a cavernous drop of hundreds of feet to a frozen river, to the right: same thing. He was in the middle of the road, in the middle of December, at midnight and no one was around. Behind him, the Swiss border was closed.

Jimmy had a briefcase and a bottle of gin. He gnashed his pointed teeth in the chill. He was so tired he was delusional. He had been on the road for over twenty-four hours. Hitchhiking. Blitzing Europe. Trying to migrate from Sweden to Spain in one shot.

They�d dropped him off at the border about an hour earlier, and he started walking across this bridge for a place to catch a ride out of sight of the guards. No cars were coming through, so he turned back, and by the time he got there, the border was locked down.

He was stuck.

This is what you get when you drop all attachments. You never know where you�ll end up. This is what you get when you surrender to the fates, like a sailor at sea. You get adventures. You get a taste of the universe. And sometimes, you get stranded.

He stood there for about an hour. He turned blue. His fingers were freezing. This was no place for our lizard. When, suddenly, a brown delivery truck pulled up. This dude jumped out, in grey trousers, with his urchin hat in his hands, like something out of David Copperfield. He ran sprite-like to the guardhouse and picked something up. He punched in a code on a keypad and the gates slowly opened. Jimmy chased him down in the sleet.

I documented the writing process. You can read about it here: English Copywriter in Hong Kong

Freelance Copywriter in Asia is brought to you by Mike.

Ujala - Insta-Whitening Systems

Phillips Light

The end of a modeling career

By request, after about 10 minutes of wondering should I or shouldn't I, here is the shot of horror I talked about in my last blog entry... in all it's glory.

Branding done right

Check out this first-aid company called 'help'. (http://www.helpineedhelp.com/)

This is what happens when creativity is brought in at the inception of a company. It's simple, beautiful, touches every aspect of what they do and just makes a lot of sense.

It's unfortunate that most companies do bits and pieces of branding with no long term plan. It's only after years in operation they decide to fully jump on the brand wagon because they feel they can now afford it. Ironically, by that time, it's usually too expensive and difficult to do something even remotely remarkable because of the space debris brand they already unintentionally have.

personality

The downside to being twenty feet tall

Here is a tip for all you young advertising folk. Never ever model for campaigns at your agency. Especially if it's a particular campaign you don't want to be reminded of. Don't do it out of the goodness of your heart if the client has no money. Just don't. You'll probably regret it for years to come. I sure do.

A couple of years ago, at the first agency I ever worked at, we did a campaign for the local downtown business association. The concept was nothing spectacular, just people enjoying themselves downtown. Being naive and probably a little flattered I agreed to pose for the China town shot.

The shot was of me and another co-worker posing as a young lovers, enjoying the outdoor market in China town. I was gleefully teasing my so called girlfriend by holding a star fruit just out of her reach. It was probably one of the cheesiest, most awkwardly posed shots I have ever seen. Thinking about it now almost makes me vomit.

If that wasn't enough the campaign was primarily a transit campaign and I, at the time, was a transit user. I was horrified to discover that the bus stop I waited at everyday was part of the media buy. Consequently I had to wait beside a transit shelter with a life size image of myself in this horrific pose. I wore a hoody almost everyday.

Eventually the campaign finished and I found a job in the city I'm in now. Leaving behind the shame of an unintentionally bad modeling career I embraced the fresh start. I had almost forgotten about the whole fiasco when I started getting emails. Emails from friends, acquaintances and people I barely knew in the town I had recently left. The titles of these emails were always in the vein of: I saw you and you were 20 feet tall!

Horrified I found out that the campaign had been revived for a second year but this time they went for gold putting some of the campaign on the back of double decker buses. Hazard a guess at which glory shot they chose. That's right.

I have been unwillingly immortalized as the 20' China town lover and star fruit holder of pure cheesy awesomeness.

And now for something a little more serious.

In a candid discussion with a couple agency folk, the idea that clients no longer trusted ad agencies came up. It was not a shocking discussion. For most of my short career I have noticed a general distrust, in some form or another, from the client side.

I'm sure there are many reasons but looking deeper I have thought maybe it's because we don't practice what we preach.

Here are a few examples:

We are constantly counseling clients to have an intimate relationship and understanding of their consumers. None of the agencies I have worked have taken the time to study and keep abreast of our consumer - the 'client'. We tell clients they must find a differentiator for their brand. How often do you find an agency claim 'we are really good at x'... and something other than account service, creative and media buying because that's the price of entry. And if we are so creative and like to shift paradigms why do we cling so tightly to an agency structure that was perfect for the 1950's. I'm sure the list goes on.

Every once in awhile I find an article on how the agency model is broken. I have never found an article on how to fix it. It's true there are a few agencies taking steps to try and correct weaknesses. But is it working? And I wonder if there will ever be a universal agency model again. The world might be changing to rapidly for that.

I'm going to start a thread in the forum. I'm interested to hear what you think.

On the Road Again

Kris and I are on the move again. This time we’re going halfway around the world. We just got an internship at Iris in Singapore. We’re very excited. It should be an amazing experience. If anyone has any knowledge of the area, or a place for us to stay, let me know. We are also taking donations to help fund our trip. I’ll bake cookies or something to pay you back.

We’ll be in Singapore for ten weeks starting in July. I’m hoping we’ll even make it back to the states. Look out for what are sure to be some great pics and amazing stories.

Move over German trade magazine.

I won an advertising award. My first ever.

I can only trumpet this in the humblest way possible though. I didn't win at Cannes, or the One Show. Nope. I won for work I did about 2 years ago, at the first agency that I ever worked for, at an award show that you probably have never heard of. And it was for a project I forgot I even did.

I can proudly add this win to my proverbial trophy shelf with the German trade magazine that wrote an article on one of the campaigns I was involved in creating.

I have no idea what it says.

High fives anyone?

Who's the creepy guy with the family video cam?

Here is what I learned from doing streeter interviews yesterday:

1. Always tell the interviewee your filming. Especially if you're in rural Alberta. We live in a very paranoid society.

2. Never chase after people screaming Sir! or Ma'am! They tend to walk faster. Or run.

3. Don't even bother trying to talk to guys in Armani suits with the bluetooth head pieces.

4. Make sure your questions don't require people to think too much. This makes them frantic and their answers make even less sense.

5. Make sure you don't forget to turn off the camera. This is how to run down the battery without getting enough interviews... extending the painful process another day.

That's about it. Most people were fairly civil and no violence occurred. Too bad. I was hoping for some YouTube gold.

SOF: Save our Feelings

"After years of working in the creative field, feelings and emotions turns to be tools for success. Creative persons may turn to a feelings merchants. They miss their first feeling toward some thing. They used to see feelings and deal with it every moment of the day" I was telling to myself.

So, what do you think? am I right? Oh no, I have been working as a creative design for 7 years, do you say i can not feel any more!! what about the song I used the taste its rhythm and fly high? what about the sense of the old faces I used to see in my way to work every morning? What about the places??

How could I create when I can not teste every thing around me. How I could feed this hungry love for creativity inside me.

The conclusion, I was wrong, I can not create without feeling, I can not live without feelings, Howeve, I can not live without creativity. I think all the creative human specie can not.

What do you think?

Excuse me sir... Do you have five minutes?

I whined. I complained. But I could not get out of it. Today I will be traveling around the city and surrounding areas doing 'streeter' interviews for a client meeting that's coming up.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for consumer research. I'm just not all for doing it myself. When I decided to become a creative I didn't picture myself talking to strangers taking 5 minutes of their lives they'll never get back.

Maybe it's Karma. Lately I've been getting research companies over the phone trying to get me to answer questions. I've been promptly hanging up on them after telling them sharply never to call again.

I managed to get out of asking the questions which is the only good part. I will be holding the video camera. But it does, however, remind me of the time in college when I had a photography assignment where I had to take pictures in an urban area. I accidentally got a old man in frame and he proceeded to throw rocks at me. But at least I won't be the one within arm swinging range. I hope the interviewer has quick reflexes.

I'll give a full report on how it went in my next entry.

Creative Directors don't know everything.

At this point in my career I'm straddling the junior / intermediate line and, until recently, I took my CD's advice as gospel. It wasn't until I decided to change jobs that I realized that maybe CDs don't know everything.

I took a week off from my previous job and set up portfolio reviews with as many CDs in the city as I could. On top of just testing the waters I wanted to get feedback. Every meeting went very well and over all the feedback on my book was very positive.

However, when it came to what the CDs liked or disliked the comments were never the same. At first I was wondering what to do. If I had taken every comment, however minor, I would have had to change my entire book which would have taken another few months. Then I took a step back a realized that maybe may book was pretty Ok. No one had focussed on one piece and universally hated it.

I came to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, after three years I was gaining the sense of what was good and what was bad and maybe, just maybe, it was time for me to decide.

Creative Directors certainly have more experience and possibly more creative prowess than most. But as Creative Directors their priorities change. They are not necessarily in the fray generating ideas. It's likely they are occupied by meetings and dealing with client meltdowns. Their opinion matters as they are primarily responsible for the work that comes out of the shop but it's just that, an opinion. This job is filled with subjectivity. Things are not as black and white as we would like them to be.

Most CDs that I have come across are open to debate and are ok with being challenged. Be prepared to defend your stance with sane reasoning to back it up but realize that usually they are right (experience goes a long way).

However, I've had a couple ideas that were frowned on which I realized later were the perfect solution. I hadn't given them the argument they deserved. Often, when you have a great idea you have this gut feeling about. When you have that feeling reverse engineer it and try to understand why it's right. That'll help you defend it. Also trust your gut, not your ego. Learn to know the difference. It'll take you places.

Creative Directors have hired YOU to be creative geniuses. You are primarily responsible for the ideas, how they work and how they are executed. Don't let something die you know is right without a (civil) fight. It's the honorable thing to do.

Fuck a hand. Lend a Foam Finger.

    Kindness comes in many forms. Of course there’s helping an old lady across the street, serving food at a soup kitchen, and donating to charity. However, I recently encountered kindness in the form of a foam finger. Got your attention?

    I was at the Colorado Rockies game with a bunch of my friends over Memorial Day Weekend. They were playing the mets. (I left that lowercase for a reason.) In the aisle in front of us was a group of people visiting from Minnesota. We started talking and got along pretty well. One of the girls left her seat. When she returned, she had a giant purple Rockies foam finger.

    This got us all talking about how no one ever actually gets those things. I explained that ever since I was a kid, I always wanted a foam finger but never actually got one. It just never moved me enough to purchase one. A few minutes later, the same girl from before returned to her seat again. (I hadn’t noticed that she had left again) She had with her another foam finger. Who needs two foam fingers? That’s the kicker. She gave it to me. She explained that after hearing how I have always wanted one, she figured she would make it happen.

    I was so surprised that a total stranger would do something like that. It’s just a foam finger but the idea of it was great. It’s nice to see that some people are still nice. I will definitely be paying this one forward. The next time you see a foam finger, don’t think that the person wearing it must be crazy. Think about something nice that you can do for someone else. Sometimes the simplest things can make such a big impact.

I'm the one wearing the finger. The girl in front of me is the one who got me the finger. Hansel took the picture. Kris is up front. The guy with the Red Sux hat will remain nameless as he should due to his choice in baseball teams. Next is Morgan. That's enough info for now.

Assignment 2: Listen to the Annoying Advertising Prophet

Too often we dismiss the Advertising Prophet telling us about the end of advertising as we know it. 'We need to change this!....Traditional advertising's dead that!'. They tell us in long winded 10000 word blog entries or in the middle of a brainstorming session when they can't understand why we are doing another billboard. They keeping talking and talking and talking.

Listen to them (as much as you can possibly handle). They might have a point or two. But while they are going on and on about things that need to change they'll have no time to change anything. They're busy writing blog entries or long copy self-promotional ads about it.

It's up to the rest of us to actually do it.

AdBeats | 2008 | Episode 3: DooDaaa feat. Ralph Steadman

Season 2 | Episode 3: DooDaaa feat. Ralph Steadman

and....

2008 Clios Coverage

Miami Beach is a nice place.

A place where everything is bigger and shinier.

It's a wonderful setting for an advertising award show.

And the last place you'd expect to run into Ralph Steadman - the legendary illustrator/artist/author and the longtime collaborator/friend of Gonzo aka Hunter S Thompson.

In this episode - we talk to Ralph and find out what he thinks about advertising.

And a free bonus this week - a collection of sound bites from the 2008 Clios in Miami.

click here for the music mix + ralph steadman

click here for the tracklisting

click here for the 2008 Clios Coverage

Make this s*** automatic.

Subscribe to the mixes:

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Produced + Mixed by:

Assignment 1: Hug a Hack.

I would encourage everyone to Hug a Hack today.

Find someone who you think sucks large lemons when it comes to advertising and hug the hack right out of them.

My guess is everyone will get a hug except maybe Zak. But I think even Zak would have deserved a hug at some point in his career. We all create work that licks nads. Actually the majority of our work probably licks nads. There are many different reasons for that clients, time, budget... whatever.

I say enjoy the work that rocks. Constructively criticize the stuff that doesn't. Let's all be ego-less idealists together.

Action Figure Slow Motion Punches

People getting punched in the face in slow motion. That's all that needs to be said.

triple prism

a public-interest ad to let people love home

Makin' Music with John Mayer

John Mayer isn't above poking fun at himself.

mother day

the edge of the bag is a "M",so i do this.

of course.using mcdonalds logo is good too.but it's too ordinary.

PORTFOLIO NIGHT 6 - The view from the other side.

On Thursday night, I had the privilege of attending Portfolio Night 6 in Toronto as a VIP/guest. To say I enjoyed it would be an understatement. I hung out at the bar with the sponsor representatives and spoke with several young Hopefuls (Students? Wannabes? what do you call people hoping to get in, but aren’t actually IN the business? Let’s go with “hopefuls”) and CDs that passed our way. In the last period, I got thrown in to review some books and chose to do it at the bar rather than sit at one of the tables. I found that this made for a relaxed atmosphere and the Hopefuls opened up easily and weren’t as nervous. Okay, the truth is I had more room and didn’t want to spill my scotch on their books.

I noticed several things during the evening and there were a few memorable moments that I will now share with you.

I was blown away by the number of laptops in the room. When I got into this industry, it was renderings in your book. Marker comps have been replaced with electronic slideshow presentations. This is not a bad thing, I simply found it interesting as hell. I began trying to envision what would be in 20 years.

I noticed there were a large mix of ages in the room. There were 22 year olds, there were 30-somethings. There was no “look” or stereotype of somebody trying to enter the business today.

One of the Hopefuls came over and I asked how it went? She replied “he was mean”. I asked who she saw? Blank expression. She couldn’t tell me. I asked who she saw for the last two reviews? She couldn’t tell me. I found this unbelievable. I would have not only made sure I got their business card, I would have also had the name of their assistant and the best time to call them in their office to set up another review once I had a chance to revise my book. But that’s just me.

Humber copywriting students were the most outgoing and friendly. They were also the ones that stuck around and had (drinking) CDs looking at their books even after it ended and the majority had left the building. I even got an email from one of them yesterday thanking me for looking at her book. Well done (and much appreciated).

At one point I was speaking to a CD that has worked around the world. He told me that in all his travels, Toronto was the hardest city to break into. Where he was offered 4/5 jobs immediately in the United States, it took him 8 months to land a gig once he landed in Toronto and it was a very bumpy road to do so.

One CD informed me that many of the Hopefuls (when asked) mentioned that they wanted to work at one agency in particular. Call me strange but I would have worked at any agency that gave me the chance that evening. Every table held a CD that was worth working for.

Another CD was quite peeved about something he witnessed. He told me he overheard a few Hopefuls waiting their turns (downstairs) telling each other who to see and who not to see. Here’s a bit of advice guys, every person in the room is there for a reason…even a junior who has been in the business for 6 months. They are in the industry. You aren’t. They obviously know what it takes to get in and you can learn something from them.
I had one of the biggest names (at one of the best shops) in Canada come over and inform me that if I happen to see anybody with potential, to make sure I send them their way because they are looking. See that? Even the guy hanging at the bar that evening can help start your career. We all know each other. Next time, if there is a next time, be open minded.

It ended quickly. Once it was over, 90% left the premises like rats fleeing a sinking ship.
My guess is that it was a long day for CDs that came directly from work etc.
There were several there I would have loved to have spoken to (ex-partners, CDs I’ve worked for) but didn’t get the chance.
We stuck around for a bit, I got kidnapped and taken to another club for some more drinks, getting home at 2am.

On another note, two people during the event/evening (including the bartender) approached to tell me I look exactly like the lead singer from “Tool”. I have in fact been told this before. On at least 8 different occasions, I have been asked for my autograph from adoring female fans thinking I am Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor on “Smallville”). After posting this entry, I will have to go onto Google images to see the resemblance for myself.

Congratulations to everyone that made this happen. I can only imagine what goes into making this event a reality every year and you really should pat yourselves on the back.
I will never forget being invited to the first Portfolio Night (the one where I got the date wrong and missed it) so I was quite humbled to be invited again (and especially, asked to review books). Thank you again. Needless to say, I’ll wear the TShirt proudly.

Until next time, keep dreaming.

an ad for copywriter

the picture is a neon-electroscope.

anticipation

its pretty intense here waiting for my turn. tons of people.

woot

blog

volunteering for portfolio night 6 ruuuless!!

Keely

Portfolio Night 6 Toronto - preview

hey

its David and Nat

we're here early at portfolio night toronto making sure everything is ready to go. things look great, we already have students coming to register, and everyone is getting really excited.

good luck to everyone !!!!

PORTFOLIO NIGHT MIAMI: BEFORE

So I'm at AlmaDDB for the day. They are our host for Portfolio Night Miami - and the place is just buzzing with Portfolio Night excitement. Labels are being printed, supplies are being brought over to the venue and we're getting ready to test the webcast equipment.

Check out the pics below. They were taken last night at the Portfolio Night Miami venue.

It's going to be great.

Friend Request

First off, thanks to everyone who commented or emailed me about the prior post. I really have learned a lot and I appreciate the input.

Now…what’s up with social networking? Which site do I use? I think we can all agree that Myspace has had it. Sorry Myspace. Facebook is pretty good. It’s very clean. Linkedin is growing and it’s more of a professional thing. I’ve started using Linkedin more and more. I think it’s a great resource.

I am finding old classmates and colleagues. I’m meeting new people in the business through my existing contacts. I’m even finding people I forgot I even knew. The biggest problem I see with all this networking stuff is that it’s becoming so segmented. If these sites are made to bring us together, why are there so many that spread us out?

I even tried launching a network for people in the Ad industry. I figured that we are the most connected people on the planet; why not bring us all together. It didn’t really take off. Maybe I didn’t do a good enough job advertising it. OOPS! Does anyone think it would be a good idea? I’ll make another go of it if people are interested.

What is everyone finding to be the best site for them? Should we try to get the Ad community together? Should I just stop playing on the web so much? As usual, your thoughts are appreciated. Also, request me on Linkedin in the meantime and let’s get this shit rollin.

If you want to check out my experiment, here it is.

http://aditup.ning.com/

It’s a work in progress so let me know your comments. Maybe even sign up.

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK ALOT LIKE PORTFOLIO NIGHT

Well, it's just after 5:00am and I'm in Toronto's Pearson Internation Airport waiting to board my plane to Miami. Yeah, I didn't realize there was a 5:00 in the morning either. I got to the airport so early US Customs was closed. I felt like Tom Hanks in 'The Terminal'..."I'm sorry sir, but the United States is closed".

And although Uncle Sam eventually opened his doors I wasn't so sure I wanted visit. The Customs agent I was in line for seemed to be giving everyone the 'rubber-glove treatment'. Finger print scans and the whole bit. No joke. But for some reason when I came through and he found out I was headed to Miami all he could do was talk about the girls in Florida and wind surfing. Good times.

But enough about me - Portfolio Night is probably top of mind for most of you. And it should be, it's one of the biggest nights for the global ad community. Year after year, this event has proven that it can change lives.

No pressure.

But here's the thing. Sure its a big night. And yes, some of the world's top ad professionals will be on hand reviewing books, but you will do yourself a disservice if you get all freaked out about it. These guys and gals want to know about you, the real you, just as much as they want to see what is in yor book. So relax, have fun, be yourself, be professional and big things will happen.

A more friendly and tamer Grand Theft Auto from Conan O'Brien

Part 1

Part 2

ADC Awards Live! Corbis Salutes the Charitable.

Corbis presented 3 awards (two professional, one student) to the ADC Winners they though exemplified their mission of doing good work around the world. Not just nice looking ads. But nice looking ads that do good things for people in need. Here's Renee and Stephen from Corbis to tell you who won.

Can you guess what agencies/work won?

Hint for agency #1: Freezing Homeless People.

Hint for agency #2: We can do it, too!

Sorry, no student hint.

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For more info, see below:

Corbis and the ADC Unveil Winners of 2nd Annual Corbis Creativity for Social Justice Award & Scholarship

Creatives Can Help Increase Corbis’ Donation to the Benefiting Causes Just by Searching for Images at www.corbis.com/searchforjustice

NEW YORK (May 2, 2008) – Corbis (www.corbis.com), a leading visual media provider for the creative community, and the Art Directors Club (ADC), today announced the professional and student winners of the 2nd annual Corbis Creativity for Social Justice Award & Scholarship, part of the 87th Annual ADC Awards program recognizing the best in advertising and design from around the world. The winners were revealed at the annual ADC Awards Gala held last night at the ADC Gallery in New York City.

The Corbis Creativity for Social Justice Award & Scholarship honors the best work created by professionals and students on behalf of non-profits on a pro bono basis. Agency creatives receive the prestigious ADC Cubes, and Corbis donates $20,000 to the non-profit cause and awards the student winner with a $5,000 scholarship. This year, Corbis is inviting the creative community to join the “Search for Justice” and increase Corbis’ donation to the social justice causes just by searching for images at www.corbis.com/searchforjustice.

2008 Corbis Creativity for Social Justice Award Winners Strike Gold!
The professional award this year was a tie, with both winners receiving the ADC’s highest honor, the prestigious ADC Gold Cube. The benefiting charitable causes will split the $20,000 prize as well as additional money resulting from Corbis’ “Search for Justice” initiative.

“We are so thrilled that these winners received the ADC’s highest honor – the ADC Gold Cube,” said Renee Martin, Vice President, Sales & Service, North America, who presented the awards to the winners at the ADC Gala. “Corbis is dedicated to supporting the creative community and the non-profit causes that creatives have spent their hard-to-find free time to support. We love recognizing this incredible talent.”

TAXI Canada was awarded a Gold Cube for a community initiative it conceived and launched called The 15 Below Project (http://15belowproject.org) to mark the agency’s 15-year anniversary. TAXI executive creative director, Steve Mykolyn, developed the idea for the high-concept, low-cost jackets to help the homeless who can’t get off the streets to survive extreme winter conditions. Stuffed with newspaper it’s a winter coat. Stuffing removed, it becomes a raincoat. When not being worn, it converts into a backpack that can be used as a pillow. On behalf of its clients and staff, TAXI Canada donated 3,000 15 Below jackets to the homeless throughout Canada and the U.S.

Vitruvio Leo Burnett Spain was awarded a Gold Cube for its pro bono work supporting the Prodis Foundation (www.fundacionprodis.org), which helps those with Down syndrome achieve a more independent lifestyle. Vitruvio Leo Burnett responded to a brief from Prodis to create a public awareness campaign communicating that children with Down syndrome can be active participants in society. The agency conceived a campaign called “Let Us Do It,” whereby children with Down’s created and shot an ad and movie trailer themselves to address misconceptions about those with Down syndrome and illustrate their capabilities and skills.

James Yang, a student of New York-based School of Visual Arts (SVA), was selected as the Corbis Creativity for Social Justice Scholarship winner for his project based on the Darfur Genocide Campaign (www.savedarfur.org), an organization dedicated to raising public awareness about the atrocities in Darfur. James' poster campaign expressed the loss of life in Darfur through graphic symbolism and a slogan ‘400,000 killed and still growing.’ The artwork consisted of a long succession of posters featuring red check marks, which visually expressed the number of lives lost. The red check marks also became the campaign’s logo. While the project was done on behalf of a real non-profit organization, it did not require the participation or consent of the organization.

"It’s clear that this award category is driven by passion—from the non-profits to the creatives and full circle back to Corbis," said Ami Brophy, Executive Director of the ADC. "We hope that these awards encourage others to use their creative skills to benefit the non-profit sector and ultimately their communities at large."

The Creative Community Can Join the “Search for Justice”
The creative community can learn more about the benefiting causes and help raise money for them by participating in the Corbis “Search for Justice” initiative. Corbis will donate a dollar every day for each person’s first image search conducted at www.corbis.com/searchforjustice starting today through July 31st, 2008.

Corbis is also proud to sponsor the ADC Awards Exhibition running at the ADC Gallery in New York from June 5-27th, including the VIP Opening Event on June 5th. For information or to RSVP for the VIP Opening, visit www.adcglobal.org/adc/events/calendar.
The prestigious ADC Annual Awards and Art Directors Annual remain unrivaled as an educational and industry resource. Other programs also include ADC Young Guns, the ADC Hall of Fame, scholarships, workshops, exhibitions and symposia.

About Corbis
Corbis is a leading visual media provider for the creative community, licensing the widest array of award-winning contemporary, historical and entertainment photography as well as extensive collections of acclaimed illustration and footage. Its imagery is seen everyday around the world in advertising, media, publishing and corporate communications. Corbis is headquartered in Seattle with 15 offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia that serve more than 50 countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.corbis.com.

About the ADC
Founded in New York in 1920 as the first creative collective of its kind, the Art Directors Club, Inc. (www.adcglobal.org) is a 501[c]3 not-for-profit organization with an international membership in advertising, design and related visual communications disciplines. ADC's core program - the international Annual Awards competition, exhibition and Art Directors Annual - is now in its 87th year and remains unrivaled as an educational and industry resource. ADC's signature initiatives also include: ADC Young Guns biennial showcase of promising professionals age 30 and under; the ADC Hall of Fame; Saturday Career Workshops for talented city high school juniors; Designism, connecting designers to social causes; scholarships, exhibitions, speaker events, and original books and publications.

ADC Awards Live! Guess Who.

Here's a little diddy from the post awards presentation reception. Latin food was served. It was all breaded and/or fried. Doesn't sound ideal, but considering all the alcohol consumption - it was.

Can you guess who the mohawked creative is at the end? Do you recognize anyone else?

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ADC Awards Live! Chapin Clark Interviewed

Chapin Clark, SVP Copy R/GA, had some opinions about what won and how the show went. Are you a writer? You want a job at R/GA? Listen up, take notes, and then give Chapin and ring.

If you're not a writer and/or you don't want a job at R/GA, listen anyway. He's a smart cookie.

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ADC Awards Live! Paul Lavoie's Opening Words

ADC President Ami Brophy introduces President of the ADC Board, Paul Lavoie. He says a little diddy. Some of it's funny. Get's good around the middle.

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ADC Awards Live! Nancy Vonk Interviewed (ish)

Ok, so I maybe forgot to change the camera back to "normal," so here's a funky stop motion version of my interview w/ Nancy. Maybe not so informative, but totally funny to watch.

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ADC Awards Live! Mise en Scene

Here's a little video showcasing the scene right before the awards were presented (and my funky time lapse function on my camera).

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ADC Awards Live!

Ok, so it's more like live-ish.

It's Brandon here. After a night of some technical malfunctions (and lots of tipsy ad folk) I'm here to report on the ADC Awards. We have a couple video from the night, a couple words from our sponsors, and, of course, all the winners. I'm sure you're dying to know who won. Stay tuned!

B.

Adobe and Industry Leaders Establish Open Screen Project

For immediate release
Technology and Content Innovators to Drive Consistent Rich Internet Experiences Across Multiple Screens

SAN JOSE, Calif. — May 1, 2008 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the Open Screen Project, supported by a group of industry leaders, including ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless. The project is dedicated to driving rich Internet experiences across televisions, personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics. Also supporting the Open Screen Project are leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC Universal, who want to reliably deliver rich Web and video experiences live and on-demand across a variety of devices.

Ay, dios mio!

I thought the telenovelas were over the top. (borderline NSFW)

How to get a D&AD Pencil

Berwick St Market, Soho, London, April 2008

The D&AD Ceremony is going to be really different this year: A new venue, live music, interactive installations, and whopper of an auditorium in which to worship the best creative work in the world and the people who worked on it.
We worked with PR company Cunning to find a light hearted way to spread the word about the changes.
A market stall was set up in Soho and, for one (thankfully very sunny) day only, knock-off Pencils went 'on sale'.
John Hegarty, Rosie Arnold, Tiger Savage, Mark Roalfe, Michael Wolff, Gavin Gordon Rogers and Steve Henry popped by and gave Oscar winning appearances pretending to buy the pencils.
Norman the stall holder enjoyed the attention and plenty of passers-by tried to figure out what was going on.
Of course you can't buy a pencil, you have to win it, and this year's winners are going to have one hell of a party at which to celebrate.

Have a look at D&AD's first Ambient Stunt- Market Stall

Wearing all the hats.

It’s been a while since I have written an entry.
When you freelance, not being busy means that you have to REALLY keep busy.
Going into my second year working on my own full-time, I have learned that this way of working in the business has many ups and downs. Truthfully, it really isn’t for everybody.
If you aren’t one to pick up the phone, or work extremely hard at marketing yourself (and convincing people to use your services), your chance of success is extremely limited.

I love being really swamped with work. Creatively speaking that is.
The secret to freelancing is to constantly have projects lined up.
I have learned not to wait for projects to come in and I have no choice but to go out and get them.
This involves a load of prep work that usually (being a creative leaving an agency environment) I have never experienced before.
For a while, I had nothing coming in. I had a few little projects keeping me busy but the horizon was empty. I spent 3 long months compiling mailing lists, putting together my new website, making calls, going to networking events etc.
Thankfully, a valuable inside source told me that agencies were trimming down their creative departments this year so I concentrated all my efforts for a few weeks towards calling and getting in touch with agencies.
This paid off. In February, I worked for 3 different ad agencies. 2 as an Art Director and one as a Copywriter. I have learned over the years that freelancing for agencies is great for two reasons. One, they have the workload and two, I don’t have to quote them on a price. They typically tell me what I will be paid for the project. The downside to working for agencies as a freelancer is that you will be paid around 60 days later and often, you will have to place a phone call to enquire about the status of your paycheque. You also can't promote the work as yours (most of the time) and getting copies for your portfolio is not easy (see my blog entry "The Ghost" for more on this).

Anyway, 3 months of business development (which I have absolutely hated) is finally paying off. I have several future projects lined up, agencies using me as well, but there are still some weeks that are empty. If you need that steady paycheque every two weeks, or you don’t want to spend 3 days on the phone or answering emails and writing proposals, this side of the business is definitely not for you.

Yesterday, I learned that I won a gold and a silver trophy in the 2008 Summit International Creative awards. I’m thrilled.
However, as I have just pointed out, there is nobody besides myself to do all the work that this now involves. I have pushed all my creative projects aside for the next day or two and will now spend my time writing press releases for the industry publications, updating my website's “latest news”, my resume (for agencies), including the win on all of my company literature, creating an email blast to send out and then, erasing all the outdated email addresses that bounce back to me. Not fun stuff. But necessary if I wish to make the most of it.
Meanwhile, I have a bunch of ideas bouncing around for a project I’m working on that I would love to put on paper. It will have to wait. When you wear all the hats, being creative ends up becoming only a portion of the weekly schedule. Something I am learning is the reality of being a freelancer.

Until next time. Keep dreaming.

Mario Theme Played with RC Car and Bottles

A night of drinking pays off.

Between Two Ferns with guest Jimmy Kimmel

Video Out-Takes From PSFK Conference New York 2008

D&AD Ceremony 08 - sneak preview

Production for what promises to be a really spectacular party - the D&AD Awards Ceremony - are well underway. This year the results will be announced and the pencils given out in the awe-inspiring auditorium at the Royal Festival Hall. It's a stunning setting overlooking the Thames that befits a night to celebrate the best work in the world.
Breaking news is the collaborations that are underway.
Bands & DJ's are booked (watch this space for details), illustrators Le Gun are sketching frantically to design the sets, comedian Simon Amstell is lined up to keep everyone entertained and interactive installations from Greyworld and Jason Bruges Studio are being devised as we speak.
Not only is it going to be the most inspiring Ceremony ever, we've reduced the ticket price to enable everyone to come.
Join us - go on!
Give Emily a call on +44(20) 7840 1124 to book your place.
www.dandad.org/buy/ceremony.html

Enrique in the D&AD Awards office makes friends with a prototype of one of Le Guns illustrated figures.

The ADC Awards: Behind the Iron Curtain Pt. 3

Brandon Burns
New York Correspondant
ihaveanidea

The mystery of advertising awards shows is ﬁnally revealed. Each week I will post an interview of one of the jury members from this year's ADC Awards, giving you an uncensored peek at what really goes on, what the judges are thinking, and how they decide upon which works to bestow the prestigious ADC cube.

Dana Arnett: Design Jury Chairman
VSA Partners, Principal
24-7designheaven.com, Creator

The majority of ihaveanidea readers come from the ad world. The Bernbach- praising, Cannes-Lion-chasing ad world. So why are you getting ready to read an interview with the Design Jury Chair? Well, I’ll let Mr. Arnett tell you himself:

“Strangely enough, advertising and design are inseparable. Designers are trained to express an idea over a number of pages. Ad people are often defined by a single piece. But good design makes good advertising, and good advertising rarely exists without good design.”

It’s true, folks. You’ve all heard the adage: A good ad is X% idea and X% execution. Well, whatever percentage values you want to fill in, execution is still a huge deal. And execution often means design. Great ideas fall flat due to bad typography, photography, illustration, layout, and a myriad of other things. All of these are things that the top designers do well. These are also things the ADC holds near and dear to its heart. And Nancy Vonk agrees (read her interview here).

So, what’s the design work looking like this year?

“I think the level of work is looking great. Japan and China are the most impressive. Tasteful integration of a fine art approach along with a hand crafted quality - such an intelligent and gifted approach to the way they execute things. The work from the UK shows intelligence and humor, as always.”

Any trends poping up?

“Over the last five years, I’ve seen a return to classical use of typography. There was a period of infatuation coming out of the post-script age. Some of that romance has worn off and there’s kind of a lot of really tasteful and thoughtful uses of typography and classical type.”

Well, I don’t know what the post-script age is, but I think I want to take notes. I think this guy is basically giving me a blueprint of how to execute a great ad! Any more advice for us?

“I’d hope that more work could be more relevant. With so much content and noise, a designer’s [or advertiser’s] real job, if not opportunity, is to cut through the clutter and create some truth in relevant positioning. We need to step back and go ‘hey’ again, let’s get real.”

So, Dana, how do we start to move forward?

“For starters, I think we can’t be fooled that [the work submitted] is the absolute best and brightest. It’s great work, but I would really like to get some trend analysis, bring 10 or 15 19-20 year old people through here who really sort of represent what’s really going in the world now.”

I’d like to see some of that stuff, too. Everyone knows that, while inspiration can come from within, there’s tons more inspiration to be found in the world around us. It would behoove us to take a gander at all of it.

Until next week…