Early Day Plan

I don't really mind getting up early in the morning. I mean it is still probably the worst part of the day but if I have somewhere to be and I am going to be part of somewhat of a productive day then I can bid farewell to my soft pillow and mattress. But if I have to just get up early, just because, I really don't see why anyone would like it.

We have painters in painting the house this week. The hallway and landing more specifically. So all doors leading into bedrooms need to be painted and apparently you cannot do that with the door closed. So with the alternative sharing my bedroom with some middle aged paint toxic smelling man I had to get up at 7:00AM and apart from driving my dad to work (I may need a lift this weekend) I had nothing planned for the day. Now I am a master of making fun out of doing nothing. Part of my skill as a procrastinator. But with the impending final hand in next week and PPD, Final Visuals and a report to write I really couldn't (although boy did I try) put off doing work.

I've drawn myself up a time plan using a ration of 1:1, for every hour of work I do, I will do an hour of absolutely nothingness. Hopefully, by the time I return to my pillow tonight PPD file will be finalized and I will have one less thing to worry about.

In other news I officially become a grown up yesterday. I voted for the first time. I have very little understanding of what's happening about it all this morning but never mind.

Typical.

Still working on live briefs, and sods law has stuck again! One of the live briefs was sent down to us by Dean Woodhouse at BBH. The brief was 'Help Lynx celebrate the 2010 World Cup.' Lynx - a fun brand to play about it. World Cup - again? seriously? That takes the World Cup grand total to 4 football related briefs in the past two months. But what can you do eh? So we cracked on.

We came up with a fair few ideas and as usual some were good, some not so much. One of the ideas I loved and thought would really work was the idea in saying 'Lynx makes you smell so good that football rivalry can't even keep people apart.' I had images of football players and supporters alike embracing in man love hugs. Then I found this...

I can't even get away with saying its a similar idea. It is the exact same idea! I can't decide if I should be gutted that the idea has already done, or if I should be happy that the idea is done and produced. There is a thin line between love and hate. Thats relevant here, isn't it?

Never mind. We have also came up with another route involving Peacocks - much more fun!

Megan Mullally should advertise everything.

Will & Grace is probably the best sitcom to ever grace our TV screens second only to the obvious Friends. Ginger Jewish girl Grace. None stereotypical gay lawyer Will. Very stereotypical gay everything Jack, and of course everyones favorite pill popping princess Karen Walker.

So imagine my surprise a few years ago when I found this american M&M advert staring none other than the amazing Megan Mullally who is the actress who portrays dearest Mrs. Walker.

I feel that it truly is amazing. Very American, granted. But the line sticks out and I cannot stop singing 'Chocolate is better in colour!'. Its a bit of fun. It's a laugh. And it was probably my favorite none Karen, Megan Mullally thing out there... Untill today.

I present to you; 'I can't believe it's not butter.'

1000 times catchier and complete with dance move albeit 1000 times more American. I've tried looking for the agency who was behind this but to no avail. But I want to find them. I want to learn the names of whoever placed Megan Mullally, I Can't Believe it's not Better and dancing in the same idea. Some may disagree with me but I cal it genius!

And to those who love Karen Walker as much as I; Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday all rolled into one.

I hate myself! Not really though.

It this stage of a project I hate the most. At the beginning of the week we had 3 weeks till hand in. That's ages! That's more time than we have had on some full projects. So you find yourself feeling confident and motivated, but not so motivated where you don't allow your self to have the occasional mind wander. Then, it comes to the end of the week and you realize you now in fact, only have two weeks left. Time planners do help. If I didn't use them the final week would be stressful. Looking into the psychological side I think i must in some way hate myself, and want myself to suffer so I leave it all to the end?

As far as time actually goes at this point, we have a comfortable amount of time to get finished. There may be a few late night sessions come hand in week, but nothing a bit of red bull can't solve. Am I still confident enough that I don't need to ask you to wish me luck?

'End of an Era', some might say.

Me and Claudia were talking today. A good talk that needed to happen. But a talk that brought around the destruction of Top Hat productions. We had always had this plan to move to London come then end of Summer '10. It's al fair and well to have an plan. To say that 'in 7 month time, ages away from now, I will move to London and get a job there.' is fairly easy to do. But, as the time comes closer I start to have doubts and fears.

Claudia was understanding of my hesitation. She made a valid point that I am only 19 and when she was 19 she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. It still stands I know I want to do advertising or be involved in the art and design industry at some point. But maybe I just need a bit more time?

I've went to speak to Clare and Allie, the course leader of the BA (Hons) Creative Practice top up year and although I have missed the deadline by months, I still have a chance to apply if I get my UCAS form (joy of joys) sent in be the end of next week - 7th May). So its off to write a personal statement and throw myself into another year of education.

Underwater Explosions

Ever since I was a child, if you gave me a pot of water, paint and a paint brush I would spend hours trying to make patterns of 'paint explosions' in the water. I would load the brush with a bright colour and no sooner dart it into the pot and watch the paint disperse through the water. Occasionally I would manage to make an explosion that looked half decent by my child like standards. Most of the time it would just look rubbish. Never did I make one that looked like these.

Produced by Mark Mawson these images are only the beggining of how Mr. Mawson explores the beauty and elegance that movement underwater has. I love the way the different shadows and highlights make each 'explosion' looks so soft and rounded instead of wet, cold and messy.

Security risk.

Because this wouldn't get you arrested the second you leave your house...

Seriously?

New York New York.

It's decided then. I want to live in New York. Probably one of the easiest choices I have ever had to make in my life falling second only to 'hmm, double vodka lemonade and lime please'. That city is amazing! The streets are just a flood of yellow with everything moving in seemingly chaotic yet secretly intricate fashion. Everyone knows where they need to be and there only real goal is to get there. Yet they are still more than happy to help you with directions if you get lost. Granted, they will send you off in the complete opposite direction that you need to be in. But its the thought that counts, eh?

After our 17 hours of travelling we checked into our hotel. But not the hotel we thought we were not. Not the hotel with a view of central park and the Empire State building. No. Not there. Instead, we walked though the reception of a holiday in where we were randomly split into pairs to share rooms. After a couple of minutes of room swapping and finding out the college policy of boys and girls not being allowed to share a room on college trips (a policy and have unintentionally ignored for the past 4 years of Newcastle College and from now on will intentionally ignore) I ended up sharing a room with Samantha. This was my first real taste of how everything is bigger in America. The bed. I assume New York's culture isn't so different to our own that they partake in threesome relationships. However, that could be the only explanation for the size of the bed that greeted us when we walked into our room. A family of four could have lived on that bed never mind sleep in it. It was humongous! Only now that I have recovered from the shock do I regret not talking a picture of it.

Over the 2.5 days we got to spend going around New York (I have worked out that the trip cost £300 per full day we got to spend there) we done the usual touristy things. We went to a comedy club (which seemed to be a reticle of a Sarah Silverman show). We went on a tour bus around the city. We took hundreds of photos. We ate in novelty places. We ate in 'real american diners.' We went shopping. We went window shopping down Madison Avenue. We even had a horse drawn carriage ride around Central Park (and paid someone off to get the horse we wanted). But when we weren't walking around with our massive signs that read 'I'm a tourist. Please harass me to buy tour bus tickets!' we went to two advertising agencies. McCann and.

McCann was the first agency. After arriving fashionably late we met some of the creatives for the company, one of whom was the man behind the Motorola Madonna commercial from way back in the early naughties (and who my Madonna loving friend has since hailed as a hero as this was apparently the beginning of Madonna comeback?). What surprised me though, and probably everyone else as well was how different agencies work over in New York and American compared to here in the UK. In New York your required to submit a CV with your book because your previous academic achievements are considered important.

Unlike any agency I've been to in London the New Yorkers took great pride in showing you their offices and gadgets. This is probably due to a lot of the work being produced entirely internally so they have recording studios, film sets, white rooms and fancy corridors galore.

The next day at DDB we saw a trio of young creatives, 66% of them being fancied by every girl and me in the room. They talked a lot about how to get into the industry and although it is different over there than it is here some things translate over. Such as working freelance which is how they got into DDB. Working freelance and treating it as we would a placement; an opportunity to 'blow their socks off' was one of the best bits of advice they gave us.

Overall, I liked the agencies and loved the people in them. I love New York and could probably, one day, see myself living and working there. My only 'hicup' at the minute is the different style of work that is produce. In the UK adverts are very creative and persuasive (at least the good ones are). Over there, its more practical and straight forward. 'This is our product. This is why you need it. Thank you for your time.'

I'm really tempted to post a link to Alica Keys – New York to play us out but I'll resist. Honestly, I was half expecting the entire plane to burst into song during our descent into JFK.

Drummond Crit

We had our second local book crit today at Drummond Central. As always, we were late. After having only received the email 10 minutes before out appointment we rushed down sending emails to candy coat the fact we were going to be late. But we made it.

Drummond was the first local agency I ever went too. Before that I'd only every been to the likes of Fallon and Widen and Kennedy – big rich agencies who had crock loads of cash to make themselves look pretty. Up until this point I thought any local agencies would have the same flare their London cousins did. I thought they would look nice but something you'd expect the council to run. Cheap plastics and badly lit rooms. Well. Let me tell you. Not the case!

My first visit to Drummond was the first time I actually contemplated working locally. The reception area was a lush monochrome zone and the conference room has a long wooden table to embodied creative importance. Their work was equally impressive and although not as big and extravagant as London produced work it still has that important creative though.

This crit was the first crit I have ever not taken notes on because a lot of creatives comment that they feel like I'm marking them. But its not that. It's just my memory is like a sift when I need to retain important information. And this proves it. Only a few hours after the crit I'm already forgetting what Steve said. But never mind. I'll solider on!

He liked a lot of our work and like many others praised the art direction of campaigns such as Clinique and the strategies of campaigns such as Splenda 'cheat.'

Overall it was a fairy positive crit but we didn't get the placement we were hoping for. However, we did get an invite to go back once we've developed our ideas and took on board what he had suggest – hopefully for a placement then.

We also got some good live briefs which we can work on towards the current module.

New York on monday!!

Worth the Wait.

A few weeks ago we sent out emails asking our wonderful contacts in big ol' London agencies for a few lives briefs to work on. Finally, today we hear back from them! Literally within 3 hours of each other two emails came though each with a wonderful brief to work on.

Thom and Danielle from Y&R emailed us a brief for the Freelander2 (an apologised over and over for their late reply – its okay; we forgive!) whilst James Rooke from McCann sent us one for Master Card supporting the Brit Awards which we are aloud to go 360 on. He did not however make any mention for the gloriously ingenious links we attached to ourself in the email.

I'm looking forward to working on both of these briefs. As the Master Card brief runs along side the Brit Awards it will be fun to look towards music and the award show to find inspiration. The Freelander brief will be good as it has a nice open proposition behind it “More than just a car”.

We have 7 days until we go to New York and then separated again though Claudia's trip to Australia for two weeks so the plan is to get as much done on these briefs before hand as we can so we can develop over Easter.