Frohe Weihnachten!

It's time for my Winter hibernation. I finished my placement at Publics this week, time to move on. I am already in Hamburg enjoying the wonderful german Christmas fairs and the first snow here. I'm back to London & blogging in Jan, watch this place then, since I'm getting some support in the new year. Hope everyone feels the festive joy!

Absolut Icebar

Yes, being a Russian I am a big fan of vodka. Last week I visited the Absolut Icebar in London. I imagined it to be an Absolut Brand experience, whereas it is just a bar. I wasn't really stunned by the architecture, a plain room out of ice. I expected more, stuff like ice sculptures and funky shapes. Even if it' felt more like moneymaking than brand building – it's still a cool place.

Festive Delay

Looks like D&AD is taking it's time so it will not be until after Christmas/NYE until everyone will get the results about the Advertising Workshop. We are cool with that, let's enter festive mode and stop thinking about that stuff for a couple of weeks. Ho Ho Ho!

WK seeking

Wieden + Kennedy's Portland office started a recruitment campaign for all kinds of creatives a couple of weeks ago. I you are a creative person of any kind apply. Even if you do not consider working there, apply. It's an application that is fun to fill out, on top it is both, inspiring and motivating. Go to www.wk.com/seeking – you can't do wrong.

'This is it. The major casting call for all of the best of the best. If you don't know if you are the best, apply. If you can tell a good joke, apply. If you can use proper toilet etiquette (see below), apply. If your mom thinks you are handsome, apply. If you are a designer, a writer, a creator, a thinker, apply. Take a risk and the payoff could be huge.

This just might change your life.'

New New New

I decided that it's time for some change, so I've got myself a new haircut and lost some hair, thanks to Pimps & Pinups – great place! Together with this I got a new creative partner as well, yay! I am terrifically happy and excited. I cannot wait for January to start off in the new year and rock. Good things are about to happen, magic as a friend would say!

Who is it? We'll tell in January. Three more days at Publicis and then off to Germany for 'tis season's Christmas.

Digital Trinity

Here are my currently three favourite digital advertising pieces, stuff I get excited about. All different but all lovely indeed, stuff I wish I would have done. What's currently on your to like list?

First, the latest work for Burger King from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, asking themselves, what would happen if BK would discontinue the Whopper? Captured with hidden cameras and very amusing (although I am curious if all reactions are completely genuine), see the video at www.whopperfreakout.com


Next up is such a simple yet fantastic idea for SIXT, a car rental company in Germany. Jung von Matt used Google Ad Words to communicate visually via ASCII art. Brilliant! See it in action here.


A holding page for a new advertising start-up from youngsters Leo & Jo who just left Saatchi & Saatchi New York. Contagious communications, I'd love to enjoy this one interactively, mouse over manually to let more mouths speak – still great!

Oh and not to forget, as a bonus, the new clip from Lean Mean Fighting Machine, a very sticky song. Demphones, demphones...

Yaolee

This is yaolee, an idea I designed back in university. It's a wellness drink based on chinese herbs extracts to refresh mind and body – it comes in a small bamboo like packaging with a bright red brand mark on the front. I am a big fan of brand & packaging design and this is probably my most favourite piece I made.

More greenness

It is freezing cold outside. Just wait for January and February, it's gonna be even colder. Wait. Maybe not, climate change is on the rise, so our winter is gonna be warmer. That's the moment British Gas should start to worry. Pollution. Planet heating up. Higher temperatures. Less heating. Less money for British Gas – oh no!

Wouldn't it be logical for them to make a campaign to save the earth and stop climate change. Keep the planet cool so they can continue heating. Cause it's the best for the planet, for the people, and for their stakeholders.

We fear

The title of VCU Adcenter's magazine 2006. Dug it out from my bookshelf while looking for my typo book. There was a time I wanted to apply at VCU. In my opinion one of the greatest ad schools out there.

Designer Slash Model

'Sometimes I wonder. Is my work beautiful because I am beautiful?
Or am I beautiful because my work is beautiful?
It's probably a little bit of both.'

If you ever wondered how work & life is like in the creative industry, see the truth here at designerslashmodel.com. I discovered this gem a few months ago but never came around to post it. It is a brilliant self promotion /slash/ reel for Digital Kitchen, a US based motion design studio. Enjoy the video and remember – looking creative isn't enough, looking hot, that's the tiebreaker.

'It's as simple as this. Perfect people create perfect design.'

D&AD workshop work

The deadline for the workshop brief was an hour ago and the work arrived with them fine, so it means waiting for a response. I don't have a clue if they (whoever the judges are) will like the stuff, but I'll share it here. The first one contains the proposition, Organic Food made easy to Organic goes mainstream.

The second campaign submitted is a rather fun one, it's targeted more narrow, towards mothers. I'm curious about this one :)

Thorntons 'Stuck'

I found a wonderful ad yesterday on bestadsontv (very much worth signing up, it's free now). I was blown away, such a simple idea, executed so elegantly. I love the look of the child's face while he thinks. I haven't been fascinated about an ad for a long time.
I am with this one.

Watch it here, on bestadsontv, the quality is far superior to youtube. Done by creative team Tom Ewart & Dave Sullivan from SHOP London, does anyone know anything about this place? First time I hear about it. The spot is directed by Harmony Korine, who's most notable for his screenplay for Kids, at the age of 19.

My lunch tale

moo said the cow to the rabbit, and the little sweet rodent nodded and continued to chew that shiny yellow carrot he found in the mysterious forest. its teeth went numb and it decided to chew on the cow instead which was struck by the randomness of the rabbits behavior 'mooooo, why do you chew me, mooo?' asked the cow. the rabbit but, flexed his eyes and just for a wee second looked like a squirrel with nut diarrhea. silence hushed over the rabbits lips and the rodent mouth spitted out a mixture of carrot and beef. for a second it resembled a disgusting yet delicious meal – alike the petit lunch your mother used to cook on a good day. 'ratatouille du vache' whispered the rabbit full of evil madness and started to run tossing his feet high up in the air. the cow instead took its bell from it's neck and hurled yet missed it towards the hurrying fugitive. 'stupid lapin, i'll get you sooner or later and you will, moooo, see what i can do with a carrot.'

Green workshop brief

(redesigned for my viewing pleasures)

I received the D&AD Workshop Brief. It is for 'As Nature Intended', an organic store chain in, located mainly in London. Does anyone have a clue who've set this brief?

I am kind of annoyed by it, don't get me wrong the brief isn't bad. No, the brief is alright in itself. Here are three products/brands that were used to set the last three D&AD workshop briefs:

• Ford Focus Flexifuel, a car running (partly) on renewable resources
• Government campaign to fight CO2 emissions made by cars
• As Nature Intended, an organic, and green store

Anyone sees the pattern? I'm getting a headache from this greenness. What to do?

Google traffic

A couple of months ago I installed Google Analytics on my blog to get more detailed information about the traffic. A lot of it comes through Google – but the things people look for don't always match the content on creativeinlondon. Here are my top ten search inquiries:

• impressing an art director with a package design
• london christmas placement
• creative things to do in london as a single
• image of alex bogusky
• creative night out in london
• source of a book tightly shut is but a block of paper
• lick creative london
• cool cultured stuff "to do" "in london" the evening in london
• buy kazakh art
• amazing quality paper ideal for business cards in london

Thanks G. Maybe I need to write some posts to inspire singles in London, we'll see. My tribute to you Google, two print ads I did back in university – just for you:

theartschool

Graham Fink, M&C Saatchi's creative director is organizing is the brain behind theartschool– a creative gathering for idea minded people. It has been a long time since the last session and this time the guest speaker is Alan Yentob, (he must be a cool guy since he has his own wikipedia page – is that the standart to judge?) creative director of the BBC. It will take place next week on the 5th of December (same day as Publicis' Christmas party, woohoo), starting at 2pm sharp. Come along, but drop them an email first to theartschool@thefinktank.com

It's free and it sounds like good fun, there is also a placement at M&C's at the end of it for 'the most promising people'.

Magic for the workshop

Signed up today for the D&AD Advertising workshop for January & February 2008. Exciting, getting the brief on monday and cannot wait to do some work for it. In advance I am practicing my voodoo skills on an innocent gingerbread man. Beware to judge the briefs, muaaaah! (putting small finger next to mouth)

Arcane voodoo materials (cake & pins) kindly provided by Publicis, cheers.

Put your hands in the air

Last week while looking around in Selfriges on Oxford street, the UK's second largest shop I came across something funky. The limited edition of Absolut Vodka packaging – Absolut Disco. A shell for the iconic vodka bottle which can be attached to the ceiling to function as a disco bottle, simple idea but oh so cool. A gift packaging which not only looks good but is very useful and full on brand, I bet the vodka drinkers will love it! I want to buy one just for the packaging, but then again I'm very seduced by this kind of design stuff.

If this isn't enough they have a digital experience to back this up, hit www.absolut.com/disco and if you have a webcam record your disco moves and funk them up with certain visual effects.

Responsible for the concept was Swedish agency Family Business, well done. although I must admit the the web experience isn't really flawless, it took eight hours until the email arrived with my blog code since they seem to check all the videos pre-release – also the webdesign, especially the html email isn't reaching the standard Absolut Vodka usually sets.

Continue

That was my office this week as I was working with Nick, a copywriter whose Art Director had this week off.

A month has gone by in Publicis Dialog/Modem now and I had the pleasure to work on two pitches. I also got offered to stay for another month, yay. In the beginning it was rather boring to be honest, I had a lot of briefs not involving creative, but design. The situation rectified quickly and there are some interesting things on my table now. The work load is pleasantly balanced between online stuff, and fully integrated work and the old bit of design in between, to keep the skills fresh.

Other exciting things are happening as well – I'm hitting the streets again with my book. Curious, what will come out of it.

Agency Night Out

Right, I still haven't figured out the details, like most other creatives here, but the production brand of the agency is joining the integrated which is joining halfway with the interactive. The only thing I know is that it's an occasion for am agency party for people getting to know each other. Part one was yesterday, a night club in Mayfair and it's looking like they are planning a trilogy – fun times ahead.

Get naked – Get creative

The Young Creative Council is a facebook group for all kinds of creatives, just like the Creative in London group, which hosts more than 400 members nowadays. The evening was filled with life drawing and a big amount of young creative minds. I enjoyed meeting new people and making friends.

Unique drawing styles everywhere. The art teacher gave everyone advice which helped a lot. Graham (red shirt) very much enjoyed the evening, and kept drawing only hair. Interesting.

I haven't been doing life drawing for quite a while now and it was refreshingly great – I can only recommend this to all art directors.

The outcome was astonishing.

Of course we went to the pub afterwards, free drinks inclusive! Thanks to Three Blind Mice who sponsored this event.

Graham (right) was picked as the art teachers favorite and went home with a bottle of exquisite champagne. Earned I say. I liked the drawing on the left as well.

Craig was the one started it all, thanks to him for this brilliant evening.

Festival of Lights

Today is Diwali, a Hindu festive holiday. I know very little of this culture and noticed posters on the tube talking about Diwali. So this morning I received a message from a friend, congratulating me with the new year. I asked him to shed light over this occasion. his email

«Time for a brief Religious Studies lesson:

One of our gods was exiled from his kingdom for 14 years. Nearing the end of his exile he defeated a bad guy, freed a nation, which is now Sri Lanka and rescused his wife. On his return home to show him the way, people from his kingdom lined the path with 'Divas' indian candles. This was to light his path home. And his return was today, so we call it Divali. Its the most religious day of the year for us. So on these days Hindus all over the world light divas in their homes, give gifts, charity, visit loved ones, light fireworks and pretty much party hard in celebration of good over evil, light over dark. It's very special.

Tomorrow is new year for us. So we visit the mandir (temple) and all our elders and ask for their blessings for the coming year.

I want to go to India one day to experience this. I bet its amazing. There's more but that's for a proper conversation.»

They are celebrating Light and good over evil, a wonderful and spiritual thought missing in the western culture. Thanks Jai, I'm looking forward to this conversation.

Redesign

This blog design seems to get dusty. Just ordered the whole set of Make My Logo Bigger Cream in order to funk it up, bring the colours out more and that. Aaahrw, I cannot wait to rub that Emotionator onto my design and harvest those thousands of new arriving visitors, all thrilled by the visuals. See yourself at www.makemylogobiggercream.com

For preparation, I started already by labeling ALL the previous posts, so readers can navigate quicker through the content, even I have to compromise my dear un-usability for that.

Listen

To podcasts. I'm currently catching up with American Copywriter, it's great fun, two guys from Kansas enjoying their job, my favorite episode is the Jedi Copywriter Special Edition, don't miss out on it.

What seems to be another interesting project evolving is How I got a Job in Advertising, a creative on it's way to a job in the idea business. Both podcasts are from the states and it gives you a glimpse about adworld over there. In between I'm chilling with Lounge Radio, fantastic music. What do you listen to? Are there any British creative podcasts? Enlighten me, please.

Not thinking, doing

Advertising. We read about it. We watch it. Care about it. We make it. We're interested in reviewing ads, discussing them, liking them or hating 'em. Lately I noticed I care a small but unhealthy amount too much about this business. I try too hard…

It's like being 25 and having an idea what advertising is. Frankly, I shouldn't have an idea what advertising is. And I shouldn't care about finding out.

It's the hardest thing to obtain the view of a child again. To forget the textbooks and stop being a schoolboy. I'm not talking about going cold turkey on campaign magazine. The key shall not lie within ignorance but rather in an open mind for other things. Seeing more, and most importantly doing more. Not thinking, doing. Stuff. Whatever. But doing. Let's see where that takes me.

Wal Scissorhands

Halloween arrived pretty early this year, our lovely neighbours had a party with the topic Tim Burton. Anyone fancies a haircut?

Black Cat White Cat

What a wonderful day for no reason. Maybe it's Thursday approaching me unexpectedly with the feeling of the weekend in a hidden pocket. The delicious cappuccino coffee I usually miss out on in the morning? More likely the music I listened to during the battle of commute. I will share some of that on a distant day.

I have never written about a movie, I never intended to – there are enough movie review resources on the net. Yet there is Emir Kusturica, a director of sheer brilliance who made my single favorite movie picture – Black Cat White Cat. There is nothing else playing in a rectangular shape that can lift my mood into such joyous heights.

Every scene is packed with vitality and music, a purely beautiful combination that is, for me, Kusturica's trademark. The characters are escorted by a gypsy orchestra during all possible situations – old school portable music I say. A spectacle of absurd but amusing characters that has to be experienced with a Hollywoodless open mind. There was never a movie I thought about countless times and dreamt of watching it again and again. See for yourself, to get yourself in the right mood listen to Bubamara, the musical theme of this masterpiece that offers unequaled opportunities. You won't forget this melody after watching Black Cat White Cat.

I do not want to link to a trailer, as I don't like these short summaries of film in general, mostly they are unworthy – especially of this movie. I would not doubt that after this on screen performance you feel the urge to go o a journey and explore more of Kusturica's work, as there is way more to discover about this artist.

'This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship'.

Status from Publicis

One of the very first briefs I received at my current placement at Publicis Dialog was the creation of a new holding page for Publicis Agency since they are working on a new web presence. It's online now – lo and behold – somehow even my face made it on there. Can you spot me?

Agencies and their own websites, that's a difficult combination. There are great articles about this topic, read about digital masturbation on webink.com and here on the reasons why you shouldn't ever let an ad agency make a website. We'll see what Publicis comes up with.

Meanwhile, in the last couple of days I helped Nick & Lex, a great creative team, preparing bits and pieces for a pitch that happening pretty soon. Exciting, as pitches always are.

Publicis Dialog

Arrived here yesterday morning. Followed up the offer I received at the cream exhibition. I'll be at that place from now on for a couple weeks of placement. Let's see what I can learn here. First time on a placement without a partner – feels weird – I need to get used to it, or better, get someone in. Savour the raindrops today.

Games – the real new media

This has been on my mind for quite a time now. I am a big fan Games, all kinds of them. Chess (anyone fancies a match?), cards, board games and of course video games. I've started back with an Atari and played most of the 'important' video games systems in the last 15 years. Last evening I saw the hilarious Toyota ad for their Tacoma and tried the Yaris Video Game on Microsoft's Live, a multi player platform on the Xbox360. Here's the ad, it's running on US television and works very well as an online viral.

It made me laugh, since I used to play World of Warcraft back in the early days of the game. Nothing ground breaking though. Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam used the Grand Theft Auto look for it's brilliant Coke spot and set the first step in this direction. Games in ads – a concept to use a world familiar to the audience to tell a story. The flip side – ads in games, or adgames is also well represented – the Burger King games who've won Titanium Gran Prix at Cannes this year for example.

I preferred 7Up's game with Cool Spot from 1993, they didn't need an agency to come with the stuff back in time, the only thing they got for it was 'Best Cartridge Music of the Year'. Anyway.

I consider video games as the ultimate media, the best way to tell something and engage. Why? Let's see. If TV ads are to be considered old media, and Internet is the new revolution then movies are old hat and games are the way forward. Unlike films which tell a story to a passive beholder, games have the ability of interacting with the audience and tell the story in much more engaging way.

Wait, aren't games more about jumping from one platform to the other without falling down to be eaten by the pink giraffes? These times are long gone. There are games telling epic plots, the game series Final Fantasy had several main protagonists falling in love, experiencing adventures and dying – an emotional journey for the player – only squeezed by the pixelated faces with three expressions. Yet granted toady's technology flashing by as fast as a rabbit on speed, games can already keep up with production values of movies, the quality of sound and picture is amazing.

Take a look at Bioshock, a game experience taking part in 1960 in a fictional underwater dystopian city built on the mid-Atlantic seabed. This game is full of tension, great music score, intelligent dialogs and a story that draws you in from the first few minutes and forces you to take moral decisions later on in the game that effect the whole shebang. Watch the trailer here.

It is time that a brand makes a serious game, driving around in a pocketbike racer might be fun for a while but so much more is possible. Will we see Cadbury's 'Food Sabotage' or Apple's 'iAdventure'? Will we see a new type of creative agency emerge? One that specializes in telling the story of a brand in an epic game? Boy, I can't wait. I'd love to be a creative, responsible for making a great game for a brand. BMW could follow up its film series by asking different game developers to create a game with their brand, mmhhh…

Creative Portfolio 2.0

Okay, sorry for trying to raise the coolness factor of my topic with that number .0 thingy. It just fits and there is no other clever name for it – yet.

I'm thinking of setting up another blog dedicated to the development of a new creative portfolio. A blog that would establish a platform for an interactive online portfolio review.

It would start with the choice of brands along with the first thoughts. It would contain relevant research and links for the chosen topics. Propositions, strategies as well as first creative ideas would come next, followed by executions of the thoughts and media thinking.

During this whole process people are invited to leave comments to improve the ideas or point out weaknesses. The blog could function as documentation of the work in progress. As an application tool it shows one's thinking and what happened between the first idea and the finished campaign.

Of course there are down sides to this idea. Would people comment? This depends on the quality of thinking and the consideration of improvements.

Does this makes sense?

One day placement at VCCP

Thanks to NABS I participated yesterday in the one day live-brief placement at the London above-the-line agency VCCP. The day started early and was held by Simon and Nikki, the planner in charge was Micheal. They briefed us on an interesting project covering broad range of media. Creative starters helped getting the brain going and after some coffee it started to be fun. Three creative teams and five individuals attended. All together a good amount of work was created and at the end of the day it was a great experience. Get on NABS' mailing list in order to be informed about the next one.

Some of the young creatives in the workshop room

Simon reviewing some work on the walls

The blue walls provided a great canvas for creative ideas

Work we've done