Work

Constant bannering at our freelance gig paid off, after 100+ ideas for all sizes of banners we are breaking out of 300x250. We got a brief yesterday for something pretty cool. The idea is done - now we need to bring it to life for tomorrow's presentation and cross our fingers that it will make it. Did I mention that we're excited?

O2 days

Last week we were one of three teams doing the quarterly O2 concepting days of Agency Republic. That's three days outside the agency, away from daily business and 10+ briefs for O2. It was quite exhausting, but very good fun, as we had to come up with lots of stuff in a very short time. By the end of the three days we had a huge pile of work, all of it has been narrowed down and some of the ideas have already been sold to the client today. Good.

Anders Gustavsson is the creative director in charge of O2 and he's also the one who we worked with for those three days. He's been with AR for a couple of months now, having recently moved from FarFar, a pretty amazing Swedish digital agency which he founded with a couple of friends back in 2000. We're pretty glad we get to work with him – he's a brilliant guy and we are learning a lot from him. Very Good.

Flu360

An evil cold kidnapped me lately and forced me to stay out of all kinds of social activities this weekend. Which leaves me glued to the couch under a blanket, with tasty Russian style chicken soup on the hob and the good ol' Xbox 360. My Gamertag is 'Verdure' – if anyone else should be on Live. Back to recovery, I need to get better for Monday.

Quite a view

Although a bit far out, Battersea looks rather nice when the sun sinks down. Today we also discovered the agency's rooftop where we took the above snap. Looks like we'll be enjoying those sunsets for another week.

Please Feed the Animals

Times are rough, the economy's bad. First hand experienced by a senior copywriter from across the pond. Eric lost his job a few weeks ago, and started a blog for newly unemployed advertising people - Please Feed the Animals. I think it's a good read as it's not that different from getting your first job in advertising. Every little helps, right?

300

The sun is shining. Bob's voice is flowing from the agencys' sound system. Even though he just shot the sherriff he's telling me not to worry. And I'm not, everything's gonna be alright. We're here for another week. Loaded with work, we made a concept that we're really happy with and the clients' signed it off, production is going to be great fun.

This is post number 300 on Creative in London. Thanks for reading.

Burn After Reading

I rarely write about movies, even I devour legions of them in my spare time. I enjoyed 'Burn After Reading' on the big screen yesterday and it was grande. I do like all other Coen Brothers' movies, so I was prepared not to be prepared. I must admit that my flatmates & neighbours who came along, were either unimpressed, bored or amused. So there's no definite verdict from the group. Yet I think it is a brilliant film. The acting is great, there is a lot of tacky stuff that is used really well, and the film charms with lots of subtle details - definitely the best part of the movie. I am chuckling all morning thinking back of some scenes.

Seriously, go watch it. The title will make perfect sense afterwards.

Back to Back

From the back of my mind to the back of my notebook. Random sketch in between things.

Photorealistic Photoshop

Great ad. Could we get this as a skin for our favourite software?
From here.

Bad Taste

Speaking of Rock Stars. Last week was pretty though, we got lots of stuff done so the weekend was crying out for some fun times. And fun times we had. Friday night was the Bad Taste House party at Wal's flat, everyone dressed his or her worst and rocked out. What a great end for a hectic week, splendid!

Freelance Republic

Yesterday we landed ourselves a short notice freelance gig which started this morning at Agency Republic, a digital agency in Battersea. We'll be here for a week or two to work on various things. We're done with our first brief, things are off to the client. The next deadline is tomorrow lunch time, where after we'll get another brief. No rest for the wicked as Gav, AR's creative director says. It's our first creative freelance gig and we like it.

Change

This morning on Twitter: "it was a bit like waking up and finding that it had snowed."

Saatchi Gallery

I made my way to Sloane Square last week to visit the new Saatchi Gallery in the Duke of York's HQ. I've never been to one of their galleries and was quite curious what I will find in this place which 'aims to provide an innovative forum for contemporary art, presenting work by largely unseen young artists or by established international artists whose work has been rarely or never exhibited in the UK'. The exhibition they have running to open this new venue is The Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art.

For me contemporary art is a big gamble, most of the time there is a lot of junk with a few sweet pieces in between. Not this time. I was blown away by the fact that I liked most of the stuff in there. It's the kind of stuff I really dig. Give it a try, you can't go wrong, it's free, and it has just the right size, you won't get bored in there. Some of my favourite shots below.