Advertising's Young Minds

Pleasantly surprised about being on Daniel's list of Top 27 blogs of people under 27. Creative in London is ranked 23, that gives me exactly 2 years and 2 days to improve my ranking. Thanks Daniel (danielmejia.wordpress.com).

All suggestions to make this blog a better one are cordially welcome!

Damn they're good

I have to share this. Introducing the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Not quite new, actually they've been around for 14 years now.

A Friend of mine send me one of their songs, I can't stop listening to them since. I would describe their music as nu-swing rooted in classic New Orleans Jazz, influenced by international styles including asian and klezmer music. Their song lyrics are tasty – who else sings 'Teeth are extruded and bones are ground, Then baked into cakes which are passed around…' to a highly dance-able groove? The band recorded their second album 'Hot' without using a sound studio, they rather searched for unique rooms like a billiard room for their recordings to catch the room ambient feeling in combination with their music and Katherine's amazing voice, you'll hear what I mean. Great stuff.

Take two minutes and listen to them, you won't regret it. Also check out their songs Hell and The ghost of Stephen Foster. Their music videos are uniquely odd. Pure inspiration. Where are my bubbles? Bubbles.

Cream '07 retrospect

It is over. It was stressful. But very much worth it. The evening started early with a briefing with the Talent Business at 5 o'clock. The exhibition was formed of over twenty young creative teams or individuals, most of them from the UK but with special appearances from international teams as far away as North America, New Zealand and Australia. After setting up our stand we took some time to go around and gaze at some work. I was very much impressed with the standard of most of it, great stuff.

The exhibition was open to the creative 'public' from six o'clock on, it was amusing – the clock turned six and all the creative teams were watching the doors, tension in the air. The poor guy who comes in first will be attacked from all sides. Surprisingly, it was fine. Many people turned up, lots of creative directors, senior creatives, talent spotters and other important people in suits.

I exhibited with Jai, a copywriter I worked with the last couple of months, as well as doing some campaigns back in university. There were two rooms full of work, we were lucky enough to be in the one with the bar, so lots of people hanging around and looking at the work. Awkward to lurk around your book and wait for someone to talk to. They should have had pictures of the creatives next to the work like last year. We could grab some contacts, so it was very much worth it. Since I was in the cream exhibition last year, I was very happy about the clean stands – good exposure for the work. Last year was crammed, everyone customized their stands and it looked more like a circus. Personally speaking, it felt like there were more people attending last year, maybe that's because of the location being in east London, rather than central. They should have advertised with being close to the shoreditch house :)

This morning we had a first email from a creative director asking me and Jai to come for a placement starting on the 1st of October. Sadly, Jai will not be able to take it up since he's going to take a marketing job on the dark side, the client side. Please, please, let a good copywriter fall from the sky for me, I will do everything for it, I promise…

Anyway, thanks a lot to the great Talent Business crowd including Rory, Davina, Andrea, Anna and co. You gave all the attending teams the opportunity of a great exposure in this industry! Oh, by the way, I've got my powerbook back today – happy again.

(copy) Jai & Wal (art)

Our (almost completely) handmade business cards, people seemed to like them, but were reserved to rip the seal apart since it looked precious, damn.

Our stand + book, I loved the black.

Dead. For at least five days

Live from London apple store, blogging from one of the free-to-use macs. Why? My beloved Apple Powerbook died yesterday.

So I arrived here early morning to get it repaired – it seems it's gonna take the delicious amount of five days. That means no chance of gettin' some decent business card design done for Cream. Oh and printing out those A2 files? From what data? Damn… This happened just in time, like always. I'm still in a good mood though, just taking some time off from my computer. Back to pencil n' paper. Enjoy your Monday.

Crème de la Crème

Earlier this week I've received the message that the book I sent in a couple of weeks ago with Jai, a writer I worked with lately, got into Cream – an exhibition to showcase the best 25 young creative teams from England … and this time from all around Europe. It is organized by London's Talent Business. We're really excited to show our work in front of some of the greatest creative directors in the idea industry. Yay! Good times.

Lots of stuff to prepare for next Thursday. But for now – Where's the rum?

Rum alchemy

A few months ago my flatmate & I spend a day making our flavored own rum. After getting the finest ingredients from London's Borough Market we mixed three different flavours. First one is cherry and chili then peach, ginger and honey and finally a balanced berry mix out of cranberries, raspberries and strawberries. All infused with a combination of three different Havana Club rum's. They have been shaken once a week for months now and are soon ready to be tasted. Mmmhhh...

They fit a celebration – it seems some reasons are coming up soon.

Qatar Lions?

A couple of weeks ago I answered to an ad in Luerzer's Archive for a creative position in Qatar. They wouldn't give anything away in the ad itself and asked to submit some work before they would reveal their agency name etc.

So I did. They offered me an art director's job in Qatar – with a wonderful payment, you can dream of as a junior creative in London. The specs: huge client portfolio, big budget just for fake ads, no brand strategies – win awards, loads of 'em. Tempting. Very. Worth it? Let's see:

I dream myself of working in a creative London agency. It's a though one. Would it be easier to get into a good one after winning awards? Awards for fake ads, in categories which haven't been exploited that much? Could I come back to London from Qatar after a year and get a job easier? I know quite a bunch of people who came to London from other countries. They had agency experience, they had awards. Still, they couldn't gain ground in the city. After some time and countless meetings with headhunters they had to travel back to their country. Of course – there, people would throw jobs after them. London's international ad victims.

I turned the offer down. Maybe you would think that I'm really picky. Yes I am.
I'm not looking for that one ideal agency, I'm not after a big name. I want a place where I can grow and learn stuff I admire. And that is not necessarily ads just made to win awards. And hell yeah – I consider doing that outside of London. As long as I'm getting better there it doesn't matter where it is or how much they pay.

Coherent? Or stupid?

The Kaiser - Germany's ad prophet?

Countless young and old creatives from germany are fleeing their country. They long for more glory. They are attracted by the 'holy idea grail' that the UK promises, as the most creative place on earth.

Is it still? I'd like to think so, since I'm here now – but let's not go there, lots of other blogs (Robert & Richard) discussed this pretty well before.

Now, there is a pretty good chance for other countries to grab the flag and run forward and lead. And I'd like to allege that germany is in a great position for that. So thinks The Kaiser. Check out his blog, especially if you're german. Make up your mind if he's the one to lead.

Hey there

Just arrived from Gatwick airport. Had a great flight from Hamburg to London, got to write stuff, to read stuff and had the chance to nap a lil' bit. It was great to see family & friends, and have time off, but it feels like I've been away for too long – can't wait to get going again. Now excuse me, there are lots of things to do. Have a fantastic Monday everyone, it's good to be back. Quality.