Six weeks at Lowe

We had a brilliant last Friday at Lowe, cheers fellas. Today we've been reflecting on our six weeks there and here is what we walked away with. A big thanks to everyone at Lowe, Take CARE.

• Considering how much effort goes into coming up with an idea, we've learnt it takes just as much, if not more, to hang onto it. We've learnt ideas don't take care of themselves and although it would be a lot easier to just let them go, it's just not worth the agony after. Note to self, take care of your work.
  
  
• We were surrounded by truly brilliant creatives and it was really easy to feel intimidated but you just cant afford to let that happen. For one, they'll never know who we are and more importantly, we won't know them. It's important that we make the most of these opportunities and these people. Pick their brains whenever we can, wherever we can. We learned more in five minutes chatting with Lowe's creatives than we did in a whole day spent with a brief behind our desks.
  
  
• Fair enough, getting stuff run was great, but it wasn't brilliant. We crafted work to tick everyones boxes - and forgot about ours. Granted, that got us from A to B, but in the long run it's not something we'll be telling the grand kids about. So now - we'd rather focus on doing great work rather than getting work out.
  
  
• One thing we noticed was, we spent ludicrous amounts of time 'answering' a brief only to have the solutions skimmed over. It was strange, but the ideas that got the attention were the ones, that were a little whack. Lesson, don't stick to the brief, or you might miss out on something.

Test Tube Creatives

Our six week stint is soon to come to a close this Friday. Life after Lowe will continue as another door opened today leading us further west. Leo Burnett is running a placement scheme called 'the Leo Lab' which puts three creative teams in a melting pot to see who survives – hell yeah we're up for that.

So after a bit of pestering, some good fortune and a little elbow grease we've managed to swindle ourselves into the Lab and start on the 7th of April. This gives us a week in between to get our beauty sleep and some well deserved and needed haircuts.

Say cheese!

The new sign on our office window, for this last week.
Thanks for the suggestions.

Vodka

We're participating in The Kaiser's Ultimate Beverage Bracket. A fun bit where two blogs argue for their cause in order to determine the best drink. We're fighting for Vodka, and in the first round we're up against White Russian, represented by Charles. Of course we're more than qualified to argue for that, as Wal was born and raised in the former Soviet Union.

Here are our thoughts why Vodka is way better than anything else, and far better than White Russian (and believe us, back in the days when you'd try to put coffee and milk in your most precious Vodka you'd be punished with a naked bear dance, not fun.) If you agree, take a second and vote for Vodka here. Thanks.

Please remember, drink responsibly as Vodka would like to entertain you for many many more years to come. За Здоровье! (cheers)

Orphanage, Ranch or Cave?

There are a few moving desks at the agency at the moment and we’ve been jammy enough to be given our own office. Granted it’s probably only for a couple of days but what the hell, we say make the most of what you’ve got an all that! So in celebration and to make the blank walls a little more interesting we thought we’d name our temporary abode. Below is what we’re thinking; what should we call it?

Name our office

Jai & Wal's thought bubble
The meadow for free range pencils
Shoehorn ranch
Recruitment office for brain cells
Frankenstein's spare parts
Magic cave of nothingness
Jai & Wal's orphanage - the place where
lonely ideas come to grow up

Results

Fuck Green

In june we wrote a paper for the account planning school of the web on HUMMER. The strategy we drew out of it was 'Fuck Green' which we made into a poster campaign. Here we go.

We thought about reworking it for quite some time, and found a different route on the same strategy. We're deciding which one to pick up, to refine and expand. Opinions?

The Rise and Fall of the Ad Man

'Cultural commentator Peter York takes a look at the changing fortunes of British advertising, through the story of the personalities who led it through its highs and lows.' Ah, jolly good ol' days, the golden era of the Ad Man. Watch the whole program here (online for 5 more days) and learn about advertising history.

They say the un-corporate and flamboyant ad man is gone? We shall all prove them wrong, shouldn't we?

Step by step

Today we signed off our first ad as a creative team. Last week we've written a trade press ad for John Lewis here at Lowe – it just got approved by the client. Given the restrictions we were still able to put in some sweetness in the headline and are quite proud of it. It is a beginning, a first step – Yay!

The Pearce Sisters

The BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards took place a couple of weeks ago here in London and there are lots of great films to be explored from the nominations. The winner of the category 'Short Animation' is one of our favourites, we discovered this one earlier in the year at Short & Sweet. It is called 'the Pearce Sisters' and directed by Luis Cook. Fabulously twisted and evil it is very much worth nine minutes of your time. If you like, come along to Short & Sweet next week, we'll go to the one on tuesday, as they will show more BAFTA nominees and winners. You can watch the full short film here at atom.

For anyone who's ever hated

The Lowe Law

Two weeks at Lowe has gone by and like always there are times we are overly busy and times we have a spare minute to post, so we seize it. It's very interesting here, we like the agency, there is great talent here and the client list promises good fun. We've been doing lots of writing on John Lewis and exciting brand work on Saab.

One thing we cannot miss out on sharing with every young (and old) creative out there is this sheet of paper which greeted us here on the first day. It told us straight what Ed Morris, the Creative Director of Lowe London expects from a junior team. We like this approach - it's inspiring. More placements should start with a manifesto.