When I was studying Advertising I aspired to write an ad as good as one of the classic Volkswagen Ads created by the creatives at Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). Starting with Art Director Helmut Krone and Copywriter Julian Koenig, together with Creative Director Bill Bernbach… DDB changed the face of car advertising.
Instead of fancy photography, mansions, sexy models and heavy retouching… they used an advertising style that utilised realistic photographs of the car together with copy that talked to the reader as if it were a close friend and was self-deprecating rather than self-congratulatory. This approach meant that Volkswagen was seen as the first car company to offer a friendly straightforwardness and disarming honesty.
As a child of the 80s, I’m old enough to remember when buying music meant a trip to the local record shop, browsing through vinyl collections and being mesmerised by the cover art. If you were lucky enough, your chosen album would come with ‘extras’ such as snap shot photography taken during a live concert, maybe a small bio of the band members and more often than not, the lyrics to all your favourite songs.
As we approached the digital age, records became CDs, which to me, never had the same impact. Sure there was the additional CD booklet, but they lacked the tactility of records, and the brilliant photography lost some of it’s shine squashed into the smaller not-quite-square format. CDs will inevitably be replaced by downloads, if they haven’t already, (I don’t really know anybody who buys CDs any more), but what about all the cool ‘extras’ we’ve come to expect?
Do you like music? Okay, stupid question: I might as well ask if you like converting oxygen into carbon dioxide, or Christmas Dinner. Everyone loves a good tune – with the possible exception of Andrew Lloyd Webber – and there’s nothing better than getting it for nothing. Remember how the holy grail of free music lured an entire generation into the open paws of that creepy Napster cat? Until the Recording Industry Association tied the bugger up in a burlap sack and chucked it in the Mississippi, of course.
It’s a sad truth about advertising that we’re not always able to justify having a young woman walk around our office in her delicates. Although we were selling the same kind of service in this advert, Grattan customers are a little different to Freemans’ – so, bearing in mind this new target audience, we came up with a more ’sensible’ concept that explained the practicalities and benefits of Flex in greater detail. And, believe it or not, I found this testimonial route the more enjoyable of the two ads to write… after all, it’s incredibly satisfying when you manage to explain an extremely sophisticated service like Grattan Flex in a concise and engaging way.
Abram Games was one of the most influential Graphic Designers that this country has ever seen. He created some of the most memorable designs of the 20th Century by following his own personal belief of: Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means… and back in the early 90s, maybe ‘92 or ‘93, I had the pleasure of attending a talk by this true great of design at Icograda (the International Council of Graphic Design Associations) Conference.
To be honest, when I attended Icograda that year, I had absolutely no idea who Abram Games was. In fact as far as I was concerned he was just a warm-up to the main attraction… Neville Brody. Yet as I entered the Odeon Cinema where Icograda was being held that year and was greeted by his work… it soon became clear that even though I did not know the name Abram Games… I certainly knew his work.
Travelling with kids can be a fantastic experience as you get to see things from their entirely fresh perspective. I’d always wondered why there were no kid’s travel guides around and thought i’d cleverly identified a gap in the market. Until I discovered the wonderful ‘This is..’ series of books by Miroslav Sasek and realized that someone had come up with the idea in the 1960s!
With dreams of a publishing empire in tatters I gave this charming book to my 6 year old daughter just before our trip to San Francisco this year. With every page turn the full excitement of the upcoming adventure began to delight and intrigue her. The book even beat Harry Potter as the chosen bedtime reading material in the weeks prior to the holiday. No mean feat for a book that’s almost 50 years old. Read more…
Inspired by the pioneering design work of Paul Rand, Herb Lubalin, Wally Olins, Saul Bass, Milton Glaser and Neville Brody I became a graphic designer and worked primarily in branding for the first 10 years of my career. This was back in the day when the ‘designers are gods’ mentality still held true and being a bit ‘precious’ was the norm… which suited me fine, thank you very much.
Doodling away in a sketch pad (usually in the pub) and hunched over a drawing board armed with paper, fine point pen and a steady hand didn’t really feel like work to me (the apple macs were still not commonplace in design studios at this point). The process fascinated me and still does to this day.
I was first introduced to Claire Read whilst working at another agency. It was there when I first noticed the style and detail of her visuals. Whether it is black and white or colour sketches, they are always meticulous and of a very high standard. It’s impressive to see Claire turn my rough scamps into polished visuals with relative ease. I find Claire to be an affable character, which makes working with her a pleasure. She has a great sense of humour and as long as she can go on the internet for reference she’ll produce some fantastic illustrations!
It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that in September an edition of Entertainment Weekly in the US will feature the world’s first video-in-print advert. Previewing programmes from CBS’s upcoming season as well as adverts for Pepsi… the video advert will work by having slim screens inserted into the magazine that are activated when the magazine pages are opened – kinda like what happens on greeting cards.
Each chip that feeds the screen can hold up to 40 minutes of video with the battery that powers the chip and screen being able to play for about 65 to 70 minutes. This battery can then be recharged by plugging in a mini USB cord and once you’ve got bored of the content contained in the chip… you can download additional content from the Web. Sounds clever, and expensive… so will it take off?
It’s not every day you walk into the studio to be greeted by a lingerie-clad lady striding confidently around reception. It wasn’t even that warm, as I recall. Some of the guys in the studio quite liked the idea though. (There you go Steve, Leigh and Lee… told you I wouldn’t mention any names.)
When I was studying Advertising I aspired to write an ad as good as one of the classic Volkswagen Ads created by the creatives at Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). Starting with Art Director Helmut Krone and Copywriter Julian Koenig, together with Creative Director Bill Bernbach… DDB changed the face of car advertising.
Do you like music? Okay, stupid question: I might as well ask if you like converting oxygen into carbon dioxide, or Christmas Dinner. Everyone loves a good tune – with the possible exception of Andrew Lloyd Webber – and there’s nothing better than getting it for nothing. Remember how the holy grail of free music lured an entire generation into the open paws of that creepy Napster cat? Until the Recording Industry Association tied the bugger up in a burlap sack and chucked it in the Mississippi, of course.
It’s a sad truth about advertising that we’re not always able to justify having a 
Abram Games was one of the most influential Graphic Designers that this country has ever seen. He created some of the most memorable designs of the 20th Century by following his own personal belief of: Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means… and back in the early 90s, maybe ‘92 or ‘93, I had the pleasure of attending a talk by this true great of design at Icograda (the International Council of Graphic Design Associations) Conference.
Travelling with kids can be a fantastic experience as you get to see things from their entirely fresh perspective. I’d always wondered why there were no kid’s travel guides around and thought i’d cleverly identified a gap in the market. Until I discovered the wonderful ‘This is..’ series of books by 
Inspired by the pioneering design work of Paul Rand, Herb Lubalin, Wally Olins, Saul Bass, Milton Glaser and Neville Brody I became a graphic designer and worked primarily in branding for the first 10 years of my career. This was back in the day when the ‘designers are gods’ mentality still held true and being a bit ‘precious’ was the norm… which suited me fine, thank you very much.
I was first introduced to Claire Read whilst working at another agency. It was there when I first noticed the style and detail of her visuals. Whether it is black and white or colour sketches, they are always meticulous and of a very high standard. It’s impressive to see Claire turn my rough scamps into polished visuals with relative ease. I find Claire to be an affable character, which makes working with her a pleasure. She has a great sense of humour and as long as she can go on the internet for reference she’ll produce some fantastic illustrations!
It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that in September an edition of Entertainment Weekly in the US will feature the world’s first video-in-print advert. Previewing programmes from CBS’s upcoming season as well as adverts for Pepsi… the video advert will work by having slim screens inserted into the magazine that are activated when the magazine pages are opened – kinda like what happens on greeting cards.
It’s not every day you walk into the studio to be greeted by a lingerie-clad lady striding confidently around reception. It wasn’t even that warm, as I recall. Some of the guys in the studio quite liked the idea though. (There you go Steve, Leigh and Lee… told you I wouldn’t mention any names.)
