At Red C we were chuffed to bits when we were shortlisted for the NatMag 100 award, which is a new initiative that gives agencies and their clients the opportunity to win a multimedia ad campaign across the entire NatMag portfolio of 24 brands, including Harper’s Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Men’s Health.

As part of the NatMag 100 Award, media and creative agencies were invited to devise the most innovative, creative ad campaign for an individual brand, utilising a combination of the brands in the NatMag portfolio and platforms to target women or men in the UK.

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This is a strange one for the we like section but I’m treating it as more of a celebration of the life and work of photographer, Corinne Day who sadly passed away recently after a long term illness.

Corinne’s unique style introduced us all to a new way of shooting fashion. It’s a more realistic, unposed & edgy feel known as ‘heroin chic’ which to some people was seen to “make heroin addiction seem glamorous and sexy and cool”. And although her style at times was shocking it has changed the way we all look at fashion photography. Helping us to try new styles and inject more personality.

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The great thing about city breaks is wandering around taking in the different cultures, the history and the amazing architecture (in between shopping of course).

There are some fascinating buildings around the world that have been built with great care and consideration by talented tradesman and have lasted the test of time and Mother Nature but are starting to show their age.

German artist Jan Vormann has spent the last three years traveling the world fixing some of these crumbling walls and monuments. Instead of bricks and mortar, though, he’s used Lego!

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I love billboards. It’s the huge format that captivates me. They’re like giant canvasses placed in the city or at the side of a busy road that scream ‘look at me!’ but only for a few seconds otherwise you may walk into a lamppost or drive into the back of someone else’s car.

Over the years I’ve seen some stunning billboards that have had me turning green with envy. The best ones are those that have words and pictures that work together in such a clever way that they catch the viewer’s attention, communicate quickly, and stay with them for a few miles down the road… and ultimately stick in the back of their mind for a lot longer.

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There’s something quite compelling about the lonely hearts section in newspapers and magazines. It’s like people watching in miniature. The ads are like windows into other people’s lives. And I must confess I’m quite nosy, so for me they make compulsive reading.

It’s mainly because I think they must be really hard to write. For a start, there’s the stigma. Letting the world know you’re (oh God) single and looking for love seems like an admission of failure – as if you’re saying “yes, it really has got this bad.”

Plus, it’s a pretty tough copy brief when you think about it: sum yourself up in 30 words, in a way that makes you irresistible to your target audience. I mean, where do you start?

Well just like writing a commercial ad for a real product, it’s no use resorting to tired old clichés or standard lonely hearts acronyms. For one thing you’ll just sound like everyone else that’s advertising themselves. But for another no one will believe you anyway.

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Have you heard of Direct Mail packs receiving multiple bids on ebay? I hadn’t either until I searched for ‘Rapha’ on ebay a few weeks ago. Rapha produce super stylish, retro tinged clothing for the road cyclist and is quite an aspirational brand for me. In fact completely aspirational as I don’t own a single piece of their clothing yet! The direct mail pack that was subject to intense bidding on ebay was a simple 16-page leaflet with ravishing full bleed black and white photography, no prices and few words except for the web address and a list of products. It sold for an incredible £8.50. Extraordinary customer behavior by any brand’s standards I think, let alone one that only launched in 2004 with one core product; a super expensive softshell jacket. Did I bid for the DM pack?  Of course not. I already had a copy of my own stashed safely away.

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I’ll be honest with you. I don’t usually spend much time looking round for new artists or unusual pieces of artwork. However last year I came across the artist Emma Hack, and instantly fell in love her work.

She uses body art on human bodies and blends them into detailed backgrounds to create intricate and fascinating photographs. Through a lot of dedication and hard work her career has developed from children’s face painting to makeup artist to a body illustrator.

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We love books at Red C. And we especially love books that contain great advertising case studies, just like ‘Advertising Works 18′, which features a case study on our award-winning work for the Swinton Mystery Tipper.

‘Advertising Works 18′ shows how marketing communications has helped organisations including UKTV, Swinton Group and Halifax, to translate big ideas into impressive results on small budgets. So it’s perfect for anyone wanting to produce effective campaigns or drive their business to greater success.

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Location photo-shoots are one of my favourite parts of my job as an Art Director at Red C. I love the exhilarating mix of logistics, teamwork, improvisation and on the spot creativity that is required to pull off a successful shoot for a client. Factor the British weather into the mix and it can make for quite a challenging day!

However when the excitement is over you can find yourself sitting in a Travelodge feeling like Alan Partridge, contemplating dismantling the trouser press. So it’s great when you meet a photographer who is not only up to the job of taking fantastic images but can entertain you in the bar that evening (whilst the days photos are uploading, obviously) with wild tales of photographing Motley Crue and Aerosmith in LA!.

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Facebook, Twitter and YouTube… not what first springs to mind when you think about politics. But over the last few years, more and more politicians have started using the internet as a tool to drum up political support.

When the Presidential elections in the US got under way in 2008, Democratic candidate Barack Obama used the internet to great effect to raise funds and gain supporters in his race to be President. His success has seen UK politicians follow suit and with the current general election, UK political parties have been pushing their online activities more than ever. Below are some examples of what they’ve been up to:

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