11:11:11

This was posted over the weekend, just stunning work, beautiful idea that has real class. #HatTip

Insta Depressed

I saw this idea from WWF, called #TooLatergram caught my eye and I thought it was clever way to draw attention we are doing to the World we live in from crystal clear seas, to Alice In Wonderland Coral reefs and snow-topped glaciers covered in snowdrop coloured flowers. Through the lens of travel bloggers they truly look awe inspiring the locations just look like a place we all want to go. There lies the problem, as earth’s natural wonders have disappeared because of people. In this social activation WWF tries to engage millennials to take environmental action. They invited famous travel Instagramers to post images of international beauty spots as if they were paying them a visit. But thousands of followers who gushed over the pics discovered there was a bleak story behind the post. The sites had already been ruined and bloggers responded by posting a picture of the current situation at the same place. #TooLatergram well one thing it did for me is depressed me on what we have done, I clicked on the link at the end and as it was in French, didn't give me the option for English version and the site was pretty slick in interface, but that's it just information on the places and a newsletter sign-up, surely we should be doing something more? Pre-perpared letters to Govs? Protest? Not sure but it just felt a bit design and idea over end output. I go back to feeling miserable after watching this.

Draw a gasp of creative delight

Certain things pop in your feed ever so often that grab your attention and stir those creative juices, this is just one. This is a belter and I would love to demo this on my wall at home. Mind you; I'm not how the kids will react considering when they were very small I used to tell them not to draw on the walls but not with standing that this mesmerising gadget can draw any image on a vertical surface - instantly turning walls into art. The Scribit is a small 'writing robot' that is installed using just two nails and a suspending cable. Using a smartphone app, it can then be instructed to draw anything from an elaborate artwork to reproducing Twitter messages. This I would say would be the must have gadget for any artistic geek.

Nike dope ad

Coming from London as the right side of London as in East London, I saw this piece from Nike and just was literally knocked out by it's creativity, a knock out in one hit, bang! I saw it coming as it's from Nike as they always set the creative bar very high, but this still caught me off guard, I tried to duck and dive and cynically gave a dig back, especially when they mentioned anything about Sarf London or as we West Ham fans say, 'Cowboy country' but it was in vein, my heart pumped with pride coming from a city that has produced some of the greatest sports people this country has ever produced. It hit me with how well it was shot, the cast, the writing and the insight itself, one punch is all it took and when I came round, dizzy and confused it dawned on me as I thought; yes they talk of the good old days when advertising was at it's peak around the 80's early 90's; the heavyweight champions as in Dambusters- Carling, Guinness- Surfer and Parklife- Nike, but this one is the real thing and a contender of best of this year. Now I need to get back in there and get training and see if I can match and take it on in terms of creativity and originality. Hat tip Nike and W&K London, stellar work, you gave the ad industry a fat lip, which is a good thing as it really needed it.

Unreal Virtual Reality

HYPER-REALITY from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

Art from fabric - Just stunning.Truly.

Just look at this - no words needed apart from inspired fabric sculptor artist Benjamin Shine

Fidget Phone.

Seen this, I really like it when you combine two things to create something completely new. Welcome to Fidget Phone - I love the fact it has a practical value too. From a marketing perspective I can also see branding and content creation with this. A new media channel. Very impressive and beautifully simple idea.

A Familiar Story Well Played

Spotted this little spot, really charming little film - that feeling of been rewarded as a kid, the butterflies you get in your tummy, they linked that to the NZ Lotto of winning it and the fact that they sponsor kids sports in NZ. I must say this spot is really well written and the cast of the kid, with the shot of his face at the end - is genius- nice work all round, well played, shame I can't say the same for my football team, West Ham, hey ho.

Mobile before and after shot

Isn't this a wonderful shot? A before and after photo of the iPhone, at first glance as a creative art director I admire the simplicity and clean interface of the iPhones compared of old, but something also struck me looking at this photo, they look rather boring and bland compared to the old versions, they looked like fun where as the new ones look a bit soulless. Where everyone copied Apple, they all now look like iPhones. No personality, same same which in marketing terms isn't a good thing to be labelled with. I understand it's the functionality that is what is going to set it apart but from a brand perspective you need to develop a creative strategy that tells the story of the phone, give it some personality, a human touch, that's what then set's them apart. Currently I couldn't tell the difference between a branded or content piece if it's from Samsung or Apple. Time to stand for something and stand out from the crowd me thinks in marketing terms.

When a problem becomes the solution

This is just amazing - now here are two inspiring young ladies, they are engineering graduates from the Islamic University of Gaza and they have defied all stereotypes with their design of an affordable new building block made from the rubble of war, and they're about to scale operations for mass production. Subverting a crippling Israeli blockade that makes importing construction materials a demeaning, expensive, and time-consuming process, Majd Mashharawi and Rawan Abddllaht overcame a litany of obstacles to develop their green bricks. Their goal is to help Gaza residents rebuild their homes after three wars in 10 years have left thousands of buildings in ruins. Brilliant beating men at their own game.

Amazing Creativity

Chie Hitotsuyama "Paper Trails" - Short Documentary from Ayako Hoshino on Vimeo.

This is incredible and a great back story, here a Japanese paper artist replicates amazing wild animals using intricately bound newspaper. Over the past four years, Hitotsuyama and her team have worked to create lifelike paper creatures with staggering accuracy. After wetting the newspaper, they twist, fold, squish, and roll it, and then bind it into the desired form. The artist builds paper sculptures representing everything from manatees to monkeys, including some endangered animals such as rhinoceros and sea turtles. Hitotsuyama even takes advantage of color-printed newspapers in some sculptures, using the gradations to mimic the animal’s actual coloring. Every inch of every intricately bound animal sculpture is made entirely by hand.

Marketing Ideas and spooky job titles

Funny thing I noticed recently, and it's this; our industry is now changing not by the year or week it's changing by the day,a quick search today this is what came up; Snapchat glasses, BMW built a power plant from old electric-car batteries, Microsoft puts AI to work in Office 365 I could go on and in that new roles are created and others evolve; for instant job titles; 'digital creative directors' are now becoming 'heads of digital transformation' others too like 'design directors' with a tap of a key command are now; 'product innovation directors'. So what's happening? I think as an industry we are in a state of flux. Don't panic, I've seen 4 major changes so far in my career, we're just in another transition. Many companies trying to find their niche on what to do? What do they stand for? Or as the old school would say; what's our USP? No different of old but now the lines are now blurred for instance we now have cross-over from PR, media into agency land and vice versa, marketing directors becoming an agency planner. It's now not unusual for even creatives going client side working for the likes of Uber and Facebook. I personally think it's great with all this cross over as it shows that companies are in search of the ideas but many muddy the water, they complicate things. As always it's the idea that counts not the title or where you work, that's super exciting for me, is an idea or ideas that truly transform a business which sets them apart either agency or client side. Enjoy the ride. Here's an image I love which made me laugh, when someone asked me when I was working in Australia 'what's the difference between a front end and and a back end developer? I shared this from my image bank. Thankfully these roles never changed.

Everything Can Have An Idea In It

I was on TNW and the usually cookie policy pop-up came up but what caught my eye here on this site was a cute playful neat little idea, WOW someone actually thought of a creative idea rather than the usual bland copy only cookie policy. It gives the site a bit of personality, it's very simple on a loop video, a man is trying to eat a 'cookie' without using his hands, much more fun than the usual. Tip for all young creatives, even with no budget, no time and a boring message you can still get an idea in there, you just need to sit down drink some coffee and perhaps a cookie to crack even the most mundane brief.

Change is good regardless of the pain

Being a West Ham fan I find this quite upsetting - followed the Hammers all my life and my first game if I recall was against QPR in Sept'77 my dad took me and we drew 2-2. I can still remember Stan Bowles, a great player for QPR even as a kid I could see he was good. But time changes and as a West Ham fan and creative so must I, no matter how painful that change is at the beginning, it needs to happen, the best ideas are the ones that haven't been done before, the unknown is scary and even if you fail at first you stick with it, (If that wasn't the case West Ham United would still be call Thames Ironworks and I would be still just writing 60 second TV spots, so change we must. Yes we have all the crap going on at the moment with seating arrangements with old school mixing with the new school. (I like to call them the 'Popcorn crew') Peanuts and darts been thrown was never the way forward, onwards and upwards. COYI

Sign of true problem solving

I came across this on Twitter and wanted to share this invention for two important reasons, the first is; it's a brilliant idea. (Yes it's still in development and needs certain things to be ironed out but it's still a great idea especially an idea that has come from students so young. Both Thomas Pryor and Navid Azodi are undergraduate students at the University of Washington (UW) studying Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering and Business Administration, (Bet that looks good on your CV :) The two met in their freshman year and connected over a shared interest in invention and problem solving. The invention idea came from a personal experience of Navid's. During the first seven years of his life, he used non-verbal communication. Notice their interest in 'invention and problem solving' this gets onto my next important point; how can we in our multi-million pound industry of ‘digital transformation’ or ‘digital marketing’ or ‘engaging content’ whatever we decide to call it, try to replicate that sediment when in reality the work that is been produced is such pointless, worthless crap?

Rob Campbell a spanner for anyone outside the East End it's Cockney slang for Planner. Anyway Rob at W&K wrote a brilliant blog piece last week canning the industry for producing dumb ideas such gems as the ‘smart peg’ worth a read for me this was bang on. And the reason why? The big problem with our industry is we aren’t problem solvers anymore we are just confused. (The industry is changing at such a rapid rate we are desperate to find a meaning on what we and our brands are about). There was a small few but now we have heaps of people who think they are really solving problems, they think they are super clever but in reality they are so wrapped up in their little bubble, they are blinded to the fact they are producing utter bollocks. It’s not and repeat not ‘digital transforming’ (By the way there’s another phrase that has surfaced that’s adding to the bullshit) I do honestly believe it hurts our business and screws a brand and a company’s reputation as most people in the real world just think; WTF. A casing point last week I read that some company ‘invented’ an umbrella that tells you when it is about to rain. Please just stop and just fuck right off. Really? I read it thinking it was a joke but sadly it wasn’t. Now just push the creative pause button. Let’s stop what we are doing and look at ideas like SignCloud and celebrate that people are out there really trying to change and transform people’s lives, we as an industry have so many smart people it’s time for us to channel it and produce work on a par with SignCloud – the bar has been risen, and for many in our industry they won’t be able to compete and keep pace in innovative thinking. The others can so make a difference and seek them out and create brilliant ideas.

Clever Interaction in one easy swipe

Good morning beautiful people, Don't worry about the rain - people either run from getting wet or there's people who feel the rain - anyway this was very interesting; interesting in that yet again online meets offline - neat simple idea - that harnessing something that is as old as Keith Richards - the pin badge - what is also interesting my 16 yr old daughter sent me the link from Kickstarter - times are changing - this generation will be the next marketing directors, CEO's CCO etc. They don't see digital and an offline experience - they just see an experience - enjoy your day and think positive creative thoughts https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pinscollective/pins-collective

Cat Memes

Just brilliant- what more can I say

Creative but savvy too

Yes indeed many great creative minds are like this, it's not by choice it's just the way our brains are wired. But what sets creative people apart from great creatives? Great creative minds have a clear goal, almost to the point of obsession, if that is winning a pitch, reaching a new audience, inventing a new product, it takes will power and brain power to make it happen, great creative leaders know this.

Sticker Beacons - Welcome to Nearables

I came across a company called Estimote,with a great offering, not only is this very functional but the design is just delightful. I love this. Here's how it works; they are tiny adhesive beacons that can be attached to any surface to help unconnected objects interact with smartphones. Smart. Despite their thin shape, each Estimote sticker contains an accelerometer and temperature sensors, as well as a processor and bluetooth connector. If an item is picked up, extra information from the price or user reviews can be automatically pushed to the customer's phone. Estimote is calling its stickers 'nearables' (I like that. They provide similar benefits to wearables without having to be attached to the user, and offer more information about the immediate environment. The Estimote stickers Developer Preview Kit can now be pre-ordered from the company's website To me this is great concept where tech connects to a much greater experience, great connected thinking. A 'very good' sticker goes to Estimote, top of the class in tech for you matey.