A painful but all too common scenario in the creative world.
The Invisible Drumkit
Brighten up your week. Spend 5 minutes watching this little bit of comedy genius.
Breaking Work: fish4 Print Campaign
Our new campaign for the lovely people at fish4 break this week, a series of newspaper ads with illustrations by the smashingly talented Andy Smith.fish4's brief when they came to us was pretty simple, and not unusual: "Help us make our advertising work harder". fish4 had been kind of hiding their light under a bushel, so our idea was to focus hard on the the most important thing that people who are looking for cars, homes or jobs want - the most options to choose from to give them a better chance of finding what they want. fish4 have that in spades, so why not be up front about it?
And of course, it was important to do it in a way that was charming and interesting enough to demand the attention of the reader in the crowded world of newspapers (see The Bus Test).
More Sell! Sell! work on the blog:
Or see even more on our website.
Wafer keyboard
A cheery Friday treat. Just need a pack of wafers now (never pink).
Andy Awesome
Some excellent work from Andy Awesome. Loving the bold, colourful yet retro illustrations he's made. This guy definitely grew up in the 80s. You can download some of the illustrations as an iPhone wallpaper or desktop wallpaper.
The turtles are on my desktop now. Cowabunga!!!
Polish Book Covers
Spotted this great group of Polish book covers over on the Delicious Industries blog (see the full set, originally from A Journey Round My Skull). Some lovely type, illustration and layout to enjoy.
Back to the Future
Say hello to the Polaroid Image System E.
Earlier on in the year we posted about the Impossible Project. And as reported by Wallpaper, Urban Outfitters have stepped in to help save the humble Polaroid. So as things are looking up for this classic camera system and future film production looks assured we decided to pick up this little beauty in all it's retro glory.
Chrissie Abbott
We really like Chrissie Abbott's work, but when you're presented with crystals, horses and mountain scapes all created with a lucid, acid trip style, what's not to like?We spotted these super pieces over on the YCN portfolio. Chrissie's the designer behind the Little Boots' album cover and no doubt more great things to come.
It's Friday!
And thoughts are beginning to turn towards a nice, cold, hard earned pint.
Anything but Fosters that is.
Siebe Warmoeskerken
Siebe Warmoeskerkan has some nice photography work but this series called Cookie Splash is particularly good. You can see more of Siebes stuff on flickr here. And heres a nice little video showing how it's done..
Mmm... Time for a cuppa I think.
"Unnecessary" "quotation marks"
The "blog" of "unnecessary quotation marks".This is why we love the internet. Take one pet peeve, create a blog for it, buy a domain for it, send the link to everyone you know, then slowly watch your monster grow.
Well, something like that. There should be one dedicated to unnecessary exclamation! marks! too! or the dreaded double exclamation mark question mark combo?!?!
Learn Something Every Day
The good chaps over at We Are Young are proffering fresh nuggets of information each day, via their Learn Something Every Day site.
And what a cracking little site it is!
Every day a new weird, wonderful and often totally pointless illustrated fact is let loose unto the blogosphere.
You can submit you own facts to the We Are Young team, and they've got a nice limited edition print on sale at the moment too. Click here for a fact-o-rama fest.
A nice morning treat for your noodle.
Work In Progress... fish4
A short while ago we were fortunate enough to win the fish4 account, which was very pleasant. A nice catch you might say, if you were inclined towards such poor punnery. Which I am.Anyway they're a lovely bunch who, like most smart clients, simply want to make some great advertising that works and they can be proud of. And for it not to be painful and riven with bullshittery getting there. Not too much to ask, eh?
So we've been beavering away on a new press campaign with the delightful and excellent illustrator Andy Smith over the last few weeks. They'll be coming soon to a newspaper near you.
Terry Power
Terry. It's a proper name. It falls into the same category as Kevin, Barry, Reg and Derek - names that people were called in the 70s but people wouldn't dream of calling their newborn these days. It's a damn shame we say - bring back the good old unglamorous English name! So to celebrate all that is good and true, we bring you this Tuesday - top five Terrys...
1. Terry Wogan. He might be bowing out, but he's still the champ. Apparently his toupé is up for a lifetime achievement BAFTA next year.
2. Terry Nutkins. Famous for having an extraordinary haircut and variously severed fingers - can you imagine him being let on to kids TV these days? I think not.
3. Terry Waite. His resilience did the Terry fraternity proud. And I still chuckle at the rusty bicycle joke. Yes, that does make me a bad person. I'll say three hail Bernbachs before I go to bed tonight.
4. Terry-Thomas. Hellllllo. The Terry with the unexplained and enigmatic hyphen. The ladykiller of the Terrys - a rare breed indeed.
5. Terry's Chocolate Orange. The Mike Tyson of Christmas chocolate (pre-rape era of course). Hide away in your bedroom when your weird relatives come round on Boxing Day and attempt to devour a whole one whilst playing a Hungry Horace marathon.Sorry to the many Terrys that didn't quite make it. Towelling, McDermot, McCann and Venables to name but a few. As always, let us know any good ones that we missed in the comments, kind readers.
Anorak's Design Mission
It's time to dust off your crayolas and sharpen those HBs because the lovely people over at Anorak magazine have a mission, a design mission.
They're giving students and recent grads the chance to join their crazy colourful world and showcase their own talent, by designing a cover for their Winter issue.
Unfortunately we're all a little too over-the-hill to enter, but you can find out more about the competition on Anorak's blog here. A very nice project for a damn fine magazine!
Union Made
Look for the Union label is an interesting collection of North American Union logos and emblems. "The use of emblems to denote workers in a particular craft predates the advent of the modern union label by many centuries. Craft guilds, which had become widespread as a form of organization by the 1400s, often decorated their halls and seals with a visual symbol of either the tools or the product of their art – or both. The carpenters’ dividers or compasses that once graced the coat of arms of a craft guild now served as the mark of a labor union"
There's some real tasty logo work in there. We love the purity of the black & white logo forms. Being a bit old school we always believe the true test of a logo is in black & white, obviously with todays Interweb colour isn't always an issue but how well it works without colour is still a good measure of it's quality.
There's a few other nice bits and pieces of Union ephemera and advertising too.
spotted via ManyStuff
Cloning
Fresh with the joys of Friday we moseyed on down to the new 'Cloning' exhibition at KK Outlet. The exhibition, by 5.5 designers, sets to reflect the human personality by measuring individual's bodily characteristics and turning, ahem, 'cloning' them into tangible objects, or something like that. Anyway, weight, eyes and body hair are just a few of the things that they've reproduced from mensurations of the human form. Bit of a mouthful but a nice idea.
8-Bit Trip
It's Friday afternoon. And we recommend starting the weekend by turning up your speakers and watching some trippy lego 8-bit craziness. Amazing.
Ryan McGinley
Some very strange and other worldy photography from Ryan McGinley's Moonmilk series. Quite serene yet unsettling.