See you in autumn

Put emails on auto-reply, lock your doors, put the pizza shop on speed dial. GTA IV is out today. Have a good summer, see you all in autumn. 

George Lois at Moma

The Moma retrospective of George Lois' iconic Esquire covers starts this week. What an amazing body of work those covers are, and to think they were a monthly side project while he was also running his own agency. I've got to get over to see this sometime. Runs until March 31, 2009.

More embarrassing Lois hero worshipping:
Dodgy Cover Version
Three Books You Should Have Read If You're In Advertising
By George

New Fentimans Commercial Advertisements

Roll-up ladies and gentlefolk, and feast your eyes on these curious new advertisements we have proudly created for our friends at Fentimans. Fentimans make fine botanically brewed beverages, and sell them in these really smart bottles. Their previous campaigns set up a very nice Victorian look and feel, but we always felt the product was treated a little apologetically - not so helpful when you're trying to establish yourself and get people to try you out. So given that the packaging is so well put together, and that we're trying to get people to recognise and try the product when they're out on their Friday-big-shop, we thought we'd make the product the hero. We wrote headlines that directly suggest to people that they should try the drinks - in a very Victorian way of course. And together with Friends of Sell! Sell! Delicious Industries we created traditional letterpress style type for that authentic look. Look out for the ads in magazines and Sunday supplements - and look out for the drinks (Ginger Beer, Curiosity Cola, Victorian Lemonade and Dandelion & Burdock) at your local purveyor or supermarket.

To see more work, click here.

10.15

10.15 is an interesting photography blog where contributors take a picture at 10.15 am wherever they are in the world. There are people from places as far and wide as New Yawk, Mumbai, Japan, Israel, Paris, Winnipeg and Brazil. I like the fact that it's not really about making an arty picture, just recording that time somewhere in the world.
Reminded me of that sweet movie Smoke where Harvey Keitel's character takes a picture of the same street corner outside his cigar shop every day.
FROM THE EXCELLENT LOST AT E MINOR

Flip Book Niceness

Really nice video made by directing duo André Maat and Superelectric for Kraak & Smaak's new release Squeeze Me. Really great technique - expect to see it royally ripped off soon by someone selling confectionery or maybe some kind of tablet-based vitamin drink.

The Lost Cat Poster Theory

A post today on Scamp about charity ads and his quote of copyranter's excellent take on the matter has got us thinking about this post we've been meaning to do for a while.

A few years ago my cat went missing. After it had been missing for about a day it became clear that to help get it back, we needed to make some posters and flyers to get people looking out for him. Now, to put this into some context, I love my cat. A lot. And I wanted him back safe in one piece as soon as possible. So, to me, this was the most important piece of advertising I'd ever done.

Looking back now, I applied every ounce of experience and ability to making the most effective poster I possibly could. I thought about who it was aimed at, what I wanted them to take out of it straight away, how I was going to catch their attention, how I was going to make them care, how to get them to act, what tools to give them to act. And how to do all of this in as pithy a way as possible, so a person going about their own business would get the message. And, just as importantly, I didn't employ any technique that would get in the way of the communication, or that would cloud the main point - only things that made the poster more effective.
The poster I made wasn't a million miles away from these posters above, it wasn't particularly beautiful, it certainly wasn't a piece of art. But it was simple and compelling, and effective.

Afterwards I thought about what would happen if you gave the brief of a lost cat poster to a typical creative department. If they applied the same methods to the poster as they do to their clients' communications, what would the end result be like? Would it be shot by an obscure Brazilian photographer they'd always wanted to work with? Would the main point be obscured by a joke, or by an obtuse idea that got in the way? Would the focus of the creatives be on the poster's absolute effectiveness? Or would they be obsessed with creating a poster that 'had never been done before', or that their peers would be impressed with? Would they have avoided using a picture of the cat because 'it's a bit of cliche innit'? I'll leave you to your own conclusions. But if they had to design a poster to get their own loved pet back, would they approach it differently?

And that is the The Lost Cat Poster Theory. It's a reminder to everyone, and to creatives especially, that the use of creativity in advertising is there to increase the effectiveness of the communication, and for no other reason. Creativity is not there for its own sake, it is a means to an end. If a creative idea is getting in the way of the message, or is an unnecessary flourish, or muddies the point, or is confusing, then the person creating that advertising is letting their own ego get in the way of the job in hand.

Previous Sell! Sell! On Advertising...
The Bus Test
Trucks and Chocolate
Three Books You Should Have Read If You're In Advertising
Citroen C5 Goes Deutsch
If It Was Your Money
Vier Out Of TenInaction Man Causes Action

Screensaver Clock

Have a gander at this top typographic screensaver clock by Simon Heys. It's fantastically simple. Although it does feel like the countdown to a very complicated bomb.