these sound sculptures created for the cannon pixma printer range are just beautiful. but i’m sure many a parallel will be drawn between this and the infamous sony bravia ‘colour like no other’ campaign.
the campaign was inspired by the equally stunning water sound figures by linden gledhill and you can find out more here.
i love the pop colours, references to japan and all round awesomeness of these photos (described as conquering the quirky and marvellous rooms with playful lust) created by artist duo lagoi and lace.
The photos are a collection of masks, glasses, shields, armory, jewelry, customized clothes and ribbons that reach out like demanding tentacles, created and modelled by the pair. As they wear the items ralph lagoi and kate lace take on their attributes and transform into “Miss Takehito Quadruple” (the beauty of dark elegance), “Mister Hyde Dobuita Speerträger” (the beauty of a gentleman), “Mr. Seiuchi Sivuch” (he beauty of play), “Shika Shika Chan” (the beauty of wilderness) and “Miss Ayanami Oenshi” (the beauty of pink).
whilst trawling the internet for some nice prints i found my dead pony – and i love it! i love the mix of illustration, type and lovely ladies with quite a dark theme. here are some of my favourites.
as you can see, i quite like tanks!
now which one to buy…
i’m liking the graphic style of marek haiduk’s work at the mo – especially the vivd colours and mix of recent and old imagery.
so a few weeks ago the lovely people at D&AD asked me to write a little something about my first year as a copywriter in digital and what i’d expect from graduates. it’s such an honour to be ask and write for their blog and i really enjoyed doing it, so i hope that it’s useful to people! oh, and here it is:
Copywriting and time travel
Wow. It’s already been a year since I took those first tentative steps and got myself a proper job as a Creative in London. It’s been a year of firsts, with its fair share of highlights along the way – from getting those scribbles turned into live work to collecting my first awards- and it’s been amazing to see all those hours pay off. I’ve been asked to write about my experience as a newbie in the industry so here it goes…
The reality of being a Creative is pretty similar to what I expected, thanks in no small part to my uni course that allowed me to take advantage of its contacts, book crits and workshops with the best teams in London’s agencies. Everything I learnt as a student still applies now and when I’ve been to events like New Blood as a real person with a proper job for the first time, I’ve given a lot of thought to what I’d do differently and what I’d expect from myself. So, if I could go back to myself a year ago and give myself a talking to I’d say:
It’s all about your portfolio. Somewhat controversially I’m going to say no-one really cares about your degree – apart from your mum. It’s all about putting work in front of Creative Directors that will make them wet with excitement.
Brace yourself. Take time to make your ideas easy to understand and practice going through your portfolio so you can talk through it with confidence when it matters.
Sell yourself. You’re the product, after all. So show what you’re capable of by applying the approach you’d take for a campaign to make them want you.
Be exciting and entertaining. Creative Directors get more emails a day than you can possibly imagine, so do something to grab their attention. Use contacting them as an excuse to show off what you can do and why you should be employed. (Recently Matt Stafford joined LBi after being offered a job on the spot for his application, The Creative Relocation Program.)
Emails and tweets with a URL to a ‘classified video transmission’ led Creative Directors to a custom video and links to Matt’s portfolio.
Be flexible. It’s important to offer that little bit extra (sitting around me at this moment are people who outside work hours are everything from renowned musicians to taxidermists). Put it in your portfolio so agencies can see the other skills you have to draw on and so you have something you can talk about passionately for hours.
Keep on blogging. Blogs are a great way, especially as a copywriter, to develop your skills and let your personality shine through – giving insight to how you think and what your capable of. It’s essential to show where you get your inspiration outside of adland – navel gazing isn’t creatively healthy.
Be a slut. See as many Creatives for crits as possible to get your work out there. Try to find a team who’s opinion you value to be your mentors – not only can they help you improve your portfolio but they can also refer your work to their contacts. I always made an effort to go to as many industry events as possible, and still do, always having a bit too much fun than is sensible.
It’s not the end of the world if you’re single. Having a creative partner is great but it’s still possible to get a job as a singleton. A lot of digital agencies in particular, have teams of people from across disciplines working together to crack a brief rather than a traditional team. It’s tough but since getting a job on my lonesome, I’ve found it quite liberating and feel confident generating ideas on my own, Plus, I don’t feel dependant on a creative partner or have ‘the fear’ of what will happen if we decide to go separate ways.
Restrictions are fun. Embrace the brief – part of the satisfaction of cracking it is knowing that you formed something creative despite the restrictions.
Oh, and most importantly remember:
So after you’ve done all that, what makes you really proud? The first time you spot your work somewhere? The pun-offs? The awards? Your first shoot? The time you got a celebrity to read your script? The first pay packet? Being asked to write this for D&AD? It’s probably going to be your mum telling you she’s seen some of your work.
Good luck!
AKA Dragons’ Dirty Den. The recession may have stopped the Dragons investing money, but they have something else to offer – themselves. In a sexy way.
hil-ar-i-ous.
just when i thought mr scruff couldn’t get any better, i discover there is mr scruff tea! i have it on good authority that it’s delicious too, i really want to try the mint and chilli bags.
there’s something beautiful about the relationship created between illustrators and tea, as proven by this and dr geof.
the tippexperience is created around a great idea- ‘help re-write the story’ – with a lovely bit of interactive youtubery . i found myself playing for a fair old while, trying to see all the alternative endings and find the strangest one they’ve created. there are some sweet endings too for when there isn’t a match to what you typed.
it still keeps making me giggle after seeing this at glug in cargo on thursday night.
with it being the bank holiday i thought that rather than spending it all ruining myself at the amazing LED festival i ought to go soak up some culture too. so, off i went to the exposed exhibition at the tate modern. it focused on the relationship between people, photographers and cameras and most of the photos were taken without the permission of the people in them-the slight irony being that you weren’t actually allowed to take photos of people there yourself. i really liked the broad range of photography there with photos of a variety of styles, subjects and taken from the past 100 years or so.
one of my my favourites was an amazing installation and photography piece, the lynching of leo frank, by oliver lutz. it appeared to be a blank canvas but when you turned around to look in a monitor behind you it fed a live stream that showed you against the canvas-rather than this being black it showed an infa-red photo. it was like seeing a ghost-good, powerful stuff.
as well as exploring our relationship with the camera, the exhibition really exploited mobile technology. in each room there were film icons dotted about to direct you to video content from the photographers so you could learn more about the exhibition. all this was free on the tate wifi through your smartphone or you could pick up a device from the desk if you don’t have one. how thoughtful! it was great to see people really engaging and picking up their phones-my parents even had a go and thought that it made the exhibition that little bit more engaging. it goes to show that it’s not just us industry types that like it and it encourages me to get into more of this type of thing.
i was very impressed by the whole thing and to tip it all off, i saw yet another camera that i want in the shop afterwards (that comes with a gorgeous display case). damnitt! i’ve wanted a twin lens camera for a fair old while but what i really like, beyond the case, is that it takes 35mm film to make life a little cheaper.
eunoia 