The way all companies should do bizness

The CEO of awesome evidently.

Cinema on the streets of London

This is a trailer for my most recent project which was the second collaboration between Stella Artois Black and Punchdrunk theatre group.
This was the creation of a wonderful team at Mother London and I'm very proud of the final outcome which was a seven scene story that took place across a number of locations around east London.
I'll post up a film of scene one shortly but for now this is a bit of a teaser as to what happens.

The story is playing out until the 1st September so there's still plenty of time to get in on the action - and I promise it is action filled. Think action, thriller, fear, beauty and tearjerking romance and you're nearly there.

There's nothing quite like the sound of a typewriter

I love this piece of work and I'm so glad that I discovered such a subtle guerrilla gem because it's reminded me that for all the fancy pants 3-D, secret mobile phone codes, tagging and whatnot sometimes the best stuff is really the lovely simple stuff centred around a sincere message.
Of course I accept that we have to move with the times and therefore technology is a very important factor in the world of media and especially brand experiences but I always have that slight niggle in the back of my mind when I see those posters that you have to wave your phone in front of in order to see 'exclusive stuff' that's asking me "do people really buy into this stuff"?
I guess they must do, otherwise why would brands continue to do it?
Anyway I'm probably just being a luddite who will start all my sentences with "when i was young we didn't have... blah blah blah" so I should shut up now.

So yes, back to the subject at hand and I just wanted to post this because for me it's a highly effective, personal and inspiring piece of guerrilla marketing for a brand that we know don't exactly have buckets of cash to spend.
In fact I know that the beautiful shutter artwork pieces that Mother did for Penguin Books not so long ago. was paid for in books instead of cash. Who says advertisers are only in it for the money?
Regarding the typewriter campaign I'm not sure of the coverage they got in terms of hitting physical stores but it's obviously caught the imagination of the online community so either way it's done the job perfectly.
So all together now: long live the book worms!

If my bank were a living breathing bank...

... I'd like it to look like this one. (I'm with First Direct so thankfully I don't have to deal with the grey 80s-ness of British banks)

Pretty incredible isn't it?
This is first-ever, bank concept store for BNP Paribas in Paris, created by Paris-based architect Fabrice Ausset of Zoevox.
It has everything you may have ever dreamed and I suspect quite a lot more given than all most people want from their bank is less queues, more smiles and perhaps a slightly bigger overdraft.

The ultimate black swan

As a special treat I took a trip to the theatre last week to see the Scottish Ballet's interpretation of the childhood classic Cinderella.
If you are ever in Scotland and one of the Scottish National Ballet's productions are on do yourself a favour and go along.
Tickets are mega cheap, the costumes and set design are eye-poppingly beautiful, original and cool, the orchestra are incredible and the performances and totally and utterly amazing.
And thankfully no dark twisted murderous endings like a particularly popular film that's out right now.

High hopes

Sometimes it takes a small sticker to make a big wish.

The simple fill-in-the-blank stickers are created by artist/designer Candy Chang to help citizens in New Orleans express and share their thoughts on their community.

Stickers are free and can be found in corner stores, cafes, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other places around New Orleans.

A boozy energy-filled Christmas treat

Wouldn't this be a nice treat to get from Mr Postie of a morning?
These are the extra special gifts that I worked with Creative Trust to design and produce for Red Bull's biggest and bestest customers this festive season.
We sourced antique briefcases and filled them with booze, a bit more booze and a few cans of trusty Red Bull and Red Bull Cola.
So energy, alcohol, fashion and festive cheer all wrapped in one gift.
Let's hope it beats the branded mouse-mat they were expecting.

Pheromone Party time

For the last few weeks I've been working with the wonderful Charly, landlady of Charly Inc. on one of our many weird, wonderful and ever so slightly random projects for INQ Mobile.

Working alongside megastar French Canadian ad agency Sid Lee we have created the world's first.... PHEROMONE PARTY!!
Yes indeed, it's a party filled to the brim with pheromones.
Given that INQ target the young and the restless this seemed like the perfect way to land in town with a bang.
The first party is on Thursday at a brand new space called The Airshop in Toronto followed by parties in Vancouver and Montreal.
We hired the services of those ever reliant hipsters at Vice to help us with reeling in the fun brigade so fingers crossed it's a party to remember.
Expect lights, lazers, doughnuts, pheromone machines, cool people, great music, confetti cannons and loads more.

I'll post photos of the all the crazy shenanigans post Thursday as well as details of some of the other stuff we have planned in Canada for INQ.

And on that note

I realised how much I like animated gifs - especially ones that look really nice.
That's all I have to say.

Just mucking about

I seem to be very busy at the moment but nothing is quite finished yet so I have nothing to share here that would be of much interest. Just lots of nearly finished projects.
The Becks Music inspires art short films will be done next week so that will throw up some good things for me to share and the next issue of the newspaper i am editor for will be done in the next two or three weeks as well as lots of other fairly exciting things.
Oh and I joined the Labour party today. Cost me a fiver. Bargain!

Fingers in my ears

The show Jack Guinness and I have done for INQ Mobile is now doing the rounds on Spotify.
You can listen to Radio INQ if you follow the link here:
http://open.spotify.com/user/radioinq/playlist/3Bf865VI96yBkhxMIitmPA

If you don't have a Spotify account and would like to listen to our show plus all the music your ears could desire get in touch and I can arrange for the nice people at Spotify to send you an invite. Woo.

Just saw one Facebook review of our show: 'worst DJs ever' (not the first time I've heard this said about my 'skills')
So on that note.. tune in yeah :-)

p.s the picture above is of Jack and moi chatting to Tinie Tempah. My nose looks unusually large and Child-Catcher-esque. Ah well.

Please, somebody stop them

I'm no Jeremy Paxman when it comes to politics but one thing I do know is I don't want this nutjob running the country I live in.
Just look at his stupid massive moonface and his skinny dribbly lips - you know what they say about people with thing lips too... mean types never to be trusted. Pah.
I can so imagine him staring into the bathroom mirror every morning punching the air shouting "YES DAVID. YOU ARE THE BEST. YOU ARE A WINNER. WIN. WIN. WIN"
At the end of the day all political parties are a lot of lying, scheming, money hungry hounds but for me Labour are the least evil of three predominant evils. Depressing but true. Those good old Liberals have shown that they're not quite so hip and down with the real people of Britain haven't they?
And in actual fact, for right or for wrong I really quite like Gordon. When he's left to his own verbal devices he actual seems to be the most genuine and sincere, by far the most intelligent and the one that seems to be in it for others rather than for his own ego.
Oh and all this Gordon bashing from The Sun, Sky News, Simon Cowell, The Times etc ... does Rupert Murdoch really not realise it's ridiculously obvious he's behind it all?

Anyway, rant over.
On that note I just bought one of his books on Amazon.

Oh and these brilliant images are the handiwork of the lovely Verity Keefe. She shares many of my views but articulates them far better than I would through the use of pretty pictures.

Yep we definitely can

Please check out our new blog - created by tortured genius John Mcdonnell it's the result of lots of hatred, annoyance, doodles, mocking, some joy and some cuteness. I'm sure there's some other other stuff in between these descriptions but don't let me spoil that surprise.
I have written a few angst written pieces and expect plenty more where that came from. I will also be posting cute, mildly amusing pictures, agony aunting and who knows what else.
There also also lots of other reasonably talented people (sniff) involved so try not to avoid.
Remember: Can we fix it? YEP WE CAN. innit.

http://yepwecan.co.uk/

Woofy Woofy WowWow

A dog with a sense of style is worth more than joyous tears can say. Or something.

Smashie and Nicey

Me and my pal (or is that my pal and i? not quite sure) Jack (pictured above) are hosting a rather amazing, wonderful, brilliant, awesome radio show! Erm ok... that may be a slight exaggeration but basically the lovely people at INQ Mobile are hosting a series of branded shows on Spotify and it's up to us to make sure it's not snooze-enducing.
Starting in a couple of weeks it will essentially be us rambling on about random stuff, trying to be funny, trying to act natural, trying to play music people might like. Basically doing a whole lot of trying.
Oh and also we'll be interviewing a veritable cheese platter of popstars at a new show being recorded at Koko (sponsored by INQ) next weekend so we will hopefully have some hilarious faux pax-esque quotes from the middle aged one in Westlife (yep they are on the lineup) to share on our show. But wait - which one's the middle aged one in Westlife?
Answers on a postcard.
Oh and for more info on INQ go to inqmobile.com

Help! My lolly!

I think this photo deserves some kind of award on so many levels. Too many for my popcorn sized brain to fathom.
Nice yellow coat there too.

Dance of the doggy

I know I work in advertising but I really wish I worked on this bit of advertising.
I'm moving to Japan and this mandog will be my pet.

Oh Alice

I went to the Sanderson hotel last week for a most delightful Alice in Wonderland inspired afternoon tea treat.
There were multi-coloured sandwiches that made your head spin, lollipops that went hot and cold then made your hair go pink, ice cream filled mad hatter clock cakes that made your tummy go tic-toc, tic-toc and plenty more that I won't harp on about.
Anyway if you have the time and you like brightly coloured edible things then I highly recommend it.
Much better than the movie that's for sure.

Curtains closed

So Red Bull Academy has shut its doors on London after a pretty phenomenal success in the big smoke.
On top of the massive London lineup, they did some regional workshops, parties and other fun bits in Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol.
I worked with a selection of very talented artists, designers and producers to create promotional material such as posters, booklets and flyers as well as limited edition display pieces to go into party venues and the Red Bull studio.
I'll post up some more pictures soon but here's one of the flyers we did for Manchester - designed by the totally radical Phillip Lackmaker.

Goodnight sweetheart

INQ Night by OhJuliette

And finally, some evening music to make you bop your head and help you get into the mood for parties, party ring biscuits, fizzy pop and other fun things that you get when night falls...

Hope you like them.

All these mixes were produced by Matt Waites who can you find out more about here.