Interviews with the best advertising, design, photographic, typographic, illustration and film directing talent that are still alive*. (*It's just easier.)
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Every day I get great old print ads popping up in my feed. I'm reminded of Volkswagen's self-deprecation, Nike’s humanity and BMW’s intelligence. It’s easy to forget that each owes its existence to a magazine. Whose huge readership is responsible for the quality of the ad. Putting your product in front of so many people justified billing so many creative hours. And signing off such an expensive…
Faxes. Magic Markers. Hard copies of Campaign. Offices. Grant projectors. PMTs. U-matics. Scalpels. Memos. Information Departments. Flash. Spray mount. Chinagraphs. Secretaries. Pinboards. Foamboard. Lightboxes. CS10. Lighter fuel. Paintbox. Dupes. 10x8s”. Contact sheets. Proofs. All gone. Replaced by something that did the job better. But what about all those great creative agencies, why did they…
A planner! The third. Well, the other two weren’t talking about their careers, Paul Feldwick discussed his great book ‘Why Does The Pedlar Sing?’ and Sarah Carter reflected on working with John Webster. So maybe it's my first? Creative operating the seventies hated planners. 'They ruined the business’ and ‘they took all the fun out of advertising’ being their most common complaint. As they see it;…
I never knew Martin at BMP. He kept a desk there. So I'd occasionally spot his green Bentley in Bishopsbridge Road. There'd be the odd a sighting in the building, a bit like Bigfoot or the Yeti, a glimpse of a blurry Martin moving through corridors, but way in the distance. Perhaps because of this, it didn’t occur to me to pick up the phone and ask him to do a podcast about his amazing career. But…
Bartle Bogle Hegarty opened its doors in 1982. Eight years later, Campaign voted them the agency of the decade. Why? Their work was considered, intelligent, and, in a decade often referred to as style-obsessed, BBH was the most style-obsessed. But they also had something few agencies have today; swagger. They had the confidence, or is it arrogance? to cut their own path. Refusing to do creative…
During my first year in advertising, a shiny new book turned up at the agency (Brooks Legon Bloomfield). Weirdly, some in the creative department referred to it as 'the bible'. It's actual name was The Designers & Art Directors Annual. I was told it showed the best advertising and design from the U.K. Although, also at this point, the U.K. arguably produced the best advertising and design on the…
To hear Derek tell it, his career was totally unplanned. One impetuous decision after the next. Leading to endless mistakes. Exhibit A: Quitting the best agency in the country to go on holiday with his girlfriend. (CDP) To me, it looks as meticulously pre-planned as any of the plots in the ‘Ocean’s’ films. STEP 1: Work for the best agencies in town: (CDP, BMP and DDB). STEP 2: A reconnaissance…
Being one, I'm very aware of my fellow double d's out there in advertising. Dave Droga - met once, gave him a lift after judging D&AD together. Donny Deutsch - never met, seen him on Morning Joe though. David Denton - did a few ads with him at BMP, did Cointreau 'Ice melts', amongst many others. Don Draper – never met, seems cool. And Derek Day - less known than the first three, but well worth…
You can count the number of Creatives who embrace research on one finger. The rest of us desperately try to fight it with lines like 'you can't research original ideas', 'the group gets lead by its most vocal member', 'the public can only judge finished ads, not research material', and on and on. Good arguments. But the argument against is better - John Webster. Once delivered, it's hard for us…
British advertising may have had more successful businessmen. More accomplished creative directors. Bigger award winners. But never a better Creative. No one has more ideas living in British people’s heads than John Webster. They didn’t gatecrash either – they were invited in. Singing and dancing their way past the barriers and into the national consciousness. One big, happy conga line; Smash…
