Russell Davies

planners as conductors

action planning

richard arrives at optimism

Richard is concerned that his blog makes him look too grumpy. Maybe it's because Rob said Adliterate makes Richard seem about ten years older than he is. (I'm hoping my blog makes me seem thinner than I am)

Anyway, in a bold strike in the direction of positivity he's issued this challenge, called The Advocate, celebrating the efficacy of the campaigns we all love. Have a look, join in, discover Richard's inner optimist.

playing with time

The Guardian Gamesblog points to this absorbing conversation, between Will Wright, creator of Sims etc, who did my favourite presentation ever and Brian Eno, who wrote one of my favourite books ever, and did a bunch of other stuff. They talk a lot about generative creativity and the idea of getting complexity from simple rules, which might be a way of reconcilling the whole 'are brands simple or complex' debate. It made me think about the average Corporate Identity manual; which is a simple set of rules which limits variation and reduces unpredictability. And about a really good creative brief or brand manual; which is a simple set of 'rules' which encourages variation, surprise and unpredictability - but within a broadly 'good/helpful' possibility space. 

brrr

Arthur and I have just got back from swimming at Parliament Hill Lido.

It's lovely there but there weren't many people swimming. Not like when it's sunny.

It was quite cold.

There were loads of great photos all over the place too. By Ruth Corney. Lovely stuff.

Arthur and I decided that this was our favourite. Icicles over the Lido, and, behind the icicles, someone swimming.

dubai?

A friend of mine is looking for 'a small qual agency in Dubai who can work with us to conduct qual groups with Asian and Arab banking consumers'. Anyone got any suggestions? Any thoughts, please comment below. thanks.

interesting but pointless

The Staufenbergers have done one of those interesting but pointless things that make life worth living. (They must be really busy right now.) They've used a new feature of Zooomr to do a photo tour of a bike trip around London, pointing at some planning blogger's locations on the way. I can't explain really. You need to see for yourselves.

ah yes

This splendid aNYthing t-shirt shows you what my freelance/OIA life is like. Not, as some of you seem to think, always on holiday. So there.

m-squared

Influx and the legendary Mr Ed Cotton are organising a rather interesting looking conference. Details are above (in type that's slightly too small to read, which should please all you designers) or here.

afternoon tea

Anyone around on Friday? I've got a meeting at lunchtime but could do afternoon tea - 4 until 6 at The Breakfast Club. Be nice to see people.