Arthur's got a homework project for school, he has to make a little book about whatever country he wants. He's chosen to do America, since that's where he was born. This was the intro he painstakingly typed out. I think it's rather poetic and rather captures the sense of the place.
This post from Northern Planner reminded me of the genius of Andy Smith; illustrator extraordinaire, who made Run London come to life so marvelously. And browsing through his portfolio I found this ebcb illustration which sits proudly on the wall behind me - it was a lovely leaving present from w+k. I've always thought it'd be nice if more people saw it but it's too big to scan and too hard for a fool like me to photograph. But now I've found it. So. Er. Here it is.
I think on Friday we may all feel a great disturbance in the force. But in a good way. Because on Friday there will be planners (plus friends, family and anyone who wants to come) having coffee all over the world. Well, a bit.
Noah and Piers are doing likemind in New York and Mark and Tad are doing likemind in San Francisco.
And we're doing coffee morning at Tate Modern. (Meet in the coffee shop on the second floor.) And the following week Emily is doing coffee in Sydney. Hurrah.
I saw this splendid folder sitting on someone's desk the other day. (Not at FCB.) I love this kind of thing - task specific stationery. I suspect we'll see a return to things like this. Rather like with scrapbooks, I think the physicality of paper and stuff helps with thinking and memory and keeping a track of things. And people have an affection for it. Just as the paperless office led to a boom in paper sales I bet the boom in people taking and sharing pictures will lead to a microprinting spurt. As with iPhoto books and services like Qoop and the splendid Moo.
But then I noticed the assumptions embedded in the stationery.
The tabs in order: Briefs then Concepts then Scripts then Invoices. ie the planner does a brief, the creatives do some concepts, then we make some TV commercials, then we bill the client. You can be as forward thinking and media-neutral as you like but you can't fight the assumptions you've built into the fabric of things. It's worth noticing these things. (Though I'm sure FCB have moved on and now have much more media-neutral office supplies.)
I think committed is the worst weasel word. Virgin are apparently commited to ensuring the toilets are clean. They're not prepared to say they actually will clean the toilets. They're just willing to commit to it.
I notice they don't offer us the same latitude. We're not allowed to merely commit to not blocking the toilets, we have to just not do it. I think maybe they shouldn't hold us to a higher standard in keeping their toilets clean than themselves. (Sorry about the blurry picture. Them trains is wobbly.)
And, actually, why do we have to put up with all these stupid words? Why can't they just say please let us know if the toilets aren't clean?
I've been doing a bit of work for Love in Manchester recently. They're splendid people. A perfect model for the creative business of the future. Small. Independent. Creative. Can do all kinds of stuff and aren't crippled by London overheads. I've nudged them into getting a blog going, it's early days and the design is a bit minimal but the writing is dead funny (it's not all by one bloke, they've all been using the same login, but that will change).
Anyway.
My point is this. Last time I was there they just left me alone to wander off to the kitchen and make my own cup of tea. Which I always think is a sign that you've settled in somewhere, that you sort of belong. It's always a nice moment. So here's to the tea of Love.
Beeker and Lebowski have had a good idea. (Click here and look in the comments.) Coffee morning this week will be at Tate Modern. 11am as per usual. It'll be like a school trip. Not sure exactly where in Tate Modern - anyone got any suggestions where we should meet?
The votes are in. They've been counted and recounted and the winner is Mr Dylan Trees. (Though since his winning entry was posted on Johanna's blog I'm not quite sure where David's marvelous Post of the Month graphic should go. It's up to Mr Trees I suppose.) Huge congratulations to Dylan. Thanks to everyone for voting and please start thinking about your nominations for October's Post of the Month.
I've been thinking about the school of the web a bit. I'm concerned that we're trying to run before we can walk. It's all very well me banging on about complexity and compression and polyphony but it's no good if we've not learned how to write a simple proposition. And I know we can all have a go at propositions and dismiss them as irrelevant and old-fashioned, but they're basic tools. They're like scales for jazz musicians, you can't start to improvise until you're intimate with how scales and chord progressions work. And for all of us doing clever strategies for fancy brands, there's some planner on their own in an office somewhere, who's never had any training, who's just trying to work out where to start. And they're really who this is for.
So my plan is to go back to some of the basic tools of planning. Once we've mastered them we'll move on to fancier stuff. And we're going to start with propositions.
Simon McCrudden has agreed to be the guest judge and set the question (and he's the planner who works with Paul, so he must be used to some rigour). Here's the task:
"The English Apple Advisory Board are coming in to see me next week to discuss how they might be able to promote apples and as a result increase sales in the UK. Not just a short-term hike, but for the forseeable future. So what I would like is for people to write ten propositions/ideas that will help the apple people achieve their objective.
Each proposition/idea can be no longer than 20 words. No supporting material is needed or allowed for the propositions. Nor any images. And it would be good to have all 10 on a single page of a word document."
Please email your entries to the address on the right and do it by November 1st. I'm trying to get back on the monthly schdule.
It seems simple, but it's tough. You can't hide behind pictures or design, you've just got to have 10 original, useful, non-obvious ideas about how to sell, re-position or re-excite people about apples.
And, since we're going back to basics I've decided to make this the beginning of a more structured programme (slightly). If you complete every school of the web assignment for the next year. (Which I imagine will be about 10 assignments). You'll get a fancy certificate for your wall and a letter of praise and enthusiasm from me (for what that's worth).
I've been mucking about a bit in Second Life recently, been exploring all the expected places. It's not been a duck to water experience, seems too hard and slightly pointless, but I think maybe I'm starting to get it.
And I was about to write a post about the Leo Burnett/BBH shenanigans and how so much of this feels like agencies early forays at interactive TV, agencies just posturing and dabbling, when I remembered this bit from Convergence Culture: "Play is one of the ways we learn, and during a period of reskilling reorientation, such play may be more important than it seems at first glance." And I decided not to be such an arse. Full marks to everyone who's playing in Second Life. Because playing is one of the ways we learn, and the more agencies that learn new stuff the better.