Russell Davies

stefan bucher - top man

Thousands of years ago I worked, briefly, with a fantastic designer called Stefan Bucher. He did some completely gorgeous and intricate Microsoft print ads which got horribly swallowed up by the general morass of badness that surrounded w+k and microsoft. (And, I'm starting to remember, we also spent time practising being in a radio play written by another friend Jed. Wow, I haven't thought about that for a long time.) I'd love to see those ads again. I think they're some of the best stuff I've ever been involved with and they've been buried by history.

Anyway, Stefan took off for LA to be free of our morass and design beautiful things and I've not seen him forever. Then I bought a book about Graphic Design which I really liked, and then I spotted that it was written by Stefan and I was really incredibly happy to see his little picture and read his words. I have absolutely no hesitation recommending it to anyone. It's supposed to be about design but it's actually about creativity, integrity and imagination. Things we should all pay attention to.

Buy a copy. Buy several. And, while you're at it, visit his splendid site and watch his fantastic talk at the San Diego Y conference. He's smart and funny.

going deaf for a fortnight

Pete Ashton is doing a brilliant project called Going Deaf For A Fortnight. He's going out to a small gig venue in Birmingham every night for two weeks, seeing bands, and he's blogging about what he finds. The first entry is here.

What an excellent idea. I need to do something like this - get myself out of the theoretical world of brands and consumers and all that nonsense and engage with the real world a bit. We all should do something like this.

now this is what I call advertising

Here's a site with some of the best bits of communications ever - Public Information Films produced by the British Central Office of Information. Coughs and Sneezes is a personal favourite of mine. This sneezey man is perfectly cast.

A great find by ilike.

beautiful complexity

It's long been my contention that simplicity is an over-valued currency in marketing-land. Many of the most captivating and compelling things (including brands) are, in fact, highly, beautifully, complex.

VisualComplexity is a site that gorgeously illustrates the joy of complexity. Visit, and make a donation.

All hail Clive James

I was listening to Radio 3's Night Waves last night and heard a great interview which reminded me what an inspiration Clive James is. Certainly there's an element of the unreconstructed old rogue about him but he's almost completely a good thing.

His TV reviews in The Observer probably set me on the path to doing what I'm doing. He showed that you could take pop culture seriously and that you could write and think about it without being disdainful and academic. Which is a lot of what being a planner's about. I guess.

And I like his restless approach to trying new things. His own website is full of great video and audio interviews, with fantastic people, and all sorts of interesting essays. Highly recommended.

site of the millenium

In Microserfs, Douglas Coupland talks about the idea of 'Male Shopping Calories' and suggests that Fry's is designed to burn them all up in one quick session.

Music thing burns all my 'Male Attention / Wishlist Calories' every time I look at it. It's a perfectly written, splendidly conceived conpendium of everything I've ever wanted to own. Even if I wasn't previously aware that they existed. Ebay Of The Day is particularly useful. And it's full of splendid features like Tiny Music Makers.

If any of my friends or family are reading this and they're ever stuck for birthday present ideas - get me anything from Music Thing.

I thankyou

simple and complex

This is from Pictures Of Walls, which is simple and good. Via Anarchitect, which is complex and good.

what happened?

Steve over at Bowblog has been wondering about his stats. He's getting 11,000 unique visitors a month. Which impresses the hell out of me. I don't think I can tell that from Typepad. They tell me I'm getting about 200 hits a day which seems pathetic by comparison. Though there's more at ebcb.

But, anyway, I've been obsessing about something else. I've been using bloglines a lot recently. Splendid service. One of the things it does is tell you how many people are using them to subscribe to a feed from your site. For ages it's been 57 people for russelldavies.com. But just yesterday I've noticed that it's now 56. I've lost someone! And it's obsessing me. What happened? What did I say? There's quite a low barrier to just leaving the subscription there so they must have very actively deleted me. it's quite depressing.

Oh well.

good idea

This is an image from a simple site with a great idea. It's called moving air. You have to hit refresh to see more examples.

timely ego boost

Fast Company stuck me in as a Best Business Blog: Advertising. Very kind of them.