Oi, Pencil Face!

I stumbled across this rather wonderful production company the other day: Dandy Dwarves.











The main director there is a chap called Christian Simmons...and by the looks of it, he's a absolute genius...if you like twisted, surrealist brilliance that is.










His film, 'Pencil Face', is right up my street. It has just been nominated for Sundance 2009. That pencil face is going to be in my dreams tonight for sure. Enjoy.

Puppet?

Beat-Box Flutey Man Mash-Up

This is incredible. The dude with the flute rips it right up...

Words that can save the planet

This is a great idea - ecofont - a font that, when printed, uses 20 per cent less ink than most other fonts...'cos of the little holes. Download it from ecofont.eu.










Will it become the new Times New Roman? Let's hope so. I'm going to try and use it on all docs from now on. I'll also keep shrinking text down to fit page when writing scripts...a classic old trick!

My thumbs have gone weird

So I thought I'd give the new Street Fighter IV game on the PS3 a whirl...and after an hour or so ended up with this: Street Fighter Thumb. A massive ball of a blister. Worth it though for a bit of rubbery-Dhalsim-electric-Blanka-Chun-Li-upskirt action.

Mouse Trap

Saw this in one of agency corridors earlier...

Great Wall of Japan

This game show from Japan has been around for a few years, yet re-watching it now it's just as funny. Such a ridiculous concept, some of the shapes are brilliant.

I love the sheer panic on the contestants faces when they first see the shape on the wall revealed from beneath the black curtain. Classic.

'Making Of' RMHC film

Here's a little 'making of' video that Josh and David (aka Santa Maria at Hornet) made whilst creating our RMHC film (see a couple of posts below). Of course, it being a charity job meant that we couldn't go over to New York for the shoot, so the guys sent us sections of animation bit by bit. So this little video gave us a taste of how it was on set. Talented chaps they are.

Publish Post

Reunited with Ronald McDonald Pillow Case

Incredible. At my parent's house this weekend, my mum pulled this out from somewhere - a Ronald McDonald (and questionable gang) pillowcase that I had given to me as a baby in Hong Kong in 1979. In 1979 this was an acceptable gift for a new-born baby!













In those days, I guess McDonald's was seen as just a bit of fun...this guy below though does freak me out a bit. Such a weird design.













But, the most baffling member of 'the gang' is this dude...I don't remember ever seeing him. He's not even 'a bit of fun', more of a freaky pervy boffin. Well weird.













Which segways nicely into this creepy chap, the infamous Captain Crook. Could he be any darker? Horrific. I'm now on a mission to find out more about the people who created these characters...I might try and get Louis Theroux to find out more. Watch this space.

Time goes by...so...slowly...

Saturday night...on a shoot, tech problems...so I'm looking at ffffound...

This is great.

'Better Together' film

This is a film we wrote for the Ronald McDonald House Charity (RMHC) to support their presentations and go on their website. It launched last night at a big gala dinner for rich people at the Natural History Museum. It's an amazing charity, independent from McDonald's, that builds houses next to children's hospitals so that parents of seriously ill children can stay close to them, which amongst other things, is vitally important for the healing process. Those see-through plastic house boxes on the counters in Maccy D's are for RMHC...



The spot was directed by the brilliant Santa Maria at Hornet Inc, who worked tirelessly on the mixed-media animation for about 2 and a half months, and we were also lucky enough to get Helena Bonham-Carter to do the voiceover. A tv edit is on the way too.

Random Album Generator Amusement

There's a fun craze doing the rounds online - create your own album art via randomly generated band names (via Wikipedia), randomly generated cover art (via Flickr) and album names (via a quotation site). You have to use the first thing that comes up. Mine is above. Here are 2 of Mr D's...

















http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/mar/04/1

Sleepwalking Dog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2BgjH_CtIA













Is this the best thing ever? It's bloody well up there.

Courtesy of Limited Fun.

Japan Holiday Photo Film

A bloke went to Japan to see his girlfriend on holiday and took load of photos. Then he put all the photos together to make a film, with an LCD Soundsystem track over the top. Makes me want to go to Japan even more than I did...they've got weird jellyfish and all sorts there.



(Courtesy of Damiano at RSA films).

Guitar Shop Cleverness

Foxes on a Trampoline

The Relentless will be Rewarded

One post a week is what you get at the moment. Is that acceptable? Is this even classified as blog? Oh well, here's a little something...

I'm decorating the flat at the moment and had the boring task of clearing out our spare room on Saturday so we could paint it. It's a strange moment when you realise you're a hoarder, which I've accepted I really am. I blame my grandparents - at their house it's bloody choker with the most incredible amount of crap...tins full of rubber bands, ring pulls and copper coins, drawers full of watches, cupboards full of kettles (no shit)...but at least they have the war as an excuse for their hoardy ways, a time where everyone was taught to be thrifty. I have no excuses, I just like to keep stuff.

Anyway, before I could smash up my awful Argos chipboard desk, I had to empty the drawers which were full of old advertising bits and bobs...mainly from when my old partner and I were trying to get a job. There must have been about three or four old portfolios, from the times we were told to 'start again', which was always a pleasure. There were also pads full of crit notes, diaries full of people we used to see....relentless times they were. Looking back it makes me realise just how tough it was getting a job - so I'm interested in seeing how the likes of Jai and Wal are faring (these boys have 'relentricity'), although to be fair with the current climate (economy not snow) it's doubly hard at the moment for them. I guess that's kind of why, four years on from getting hired, I still like to get in at 8.15 etc. I never want to take this job for granted. So, anyway, this was one of the things I found:














It's a chart of crit notes - different creative teams we used to get advise from, laid out so that we could easily see who was saying what about each campaign in our book, then we could reach a general consensus about what was worth keeping in etc. The chart probably would have been from 1 week's worth of crits...it took us 2 and 1/2 years to get hired (we didn't do a course) so we had a lot of crits and did a lot of books. Just looking through this chart for this particular week, I see we saw the brilliant Ben Mooge at Mother, Dave & Ed at Fallon, Brian Connolly at Ogilvy, Bonnie & Charlotte at AMV, Jon & Rik at BBH, the amazing and almighty Richard Russell at W+K and Adrian Lim at Lowe. So, if any of them are reading this (not likely!) I'd like to say a big thank you. And I guess if there is anything to take out from this post, it's this: the relentless will be rewarded...cheesily translated as: if you want it hard enough you'll get it. I read an interview with Dave Droga the other day, and he said that you probably won't be the best creative out there, but you can make sure you work harder than everyone else. Apparently he used to divide an A3 layout page into 100 boxes and then wouldn't allow himself to go home until he had an idea in each box. Amazing/psycho/relentless.

(just realised that if you click on the photo, it becomes a lot bigger and readable. My favourite note on there? 'Smiled' is quite funny or 'Scary doll' about our Ben Sherman campaign. The line was 'It's still great to go out with Ben Sherman', in a 'Weekend at Bernies cart the dead bloke around 'style. We actually had a lifesize Ben Sherman doll/mannequin made up that we used to put in creative director's offices now and again. Dead Ben. Relentless.)

Snow day

This morning I braved the freezing wastes of West London, dressed myself up in my snowboarding wear and trudged into work through the snow. Of course, no-one else has come in. What a waste of my time. I could be at home killing foreign monsters on Playstation 3 online...or building a snowman. But I'm here now, so I might as-well crack on. There is literally no-one in the department. Not a soul. I could be naked and nobody would know.

Face like a thumb

Courtesy of Graeme. Best thing I've seen today.

Ferris has a day off (in random stats)

Pieces of toast: 4.
Papers read: 3.
Galleries visited: 3.
Cups of coffee: 2.
ipod songs listened to: 59.
Puddles stepped in: 1.
Pounds spent: £12-ish.
Money found: 20p (in washing machine).
Kills (Resistance 2): 127.
Cups of tea: 1.
Lengths (of pool): 36.

Highbrow Eyebrows

The best so far...directed by Tom Kuntz.

"Wait, I'm not eating Skittles..."

Here we go again...it's that time: a new Skittles ad. From the ingenious people who brought us the fantastically imaginative 'Swap', 'Leak' and 'Touch' comes 'Tailor'.



If only more clients would go for more of these random branded entertainment type ideas. I guess it helps to have a product that's aimed specifically at a younger audience...but either way, I'm very jealous. Beautifully observed with great attention to detail (the 3 mirrors). Love it.

Robbie Baggio and his Magical Kicks

It's probably not unfair to say that this classic online footy game almost cost me my career. 'Roberto Baggio Magical Kicks' was one of the first decent Flash games online, at a time when the internet was just starting to emerge from it's restrictive HTML shell. My old partner and I discovered it whilst doing the placement rounds (possibly when we were at Karmarama) and things got so out of control that I think we had to literally say one day "This has to stop". "But it's sooooo good". "It's Roberto Baggio Magical Kicks or our advertising career..." So, we had to draw the line.

But today, four years later, I suddenly remembered it, and I broke the rule. It felt good.

Do it if you dare: http://www.tvnet.lv/images/games/files/212.swf

Musical Televisual Video Extravaganza

This is the video for The Leisure Society's new song, 'The Last of the Melting Snow'. It was directed by my friends Ollie and Christen (and their friend Tom). The song's been getting quite a lot of airtime on BBC Radio 2 and Radio 6.

Little dog of horror

I'm a sucker for this kind of thing...

The best shop in town

This is pretty random, but I sometimes think about who, outside of advertising, would make a really great creative team. For example when you're watching a comedian like Vic Reeves or Simon Pegg...would they be good creatives? Together? Maybe so. This got me thinking: if you could put anyone, alive or dead, together as a creative team, who would be the best? Here's a few to get the ball rolling...there's probably a bit of art director/copywriter balance going on, but hey in these times anything's possible really.

Salvador Dali & Roald Dahl.








Rolf Harris & Eric Cantona.







Haruki Murakami & Damien Hirst.







Tony Hart & Yoda.








Tupac & Quentin Blake.








Shigeru Miyamoto & Jane Austin.







Matt Groening & Kafka.







Jack Black & Roger Hargreaves.






Enid Blyton & Christen Brestrup.







Of course, it's all very well being interesting thinkers, but you need someone who can sell the ideas. So, to that end, my Head of Account Handling would be someone extremely persuasive, someone who could sell a hot-dog to a veggie...

Derren Brown.








This is turning into a bit of an agency now, so I guess it needs an Executive Creative Director...the ultimate ideas man.

Leonardo Da Vinci.







And I guess a Head of Traffic, someone who's good at organising stuff...

Rain Man.







Also, a Head of Planning...

Nostradamus.







And a Head of TV...who else?

Steven Speilberg (rad hat).







Also a couple of lovely receptionists to meet and greet the stampedes of clients all itching to work with the best agency in town...

Jenna Jameson & Big Bird.







Now it just needs a placement team or two...