Tomorrow I am off to Click London, hosted by Creative Review at LBi’s London Headquarters.

Tomorrow’s theme is – Advertising born again


Advertising is not dead, it’s just being born again by merging with the world of gaming, computing, movies, and social media – in short, advertising is getting closer to, and more integrated, with all the things that people are already using and appreciating in their daily lives. Nowhere is this more evident than in the digital advertising world. In order to become relevant in the everyday lives of regular people, brands need to enter the web that people actually use. With this in mind, we set out to explore how all the external influences will impact the creativity of digital advertising.

A full day’s activity and lectures given by some of the industries big hitters including James Hilton, Chief Creative Officer, AKQA, Johan Tesch, Creative Director, BBH, Nicolas Roope, Founder/Creative Director, Poke London, Matt Ross, Creative Director, Tribal DDB London.

Expect updates on how the day progressed and what were the main topics of conversation.

So what does make good information design? Well David McCandless has been pondering over this whilst enjoying a nice cup of tea. Everyone from UE’s, IA’s, designers etc etc will have a different opinion on this one but at least he’s had a stab at giving it some structure.

Very elegant branding, typography and layout from B&W Studio up in Leeds. The minimal application of colour and styling make for very strong, effective pieces of communication. They cleaned up at this years Roses design awards and will no doubt go from strength to strength next year.

Found these lovely posters for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on ffffound.com today. The original work can be found here on the Pentagram site. Designed by Harry Pearce and Jason Ching the posters are a training tool specifically aimed at the Russian police, whose country has a particularly poor track record in drug treatment.

Some really nice work on Konx-om-Pax.co.uk by Glasgow based Director/Animator/Sound Designer Tom Scholefield. You can view his latest reel here. In recent years he’s worked with Warp Records, Universal Everything and Optimo Espacio. He’s had work shown in Tokyo, Egyptian Theatre Hollywood, Buenos Aires, Cannes Lions, Florence, London and Glasgow. Konx-om-Pax has recently been featured in Grafik Magazine and has been awarded a prize of Best New Blood in the annual D&AD awards. Go check it out people.

Spent a fantastic bank holiday with the family up at the East Anglian Railway Museum which is just outside Colchester, Essex. We were there for the Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends day!

This is a fantastic fully operational station with working museum. The museum buildings have been kept or restored back to their original state and there are hundreds of great examples of railway signage, posters and other collectible ephemera ranging from the early 1930’s and 1940’s.

Found these great examples of advertising that were exhibited in the main ticket hall. The visual impact of simple bold typography, the use of strong vivid solid colours and illustration are a great antidote to some of the over photoshopped examples we are bombarded with daily today.

Also great simple straightforward copy, “You can taste the fruit!”, “The mint with the hole”, “They’re new, They’re pepperint, They’re Spangles” Genius!

And here is the reason why we went in the first place. The phenomenon that is Thomas the Tank Engine!

Great interview with Fred Deakin of Airside and Lemon Jelly fame on FormFiftyFive. Shot at his home in London showing his vast record collection!

A Q&A session which gives a good insight into the workings of Airside and his brutally honest view of his own low attention span on project work!

Depending who you speak to, which newspaper or media you choose to read either you get the feeling that the current recession is improving or beginning to bight a little harder. Some smaller agencies I know are inundated with work whilst some of the big ad agencies are letting people go. Confusing times!

Well if you’ve have been through rough times or forgot to check for typo’s before going to print or publish this could be the book for you.

Design Disasters: Great Designers, Fabulous Failure, and Lessons Learned is an engaging record of misfortune and misadventure.

If you want a daily fix of design disasters you need to take a look at failblog.org an amazing collection of design and general life failures. A daily source of amusement in the studio.

My poor old neglected blog has been left to gather digital dust recently due to work being all consuming…

But this is worth promoting, it looks like a great insight into the thinking behind modern advertising, with fantastic interviews from George Lois, Mary Wells, Dan Wieden, Lee Clow, Hal Riney who were responsible for “Just Do It,” “I Love NY,” “Where’s the Beef?,” “Got Milk,” “Think Different,” etc

This is the latest film from director Doug Pray (Surfwise, Scratch, Hype) an will be a must see for the autumn/winter. Check out http://artandcopyfilm.com for more details.

Mr Worthington is a multi talented graphic designer with a sharp eye for detail and layout who I have known for years. He’s decided this year to venture into the wold of freelance, so if you’re looking for a good designer/art director to work on any projects you need look no further. His expanding portfolio site is dworthington.co.uk.