Last weekend in June...

We've just finished our first week at Leagas Delaney and we've certainly been kept busy. We have even had the chance to step out for a beer with a couple of the guys - sing songs in Italian & get lost trying to take a shortcut through town.

Well it's been over a year since we left Uni and made our way London. It's doesn't even seem that long ago... but it clearly has.

D&AD New Blood is next week, hopefully we'll be able to make an appearance - I'm interested to see what other ideas are out there and what we're up against with this years freshest grads on the ad scene.

Mike.

Irresponsible Thinking...

So, a few friends and I managed to steal a day away to Thorpe Park last weekend - I hadn't been since I was about 10 so I was pretty excited... before I get to the point, I must just tell you this... the SAW ride is amazing... go... now.

However, amongst the rides we found this harmless ladder climbing game... at a second glance you may notice something a little unexpected...



Now, I don't mean to be rude... I'm not usually, but what were they thinking!?

The Lonely Island...

No, not a spin-off  of Hyper Island, but an awesome group named Lonely Island.

They've been going for ages, but I only found out about them in my last year at Uni - following the smash-hit 'Hot Rod' - possibly the funniest film of all time, a slight twist of dry humour - it's going to leave you with some serious quotage!

Having directed most of the 'We Are Scientists' music vids and featuring the likes of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, as well as frequent guest appearences from Seth Rogan, JT, T-Pain, Will Ferrell, Jack Black & others you need to check out their videos...

A couple of vids you might know - featured on Saturday night live...

Some other hilarious videos...

Guess what! they run a blog too, check it out... here

Enjoy.

Shoes of the In'juns...

Hello Shoppers...

So we're sitting here on the morning of the third day... now slightly more settled - and ready for another day at Leagas Delaney to begin. It turns out we're sitting in Rob Burleigh's old office... (sorry Rob) - it was the only space available - but what a nice office. It's not very common for a placement team to have much space to work, DLKW gave us a rather large office, but there was a catch - no windows. We have, however, 2 rather large windows for light to flood through - the catch this time, I hear you ask? Probably that we're sat next door to Tim. Although, we don't see this as a bad thing... we've heard the stories and I hope he lives up to every expectation. (He's not around until Friday).

So far we've been working on some pro-bono stuff for Child Trafficking, but yesterday, a nice brief for Timberland landed on our desk - and a couple others to be honest... We'll see what we can make of it. 

In other news, a couple of bits from DLKW of some work was approved today so that should be appear in some media near you...

As for brain food, I'll leave these rather nice, iconic ads for Timberland for you to ponder over... you can also find them in 'The [infamous] Copy Book'.

...

From one Delaney to Another...

Although Wieden's has been pushed back to July, we received a phone call yesterday from Leagas Delaney... We start Monday. Nice opportunity to stir some things up... there's been some nice work so hopefully something will come of it... as always, we'll have to wait and see...

Having met Greg at DLKW, it will be nice to squeeze in a chat with Tim. (I've also read Sam's book...) We're not stalking - honest. They just seem to have a large presence across the Ad & Film world...

Also, does anyone have a video camera we can borrow? Just for an idea we'd like to do the side, we'll need it for a day - possibly 2? We'll take good care of it - promise. It's cheeky, but well... if you don't ask...

The Chip Shop Awards...

...were interesting. haha.

The evening was held at Fabric Night Club around Farringdon way, it certainly wasn't quite what we imagined. We had made up some flyers in preparation, it seemed like a good opportunity to chuck around our names... designing and printing them in only a couple of hours was a bit tight but they seemed to do the job. We'll just wait and see if anyone actually picked one up... It was pretty dark so I'm surprised anyone saw anything!

The promise of a packet of chips was offered although the portions left a lot to be desired... The night began with a Canadian comedian - he took a couple of minutes to warm up, but once he got going he was actually quite funny - in a weird, aggressive & slightly deranged way... he certainly got the crowd going.

After an introductory speech by the Founder of the Chip Shop Awards & The Editor (?) of The Drum magazine, we got down to the nominations. There were a few categories, some being awarded 'Chips' others 'Vinegars' and some categories - both awards. He explained that due to the nature of the awards the 'CSA' are often sued by various commercial companies, perhaps this explains the small portions of chips?

It took a while but our category was practically last, but we were successful, both entries in our category received 'Chip' awards. One thing that made me laugh was that, although the D&AD pencil is certainly coveted - if you ever get to pick one up - they are practically weightless... the Chip is solid as a rock. 

The Grand Prix was selected from all the Chip winners and was awarded to an incredibly funny viral for Specsavers (a spoof of the Barclaycard flume ad) It can be found as one of the video entries here

We followed the awards with a few celebratory beers and a quick chat with Mike McKenna for some wise words of wisdom. We saw John Jessup was floating around but we didn't get a chance to chat with him...

The final nominations, vinegars & chip can be found here

The Chip:

We're not due to start Wieden's until July now - so some real time to be cracking on with the book - say hello if you see us at NABS :)

Today, Tonight & Tomorrow.

Hello!

Apologies to anyone to likes consistency in updates to the blogs they read... it just doesn't seem to happen with this one... no real reason, I get distracted you see... then a day passes, then another day... and well then I think... damn, I actually like doing this.... riiiiight back to the point...

Well, quite a few changes to the world of Mike and Phil. 

We finished DLKW on Friday, trust them not to give us an easy send off! 2 briefs came in on Thursday night and about a gazillion amendments, it all seem to hit us at once. That's one thing I'd say about DLKW - the busiest agency i've seen - full stop. Although, It's rumoured Wieden's work the longest hours - this would be nothing new; I guess you have to work for it and I think we worked most days/nights throughout our time at DLKW... it's a habit or something.

With little/no sleep by the end of the week, I think we left a good impression, we received a few nice words from a number of people. We seemed to get a lot of work out, leaving just before a portion of it was due to go into production, typical, from press/print to radio, online, TV and some retail stuff. Easily the busiest placement yet. 

I certainly found, that it's great seeing stuff that you've spent hours scribbling out on a page come to life in some form or another. When things go into production its a small reward for what you've been working to... at least for a second or two, before the inevitable request for 'tweaks' comes in... and.... if it doesn't come at the creative review or even at the account review, then it's certainly going to come at the client review. That's what we've found so far anyway.

What's next? Well... we'll be looking forward to our next placement at W+K, but for now it's time to get back on the book and round for those crits.

In other news:

We're off to the Chip Shop Awards ceremony thingy tonight, there's only two entries left in our category so we should either be first or second... ha! We'll let you know how it turns out.

My 23rd Birthday was last Wednesday in which I received this present from Phil... very apt. 

...and this little DIY card from Guy & Sarah, done on a budget of course.