On the Day...

Friday of all days... we were both pretty excited about the Wanted Ads, a chance to get noticed by doing some good work and to meet other creative in a similar position - except some of them already have jobs, it was the end of the week and it had been pretty busy one at that.

As described by the last post, we arrived in a rather unstylish fashion, it certainly didn't leave us at our best, running 80% of the way, with the other 20% was spent on the tube...* but we were there, The London Art House.

Once we arrived we were straight in the briefing, the room was quite full with roughly 22 / 23 Teams, from all over. The restrictions were you had to have done less than 3 years employment as a creative. So teams with Jobs, teams without jobs, teams on placements and yes you guessed it, team not on placement.

The brief was for HSBC, World Selection - in short, a savings account where they invest your saving worldwide using their 'specialist knowledge' - a tough brief if I'm honest.

After being delivered to the 'Baroque Hall', along with a few other teams, we cracked on with the work. The day was pretty good on the whole, nice selection for lunch, they provided the pens, pencils & paper along with Tea & Coffee in the afternoon. Around 4 PM the work was halted everyone had a chance to present to a couple of Creative Directors, we had Grant one of the ECDs from Iris and Paul from the Newspaper Society. 

The Baroque Hall - but none of the chairs were there.

Overall, our impression of our work, was that it wasn't brilliant, we had a last minute idea which saw the rest of the work scrapped and 5 minutes to sketch up the new stuff. We could have done far better - the power of hindsight though right?

The day was not over until the results, with Joe & Alex picking up on of the prize spots and Enrique & Borja winning for a second time two years in a row! They'll go on to represent the UK in Europe (Hosted in London - what a tough break)...

We had a great chance to chat with some people, Alex, from our first placement at JWT, Jake & Jake, a team from Iris, who we almost missed while we were there, as they were in a different house, but they recognised us, and vice versa - great to catch up with. The infamous Jai & Wal for a good old natter, Dip & Rob from Dare,  Paul & Danni who are currently at Inferno and finally Conrad & Alex who have done a fair stint at M&C... 

What's more all the work is going to be online this year, it gives people a chance to see what everyone else has done, not just the winners and decide if you agree. Also there will be a viral going out, we can accept no responsibility for the comments and statements made as they were completely scripted, then improvised for the public amusement. We are not 'total' fools.

*Figures are not accurate, in the slightest.

How to get to the Wanted Ads...

Preparation - check emails - find the address, google maps is your friend, print off.

1 - Arrive 45 Minutes early, because you can't predict the tube times.

2 - Find out and make sure you know where the place is.

3 - Once you've found the place, sit down for a cup of tea, perhaps some toast in a local Café

4 - Making sure you're not late arrive 5 minutes before you're supposed to be there.

5 - Head on up to the Newspaper Society reception, the receptionist will look through her diary and direct you to a boardroom.

6 - Sit in the boardroom, realising you are clearly the first here, what a keeno!

7 - What a Keeno! It's half 9.30 AM - nobody else is here!?

8 - Cue visit from a nice man at 9.35 AM who tells you you're in the wrong place and instead of being at the Newspaper Society you need to be at the Art House. A good 35 Minute journey - It starts at 10 AM - he hands you another map.

9 - Leave in a hurry, run through the underground system (apparently it's not allowed), nearly run into a blind man on the escalators, change trains 1 or 2 times depending on your route, arrive at the Venue.

10 - Slip in to back of seminar, un-noticed, realising you are only missed 1 minute and no-one else knows you're late.

Welcome to the Wanted Ads.

Wanted... Ads.

Slightly dishonest with the title, we don't want ads... well we do, but that's another story.

We were on the drop out list for 'The Wanted Ads' - Young Team of the Year Awards.

Today we received a call with some great news, we're in. We'll be going up against approximately 25 teams to try and come out on top, can't guarantee anything, but by the sounds of things there's going to be some talent there. We'll try and do our bit anyway...

This has been mentioned over at Jai & Wal - and being as they did the write up last year I'll let them feedback on it - we'll just do our usual twist. I noticed The Oxymorons will be there too... 

Battle of the bloggers maybe... and then some.

Explosive!

Sent to me by Mr. Dave! 

And to use his words... "A music vid, by the legend that is Spike Jonez".

Superb cinematography, amazing shots, skaters and explosives... truly... wow.

Heaven (Fully Flared Intro Video Remix)
Uploaded by UNKLE_UK

Best Skating footage I've seen....

Got a few quid?

A shameless plug I'm afraid to say...

We're broke, yet to have been paid... we have some designer chairs that we managed to acquire. (No, we may be a junior team, and thus, scraping the barrel at the bottom of the industry, but they were actually given to us!)

The .03 side Chair - they are Manufactured by Vitra and Designed by Maarten Van Severen, a very nice chap (apparently!?) Circa 1999. Blah blah blah - it's all on the listing.

Anyway, we're selling them on Ebay... they are worth a few quid... so tell your friends, or anyone you know with a chair fetish...

Thank you!!!

Go here...

If anyone wants to make this post viral - please do!

Bugger...

Being as I posted the VW 'Bollocks' ad, I thought this would be completely appropriate with a dash of Aussie humour. 

Enjoy.

The little things...

Got in touch with Jay at the Brooklyn Brothers a few weeks back, he used to be at AMV BBDO, and is apparently doing great things over there. Anyway... Noticed a funny little quirk with his signature at the bottom of his emails... here's a few examples... 

It's all in the details... This is what follows the witty little remarks...

The views and opinions expressed in this email should be smart, witty and/or incisive. They may contain the odd piece of brilliance. Dissemination, distribution or copying of this email or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient means you owe us a pound. If this email has been received in error please call The Brooklyn Brothers at +44 (0)20 ******** and feel free to call the sender an idiot for typing the wrong e-dress

Question is... do I owe them a quid?

Feel free to send some clippings of more and i'll add them up.

Mike.

Bollocks

Possibly in my list as one of my favourite ads...

...working on something yesterday brought it flooding back.

Hats off to Dan & Amber, makes me laugh everytime.

From Crayons to Pencils...

...No not that sort, but one day if we're lucky.

Well I hope you've got the time to sit down and go through this lot, a bumper series of posts this weekend, I'm quite happy to say!

Well after 5 weeks at Iris our time is up! Placements are only supposed to last 2 weeks for some reason, so we've done well and it's been great! The days have been long, but the weeks have flown by. We've worked on all sorts, from Dept. of Health, Jack Daniels, Absolut Vodka, Philips & finally the giant that is Sony Ericsson. 

After a chat with Mark, the DCD of our second house, it seems the immediate need is for seniors, and he didn't want to hold us there when we could be working off our asses somewhere else, that is actively looking to take the chance with some new talent at a Junior level. Now, I know what you're thinking, that may sound like an excuse, but we've been invited back for Freelance in a few weeks to work on a few things. 

The guys have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome, have briefs to work on and encourage great ideas - no matter what the brief is. We have possibly met some of the most approachable people in the industry so far, with a few exceptions. There were no offices or walls and the door was literally always open - well, there wasn't one...

A big thanks to everyone for putting up with us! From Neale & Leigh, Pete & Neil, Barry & Dave in the first house, to Mark, Phil & Tim, Gareth, The infamous Artworkers Dan & Damo, who kept the banter flourishing throughout our time there. 

We have had the chance to work alongside some brilliant creatives, a couple of Freelance guys Tori of WCRS fame and Nick who did some great work at Adam & Eve.

There's plenty more people, but this isn't an oscar, and we're out the door, at least for the time being. 

We've got a couple of things lined up next, new contacts and plenty of people to go see, let's see where they take us!

Looking for crayons...

Here's the deal... a shameless plug.

We have a friend called James 

He'll answer to Jimi... 

He's a copywriter. 

He's pretty good too. 

He's looking for an Art Director, juniors specifically. 

Think you're up for it?

Drop us a message and we'll forward his details!

Your friendly ad-matchmakers over at Mike & Phil.

Cuthell + Monks

Um... the typeface isn't exactly right but, I think we can let this one slip through the net...

Yep, some great news last week. We've landed a placement at Wieden + Kennedy's as of June!!!!! Arguably one of the best Creative shops around... we couldn't believe our luck, and had to check to make sure it wasn't a prank...

WTH June!? I hear you say... well there was a minor mix up with the date, it was going to be the 16th of this Month, but we certainly don't mind the wait! :) 

Another week... of names to learn...

It turns out it wasn't 50, more like 25 feet from our last desk. Slight exaggeration there.

So as we said last week, things have changed somewhat, we've shifted next door to a new house, to work with a bunch of new guys and on a bunch of new briefs. Almost like starting a fresh all over again. It's good though, Mark the DCD of the house has been brilliant, the Designers & Artworkers have kept us entertained with miscellaneous pranks the odd bit of banter... Phil,  & Tim have kept us busy with work and feedback.  

This week has all been about Sony Ericsson. A few different briefs but one client kinda leaves you tripping over yourself a little. Different phones, applications and restrictions are keeping us on our toes. It seems to be going well though...

We can now also double the list of names we have to remember. It feels like every name I learn, something very useful gets pushed out of my head. I'm not complaining though - I'm probably due for a clear out up there... 

There's a real nice feel about the place to date and we're being kept on at least another week, who knows beyond that, let's just hope we can crack a couple of briefs that come our way and continue on making an impression. 

Mike.

A Nod to T & D...

A quick nod of congratulations to two of our Buddies, Tom & Darren from the University days, they have just been HIRED at Ogilvy, after a bit of a stretch!!!! Well done guys (Apologies for the delay in getting this one up!!!) 

The Irony of Nature...

I tend to keep notes of quirky little things that I come across - here's another...

Funny how paper starts life as a tree - and ends up as leaves.

Welcome to Iris...

So this came a little later than expected... we're two weeks in and it's going well - we hope. We've met some amazing people and are getting a really nice feel for the place, and we're not just saying that. 

Iris seems a little different to most agencies you come across, the big reason for me is because of it's unique (?) structure. I'll explain, it's one big company, but it is divided in to 6 houses.

(Appropriately named after 6 local pubs!) 

Each house contains about 60 people or there abouts - it's own clients, suits, production/design  and creative departments. It seems to allow the company to run a lot more effectively. This is the first time i've come across something like this. I think it gives the clients a much more personal relationship with the company and the people who work there a greater sense of personality. Having worked at a huge place and a smaller one it's nice to be at Iris with this fusion of the two. Phil and I love the big places, but we like the small equally for very different reasons - there's definitely something nice about having the advantages of both...

As for us, it's been tough but we've been enjoying every second of it, it sounds corny but we were made to feel very welcome from day one, there's often a separation with the temp staff, I find, and you really have to go out of your way to make an impression, (this is the norm for placement teams - don't get me wrong - you want a job - you work at it) but it's really not been difficult there and there's a lot of little quirky things that make you feel like your part of the team.

So we've been working to the Creative group heads, and the feedback seems to have been positive. There's work that is being presented to client for Jack Daniel's, some bits on Absolut Vodka and we've been working on a placement brief for Dept. of Health, amongst other things. 

As of Monday we're switching houses for a couple of weeks to work under a new CD (Ironically it's all of about 50 feet across the same floor), it's not too bad though, it'll almost be like starting over, although we know a couple of people already, from the workshop days and through generally wondering the corridors. Someone else we've got to try to impress and make our mark - we'll give it our best shot. 

We'll update as and when.

We know what's coming...

Great news everyone apparently I can write in the future!!!!

As to what I was doing on Facebook at 5.15 am in the morning I have no idea... I now coin the phrase 'sleep-booking'.

Out of the woodwork....

Right, it's a been a full on couple of weeks, and we're back in the blogging world. Here's a few bumper posts just for the absence of late.

First things first, there's been a little bit of a discovery with regards to our London Aquarium / TFL idea... it seems in the last week someone else has thought of the same idea (DDB Berlin). Now some people could view this as a real blow - but we find it a bit of a compliment - alright it's a little gutting but it seems to be going down well. It's scarily similar. We won't comment to say it's been ripped off - chances are I really doubt it has been. It's just one of those things, one world and a lot of ideas, someone is going to come up with the same thing sooner or later.

Still think it should be projected though if possible then you could have boats on the surface and escalator panels that get deeper the further you go down.

Cheers for the heads up 'G' & the 'allaboutthecrit' Girls...

Just to prove it's been in our book for quite some time and we're not a couple of ideas thief's here's a little snap from our Flickr page.

Our Idea... (Posted mac'd up on the blog at the beginning of Feb). 

The 'other' idea... (Published circa Feb 22nd). 

Edit: on a side note I can't find any publicity on the Elbe Tunnel - surely someone must have taken a picture or wrote about if it actually happened? (Anyone help me out?) - Their mac skills are obviously better ha-ha.