The Chip Shop Awards...

Well who'd have thought... after scraping a few pennies together for a bit of a laugh, we thought we'd chuck one of our own ideas into the mix... seems to have come up trumps having our 'Bra Training work being nominated for the Mobile category.

Those of you who don't know, the Chip Shop awards are an 'Alternative' awards competition with some big names on the panel such as, the distinctively original Dave trott, bloggers own Scamp & the likes of Mike McKenna (CD - JWT), Seb Royce (ECD - Glue), John Jessup (CD - Leos) 

There are almost no rules... you can make up your own category, or simply rip of your favourite ad. This clearly isn't raising your expectations is it? 

However, it's a good laugh, there is some seriously funny work on there, all a bit tongue in cheek, also some utter crap, but maybe that's the point, take a look I'm sure something will make you smile, even just a little. If it doesn't, then I've seriously misjudged our readership, yes all three of you. If you don't laugh at the regional ads, you're A) from said region or B) An acquired sense of humour. The awards have come from far and wide, the UK to New York, Germany and the Netherlands to bring you the finest 'alternative ads'. There are some good serious ads that are equally as justified... feeling constrained by that client brief, thought of something that would never run then make sure you're watching next year. 

You can find the nominations from this year here ... As well as the entries from 2008 here

We're assured that any resemblance the awards carry to a certain infamous awards scheme is purely coincidental.... ha.

The keen eyed ones among you, will have noticed the addition of our new website to the side bar, it's still a major work in progress, but it's simple enough to navigate. We've avoided anything too complicated and instead opted for the - all about the work- option. We'd like to know what you think... there's still bits to go up there, and hopefully you'll see us changing some bits fairly frequently... 

Freelance & Crit-age.

In the run up to starting here at DLKW, we were packing in the crits and making sure we could get around to as many people as possible...  We've seen some inspiring people, I'll write some of those up - when I have a bit more time. We did however make our way over to Big Al's Creative Emporium

Our work seemed to go down extremely well, everyone has their opinion on how good (or bad) the work is from their perspective, but we couldn't have had a better response. First having a separate crit with Tom & another with Stef, both last nearly an hour, we certainly made an impact on their planned schedule for that day. We'd heard a lot about the two, and we were consequently churning over inside - only to be pleasantly surprised at the result. They both know what they want, there's no frills, it's straight talking, honest thoughts, if they don't like you'll certainly find out about it. Get something they like, break past that intimidating exterior and they are bloody nice blokes.

Let me explain, Big Al's is a sort of Hybrid ...agency, if you can call it that... Sounds pretentious right? Well it's not, those are my words to describe it. It's run by Tom & Stef - they act as a  creative hub, if you like, they pick up briefs floating in adland, pitch for new clients, in the same way any agency does - but don't function like a normal Agency in the traditional sense. They bring people in on a freelance basis, as and when the briefs suit. Perfect for us, I might add, as we can do a little bit on the side. 

Anyway, Stef got in touch over the weekend and Bob's your mother's brother, we were freelancing on the Sunday. It was a pretty big opportunity and we had nothing to lose. We're still waiting to hear how the work went down - but hopefully it won't have destroyed any expectations they had, and perhaps we might have another opportunity.

Mike.

DLKW - A week in.

Right well...

Here we are, 1 week on from starting at DLKW and I assure you, it has been one of the fastest weeks of my life. Having been in touch with Rich & Remco since we came and saw them a few weeks back, we finally got a call...

The work has been plentiful, quick turn-arounds, some tight restrictions, late nights, lots of coffee, but most of all - a good chance to try and make an impression. So far we've been working on the Mirror: TV & Press, as well as some press for Marston's Pedigree which are all currently finding their way to their unsuspecting clients, this of course, is all whilst we're trying to do some bits on the side for fun. We've also got some nice comfortable chairs, plenty of supplies and a Tesco around the corner to keep our food bills down.

We've papered the walls, exhausted the toner and filled the bin with umpteen scraps for recycling. I know what you're thinking... We'll plant a tree at the weekend or something. 

The result of too much 'Kick' for Phil... a litre in one night. Ouch.

I know it seems like an cliché thing to say, but we have truly been made to feel welcome, from the people at the front desk, right up to the execs themselves. Sure there are offices here and everyone's always busy, but if you give them a moment they will usually give you the time of day. There's a lot of changes going on - with George Prest joining the Agency as ECD from Lowe, some new account people due, big clients and pitches in the pipelines, it all looks pretty exciting. Lets just hope we can pull off something special to stay a little longer, then a little longer perhaps.

Easter Egg Promo

We like tinkering with things in our 'spare' time.

Here's something we got up to over Easter... we didn't actually send it to Joe Bloggs...

Some responses thus far, more to follow as and when the pictures arrive...

Last Week & Wanted Ads Work

Ridiculously busy this week...

On placement - also, freelancing at the weekend.

Update this evening... or tomorrow. Promise.

For now, as mentioned a few weeks back, the Wanted Awards work here

Edit: Well as it turns out, there's no cap on the number of times you can vote - and it looks like somebody has gone click happy... I wonder if they will still pay attention to the results?

You can vote for your preferred favourite if any - Our vote went to Mauro Rodriguez & Tom Langdon.

Also there's that Viral we spoke about before - scripted...possibly. 

All Crit-ters and Placements beware - this could happen to you!

This week has been truly mental... the whole Easter thing, then coming back to London, then doing work, then shooting off to places, then coming back, then doing more stuff before heading off elsewhere, it's been quite crazy...

Before I have time to catch up... probably later tonight, or tomorrow, here's a little Video to tie you over... found by Phil in the furthest corners of the Interwebs!

**I'm not saying it will happen to you but it could...

I'm not sure if it's real or not... to be quite honest I don't care - it's bloody hilarious!

And well this is just plain... awesomeness-ness.

We're a Team! Not a couple!?

Anyone who's in a team has probably had this issue at some point. It's kind of funny really... 

The ad industry as a whole is quite unique, there's not many jobs out there where you get paid to do whatever it is that you do, to create and conceptualise ideas for adverts - and even beyond that - creating Ideas that make everyday life easier... well sort of... Right, enough philosophising and back to the subject in hand... 

Teams. We know we work in teams. Often an Art Director & Copywriter, more and more so these days as Creatives working on Ideas. We know that. Other creatives know that. The Designers, Production and Suits all know that, (well most of them do). Our families know that...

Then there's everyone else.

I have often been caught out referring to our 'team' - Phil and I, as 'we' - as you do - in the job, in crits, and when you're meeting other creative people... However, I have a habit of forgetting, people outside of the industry don't know this. It seems unless you're working in advertising you'll rarely know what this means. I can't count the amount of times, I've been caught bac-tracking having to justify that my work partner - IS NOT - my partner, partner. It's a guy I work with. Even saying 'my creative partner' doesn't quite cut it. 

It makes me think... there has to be another profession, in another industry, where you are required to work this closely with another person... and you'll perhaps even refer to each other as 'we'. 

What makes it worse, is that Phil and I, live in the same house - along with another Copywriter. We leave the house together, we return - often together, we carry a portfolio with our names stenciled on it, I think it looks cool and helps put the name about... but, I also wonder how many people that don't work in advertising, think something slightly odd is going on... It gets a good reception in crits and certainly gets a little attention on the tube. A cyan coloured portfolio probably would though right?

Do people outside the world advertising understand this working relationship?

We've got a number of friends from Uni, they studied and now work in Graphic Design. They'd know surely... well they do now. I've had to explain it to them in the past, I honestly begin to wonder whether anyone else come across this predicament? 

Now, Phil's a nice guy, but he's not quite the tall, long-legged, brunette or blonde girl I tend to go for. We're not that close. There's a little book supplied from NABS/ LIZ H* a little while back that says it's not a good idea to fancy the person you work with. Well thank God for that.

We learned that it's all pretty normal for any team, to agree, to disagree, to have fun, stress out, work late into the night, crack on first thing in the morning, there's highs and lows... all I can say is Welcome to advertising!

*I'll upload a copy if I can without breaching any copyright laws! ...or direct you somewhere where you can get one... if they are still in print.

Crit 2.0

Apparently of the 5/6 Photos I took, this was the best - Ben & Sophie didn't seem to be that photogenic. Sorry Guys camera phones just don't cut it!!!

Not the Thursday gone, the Thursday before we nipped across London's finest underground system back to Wieden's to see Ben & Sophie again, although we've got the placement lined up, we still think it's pretty important to keep tabs on things, make sure they still like what we're doing. The book almost completely changed, went down well, arguably better than before, if that's possible. The place is in a whole lot of chaos at the moment, in fact, they've just bought/ leased etc the building across the street, so when you find yourself on Hanbury Street in future, Wieden's will be on both sides of the road! 

People were crammed into every nook and cranny. We still managed to sneak a picture of this beauty... ha ha.

The day before we received a rather nice email, out of the blue from Rich Holmes over at DLKW, great news really, he said he seen some of our work on the rounds and would like for us to come in for a chat.

A big smile and a free copy of Campaign :)

It went swimmingly, Rich, a real nice guy, was unfortunately flying solo that day, as Remco, (his partner) was away, anyway a nice long chat, a good flick through the book and we had covered a whole load of things, including some views and thoughts on the work we hadn't heard before. Rich even gave us a free copy of Campaign. Free stuff is always welcome.

Everything seems to be going pretty well over there, those keeno's among us might have noticed they won the E.On pitch not long ago, I know WCRS were in the running but that's about it. With a new ECD and a new Head of Strategy on their way in there, it seems like it could be an exciting place to be... but we'll have to wait and see. 

Now we know people are actually reading this I might, try and make things a re little more interesting... or we'll just keep on doing what we do. Eithey way we'll keep on bloggin'.

Right, well This Friday, we stopped by DDB & WCRS to meet Howard (an ex-JWT CD) & Si respectively. We find it's great going back to places you've been before, there's always a chance to catch up on what's been happening, on both sides of the wall, so to speak, and although it is about the work, it's not ALL about the work. Something that has often popped up is that people never seem to go back for a second round of crits!? This is often the best bit, the hard bit is out of the way, initial introductions over, a familiar face. Seems a bit odd...if you ask me.