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Behind the Idea: Recode Decode

St Luke’s Creative Partner Al Young has spotted an innovative approach to promoting a major digital art exhibition.

The V&A launched Decode: Digital Design Sensations in collaboration with contemporary arts organisation onedotzero in December – the first time the museum has staged a digital art exhibition. The challenge was to create a campaign that would appeal not only to regular museumgoers, but also to a highly digitally literate audience. 

‘Karl Marx wanted the means of production to fall into the hands of the proletariat so that revolution could occur,’ says Young.  He believes the V&A matched these principles with its interactive approach to Decode, and it’s advertising campaign has followed similar ‘revolutionary’ principles.

Recode Decode was an open source campaign created by digital agency Saint/Y&R.  Recode not only promoted the exhibition but extended participation to the web.  Digital artist Karsten Schmidt was commissioned to create a piece of work that could sit at the centre of the campaign.

‘Schmidt designed the beautiful animated identity for the show and gave open-source access to the coding.  It allowed the masses to re-form and submit their own new design,’ says Young. 

Work was submitted to an online gallery and the best Recodes were then used to promote the exhibition on and offline. The V&A exhibited the best of them on CBS’ new digital screens on the Underground.

Saint/Y&R Creative Director David Gamble noticed that Recode submissions kept improving as the campaign ran on.  His team even noticed digital artists from the Decode exhibition submitting pieces of their own. ‘The work got better and more ambitious as people got to grips with the application and the code,’ says Gamble. ‘Just look at the piece by Matt Swoboda, it’s fantastic, and has raised the bar even higher.’

Young is impressed that the V&A has taken on this kind of exhibition. ‘This is the sort of collective affair you’d expect at the Hayward Gallery, ICA or Tate Modern – not the V&A,’ says Young.  ‘Karl, it seems you’re alive and well in the 2010 avant-garde digital arts advertising space. And so, Victoria and Albert, are you.’

Decode: Recode from directtovideo on Vimeo.

Judging: One week to go

 

One week to go until Awards & Student Awards judging kicks off.  In this film, a few of last year's judges talk about what the experience is like.  Keep an eye on www.dandad.org for daily interviews and updates, and most importantly - the Awards results.  Student Awards results will be released in early May. 

Good luck to all our entrants!

How many judges does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

D&AD Judging 2009 at Olympia, London. Photo Credit: Christine Donnier-Valentin

We're not sure, but we might just find out in a couple of weeks when judging for the Awards & Student Awards takes place at Olympia.

We'll be announcing In-Book and Nominated results throughout the week at dandad.org, along with commentary and interviews. 

Entries selected to go In-Book are considered the best creative work of the year and will be featured in the D&AD Annual, published in October.  Nominated work may go on to win a D&AD Yellow Pencil for setting new standards of creative excellence.  The D&AD Black Pencil will be awarded to work that is truly groundbreaking.

The D&AD Student Awards will be judged over the same week.  The Student Yellow Pencil identifies the best new talent each year for the industry and kick starts careers for plenty of new graduates.  Over one-third of last year’s winners got their first job or placement as a direct result of their prize.  Not shabby!

Ideas Playground

We've partnered with YouTube to create a space for the latest, most inspiring, groundbreaking and otherwise remarkable videos in commercial creativity.  The Inspiration Channel officially launches today as the central repository of ideas online.

The rules?  

Anyone can upload videos created through work or play.  Content uploaded and tagged will appear free for anyone to browse and view.  Regular and varied guest editors will be invited to select their favourites, starting with our CEO Tim. 

Disclaimer time:

Work featured on the Inspiration Channel has not been subjected to D&AD’s judging standards or process, however it will be quality controlled to ensure the content stays relevant.  Anyone can contribute to the Channel, making it an ever growing, always changing online resource.

Behind The Magic: Bringing Print and Digital Together with QuarkXPress 8

We are pleased to present a story this week about how Gravity London use an exciting brief to learn a thing or two about merging disciplines. Seamlessly coordinating print and  digital teams to demonstrate the creative functionality of   QuarkXPress 8. The more we learn, the better our ideas can become. Thanks very much to Valentina Moressa at Quark for sharing this great case study with the tutors and students of our University Network.

Behind The Magic

Paul Anderson is the creative director at Gravity London, one of London's hippest agencies, working across TV, press, outdoor, radio, DM, ambient, experiential and the world of digital, with clients the likes of Investec, Toyota and Adecco.

At Gravity’s, like in most agencies, the creative department is split between press and digital. Paul, however, is fully aware that “there’s not going to be one or the other anymore in the world.  It’s just not really feasible.  So anything that can help the crossover of those two disciplines has got to be a great thing.”

When Gravity was approached by Quark to come up with the creative idea for a new campaign to showcase QuarkXPress 8’s Flash functionalities, the teams got together for a brainstorm and found that there was “something special about that functionality and the sort of creative tool box that it gave you. With QuarkXPress 8 you can make a transition from print to interactive in a nice easy way in an environment that you know and love”.

The big idea? “Perform magic with Flash in QuarkXPress 8”.

Paul admits: “It is effectively magic, that’s how we see it.  It’s like a little magician’s toolbox of tricks. And in the process we’ve actually learned to perform a little bit of magic ourselves  “

Gravity’s print and web team worked closely to create and craft the initial idea through to the writing, development and building of the end product: a microsite with Flash functionality, a digital advertising campaign and 100s of Flash resources that QuarkXPress users can download for free. All of this- designed and built with QuarkXPress 8.
 

Gravity also produced a series of ‘Behind the Magic’ videos to give an insight into the design challenges they faced and how they used QuarkXPress 8 to overcome them. They were using QuarkXPress 8 to combine Web design and interactive functionality in one application and found themselves simply having several ‘Eureka!' moments and realising how easy it is to create Flash resources.

Gravity’s art director, Tom West, on the creative journey with QuarkXPress 8: “As an art director, it’s very important to understand that the nature of the advertising business and the creative idea is actually moving a lot more online and a lot more interactive.  So you need to have an understanding of what is going on and the interactive side. I think the more you know, the more you learn, the better your ideas can become.”

Dipping into design history: Alan Fletcher

Alan Fletcher is an icon of post-war graphic design in Britain.  He spent over fifty years creating stunning identities for clients as prestigious and diverse as the V&A and Reuters.  He was a founding member of D&AD and founding partner of international design firm Pentagram.

His style and approach can be best understood by flicking through his seminal publication, ‘The Art of Looking Sideways’.  Fletcher himself described the book as 'a journey without a destination'.  The book is a collection of images, quotes and comments that provides insight into Fletcher’s inspiration and visual philosophy.

Here's a selection of his work.  A big thank you to Pentagram for sourcing images.

Pirelli cintura: 1961

Reuters Logo: 1965

D&AD exhibition poster, 1963

Designers Saturday: 1982 

IBM Poster Series: 1983

IBM Poster Series: 1983

IBM Poster Series: 1983

Daimler Benz Poster: 1986

Metro Wrap Competition: We Have a Winner

Metro wanted to give creatives the chance to play with their newspaper, so last month they launched a competition with D&AD.  The challenge was to produce a coverwrap that would inspire and motivate commuters on their way into work. The winning work was wrapped round this morning’s edition of the paper.

A diverse mix of work was nominated, but it was the simple, bold images that won over judges. ‘Lots of the entries brought a smile to my face which to me is no bad thing,’ said film director Ringan Ledgwidge.

A team from branding and design agency The Partners came out on top with their simple and beautiful idea to ‘make someone’s day’ – turning the wrap into a bunch of flowers by rolling up the paper.

‘We wanted the idea to have a purpose; getting people to re-use and pass on their newspaper, said Jack Renwick, Creative Director at The Partners. “Everyone likes flowers. You can use them as an emergency gift, to say sorry, or just to cheer someone up. If someone proposes using our paper I hope we get invited to the wedding!”

Thanks to everyone who entered - and congratulations to the winning team!

(L-R): Alex Woolley, Jack Renwick, Samuel Hall & Sam Griffiths

Behind the Idea: The ad your ad could look like

Stuart Outhwaite is a creative at London agency Mother. Outhwaite’s pick is a TV commercial that hasn’t even aired in the UK, but turned into an international Internet sensation, racking up almost 6 million views since it launched in the US last month.

The ad is fronted by actor Isaiah Mustafa, who looks directly into the camera and tells women that although their men may never look like him, they can at least smell like him by using Old Spice. ‘I hate the people who made this ad for many reasons’, says Outhwaite.  ‘They've managed to revive a tired old brand from the seventies that even my dad would be ashamed to use and created a genuinely hilarious piece of thirty second joy.’ ‘They've also succeeded in making me feel pathetically inferior and “lady scented”,’ he adds.

Old Spice historically produced advertising that spoke specifically to men, but they changed the brief, asking agency Wieden+Kennedy to appeal to men and women at the same time.

Craig Allen and Eric Kallman were the team who had to meet the challenge.  ‘The idea came about by sitting quietly in a room and staring at each other for days,’ says Allen. ‘It was hard to do something that spoke to women, but also didn’t turn off men.’

The team knew they liked the idea of a suave, sophisticated tone of voice.  ‘It started with “hello, ladies” and kind of spiraled from there,’ says Kallman.

The commercial was shot in a single take.  Special effects were only used to allow diamonds to pour out of Mustafa’s hand and for the bottle to then rise up through it.  It took 3 days and over 50 takes before everything came together. ‘It was stressful,’ says Kallman.  ‘A take might be acted perfectly, but the shirt wouldn’t fall around Isaiah’s neck or he’d miss the horse.’

A set was built on a beach that created a boat with a bathroom on top.  A giant crane lifts the bathroom away at the crucial moment to reveal the boat.  ‘In theory this should work smoothly,’ says Allen, but on day 2 one of the safeties on the crane failed and sent the 1900 lb (860kg) bathroom set plummeting.  Luckily no one was hurt, but part of the set had to be rebuilt. ‘That was horrible,’ says Allen. ‘Not our idea of a good time, but I guess it makes a good story.’

All wrapped up

In early March, D&AD and Metro challenged UK creatives to design a coverwrap to inspire and motivate readers on their morning commute. Last week our jury worked their way through the entries.  They’ve selected an eclectic mix of work for the shortlist that they think will inspire Metro readers and brighten up your morning. Thank you to everyone who entered. 

Big thanks also to our judges, who gave up their time to pick the best work:

Kenny Campbell, Editor, Metro

Paul Brazier, D&AD President & ECD, AMV.BBDO

Ringan Ledwidge, Director, Rattling Stick

Alex Bec, Director and Editor, It's Nice That

The winner will be posted on our site on Wednesday evening.

And sorry for the strange font sizes - system problems.

Nominations

Outside

Inside

Sam Hall, Sam Griffiths, Sean Rees & Dave Wood, The Partners

Outside

Inside

Matt Statham & Chris McDonald, McCann Erikson London

 

Outside

Inside

Laura Keogh, Handstand Creative 

 

Outside

Inside

Jack Renwick, Alex Woolley, Samuel Hall & Sam Griffiths, The Partners

Outside

Inside

David Rose & Michael Shepherd, Five by Five Digital

Outside

Inside

Clare Théophane, Miranda Bolter, Freya Defoe & Steve Hickory, The Partners 

Outside

Inside

James Théophane

 

Outside

Inside

Jack Renwick, Samuel Hall & Alex Woolley, The Partners

Outside

Inside

Jay Phillips & Neil Clarke, McCann Erikson London

Outside

 
Inside

Clare Théophane, Miranda Bolter, Freya Defoe & Steve Hickory, The Partners

Go Digital Or Die?

As D&AD and Hyper Island announce our partnership bringing the Hyper Island Master Class to the UK, we investigate the skills gaps that the digital revolution has precipitated.

Most people feel a bit behind when it comes to that thing termed ‘digital’. Even hardened professionals admit that keeping up with the pace of change can be impossible. So how can agencies ensure they leverage the opportunities that digital media offer them?

There is a widely acknowledged dearth of graduates with the right skill sets and competition to recruit is fierce. A fact demonstrated by the high placement success rate of educational institutions like Hyper Island, who specialise in this area. So training existing staff is key as well.

Harry Fowler at Cogs Agency recruits talent with a strong digital bias to creative agencies. He thinks that training is essential if the industry is to avoid the same small number of skilled people being headhunted around the industry. The talent pipeline needs to be kept active and one way to do that is to retrain existing staff. ‘A crossover of skills is needed between traditional and digital agencies’, says Harry, ‘Digital agencies need the strong brand understanding and conceptual approach of traditional creatives. Traditional agencies need people who understand the process-led production of digital work.’

One agency that has taken the bull by the horns is Wieden & Kennedy London. The whole agency participated in the Hyper Island Master Class. ‘Whether we like it or not, we are all ‘digital’ now’, says Sam Brookes, Managing Director of Platform, W&K’s innovation unit. ‘We all live in that world, and we all need to be able to navigate it to a certain degree’. A sentiment echoed by Harry who points out that ‘The rules have changed and so have consumers, those that fail to skill themselves up will be redundant.’

Sounds scary, but many see it as an opportunity. Sam Brookes says, ‘One of the important things about the Master Class was that it didn’t make us feel inadequate. In fact the training affirmed that we were already fantastic storytellers and it simply gave us opportunities to do more of that, more of what we do best.’ The pay-off has been visible across the whole organisation. ‘We now have a much better idea how to act as an agency in this new landscape’ says Sam.

Here at D&AD we were keen to work with Hyper Island given their track record; they have placed graduates in almost every large agency in London and delivered their Master Classes to professionals around the world. Their learning philosophy has great resonance with our own approach to training, using experience-based learning as a foundation. ‘It is fantastic that D&AD are working with Hyper Island to bring this training to the UK’ says Harry, ‘Everyone should want and need this’. If you are interested in the Hyper Island Master Classes read further or email workout@dandad.co.uk.

Simply Yes

Domenic Lippa is a Partner at Pentagram, an international multi-disciplinary design studio.

He says a big ‘Yes’ to the look of the Pet Shop Boys’ newest album. Released last year, Yes was designed by the team at Farrow Design. 

‘This is a beautifully understated piece of contemporary graphic design produced at a time when arguably the music market’s heyday may be over,’ says Lippa.

Founder Mark Farrow has a long history with the Pet Shop Boys, having worked with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe since the release of their first album, ‘Please’ back in 1986.

‘A designer can only do great work if they have a great client and in this case both the quality of the work and the longevity of the relationship are staggering,’ says Lippa.

The cover of Pet Shop Boys single ‘Suburbia’ won a D&AD Yellow Pencil in 1987. Tennant and Lowe are credited with Farrow as part of the design team for that work.

The design for Yes came about when Farrow met with the band and they told him that ‘as this was their most ‘pop’ album in a long time,’ they liked the idea of creating something bright and colourful. They were also inspired by 4900 Colours, the kaleidoscopic work of German artist Gerhard Richter.

‘The idea of the tick was obviously inspired by the title Yes,’ says Farrow. ‘Reducing the title to a symbol that included the other elements the band had requested just seemed to work. It’s instant and memorable and pop,’ he says.

The tick is made up of eleven coloured squares, one for each track on the album. Farrow Design also came up with a limited vinyl edition of the album. ‘The album is split over eleven separate records, each in a coloured sleeve,’ says Farrow. When correctly arranged the eleven album sleeves make up a tick, measuring about eight feet in length.

‘In an age of visual saturation it is reassuring to see calm, minimal work, which has an idea behind it,’ says Lippa.  ‘There is no need for cheesy photos of the band, instead the simple tick referencing the title says it all.  The design defies the traditionally superficial ‘pop’ stereotype.’

The limited edition album has made a big impact.  It was nominated for Design of the Year, currently on exhibition at the Design Museum.  It was also voted on of the 50 ‘most collectible’ records of the 21^st Century.

Window On Design

What would you do if you had to design a shop window?  Last year, Tom Carey and his team won second prize at the Student Awards challenge to create an installation for Hamley's shop window on London’s Regent Street.

They came up with the idea of creating an interactive summer environment in the front of Hamleys shop window. Children colour in a butterfly template, which is scanned and made into a digital version of their design. Their butterfly comes to life and flies around the window display, which they can interact with using motion sensor technology. Their design can then be turned into a kite that they can take along to a butterfly festival at the end of the summer.

The story doesn’t end there, though, as Tom needed to find himself a job – and in the middle of what we all know is the ‘worst recession since 1993.’ He maxed out his overdraft by turning down part time work as a shelf-stacker to get experience on four work placements. 'Once I graduated, it really helped having made lots of contacts and having industry experience'. Today he’s 6 months into a job at interdisciplinary brand design consultancy, A+B Studio.    

'Tom stood out the moment he walked in - not only because of his untameable hair-do but his scatter-gun approach to design. On second glance we realised that each piece of work (whether it was jewellery, books, installations and even a multi-functional-festival jackets) was incredibly thought out, thought provoking and beautifully designed. Most importantly - Tom was a person we really liked to spend time with,’ said Benji Wiedemann, Creative Director.

Tom’s journey to A+B Studio has 3 main features

He took a targeted approach; ‘While doing placements I was looking for small up-and-coming companies that might be looking to take someone on. I wanted to jump in at the deep end and get stuck in.

He wasn’t afraid to ask for help: ‘While on placement at hat-trick, I asked pretty much everyone to have a look at my portfolio and asked them about other companies that I might not have heard of. One of the designers mentioned A+B Studio, who I emailed straight away.

And, as ever in life, he had a bit of good luck: ‘A+B Studio were about to move to a bigger place and were looking for someone – I was in the right place at the right time.'

Tom's worked on plenty of different projects since he got started, including the titles for BBC series, Hairy Bikers.  Watch the title sequence here:

Here's Tom working on the shoot:

 

Recode: Creating open source digital art

Member David Gamble is CD at SAINT @ RKCR/Y&R.  Way back in 1999 he launched the New Blood identity while at Circus.  His latest project is Recode for Decode, an exhibition of digital design at the V&A until 11 April.  

Karsten Schmidt was asked to design an open source digital identity for Decode.  The aim was to encourage others to play with Schmidt's code and create an original digital artwork of their own. 

How does Recode fit with work you've done before?

For the last 15 years, my creative partner Simon Labbett and I have tried to come up with ideas that do whatever it takes to earn the right to engage with the audience, rather than just using specific media channels to try and force engagement. We have often used traditional media as part of this (sometimes the main part), as it has the breadth that some campaigns need, but we always try to accompany it with other more targeted ways to win that engagement battle. Digital has always been at the heart of what we do as it allows us to engage with people in so many different ways, and on more personal terms.

Recode was different from our previous work, mainly because we hadn’t encountered these sets of problems in the past, or had to engage with this relatively niche audience before. These factors - combined with a very tiny budget - led to our creative solution. We wouldn’t have devised the same campaign if circumstances were different (and if we had 3 million quid to play with). 

We wanted to demonstrate the things that make digital art so different from more traditional art. Try interacting with a Monet at the The National Gallery and you’ll get arrested. Do the same at Decode and you’re adding to the exhibition. Anyone can have an effect on digital art, so we used that as our starting point. We wanted to open up every aspect of the campaign to our audience, and let them promote the exhibition for us.

What were the main challenges you had to overcome?

The biggest challenge was the budget. It was tiny compared to our ambitions. But we turned this into a positive, as the small budget was one of the main factors that led to the idea. We couldn’t have achieved everything we did without creating an open source campaign.

How did you find Karsten Schmidt?
We needed to get a respected digital artist involved to create the art application for Recode, so the V&A suggested using Karsten, who was already one of the contributors to Decode. We worked closely with him to make sure the application did everything we needed for the campaign and the collaborative art idea. His influence really helped the idea spread to a receptive audience.

Did you notice any trends or themes around the work submitted or by who submitted it?
The Recoded submissions got better and more ambitious as people got to grips with the application and the code. We wanted to make sure that there was a low barrier to interaction with digital art piece, but a relatively high barrier to outputting a finished piece of Recoded work. 

We needed quality, not quantity in the Recode gallery as we didn’t have the resources to deal with tens of thousands of uploads. This meant that although thousands downloaded the art piece, played with it, and passed it on, it was mainly our target audience of flash designers, coders, digital artists, and people with a higher digital understanding that uploaded Recodes to the gallery. They set the bar pretty high and created a competitive element that made the work even better. Just look at the latest piece by Matt Swoboda, it’s fantastic, and has raised the bar even higher. 

We even noticed other digital artists from the Decode exhibition submitting pieces off their own backs. The ripple effect was the most important facet of the campaign. This all comes back to our objectives and use of niche targeting to create a wider buzz beyond the core target audience.

What's next for Recode?

The Decode exhibition is still going, so make sure you go before it finishes. It’s an amazing collection, and has inspired some of our creatives to produce some really interesting work.

We’re hoping to organise a ‘V&A Lates’ for Recode to show all the best work, and invite Karsten and all the other digital artists to meet in the real world for a change. Displaying the Recoded work alongside the exhibition would really complete the campaign for me, and truly blur the lines between product and promotion.

Can you give us a 'dummy's guide' to open source and how it can be used effectively?

I’ll hand over to Chris Jefford to answer the geeky questions...

Open source is a method of freely sharing code to a wider development audience with the goal of improving the finished product through personal input from many sources.  

When a computer programme is created, the building blocks with which it is built with is called Source Code - be that Java, C, Actionscript etc.  This source code is ultimately compiled and becomes an executable application - which is in effect locked-down, un-editable code.  However if the source code of an application is made available, this means that the application itself can be adapted by whoever has that code, and enhanced by whoever has access.  

Most development houses (think Microsoft) handle all their development in-house, and only make the finished applications available, never the source code.  An application such as the popular browser Firefox however has been developed from a basic browser into a major force, by making the original source code available to anyone who wants to develop it, and taking in developments from across the world.  True open source code is available to all, including all changes made through its lifecycle.

In an online world where crowd-sourcing is fast becoming an accepted part of life, open source development projects are set to become widespread in their appeal since there is now an almost limitless pool of potential developers ready to work on a project.  

With respect to the V&A work, we knew that there would be a wealth of creative developers who would love to get their hands on the source of Karsten Schmidt’s work. This should be particularly interesting to students as the main benefits are that open source material is free, and you don’t have to start from scratch to create something new and engaging.

Create your way to a job

This time last year, Kingston University graduates Tom Wrigglesworth and Matt Robinson were spending a lot of time in the company of printers.

With the D&AD Student Awards deadline looming, they had hit on an idea to promote HP Workstations’ ability to bring to life ‘anything the creative mind can conceive’.

‘Our tutors always taught us to come up with a great idea, then work out the right channels to use,’ said Tom.  They made a film that turned the otherwise mundane experience of everyday printing into a brilliantly choreographed audiovisual orchestra. They spent days holed up in a studio coaxing a stack of printers to perform.

The team ended up with a double win – second prize at the Student Awards and Best New Blood – racked up thousands of views on YouTube with their film, and even ended up on the BBC News. Most important though, they got themselves jobs and while their D&AD wins helped to open doors, it was still up to them to step on through.

‘We had been exhibiting at New Blood for a couple of days and although people from the industry had visited our stand, we felt a bit nervous about approaching anyone,’ said Matt.  ‘We knew that time was running out though, so when we saw Mark Waites from Mother walk past, we decided to go for it.’

Tom hit play on their Student Awards film and Matt flagged down Waites to have a look at their work.  They went for it after that, and approached as many people they could to introduce themselves and show off their work.  ‘We probably spoke to about 20-30 people by the end of the exhibition,’ said Tom. ‘If someone was having a look, we’d catch their eye and tell them the story behind our projects.’  Eventually, they’d just walk up to people and introduce themselves, ‘because you never know who you’re going to meet’.

In the coming weeks, Matt & Tom followed up with everyone they met at New Blood.  They picked up a bit of freelance animation work along the way, and met with production companies, advertising agencies and design studios. 

In September, they got in contact with Mother and were offered them a work placement starting in December – all thanks to grabbing that opportunity at New Blood. Mother Creative Stuart Outhwaite also recommended the team get in touch with Work Club in the meantime as the agency had placements starting that month.

 ...and they’ve been there ever since. Tom & Matt landed a placement at Work Club and spent 3 months working on all kinds of pitches. ‘It’s been great to be involved in project from the beginning,’ said Matt. In December, the agency offered to extend the placement and the team was presented with a choice – stay at Work Club or take up the earlier offer from Mother.

‘We thought about it long and hard,’ said Tom.  ‘We’d really enjoyed our time at Work Club and felt part of the team, but we knew that Mother would also be a great experience’ In the end, they decided to stay on at Work Club to continue with the projects that they had been involved with. They contacted Stu at Mother to explain the reason behind their choice, ‘Stuart was really supportive of our decision’ said Matt. 

 Just last week, the team were offered permanent jobs at Work Club.

 So now that the job hunt is officially over, what advice to they have for this year’s graduates?

 Keep an open mind – ‘We met with so many different people across advertising, design and production that we got a good understanding of what our options were.’

Create your own opportunities – ‘We didn’t win first prize at the Student Awards, and I think that just made us work harder.’

D&AD Student Awards deadline is this Friday, 19 March

Behind the Idea: Love it or hate it

Geoff Gower is digital creative director at archibald ingall stretton…  

A self-proclaimed lover of the classic and distinctive spread, Gower is impressed by a new campaign to launch the Marmite Cereal Bar. It takes a brave brand to acknowledge that some people may hate its product.  It takes an even braver one to run a national advertising campaign around the idea.  The campaign acknowledges that the cereal bar may be a product extension too far and plays on ‘love us or hate us’ advertising that Gower thinks has done wonders for the brand.

 ‘Spoof ads that play on advertising clichés will always be popular,’ says Gower.  ‘Using them to then bring consumers round to the view that a savoury cereal bar is reasonable is brave indeed.’

Created by ad agency DDB, the initial inspiration for the campaign came from wondering what would truly be a product too far, explains copywriter Will Lowe. ‘The art direction of the ads intentionally played on the advertising clichés that you see again and again; the child on the towels, the man in the shower, and the thin perfume model,’ says Lowe.

 
 
 

Marmite Perfume and Fabric Softener appeared online in early March. The hoax products initially bewildered members of the public who came across them.  ‘A number of the Facebook Love Marmite group members actually thought the products were real and have been trying to buy them,’ adds Lowe.

Meanwhile, two sets of posters launched nationally.  One set reveals the hoax with it’s strapline ‘This may be too far, but how about this?’  A second set is running without the strapline, leading the public to think that Marmite Fabric Softener might well be the real thing. 

The packaging for all three products was designed specially for the shoot and n sits in DDB’s reception in London. The perfume bottle is based on the original Marmite jar from the 1960s, which was translucent rather than opaque to show the product inside. 

‘This is a fun and engaging idea,’ says Gower.  ‘These days it's difficult to earn more than a few milliseconds of customers’ time but these ads really achieve this. Brands have to have enormous confidence to pull off ‘tongue-in-cheek’ so successfully.‘

Behind the Idea: From Couch to Crouch

With the Winter Olympics a thing of the past, thoughts will inevitably turn to summer and the 2010 FIFA World Cup mania that will grip the nation while England battles its way to glory – we hope. 

Alongside any event of this scale come the inevitable ‘big ads’ from sponsoring companies.  Visa has gotten in early with a new commercial that scores a hat trick for Engine's Robin Wight. 

‘Unlike some, Visa has no footballer on their books to rely on.  Instead the clever creatives at Saatchi and Saatchi had a brilliantly simple idea,’ he says.  A slobby couch-potato football fan runs all the way to the stadium in South Africa, getting him into shape on the way.  Like all the best advertising ideas, says Wight, ‘it can be described in a single sentence.’   

‘Visa gets you closer to the World Cup’ was the original brief to Xander Smith and Jonathan Santana at Saatchi & Saatchi.  They decided to literally show one fan’s journey from Europe to South Africa, armed only with his Visa card.

The shoot took nine days across various locations in Morocco and South Africa – home country to both Smith and Santana. ‘Some scenes were shot in a game reserve.  It was hilarious to see lads from Leeds and London, fresh off the plane, running next to real rhinos with lions around the corner,’ said Smith. The main actor was also chased by an ‘obtuse ostrich’ a couple of times, he adds.

Our hero is actually played by three actors – one lead and two body doubles.  The production team also had a movement specialist on set who taught the actors how to run correctly and in the same way to make it look seamless.

Football obsessed director Chris Palmer used the same tracking shot throughout, always moving form left to right.  The runner subtly transforms from zero to hero as he races to the World Cup in South Africa, ending up in Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. 

‘The transformation of an overweight fan to a goal-scoring hero is handled with polish and skill by Palmer,’ says Wight, who particularly liked the goal celebration at the end.  ‘Maybe Rooney will be able to copy this bit,’ he adds.

New Blood 2010

As part of the Free Range season, this year's New Blood exhibition is being held between Thursday 24 June and Monday 28 June at the Truman Brewery. We are programming a festival of fringe events around its location in Shoreditch and the theme of these events will centre on networking.

Exhibitors and guests at New Blood 2009

If you would like to exhibit at New Blood this year, your course needs to register as a member of D&AD's University Network and then apply for stands. Please contact either laura.woodroffe@dandad.co.uk or rhiannon.james@dandad.co.uk for more information and an application form. All stands need to be booked by the end of this month.

If you would like to get more of a feel for the event, please have a look at this Video of New Blood

One of last year's graduates wrote about their experience exhibiting at New Blood. Please see below link for tips and things they wish they'd known before!

http://aspire2enquire.typepad.com/aspire_to_enquire/2009/07/dad-new-blood-2009.html

Members' offer: The Future of Advertising…In One Afternoon

The APA, IPA and Contagious have organised The Future of Advertising…In One Afternoon and if you're a D&AD member you can get in for the special rate of £95 + VAT.

The afternoon is an update on the most exciting new advertising ideas.  In one afternoon away from the coalface, you can hear all the best new thinking and explore its potential for your business planning.

Date: Weds, 10 March, 12.45-6.30pm at BAFTA, London.

For more information and to book, contact 020 7434 2651 or email georges at a-p-a.net

Behind the Idea: Embrace Life

Marcus Hadfield is Head of Digital at London-based creative agency Meteorite.

About 2,000 people a year are estimated to lose their lives nationally by forgetting to put their seat belt on, according to The Sussex Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP).  This local government alliance has come up with an awareness campaign that’s making waves far beyond these shores.

‘Embrace Life’ launched online on 26 January and built up 1.5 million views in it’s first 20 days. Hadfield calls it a public service announcement with a difference.  ‘It ditches every road safety campaign cliché and instead, simply shows the joy of living,’ he says.  ‘In so doing it delivers a positive emotional response, rather than a tired old shock.’

The New York Daily News used this ‘Embrace Life’ as an example of the sort of advertising that they think should have been shown during the Super Bowl. ‘Isn’t that brilliant?’ adds Hadfield.

In the film, a man is protected from a deadly car crash by the embrace of his family. ‘I wanted to create a visual metaphor addressing how a single decision in a person's day can greatly influence both their own and their loved ones' lives,’ says director Daniel Cox.

The filming required some high tech equipment made available through the support of film equipment rental specialist, Take 2 films.  An additional 93 thousand watts of lighting was required to create the right effect.

‘If the idea is good enough, then people will take notice no matter how big your budget is,’ says Hadfield. ‘That’s the reason why this amazing film has been viewed across the globe by millions without an expensive advertising agency or huge media spend.’ 

It’s generated such interest that negotiations are currently underway with broadcasters internationally who want to air it on television channels. 

The campaign may have launched online but it was accompanied by a distinctly local campaign created in partnership with prominent South East graffiti artist Aroe and Brighton and Hove City Council.  Aroe helped to identify sites and then repainted them with the Embrace Life logo – sometimes as large as 20 feet high.

"It’s hard to believe that this campaign came directly from local government – the film is creatively bold, beautifully shot and perfectly soundtracked,’ says Hadfield.  ‘I can’t imagine they had deep pockets, but they certainly didn’t scrimp on production or creativity.’

How would you motivate London commuters?

 

Do you work in design or advertising and want evidence of your creative genius in the hands of 2 million commuters?

D&AD and Metro are taking Behind the Idea to the front page by launching a competition that challenges creatives to design a coverwrap for Metro.

We want you to create something for our readers - true urbanites, who live and work in cities across the UK. Our readers love their cities and city living.  Your challenge is to design something to inspire and motivate them on their morning commute.

If you win, your entry will be wrapped around an April issue of Metro’s London edition, and your work will be featured in an upcoming edition of Behind the Idea.

Visit www.metrowrap.co.uk for the full brief and terms and conditions.

Closing date March 21, 2010.