Ben and James

LATERS

2010-03-23T12:30:00.002Z

Sadly this blog is no longer more. Ben&James have gone their separate ways.

To see more of Ben visit here

To see more of James visit here

Cheers.

And the Roses Awards 2010 go to...Wieden & Kennedy

2010-01-08T09:30:00.008Z

We've always felt that the North, South advertising divide is all a bit pointless and non-existent in our current times. There's some good work being done at agencies that care about doing that sort of thing and plenty of dross at places that don't. And that's the same no matter where you are. There are some agencies in all parts of the country with client lists that would make any marketing manager salivate and there's plenty with barely a household name to their, well, name. As budgets are being slashed we really do believe that it's not location that matters, it's ideas. And with the advent of "virtual agenices" and so on, they can come from anywhere.

So there's no chips on our shoulders then. Hopefully that's clear? Great. Because now we could potentially ruin that perception. And as we've just clearly established, that's not us. Honest.

It's the Roses Awards you see. We fear they've just made a massive mistake.

An amendment to their rules means that now "you can be based anywhere in the UK including London providing you are producing work for a client whose headquarters are outside the M25."

So that means Mother with their brilliant Rocky work, W&K with Lurpak, BMB and their Yorkshire Tea campaign could - if they actually entered - be picking up the Roses Awards this year. Brilliant campaigns all of them. But wouldn't The Roses be in danger of losing their one point of difference?

We love The Roses, not because it gives "lesser" agencies a chance to pick up a bit of silverware. But because it helps to promote regional agencies that may not be actually getting the publicity they do deserve. And because, outside of Soho, agencies tend to be spread very widely apart. So the Roses gives us a chance to create healthy rivalries with each other. It makes us want to try to better "local" competing agencies who may actually be 100's of miles apart from us.

Basically It's like a regional heat for X-Factor. You witness a few terrible sights, a few "how did that get through" moments, and amidst all that, you get to see a few gems that you know will go on to receive bigger accolades.

So our fear for this rule change is not that we'll end up with fewer awards on the mantelpiece, just a fear that agencies will have fewer reasons to care about entering in the first place.

Getting someone else to do it

2010-01-08T08:57:00.003Z

We were once told by a wise old creative that being an art director is a piece of piss, all you have to do is get other people to make you look good.

In a sense it's true, commissioning the right photographer, illustrator, designer, director can make the piece of work look great. We found a lot in our old agency we were constantly being scuppered 'from above' from using great people to make the work the best it could possibly be. We'd dread phrases such as "Can't we just get him to do it?", "Can't you do it?", "I'm sick of paying for this" etc etc etc. We could make it look good ourselves, but we weren't really striving for good, we wanted great.

We had a project where we wanted some lovely hand drawn type and wanted to use a great typographer called Ben Weeks. The process went on for a while and we were assured that we could use him. In the end we were told we couldn't use him and would have to do the type ourselves. We made a decent job of it, but that's all it was, decent, acceptable. It could have looked great, but because we used the wrong person to do it it wasn't the best it could be, it was just good.

A good example of this is on The Book Design Review blog and concerns the two pictures above. The Johnny Cash cover is done by Shepard Fairey the Led Zep one by someone who's trying to do a style like Shepard Fairey. Now the Led Zep cover looks good, but the Shepard Fairy one looks great and that is the difference in using other talented people.

The difference is, why make your work good, when it could be great?

Oooooooof!

2009-12-23T15:43:00.003Z

Paul Belford's done some ads. They're a bit special. We once met him as juniors in a competition. He liked our work. We've been buzzing ever since. Have a good Christmas all.

Bingo Christmas

2009-12-14T10:43:00.002Z

Lovely Christmas card from Mr Bingo

The World of 100

2009-12-11T14:12:00.003Z

Cracking set of posters by Toby Ng. See more here, thanks to Albion for the heads up.

We've all been there

2009-12-11T08:59:00.004Z

"We need business cards designed to impress people in big companies at the top end of town… set up as a Word template so we can print them in here in our office.”

"Well we’d like it to look very corporate, but also quite funky."

“I understand that you prefer to use photoshop, but we don’t feel like that program is universal enough. If you could do all of the design work in Microsoft Paint it would be easier for us to edit what you do and give you an idea of the changes we want.”

See more of this comedy gold at Clients from Hell

Leicester Freelance

2009-12-10T08:26:00.002Z

Across the road from our 'hotel', they're taking over the world from their Leicester HQ, it's McIndians. Best strapline we've seen for a while - "You've tried the cowboys, now try the Indians". How could we refuse?

Modern Hitchcock

2009-11-29T16:15:00.000Z

Love this set of posters by designer Matt Needle. See more of his work here.

www.agencychristmascards.com

2009-11-22T15:46:00.004Z

No need for mad rushes in the creative department this year. We've got the agency Christmas card sorted with www.agencychristmascards.com

Brilliant Henry Handball T-shirt

2009-11-20T11:42:00.000Z

Nice one LOVE

How to watch ads...or not

2009-11-17T13:07:00.003Z

T'other night I was watching Flashforward - it came to the ad break and I was just getting up to make a brew when the first ad on the TV caught my eye. It drew me in, got me excited, looked great on me big telly, and made me sit back down. It was the new Guinness ad. To be honest the ad didn't mean a great deal to me (I'm sure Brazier gives a flying shit). But then it got me thinking. I saw this ad on the Campaign site a week or so back but didn't watch it, so the TV was the first time I saw it. Would I have stayed to watch this ad and initially been drawn in if I'd watched it on my laptop rather than the TV?

You see, as creatives, often we watch and make judgements on ads while watching them on some blog or website, rather than the actual place they are made for, the TV. Would we like as many ads as we do these days if we only saw them on the TV? - maybe that's why there feels like there were more classic ads back in the day, it was more exciting to see them on TV, there was excitement when you saw them as you didn't know when you were going to see them next. No YouTube or brandrepublic to see them whenever we wanted.

Granted, I wouldn't have seen some of my favourite ads without the joys of the Internet, I suppose I'm just saying maybe we should judge these ads in the place they are supposed to be seen rather than on the web.

Jesus, that's as intellectual as I get, need a rest now. Cheers, Ben

A winner. And the quiz hasn't even started.

2009-11-17T12:04:00.002Z

Just seen these over on Ben Kay's blog. Which probably means that you have too.

Lovely though, don't you think? As someone's already commented, they bring the work of Nigel Roberts and Paul Belford to mind. And that can never be a bad thing surely.

Photography

2009-11-11T21:00:00.002Z

Liking this set of photographs by, well Ben actually, shameless plug we know but it's our blog.

Award winning headline

2009-11-04T14:32:00.002Z

if you want the full article it's here

Illustrations

2009-11-02T21:50:00.003Z

Great stuff from Alex Trochut (again). This time illustrations about London for the BE booklet. Blindin'.

Vote with the back of your hand

2009-10-26T10:23:00.005Z

Now we'd never be ones to condone violence. Oh go on, maybe just this once:

www.slapnickgriffin.co.uk

Amsterdam ad

2009-10-16T12:05:00.004+01:00

Liking this ad from Indie. Not laugh out loud but sometimes a little chuckle does the job. Can't help but notice the lack of bongo, tabloids, splattered radio and thermos on this building site - guess the Dutch do it differently.

Party Posters

2009-10-06T09:47:00.006+01:00

Just seen these new posters from a crazy cool, young collective calling themselves...well...erm...The Conservative Party.

News that their conference will feature Ann Widdecombe performing a live mash up of all her favourite grime/hyperdub/breakcore club bangers and Kenneth Clarke taking on all comers in his street dance challenge are yet to be confirmed at this time.

Does he do anything shit?

2009-10-02T16:17:00.003+01:00

Sir Paul Belford has created another beauty. A mailer for Peter Souter's Radio 4 play Puddle.

See more mastery here.

Hitler + James Dean = Good Ad

2009-10-02T14:08:00.004+01:00

Liking these ads from The Jupiter Drawing Room. Lovely art direction and great illustration.

Rubbing Shoulders with Charles Xavier

2009-09-25T10:10:00.003+01:00

That's right, we're heading back to Hudderfield University to work with with final year students on the Advertsing Design course. Really looking forward to it as it a bit of a new venture for the University. The idea being that we can illustrate and introduce the transition from education to industry. Initially we'll be doing a talk on who we are, our work, how we got to where we are from University and what we do on a daily basis in this carazy world of Advertising.

We'll then be going on to set 5 briefs over 5 weeks. We've got some great stuff lined up, with the intention being that the students will have some great pieces of work to go in their book for when they go out into the big bad world.

Hopefully we'll see some great stuff, and possibly be able to put it on here. Right, where's that blazer with the leather arm patches?

Now for something more up to date...well kind of

2009-09-24T14:14:00.012+01:00

Angel Eye Media have created a series of short animations for BBC radio 4, based on past clips from Just a Minute. Clearly they've spent a lot longer than that producing all of them though - they're absolutely lovely. They don't feel too self indulgent either as they should help bring a whole new audience to the station.

If you've got a little longer, don't hesitate or deviate (sorry, just shoot me now) to see the others in the series here.

Maybe we're a bit late on this one...

2009-09-23T10:51:00.002+01:00

...but the cinematic it so stunning it has to be shown. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles

Richard Moran

2009-09-21T20:43:00.004+01:00

Some lovely photography from Leeds based Richard Moran. You've probably seen his Comedy Store shots but we particularly like his set of Local Food Heroes. Good shit.

We've been Kanye'd

2009-09-18T09:37:00.002+01:00

We got Kanye'd the other day by Mick&Gaz - cause some mischief here

Wise ads

2009-09-17T15:21:00.005+01:00

We love these ads from John St - really wanna join the Wiserhood. The guy with the jumper is cracking..."it was a good try"

Questions questions

2009-09-15T12:59:00.014+01:00

We were recently asked by the Drum Magazine to take part in a feature aimed at people weighing up the the pros and cons of going freelance.

What is your industry background? When did you decide to go freelance and what were you doing previously?

BEN: After gaining an MA I wasn’t allowed to stay at university any longer and joined Tequila Manchester in 2004. After a year and a half I made the move back across the hills and joined Poulters where I teamed up with James.

JAMES: Similar story for me too really. After leaving university I did the placement rounds and eventually found myself at Principles for a while. Then after leaving there and an early venture into the world of freelance I made the short journey over to Poulters.

BEN & JAMES: So we joined forces at Poulters and spent a lovely 3 years at the agency. We watched some great people come in (and leave). Made some nice campaigns for D&AD, Man Utd, Yorkshire Air Ambulance and won a few awards on the way, such as Roses Golds, Creative Review Award and Clio Future Gold. BEN: And then we decided to go freelance after an agency meeting. It went like this… Poulters: "We’re shutting the agency down." Ben: "Looks like we’re going freelance."

Why did you decide to go freelance?

JAMES: Well, the lovely chaps at Bezier decided for us really. But to be fair, we could all see where the agency was headed and we had been contemplating the move for some time already.

BEN: As stated above it wasn’t a decision we made, it was more put upon us. But by that time we felt we had the confidence and ability to make the transition so it wasn’t particularly a great leap. It seemed like a natural progression really.

How did you find the transition between your old job and freelancing?

BEN: Obviously there were initial slight nerves. We sent our details out and went to see agencies etc. Ok, we think we can make the transition, but can we really? Will people like our work? But you never know that you’re doing it right until the phone rings.

JAMES: Exactly. You can find yourself extremely closeted when you’ve worked at the same agency for some time. You get used to certain ways of doing things and it can be a slight culture shock when things change. They liked our stuff, but will anyone else? Every agency has their own tastes, likes, dislikes, styles and ways of doing things and I think we soon realised that we had to be able to adapt quickly to each agencies ways of doing things if we were going to make it work.

BEN: And when people like Graham Fink reply to you saying they like your work you definitely know you’re doing something right. Fortunately for us we didn’t have much time to contemplate not getting work. Our first freelance job was a multi-million pound global pitch for Adam&Eve. After we’d done that we knew we could do the whole freelance thing!

How do the current market conditions affect your ability to find business? Are there benefits to being freelance in this climate?

JAMES: Well, there are plenty of smaller agencies out there that are managing to get hold of some great creative briefs at the moment, but at this current time would not be able or have the need to employ a creative team full time. So we are ideal for clients like that at the moment. But obviously there are more redundancies too, which means more freelancers going for this work too. And as well as finding work, we are also finding that time has become a bigger issue. Deadlines are being pushed tighter all the time. So we may only be booked for a single day to crack a brief that in a different time would have lasted several days. But I think that’s the same for everyone, whether they are freelance or not, to be fair.

BEN: That’s something we’ve definitely noticed. There’s definitely more freelance people out there all looking for the same work. Plus, budgets are being slashed by clients, so there’s not as much work out there. We made a conscious decision to promote ourselves as a team. This way we stay together and to be honest we get some great briefs doing it this way. This is not to say we don’t work separately, we just felt it better to look for more work that requires a team. One of the main benefits is that we’ve got to work in some great agencies and met some really cracking people, you don't get this variety when you’re working in the same place every day.

How has freelance working affected your lifestyle? Benefits? Challenges?

BEN: For one you have to think twice about choosing a continental lager when you go to the bar. I guess the main adjustment for us was the fact we wouldn’t be having a regular wage coming in every month. Once you get used to it, it’s fine you just have to be more organised. “That payment hasn’t come in so I can’t go out Friday or the agency has paid on time, the cat can have it’s operation now.”

JAMES: I think the challenges have always been the same really. Briefs often come in very much at the last minute, so it’s hard to know exactly where you are and hard to plan ahead too. Can I make that gig? Go out on a school night? Go on holiday? You don’t want to miss out on a vital bit of work so you just have to think a bit more about it.

BEN: It’s just a question of balance. Fortunately, we both have great partners who are down with the whole freelance thing and are never on our backs asking where the next mortgage payment is coming from.

Would freelancing suit anyone?

BEN: Not the lazy. It’s like having two jobs. When you’re not working you’re still working looking for jobs. This can be sending emails out, devising a self promotion mailer, to something as little as reading all advertising and design sites to see if there’s an opportunity, even commenting on blogs as it gives potential agencies/work awareness of ourselves. Plus you need to be able to work fairly quickly. Obviously there’s no room for “I haven't cracked the brief yet, I’ll work on it tonight and have something for the morning” To be honest it’s definitely made us a better team. Being exposed to a huge variety of briefs and clients, you’re skills are really honed.

JAMES: There’s no place to hide. Some people are just happy drifting along in an agency they’ve worked at for some time. Which is fine. But when you are freelancing you need to crack every brief, because that’s why they’ve specifically got you in and if you don’t, well, you won’t be coming back again! Some people would hate not knowing exactly what they were going to come out with at the end of each month and I can understand that. But on the other hand it can be great for those wanting fresh challenges all the time and also those who want to pick and choose when they work – especially if they want to work around other things such as kids etc.

Would/could you go back to agency life now?

JAMES: We’re still enjoying the variety of work we’re getting from freelancing, but at the same time, we’d be lying if we said that we didn’t always have an eye on those agencies that are winning pitches and doing interesting things out there. We are certainly always open to any offers that there might be out there.

BEN: We’re in a good position where we don’t have to take the first job that comes our way. I don’t think any creative will honestly tell you that in the current climate, they’d give up a great job opportunity to carry on freelancing. I guess we’re saying, freelance is going well but we are always open to job offers should they come our way.

If you enjoyed that interview, here's some more good ones.

No to booze, yes to product placement

2009-09-14T00:49:00.006+01:00

You can imagine the conversation in parliament: "oh no no, we can't possibly have any more alcohol advertising, clearly this is not good for the people of Britain. If people see them pics of alcohol they will clearly be influenced, fire down 12 cans of Stella, 3 Bacardi Breezers then end up in a lead role on Street Wars...oh sorry, what's that? Product placement in programmes? Yeeeah, go for it, why not, that's not exploiting anybody. The British public can't possibly be influenced by that"

What happens if brands want to place a product, lets say, Carling, on the pumps of the Rovers? Will this be seen as alcohol advertising or will they get round it by calling it product placement?

Now this is not to say that we are knocking the idea of product placement, it can only help the industry in the current downturn. It will help agencies too, but then again it will be these agencies who see their revenues get smaller as no more alcohol advertising and sponsorship is allowed.

So it could be a sad goodbye to great ads like Surfer, Dambusters and Top Bombin' And hello to: "Two Carling Extra Colds and a bag of Mr Porkys Pork Scratchings please Bett"

Can't help but think of the that Wayne's World Sketch...

T-Pain

2009-09-08T10:59:00.011+01:00

Copywriters have spellcheck. Models have photoshop. Talentless Americans have Auto-Tune. And now thanks to T-Pain's iPhone app, we can all be just as talentless. Hmmm. Thanks T-Pain.

Using the actual Auto-Tune technology created by Antares Audio Technologies, the app lets users sing along to lyrics and instrumental tracks with the help of the auto-pitch correction technology.

Not sure if it's the Death of Auto-Tune, the overkill, or the punch in the face to the annoying kid who won't stop using it on the train while you're trying to concentrate. Probably all three. Anyway, it's bound to be big so expect to hear it soon. Sorry.

Although on a brighter note, if we can all use it, perhaps it makes all the current batch of singers who favour it out of a job? And at least the news sounds better with it.

Perhaps it's not such a bad thing after all.

Gregory Gomollo

2009-09-02T20:08:00.003+01:00

Really liking these shots from photographer Gregory Gomollo. Part of his New York set. Love the first shot above, seem to look at it differently every time.

Trott makes move to DDB as transfer window closes

2009-09-01T17:17:00.003+01:00

Allright, not strictly true, but today's transfer window has got us thinking. What if this concept was applied in the advertising world. How much would Trott fetch? Craigen? Cabrel? Ben&James? (cue Ben&James free transfer comment).

This is beautiful

2009-09-01T08:36:00.003+01:00

Great new blog 'I am the client' from 'Dave Knockles'. Here's his mission "There's millions of blogs by ad agency boys. But there's nothing that tells the story from the client side - and that's the important side! (You'll get used to my mad sense of humour - everyone says I'm dead funny, especially the agency boys!)

So, seeing as how if you want something doing right you have to do it yourself (that's what I tell the agency boys when I'm fixing one of their ads for them) I thought I'd be the client who does it."

Good Ad

2009-09-01T08:00:00.002+01:00

Thought we'd share this with you. Nice ad from a copywriter called Kedarnath Gupta.

TV or print?

2009-08-20T13:26:00.006+01:00

It's Sunday morning. You're in bed, the papers have arrived. You sit back and relax in anticipation of a lovely bit of peace and quiet then you turn the page and all of a sudden this...They're making TV ads to go in newspapers!

The only question remains, is this best print or best TV? See this Jetsons like lark here.

Tactics tactics

2009-08-19T11:30:00.005+01:00

In football good tactics require good management, it's the same in advertising. If a tactical ad is being done it needs to be on the money, no room for error and be done quickly with maximum effect. It's usually the sign of good clients and more importantly good account managers that you get a tactical ad run. We've had a a few ideas in the past which basically fell flat because nobody in the agency could be arsed to run them. We like tactical ads because they're of the now and in the publics mind but like Scamp said "You can sense the Client and the Agency feeling delighted with themselves because they managed to get an ad out so quickly... but if it's a shit ad, it's a shit ad."

With that in mind we say well done to TBWA Manchester for getting a Jessops tactical ad out, (the image is apparently a recently taken holiday picture by a couple who also managed to capture the attention of a curious squirrel as they waited on the timed picture setting) it's just a shame that it wasn't particularly on the money.

We're not going to go delve into the ad and make harsh comments like others we're simply going to show other tactical ads that do it better.

George Kavanagh

2009-08-18T10:34:00.003+01:00

If you ever find yourself uttering the words "er, I need an epic landscape shot" then may we point you in the direction of George Kavanagh. Mick and Gaz, who we were at Poulters with, used him for their lovely Miele work and we've been in awe of him ever since. His website has a had an update and the new work is stunning, no sorry, epic.

Word up

2009-08-18T10:28:00.008+01:00

So, you've looked far and wide for that big idea. Analogies, exaggeration, clever wordplay, not so clever wordplay, puns, stealing ideas from the annuals, stealing ideas from the placement team. That deadline's not getting any further away though. And you already used swine flu as an excuse to skip work last week. Maybe it's time to start looking closer? Maybe it's time to embrace the Words Within Words machine.

Redundancy drink

2009-08-09T23:25:00.010+01:00

We were recently asked by an industry magazine our thoughts and opinions on life in the freelance lane. It got us back to thinking of the day we found out we weren't going to have a job. Then we came across Lemonade. When Erik Proulx, a Sr. Copywriter at Arnold Boston until October of last year, was made redundant he set up the website pleasefeedtheanimals.com a sort of place to find out info on all things unemployment. He's then gone on to create the film 'Lemonade'. As it's synopsis states 'More than 70,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs in this “Great Recession.” Lemonade is about what happens when people who were once paid to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives.'

Looking forward to the full film and thanks to agencyspy for the heads up.

RE: Ashes Ads

2009-08-09T22:41:00.002+01:00

yeah...looks like we really shit 'em up.

Ashes Ads

2009-08-06T13:03:00.002+01:00

"Waiting...waiting...waiting there etc". The Ashes comes to Headingley tomorrow so we thought we'd do a themed post. The good security people of Headingley have decided to ban all fun, music, banter, sledging from the crowd so the only way we can get at the Aussies is via the medium of poster. Here's some great ads from Richard Prentice and David Adamson at DLKW. Balls to security, lets get a bit of banter gong, it's the Ashes for friggs sake, lets have more of this...

Rod Marsh to Ian Botham: “How’s your wife and my kids?”

Ian Botham: “Wife’s good, but the kids are retarded.”

Stephen Lenthall

2009-08-04T10:29:00.006+01:00

Dave Eggers stories have often managed to turn the mundane into something much bigger and more surprising. So, a short story in this weekends Guardian about a fork in a pocket was perfectly in keeping with what readers have come to expect from him. But, fine as it was, it was the choice of photography from Stephen Lenthall accompanying it, that really managed to transform the ordinary into something special for us. 1-0 to art direction this time we think.

Not that you can probably tell form the poor quality image above. More of his work's here though.

New work

2009-07-27T15:18:00.004+01:00

The genius that is Branislav Kropilak has updated his website with some new shots. This time he's making petrol pumps and windmills look beautiful.

One of the best Adidas ads we've seen in a while

2009-07-21T10:46:00.004+01:00

Our 1st Birthday

2009-07-20T23:54:00.005+01:00

Today is our first birthday. It's been a year to remember, there's been many ups and a few downs, a few awards, a marriage, a blog created, a new website and the pleasure of working with some great people and great agencies.

We'd like to thank Adam&Eve, RedC, The Brand Nursery, The Industry, Golley Slater, Finch, Purebrand Creative, Savvy, Silverspoon, The Kings Arms, Banana Kick, AWA and Uber.

We'll be celebrating with a cold buffet and lashings of Tizer. Cheers.

How to sell a footballer

2009-07-20T13:58:00.006+01:00

Every couple of months, The Drum set a topical brief for agencies. And despite not being an agency we were selected for this latest project.

The current brief was based around the recent brochure footballer Michael Owen produced in order to get signed (eventually to Manchester Utd).

The task was to create an ad to market a player to raise awareness of them to top clubs in Europe. Above is what we did...enjoy.

The Scum Also Rises

2009-07-13T13:03:00.008+01:00

Set in a fictional ad agency, The Scum Also Rises is a newly commissioned BBC comedy. Out in the autumn, it's apparently going to chronicle the under-worked and overpaid agency staff as they spend all day trying to persuade people to buy things they don’t want with money they don’t have. But who knows, it might show them in a less positive light too.

Still there's no need to panic. TV usually gets advertising completely wrong, doesn't it?

Well maybe. Except that the "fictional" agency in question this time is called HHH&H and a quick search shows that the writer, Jonathon Thake, used to produce some great work at the not entirely dissimilar sounding HHCL.

Oh dear. Our families might just be about to find out a bit more about what we spend our days doing. And we'll be yearning for the days when they just didn't quite get it once more.

New Photographer

2009-07-13T10:15:00.009+01:00

We try to feature photographers we like on this blog, so we thought it was time to promote a bit of our own. Above are a few shots from Ben's photography archive, enjoy.

London Underground Fan-tastic

2009-07-09T11:40:00.004+01:00

Brilliant idea from the chaps at Thoughtful.

USA, USA, USA, USA.

2009-07-08T11:01:00.004+01:00

There's been a lot of posts and various blogs about the new skittles hourglass ad (which is great by the way). So instead of jumping on the bandwagon we thought we'd feature 3 our favourite ads from the good old U, S of A. We guarantee if you watch any of these when you're down they'll immediately bring a smile to your face...OOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFF.

Good at search engines, crap at communications

2009-07-07T15:33:00.005+01:00

This morning a letter arrived on Ben's doormat addressed to 'Communications Manager, Keelhawk Ltd'. Now this aint his company but it did have the right address, hmmmmmm. Lets open it up and see whats inside. Pure class, the first line reads...'In the current climate it's more important than ever to ensure that every penny invested in promoting your business works as hard as possible' you mean like, for instance getting the friggin company name and address right eh? Douchebags.

Serge Gainsbourg. Looking louche, debonair and drawn.

2009-07-02T10:33:00.013+01:00

Considering Serge Gainsbourg dabbled musically with everything from rock & roll to reggae in his lifetime, it seems only fitting that John Edwards lovely Draw Serge project should feature contributions that vary just as wildly in style (and sometimes just like the great man himself, in quality too.) Here's a few of our favourites so far.

Found through Andy Smiths blog, whose contribution is shown top.

The Michael Owen brochure - or the Michael Owen 'he's still good honest, remember that goal against Argentina?' brochure

2009-06-25T09:18:00.003+01:00

Here's a few pages from the Michael Owen brochure that's being sent round to clubs at the moment (and only being read by Hull and Stoke by the looks of it). Now we're not going to go into the whole thing of why this desperate attempt has been produced etc. Just take one look at the bag of washing design of the brochure. Bad cut-outs, poor layout, graphs, tables the whole thing looks like someone's wet dream Powerpoint presentation. A new low for one of England's greatest strikers (we still have faith Michael). Next time, if you really have to do a brochure, sack off your agent and get a top agency to produce it for you. You can see all of the brochure here

Early days

2009-06-24T11:33:00.011+01:00

The Sh! Award winners will be announced tomorrow, so congratulations to the winners.

Some really good work was on show, but what stood out more than anything were the great attitudes. Sorry if that sounds a bit trite, but so what. It was true. Creative departments tend to be the most cynical areas of any agency, so fresh, unjaded talent can really lift a place. And we're sure that most of those we saw, given the chance, will do just that. Just wait until we've got our next gig sorted okay?!

Anyway seeing as they all showed us theirs, we thought it only right that we show ours (well okay, a piece that won't make us feel too ashamed of our formative years anyway.)

Above is James's Student D&AD winning ambient media work for The Economist. Apparently this category attracted the most entries they'd ever had. And it was the only piece in the book at that time which didn't receive a (completely justified) good kicking from Graham Fink when he grabbed him for an impromptu book crit just as he was leaving New blood that day.

Your last meal

2009-06-21T14:45:00.005+01:00

Great stuff from Kingston University graduate James Reynolds. His site has some crackin' work, but these stuck out. 'Last Suppers' is a series of photographs documenting former Death Row prisoners' requests for their last meal before execution. Gets you thinking eh? Ours would be fish, chips and a pint of Golden Best.

New work

2009-06-18T20:32:00.004+01:00

We just thought we'd show you a new ad that we've been working on. We're really pleased with it. Obviously we've had to hide one or two things to keep the client and agency happy for now, but you get the idea right? Thought so. Good, always good to be open and honest isn't it.

Business card masterclass

2009-06-16T10:46:00.016+01:00

Business Cards Three. Designs on Saying Hello is a new book just released, featuring over 200 interesting and innovative business cards from around the world.

But, (and we are sorry to have to bring this to their attention so soon after publishing) they have left out one mans card that is so mind blowing that without it, the whole book seems pointless. Like a Best of The Tweets without the Birdy Song. It's just missing something special.

You see, this card doesn't play by their rules. It doesn't even fit neatly into pockets. Did any of these other cards take 25 years to perfect? We think not. Do crowds form around them? We doubt it. As he says in his own modest words, this card demonstrates "incredible marketing capability".

Genius.

Artist Mark Yates

2009-06-15T12:36:00.004+01:00

Can't believe we've never featured him before. Introducing our friend and top artist Mark Yates.

Being brought up on likes of Sailor Jerry, Ed Hardy and Vince Ray, Mark’s love of kitsch and low brow art is obvious. With an ever developing style he takes influences from old school tattoos and modern day street culture AKA it friggin' rocks. Great canvasses, prints, t-shirts and er sands ahoy people. Check out more of his work at www.markyates.co.uk

A nice piece of Bass

2009-06-12T08:43:00.003+01:00

Saul Bass said:
"There is nothing glamorous in what I do. I'm a working man. Perhaps I'm luckier than most in that I receive considerable satisfaction from doing useful work which I, and sometimes others, think is good."

I too think it is good. Found the site 'Not coming to a theater near you' this morning which has a a section on Mr Bass and lets you view film sequences created by the man. The beauty of this site however is that it lets you click through the sequences so you can see all the elements coming together step by step. Brilliant. Very addictive and very cool. Cheers, Ben.

Lovely

2009-06-12T00:29:00.002+01:00

Went to look at this after seeing it on formfiftyfive and our eyes were then drawn to the above...Titled 'if drawings were photographs', cracking stuff from student Rob Matthews. See more here.

Quiet please

2009-06-11T19:43:00.003+01:00

Apologies for the tiny logo above, it's all we can find. If you look closely you'll see that it's the Stuart Hocknell Design Award or Sh! We've been asked by Paul at Brahm to be judges in the advertising category. We did it last year and we really enjoyed it. You can read more about it here. It's a great competition as the winner gets a paid placement at Brahm which is great for anybody wanting to get their foot in the door of an agency.

Looking forward to the judging...and the free sangers.

Esquire Cook Book

2009-06-03T09:47:00.003+01:00

Rummaging through the cookery section in a second hand bookstore at the weekend this little beauty stood out a mile. Aimed at the modern 1950's man, The Esquire Cook Book features recipes, articles and over 200 examples of mid century illustration wonderfulness from Bill Charmatz. The care and attention that's gone into producing it all is fantastic and makes you feel more than a little embarrassed and depressed about the state of the "just wack a picture of the latest reality stars arse" publications aimed at men these days.

You can see more illustrations here if you like.

You've got mail...er

2009-05-31T11:44:00.007+01:00

We sent out our new mailer last week. It's times like this we really value what our old head of production did, as you basically have to become them. It ranges from enjoyment to making sure 300 stamps look straight. Thank god the Post Office make stamps that are pre-sticky - having to lick them all we'd end up with a tongue like Gene Simmons - oh hang on that could be cool. So anyway, welcome if you've arrived at our blog from the mailer, good to see you, have you checked our new website out as well yet? oh you haven't well it's www.benandjames.co.uk have a look. Cheers.

New site for sore eyes

2009-05-28T22:55:00.004+01:00

We've finally pulled our fingers out of our anuses and got a new website. www.benandjames.co.uk You can see more of our work on there and it's a whole lot better than our holding/downloading page thingy we used to have. We must give a massive thanks to Andy Brown for getting us out of the shit and helping us with the site, he's a clever lad. Have a digital swing by and take a look and let us know what you think.

A sad day

2009-05-25T20:52:00.005+01:00

What the frig?????? Jai & Wal have decided to call it a day. The madness! Probably most abused bloggers in adland have split up. Apparently they're going in different directions. All that remains is to decide who gets the marker, the layout pad and loft apartment in Shoreditch. Good luck fellas, it'll be interesting to see your next move.

Hitchcock-on poster

2009-05-17T14:33:00.003+01:00

Great poster by Pentagram for Casting a Shadow - Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film. Bloody lovely.

The Hare is running

2009-05-15T08:44:00.003+01:00

Usually, the best way to make a greyhound look better is sticking 20 quid on it and watching it bomb home round the last bend. However, photographer Rob Murray has done it with some great shots, check em out.

Grady Mcferrin

2009-05-06T15:02:00.005+01:00

If you feel like escaping from our hectic, debt ridden, panic mongering world for a while, Grady Mcferrin and his folky illustrations might just be what you need. Beautiful linework, muted colours and a magical, dreamlike sense of wonder can be found right across his work.

He's been bookmarked by us for a long time now, we've just been waiting and hoping for the right project to come up. Happily it just did, and the results were just as good as we could have wished for. To see more of his work for bands, wines and magazines, get clicking here.

Gold!

2009-05-01T09:51:00.005+01:00

Good news in camp Ben&James. We were awarded Gold in copywriting for our Poulters 'The Last Ad' at the Roses Awards last night. Also the Crysis work we did with Industry got a bronze as well. You can see the nominations here. Now all we've got to do is decide what to do with it. Mantelpiece? Trophy cabinet? Or melt down into some phat grillz?

Getting ready to press the flesh...

2009-04-30T10:15:00.006+01:00

Yes ladies and gents tonight is the Roses Awards in Manchester. You can see the nominations here. Above is our entry for 'best copywriting'. It's the last ad we ever did for Poulters, which is now in heaven, or hell, depending on how you see it. The suits have been wiped down, business cards prepped all we gotta do now is win something. Fingers crossed etc.

Type Tart Competition

2009-04-25T16:56:00.004+01:00

"We would like you to design a type-tart card either for a typeface or a letter of the alphabet. If you are unfamiliar with these things, tart cards are the means by which London prostitutes advertise their services. So pervasive are these things, and so curious is their typography, images and copy writing they are now regarded as items of accidental art and have something of a cult following. Once on the periphery of design, the cards have influenced the work of many mainstream artists including Royal Academician Tom Philips and Sex Pistols designers, Ray and Nils Stevenson. Perhaps they can inspire you too? Maybe Sabon would invite you to caress its counters, or Palatino would advertise its ‘Mega Serifs’. Bodoni boasts some magnificent finials, Baskerville’s swash can really inflict some pain, and Century Schoolbook would undoubtedly keep you in after class."

This would have been our entry, but Ben went to see ACDC and we forgot to get it printed and sent in. Oh well, chin up.

Todays post is a mere one word

2009-04-23T11:33:00.003+01:00

PantsMan?

Take Just a Minute for Mr Freud

2009-04-21T22:04:00.004+01:00

Sadly he's left us now. He liked the nags (which is true bonus in Ben's book) and told one of the funniest jokes we've ever heard.

Prizes means points

2009-04-20T11:30:00.006+01:00

We were looking at The Drum forum the other day and found a bit of interesting debate...'Which agencies in Leeds are doing good work'. After a few posts someone calling themselves 'Ad Doctor" came up with this:

I think more should be done to actively encourage higher levels of creativity (not just in Leeds) but throughout the industry. One idea would be to make 'Creativity' a measurable part of the annual top 100 agency list. This would not only encourage more work to a higher creative standard, but give potential clients a better gauge as to what standard of work they can expect from an agency. Here's my rough grading system...

Chip shop award - 0.5 points.
Cream award - 2 points.
Cream award Grand Prix - 4 points.
Roses Gold - 7 points.
Roses Grand Prix - 10 points.
Creative circle - 15 points
D&AD in book - 15 points.
D&AD Nomie - 25 points.
D&AD Pencil - (50 points at the very least) D&AD Black Pencil? (There's little point in working this one out really. It's too huge in scale and proportion).

Anyway, back to the point. This would soon sort the men out from the boys and begin to really show who is really walking the walk when it comes to delivering a successful and exciting product in today's stale regional market place. I think this new ruling should come into play as soon as possible.

It leads to a few interesting thoughts. Do we need this? Would this work? Would it mean more creative work? Would clients want more awards? Would account people suddenly give a shit about winning awards? It'd be interesting to see Belford and Roberts' scores eh?

It's not Nike, but that's a bit harsh.

2009-04-08T09:01:00.003+01:00

As seen on the Drum this morning. And in their nightmares for the rest of the time.

Separated at birth?

2009-04-02T14:48:00.004+01:00

While watching the England game last night we couldn't help but think that Steve Rider reminded us of someone. And then we realised he looks like Matthew Green's J'ai un petit visage illustration. Uncanny.

If we were god we'd do this everyday

2009-03-29T16:25:00.006+01:00

No CGI, no camera trickery, no photoshop, just mother nature at her finest. Boston.com's Big Picture serve up some more great photos. Try looking at this set without letting out a little bit of wee.

Let the cock-off begin

2009-03-25T21:06:00.002Z

Five minutes in and i've already said cock 10 times. Sir Alan's bum licking circle jerkers are back and full of absolute shite "Money is better than sex". You fucking nob.

Oh yeah, back to advertising, wonder which agency they will be peddling their shite at this year. Please revive 'the jukebox is back'. I love this show.

Cheers, Ben.

OOF!

2009-03-23T13:00:00.006Z

Great news, we've been nominated for couple of Roses awards. The last ad we did at the now boarded up Poulters is up for 'Best Copywriting' We're also the only nomination in the 'Best Charity' section for our Crysis work we did with Mick and Gaz at Industry.

All we need to do now is dust down our suits and see if anybody will give us a free seat at their table...anybody?

Paper Scissors Stone Party

2009-03-19T10:25:00.004Z

Featuring top furniture design, music, fashion, books and limited prints from some of our favourite designers and illustrators, we don’t need an excuse to pop into the Paper Scissors Stone store in Leeds.

So it was good to hear they were having a party where we had a chance to win a signed print by co-owner, Si Scott.

Then they said that Si Scott would also be drawing live as well as displaying his original artwork and studies for the prints.

Oh, and they’d also be throwing in free booze and money off all those nice books and furniture.

Needless to say, we camped out in a Michal Jackson style for a few days to make sure we could get a ticket. And we weren't disappointed. So thanks for a top night guys. Great to see top quality stuff like it in Leeds.

The only thing that could have made it any better is if we’d actually remembered to bring a camera so we could show you.

Oh dear. We'd never make it as journalists.

They don't make em like they used to

2009-03-14T11:16:00.010Z

I was scouting the Anna's site the other day and was having a look at the Judges Classics section. I love the old school ads just because of the simplicity. No fancy graphics, no drumming gorrilas and no fancy visual bumming to hide behind. And because there's nothing to hide behind you seem to get more truth and insight out of the product. In these days of digital, 2.o twittering lark it's good to go back and have a look at these.

They do kinda feel like it's your mate talking to you not some company trying to sell to you. Makes you wonder if Citreon had the 2CV today would they let an ad like this run, get the feeling you'd hear "that's great just get rid of the copy, shoot the car in colour and stick it on a windy road."

Ads like this are great doff of the cap to writing lines, lines, more lines and then some more lines. This seems to be becoming a bit of a lost art now. It sounds daft but everybody seems to be an art director nowadays. Any monkey can learn to use a Mac but can you then turn that into making great ads rather than polishing turds?

It's amazing when we show our book to CD's how many times we've heard them say it's nice to see some good lines in a book and they don't get to see much of that nowadays, makes you wonder what people are showing them? Visual bumming anyone?

Nearly every CD James and I have met says they are copywriter, maybe there's something in this?

Nobody says can you design an ad; you have to be able to write a good ad. I believe that in order for a creative team to be good at what they do the writer should be able to art direct a bit and the art director should be able to write a bit.

Maybe the next ad you write give yourself a bit of a challenge. Turn off the mac, do it in black and white and only allow yourself to use a shot of the product you've been asked to advertise. See what happens.

Cheers, Ben (art director)

Conquests of an advertising man

2009-03-05T18:41:00.008Z

We’ve always found The Metro to be a paper that gets right to the facts. So it was good to see an article recently, which said that we were magnets to the opposite sex.

And it’s true, as anyone who knows us will tell you. We are love gods. Admittedly love gods with a slight resemblance to Alf Roberts and Billy Crystal, but love gods nether the less.

… Okay to be fair it’s not just us. All copywriters and art directors are apparently. Alongside musicians and artists, "those on the creative side of advertising get the most sex, with twice as many sexual encounters as the general population."

Who needs chat up lines. We got strap lines.

If we are completely honest, we are not 100% sure if this stacks up. But it's always good to be proved wrong. Maybe we've just been working in the wrong places. Is there nothing that gets the girls going like your extended sales letter? Does your strip ad drive them wild?

2009-02-25T12:28:00.003Z

Ben&James have their first official charity. We'll be supporting The Lee Barker Kick Cancer Trust. It's a really good cause and one we are proud to have created the identity for.

Lee was eventually diagnosed with stomach cancer in January 2008 after many months of increasing pain, weight loss and symptoms that should have had the alarm bells ringing when he visited his doctor and the A&E department. He was turned away every time, probably because of his age and physical appearance (Lee is a 29 year old Personal trainer): the old norm that gastric cancer only happens in people over 50 years of age. He endured 9 weeks of IV chemotherapy, then surgery to remove most of his stomach, then another 9 weeks of IV chemotherapy. Sadly he now has tumours pressing on his bowel and what is left of his stomach. Doctors here in England do not feel there are any options left in terms of treatment for Lee.

The aim is to raise around £15,000 to enable Lee to travel to the Oasis of Hope Hospital in America. Here he will be able to receive the latest treatments, conventional therapy (chemotherapy) alongside Integrative Therapy, Lee will receive 30 days all inclusive treatment and a 30 day treatment package to bring home with him.

Lee and his partner, Kelly, are expecting their 1st daughter on 4th April 2009. March 15th will see Lee celebrate his 30th birthday.

So instead of going to Pret at lunchtime, take a Greggs trip and donate the difference via the website or please just donate what you can. We are also helping with a fund-raising evening on the 21st March. There's going to be an auction so if you or anybody you know could donate something for people to bid on that would be awesome.

If you want more info there is a Facebook group where you can see all the various events being organised or you can get in touch with us or email kellyabbey@btinternet.com

Thanks for reading and lets kick seven bells out of this cancer.

Pint please or should it be Champagne?

2009-02-23T13:39:00.006Z

Manchester's The Kings Arms are In The Book for the Creative Circle awards 2009 for their Frosty Jacks Cider work. Great result for the lads, and deserving if you ask us, in fact they could be he only northern agency that features.
We were in t'arms the other week working with Paul and Linton. Top fellas and a really good agency to be doing work at. Nice one lads, organic cider for James and a Golden Best for Ben, cheers.

I never read the Economist. But I do look at the pictures.

2009-02-20T16:46:00.004Z

Here’s two illustrated executions from the new Economist campaign alongside an old classic from the series.

While the black and red design style that had been recently developed by AMV remains, this new series differs from previous work for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, while previous ads had used graphic ideas sparingly, (David Abbott rationed them back in the day, believing it should be a campaign of words rather than pictures) this time there are no headlines at all. Instead a series of visual puzzles and metaphors are used to express the same simple idea consistently throughout.

And secondly these ads were not produced by AMV.

No idea if this spells the end of their long and successful relationship with the brand they helped define, but if so The Economist is hardly walking into the unknown, as Dave Dye is responsible for both the new and old Economist work shown here.

That lad could go far we reckon.

Can we have our jobs back?

2009-02-18T09:13:00.003Z

Looks like they saved our old agency after all. And like all truly great integrated agencies they can now fix your leaky tap too. Wonder what's in their 'new business pipeline' these days?

Thank You

2009-02-03T09:57:00.003Z

We are massive fans of Mr Daniel Eatock. Anyone who can make us see the world a bit differently without slipping a dodgy pill into our drinks is welcome round ours anytime. Always inventive, thought provoking and often strangely obsessive, the man is a legend. We've had a few things on his site before, but it's been a while. So when we saw this, we had to get a shot of it. It's just gone up on his Thank You Pictures section. We called it Jackpot.

Thorpe of the day

2009-02-02T10:37:00.004Z

Leeds based graphic designer, Simon Thorpe, has a new website up which is definitely worth checking out. Lots of nice things on here including plenty of great packaging and identity work for all kinds of ales and pies. Anything that can make us hungry and thirsty at the same time is always a good thing. Right, is it time for the pub yet?

Good ad. Super Bowl.

2009-02-01T16:46:00.007Z

Whoo. It's Super Bowl Sunday. Didn't forget did you?

Well, even if the game doesn't do it for you, some of the breaks in between might. These days it seems like the ads are even more competitive than the stop-start-stop-start again game that we all know and couldn't really care less about that goes on in between them. With a 30 second ad setting advertisers back around $3 million, this is where the real competition takes place.

SoBe LifeWater will be running the first ever 3D Super Bowl ad this year, and they've even given 130 million pairs of 3D glasses away in the hope that anybody actually cares.

But while we haven't seen their ad yet, it's clear that they should have saved their money. After all, how do you compete with a bespectacled koala getting smacked in the face repeatedly?

If you haven't seen it, take a look at careerbuilder.com

Turning a new page

2009-01-30T15:31:00.009Z

Found this book on the train the other day. Now, I love a good book and I love a good pattern too (and a few dodgy ones if you've seen my collection of jumpers) so combine the two and you've got me.

What made it even better was finding out that it was a first edition, designed by Jeffery Matthews.

Who? Well to be honest, I had no idea, but turns out he was a leading 60's designer who produced a lot of iconic work for the Royal Mail. He's now in his 80's and it's Jeffery Matthews MBE these days, so shame on me for the gap in my design knowledge.

Anyway, it got me thinking.

The book as we know it appears to be under increasing attack from e-books, e-libraries; even the Nintendo DS can be used to read books these days. But instead of caving in, book publishers and book lovers seem to be fighting back.

If people won't come to the libraries, organisations like bookcrossing.com, are showing them what they are missing. And to show that nothing beats owning, holding and turning the page of a real book, publishers like Penguin are investing large amounts of time and money insuring that covers are as visually appealing and desirable as possible. Take the Penguin Gothic Reds collection for example. Brilliant. And just as beautiful as anything Jeffery Mathews or other designers were producing decades ago. They are not bowing to the pressure to embrace digital, because that is not what they do.

Now my point is (and thanks for bearing with me if you've got this far) wouldn't it be nice if more traditional ad agencies did the same. If they set about raising the standards of their press advertising so that it once again gained the respect it was held in decades ago. But faced with so many messages, the humble press ad seems more keen than ever to blend into the background. Surely now is the time for it to be more brave, more interesting and more arresting than ever?

This isn't a rant against digital, that would be ridiculous. It just seems strange when so many traditional agencies suddenly start to focus on chasing digital. Surely if they are only just starting to chase, then they have already lost the race against the many, well respected, talented, digital agencies that are already out there?

Maybe it's naive, but after what appears to be a rather disappointed response to the ANNAs results over on Scamps blog it's just a thought.

Looks better with no advert

2009-01-28T21:47:00.004Z

A sign of the credit crunch? A sign that clients are cutting ad spend? A sign of really bad media placement? Or a sign of a 'graphic designer and art director living in Sheffield specialising in brand identity; print design; typography and website design. He believes design begins with ideas'. Up above and down below high five's to Marc Alcocks photography series. Cheers to FormFiftyFive for the link.

Noth v Saff

2009-01-26T21:09:00.009Z

There's a new post on Scamps blog featuring a heat graph where figures about agency's incomes are compared to their comparitive creativeness. The graph features a number of agencies, including a fair few regional ones. What started as a post about facts unsurprisingly became a comparison between Noth v Saff agencies in the comments section. It leads us to a few questions...

Are London agencies more creative than their regional counterparts? Is it simply down to clients? Briefs? Creatives? Money? Would Cadbury's have got a 'gorilla' if, instead of going to Fallon, they'd have gone to Flatcap & Flatcap Creative? And if the client had chosen a Northern agency would they have wanted a 'gorilla' in the first place? We've heard of clients that like a Northern agency because they see it as more of a collaborative process, which with the right client can be fine. But, often it can sound worryingly like they feel they have more of a chance to steamroller their opinions through.

And does it really matter where you are anymore? "Virtual agencies" like Stiff Rowlands and People, Ideas & Culture seem to be popping up. Maybe in these times of recession this is the way forward. Afterall, we all start with a brief and a blank piece of paper, so why should it matter where we are sat?

Sod it. Lets just have a Noth v Saff competition on the same brief. Could work...could be tasty.

From Above

2009-01-16T16:49:00.003Z

We've linked boston.com previously, but this is too good not to share. God don't need Sky+ when he's got this to look at all day. This is shit yerself good. Earth Observed

A shit load of loaders

2009-01-14T12:32:00.006Z

Hello new readers - since featuring on the mighty Scamp our blog stats went mental this week, graphs everywhere.

Right, to the post...The Creative Circle call for entries is up and running. We noticed there's a category for 'Best Loader'. Awesome. We all experience them so why shouldn't they be entertaining and creative. Pretty Loaded has some good examples of creative loaders. It'll be interesting to see what wins. In the mean time here's a couple of our suggestions...

Closer Mag - The Katona swigging a bottle of wine from full to empty.
Man City - Kaka counting his weekly wage (it'd take a long time to load though).

Feel free to join in...

Give me a break

2009-01-12T15:06:00.007Z

Holidays. A great chance to get away from work and recharge the batteries for a new year ahead. Or that's what I thought anyway. But on a recent trip away, it was as if someone knew I was a copywriter. And in their eyes I was slacking. Clearly they were not going to let me escape that easily.

Now, when I first stepped onto the plane and noticed that my headrest had been branded with a little message, I have to admit, I was quite charmed. It had a nice, dry tone of voice that suited the Icelandic people, it showed some wit, and it also gave me a few historical facts to boot. Lovely.

But pretty soon it began to get to me. Even 20 thousand miles up in the sky I couldn't escape from this incessant branding. It seemed to be everywhere.

Now, I know what they were trying to do and in one sense it's admirable. They wanted to give their brand a consistent, approachable tone of voice, so that I'd warm to them. And that's great. But have they forgotten that their brand already has a voice? Lots of them in fact. They're called the cabin crew. And if I want to hear them, I'll speak to them, thank you very much.

It's bad enough when some bore sat next to you wants to talk throughout the journey. But a napkin? A NAPKIN? Come on.

Eh sorry. Maybe I just need another holiday.

Judge a book by its cover

2009-01-12T14:10:00.002Z

My wife reads more books in a month than I probably read in a year, yet I love books, and its mainly for the covers. You can get such a mix of styles, illustration, art direction all on the shelves of your local book store. It'd be nice to have enough money to have a bookcase full of books and be able to say "fuck knows what the books are about, but check out the covers". Obviously copy man James is wanting to set me on fire at this point, but fuck it, covers rule and a book with a shit cover ain't gonna get me sweating. Where's all this leading you may ask...well I came across this blog the other day - The Book Design Review Good shit from a fella called Joseph Sullivan. Check it out, it's worth it. Cheers, Ben.

First of the Year

2009-01-09T13:21:00.004Z

Happy New and all that. Our first freelance gig of the year came in the shape of The Brand Nursery and our old mad as a Russian van colleague from Poulters James Acton. Obviously we can't tell you what we were working on but it was two awesome projects and we canny wait for them to come out. To be honest all the stuff coming out of The Brand Nursery is pretty special these days. Blue chip clients and not a hint of 'my Uncle's got a warehouse that exports chicken bits, could we do something for them?'. Well that's about it on the work front. However across the road from The Brand Nursery you'll see one of the finest sights in Leeds (see pic above). Waiting for your special and chips sir? May we suggest a rub down while you wait? Burger and Baps? Fanny Batter anyone?

Set shutter speed to 'shit that's good'.

2008-12-27T11:05:00.003Z

Got a new camera for Christmas? Bang it straight on ebay my good people because you ain't got shit on these. Form Fifty Five posted up a great link to boston.com who've got a photographic review of the year. It's awesome, plus they've got loads of other photographs on their site as well. It's well worth exploring. Schweet.

LOVE presents

2008-12-24T10:23:00.004Z

Guests at Ben&James Manor are in for a real treat this Christmas. Yep, we've been to collect our prizes from the lovely people of LOVE. And one thing's for certain; they'll be no more turkey flavoured Pot Noddles round ours this Christmas day. Now with 'Paul Burrells Entertaining With Style' proudly in our grasps we are finally able to pass on the kind of style and sophistication that only a disgraced formal Royal butler can give you.

Wanted to know how to eat fresh fruit? Look no further. Having a cutlery crisis? We've got it covered. Wondered how to make your napkins resemble the Sydney Opera House? Our number's at the top of the page dear friend.

Apparently he's rather good with red herrings too. Maybe that's in the follow up.

Banana in the tailpipe

2008-12-16T22:15:00.002Z

A week or so ago LOVE had an Eddie Murphy based caption competition on their blog, and wouldn't you know it, we won! It was a proud day as a team, the first thing we've won all year (so far). To see what we won have a gander here. We'll be bobbing in to LOVE on Monday to collect our prize in true Lottery winning it won't change my life apart from it's Benidorm for christmas - style.