Ready, set, GO! ..and go, go, go

Above are some of my favourite shots I took while experimenting with my first roll of film on my new Lomography Action-sampler. Some of them are a bit underexposed, and there were a lot more I took that just didn't come out, so I'll be investing in some decent ISO800 film for next time.

On another photography-based note, I've just ordered a Fisheye 2, so instead of waiting until i go away I'll probably be messing about with that soon.

Have it your way (even when scoring in La Liga)

Like many of you, I'm a fan of a good marketing gimmick- done tastefully of course. I found this rather interesting piece for Burger King yesterday. It even comes with a how-to guide!

I'm not really sure if I like it; yes I know it's worth a chuckle, but does it do much more than that? Not really. Then again, does it have to?

I guess it's been done now, so what's next? Ideas on a postcard please (I promise if I ever use them on a live brief I'll give you credit, honest)

All's quiet on the western front...

After taking a couple of weeks off after the fun-filled month of placements and endless train journeys that was June, I've decided it's time to get back into being creative (this also gives me a distraction from the dreaded dissertation).

I've always been a fan of photography, so after Uni suggested we do 'creative' things this summer that wasn't just advertising, I've become slightly obsessed with buying cameras. I splashed out the other day on a new digital one, with HD video recording- so keep an eye out for some film projects coming soon- and have just bought myself a Lomo ActionSampler from ebay. 4 images, one negative, over 0.66 seconds. Should come out with some interesting stuff, so keep checking back for that!

I'm also scraping some pennies together for a Fisheye (yes, I've been on the Lomo website a lot!), so really looking forward to that coming soon.

Things what I done learnt...

Well it's been another mental week and a bit! The week at CheethamBell went really well, thanks to PK and all the guys there who made us feel welcome and got us in working on a couple live briefs. Paul as also kind enough to get us in touch with the CDs at BJL, Tom and Pete, who made some time for us to go over our book- a few similar comments that we'd heard in previous were made, so keep your eyes peeled for new additions/edits to the book soon!

After a false start on Wednesday (yes, yes, we went on the wrong night!), we finally made it to Leeds last Thursday for the Brahm Sh! awards...and not only were we pleasantly surprised enough to come away with first in the Advertising category, Creative Advertising also picked up 2nd place, as well as Tom from Graphics picking up 1st in the Design category! So a good night all-round...although it was slightly marred by hearing of the death of MJ (whilst sitting in some dodgy 70s bar in Leeds- we were, not him)

So after a few weeks of agency work I thought I'd compile a little list of insights we've got from life in the working world. A lot of them may be absolute rubbish, but they made me laugh at least..please feel free to add any more you can think of!

• Have an idea, work through it...you'll soon realise if it's shit
• Fight for your work with the accounts team
• Don't show anyone other than same-level creatives your sketchy ideas, do a mood board at least
• Don't take one person's opinion as gospel
• Have a fucking break. You're not a machine!
• Post-work, Friday night banter between Creatives and Handlers is classic, and you'll learn a lot
• Don't criticise the brief too much, but do it, and then do your own thing (within reason!)
• Your uni book means absolutely nothing once you graduate...maybe even now...do you want a degree or a job?
• Yorkshire tea and Nobbly Bobbly's are perfect creative pick-me-up. Just not at the same time
• Jonathan from Spotify is.....well, see here
• Try not to kill anyone from the agency with your Mac power cable
• Don't get complacent. Enjoy the moment...but what's the next step? Next brief? Next award? Next job?
• Always triple-check you're going to the awards on the right night!
• Don't take your drink up on stage with you if you do win
• Copywriter or Art Director? Decide now...damn student
• If you thought it was tempting to sit and trawl blogs all day, try sitting in an agency with 10 other people who've got time (well kinda!) to find even more amusing/pointless/disturbing/er...advertising, things to look at.

That's me for now. Updates soon x

Here's my card...

Over the next week I'm all over the place; interviews, holidays, placements, awards nights (yes, I know, it's such a hard life being an advertising student), and only yesterday- in the middle of an interview- did I realise that we didn't have a business card! And when someone from McCann Europe asks for your card, and you dont have one...it's time to get a move on!

We've got one in production at the minute, but I am tempted to call Josh and get him to stop the printers, 'cos look what I've found!

This has been making the rounds on the blogs at the minute, thanks to Ben & James for bringing it to my attention. In a strange twist of fate, Ben & James were also part of the interview team in the Brahm Sh! Awards I was at yesterday. (I think) Everything seemed

to go down well, apart from the lack of cards to hand out, and now it's just a waiting game to find out how we've done next Wednesday.

Quiet You!

Well...where to begin? It's been a long week since my last post, so much has happened!

The rest of the week with LOVE went down really well, the feedback we got on the live stuff we worked on went down really well. And the promo stuff we did was well received- we've got a mocked up version of one of them made up, but have to wait and see if it's going to be taken further before putting it up on here!

On Thursday we went over to JWT/CheethamBell for another book crit; we'd only gone there in the hope of getting 20 minutes of their time to go over our book, we ended up finding out on Friday afternoon that we'd been offered a placement, starting next Monday! Which is 'citing, if anything!

Another piece of surprising news was that we'd been shortlisted (along with another 4 teams from Lincoln) for the Brahm Sh! awards in Leeds. So I've got to go down there tomorrow for an interview and to show our book, then the week myself and Josh are in Manchester working, we're going over to Brahm HQ again for the awards night- best get our shoes polished!

Talking to a song bird yesterday

Wow, a week down already! We've had a busy busy week, both in and out of work. A lot of our time was spent coming up with promotional pieces for Love...a Yeti playing hide an seek in the street, office ten-pin bowling...as well as a new Umbro TV spot, and an identity and branding brief for new a new youth centre here in Manchester (again, don't really want to say too much about live briefs the agency is working on)

One of the highlights of the week was the last-minute Oasis gig! We managed to get hold of tickets for £15, and may even end up making a profit out of it after Liam offered refunds because of the fanny-on with the generator...scorrrrrre!

More blogging on work next week, think I'm about to OD on fruit so I'm a bit shakey and off for a lie down! Peace x