Displaying 109 - 144 of 316 results
When I was young, the most advanced hand-held computer game on offer was probably Space Invaders. A massive, chunky black device about the size of a hardback novel, requiring six AA batteries and with a dodgy red display which made it virtually...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
“Normal or diet?” The standard question you ask when you’re going to the bar and someone orders a Coke. I haven’t counted, but in my experience, I would guestimate that eight times out of ten, the answer will be diet...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Big is beautiful but small can also be mightily impressive - including when it comes to design, illustration or animation on a tiny scale. And I'm not talking about those people on Brighton Pier who write your name on a grain of rice. No, I'm talking...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Earlier this month, there was widespread consternation and outrage that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is going to exclude the 'crafts' as a category under the banner of 'creative industries'. Having done some work on a...
Posted by: Creativepool
I didn't wake up this morning thinking, “oooh, today is a significant day.” Nor do I have a beer-fuelled celebration planned for this afternoon in the balmy bank holiday sunshine - or even a rosé-fuelled celebration planned for later...
Posted by: Creativepool
That’s right - the most life changing, communication changing, perhaps economy changing, and even world changing thing since email. I’ll be blunt. I’m going to say nothing online can come close to email in any of these stakes. Not...
Posted by: Creativepool
Controversial to the last, the funeral of Margaret Thatcher last week continued to divide the nation. Millions of pounds down the drain, or a fitting farewell to one whom many called the greatest Prime Minister since Churchill? Whatever one’s...
Posted by: Creativepool
This year sees the 150th anniversary of London Underground, and the exhibition at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden celebrates the event in all its glory with a fantastic poster exhibition. With an archive of over 3,000, 150 have been...
Posted by: Creativepool
I'll be the first to admit it: from time to time, my blog posts can border on the vitriolic. But I flatter myself that, when I do let loose and turn the air puce, I'm only saying what quite a lot of people are already thinking. Such was the case a...
Posted by: Creativepool
28 March 2013 was a big day for the British creative industries. It was the day that saw the birth of an important new national initiative - Create Britain - to promote and celebrate homegrown creative talent in all its original and talented...
Posted by: Creativepool
By Ashley Morrison Considering that words and the effective use of them takes up pretty much my whole working life, I don’t read enough of them. No, cancel that - I do read enough of them, just not the right ones. Last night, I found a largely...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. I love comedy. I love the craft of it. I love how a skilled performer can take you one way, only to throw you in a completely opposite direction - which is the one that gets the bigger laugh. Being a successful stand-up comedian...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison Last week, I was watching some film or other on TV with a few friends. Naturally, we engaged in some pseudo hoity-toity rah-rah intellectual badinage about such-and-such a character’s motivation during the ad breaks. That...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. I never thought I’d say it, but I have some sympathy with guests on the Jeremy Kyle Show. Not that I sit around watching daytime TV all day, of course. Well, apart from a triple-bill of Frasier to get me going in the...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. The last thing anyone wanted to see at the Academy Awards ceremony last night was another Kate Winslet or Halle Berry sobbing through an acceptance speech. At least Adele had the good sense to dash off stage before the leak in...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison Last week was a big week for Creativepool: after months and months in the making, the new Creativepool website went live. So to crown its first full week of existence, we have the first ever interview with Michael Tomes,...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. Cue fanfare! Cue fireworks! Cue lots of awards! For those of you who are longstanding members of the Creativepool network, you’ll notice that the website has been completely reinvented. They flicked the switch earlier this...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. A few weeks ago, I was approached by a prospective client, who asked whether I'd be interested in doing some work for them. Specifically (or not, as it turned out) they needed me to write a brochure. I assumed they wanted a quote...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. It seems clear to me that adverts are getting cleverer. Gone are the days of naive wonder with small children pondering how Mummy gets the dishes so clean, or young teenagers dancing around in waistcoats while sucking on their...
Posted by: Creativepool
Christmas Eve is finally here and I'm feeling festive. Well, actually, I was feeling festive a while ago because I've been doing an awful lot of carol singing throughout December. Not that I'm bragging but, for the most part, these carol concerts...
Posted by: Creativepool
Blogs can do many things. They can inform, entertain and sometimes educate. They can be a useful and more creative platform for someone to write more freely than when they begrudgingly trudge through the corporate work they might have to do for their...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. And do you do what you love? OR do you now HATE what you USED TO love? If it's the latter, is that because it's now your job - and, because you do it day in, day out, it's taken all the love away? I put out this question out in...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashly Morrison. Today marks the 20th birthday of SMS (Short Messaging Service), or the 'text', as it's more commonly known. Last year, we in the UK sent 39.7 billion of them. In a country of roughly 62 million people, that's a pretty...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. I wouldn't say I'm a gadget freak by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like some techie stuff that usefully enhances my life while being fun to play with. I spent an inordinate amount of time choosing my latest mobile - a...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. You may have heard of something called the three-second rule. In advertising terms, if the person you're trying to sell to doesn't understand your message within three seconds, then your message is too long. But the latest EE...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. James Bond is as much a part of my DNA (or life history) as Wimbledon, walks on Hampstead Heath on Sunday afternoon, and Mars bars. So it pains me a little bit to be mildly disappointed with the new Bond film. Don't worry, this...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. One of the perks of being a freelancer is the ability to work from home. I love it. No arduous daily commute (and related expenses, obviously), no noisy work colleagues, and seriously good coffee on tap when I want it. But in...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. There are many reasons why, according to a recent poll by Forbes, 74% of people would consider changing jobs. One would like to think that this is just because they want to move onwards and upwards in pursuit of an ever-more...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. ..the new Chanel No.5 advert. It is the most pretentious, pointless, self-indulgent load of nonsensical advertising I've seen in years. In case you're yet to join me in the rapidly growing involuntary projectile vomiting clan,...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. As a copywriter, a major part of the job revolves around using the right words to convey the right message in the most effective and persuasive way possible. If you're selling a product, you want the customer to read the copy and...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison. ..by Volkswagen. I've always been a fan of their ad campaigns and many of them rank pretty highly on my personal "I wish I'd thought of that" list. They work because they seem so 'of the moment'“ and yet, looking back to...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison There are a great many perks to being a freelancer (if you’re regularly employed, obviously). A lot of variety, regular change of scene if you work on site for multiple clients, working days to suit your personal schedule,...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison OK, let's pretend that you haven't read the title of this blog (or looked at the first picture) and see if you can guess what sort of building this describes: "It's all about human beings and that's it! Think sunken snugs,...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison One of Berlin's most impressive buildings was actually British designed: the extraordinary glass dome sitting atop the Reichstag, built by Sir Norman Foster. I'll be honest, I was surprised to learn that the Germans asked a Brit...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison Understandably, a lot of people hate graffiti, mainly because it takes the form of the pointless defacement of public or private property with little more than large and ugly "tags," carried out by people who are - usually -...
Posted by: Creativepool
by Ashley Morrison When I went to Sketch in London's Conduit Street recently for a rather posh birthday tea, the last thing I expected to be talking about over my cup of Darjeeling and my strawberry tart were the toilets. Usually, the only time I...
Posted by: Creativepool