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Inspiration

#Trends. When technology gets creepy.

by Magnus Shaw. I'm going to write about a new piece of technology, but it will involve some intimate body stuff. I'm pre-supposing you guys are broad-minded enough to handle references to sexy-time, but I'm a card-carrying, awkward, repressed...

Features

Clay Marzo. Creativity in a 6ft wall of water.

When it comes to surfing, Clay Marzo is unique. He has revolutionised the sport and taken it to a whole new level. In fact, he has pioneered moves so original and complex, that other surfers simply look on in wonder. The "Marzo Reverse" is one such...

Features

'Action Painting' gets us in a mess.

by Jessica Hazel. It's not just toddlers who get a kick out of using their bodies as paintbrushes, it's a visceral and provocative discipline which has intrigued the art world since the 1950's when it first burst onto the scene via Jackson Pollock's...

Features

#Trends. Love to hate Damien Hirst.

by Jessica Hazel. Damien Hirst is one of Britain's richest people. In 1992 his pickled shark entitled 'The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living' was commissioned by Charles Saatchi for £50,000 and then sold in 2005 for...

Workshop

Opinion - The will to live. How complacency is ruining retail.

by Magnus Shaw I hope you enjoyed your Bank Holiday, thunder storms and all. I did some light shopping on Sunday, such is my hectic rock and roll lifestyle. My good lady wife and I wanted to make a couple of specific purchases: some reading glasses...

Workshop

Opinions - Jesus The Howler Monkey

by Ashley Morrison Hey, don't shoot the (blasphemous) messenger. I'm not the one restoring pictures in Spanish churches. In case you missed it, last week I woke up to BBC Breakfast reporting on a poor, misguided, elderly Spanish lady who in turn had...

Inspiration

# Trends. Project Glass. Why Google's new technology is badly flawed.

by Magnus Shaw. Before the introduction of the iPhone and its Android counterparts, mobile phone manufacturers were locked in a frantic competition to produce ever smaller handsets. As soon as a device smaller than a fag packet was launched, another...

Workshop

Opinions - "Could you just ...?" What does a copywriter actually do these days?

by Mgnus Shaw My first gig as an advertising copywriter was in 1994, at an agency on Fleet Street. I was writing the radio scripts and the run-of-the-mill press ads nobody else really fancied.The range of clients was impressively wide - from Virgin...

Workshop

Opinions - What if a creative doesn't feel creative?

by Ashley Morrison I've been working very hard every single day for the past couple of weeks. Till silly o'clock. Being freelance, when the work comes along, I don't really feel able to say no. After all, in the current economic climate, to trot out...

Workshop

Opinions - Skip this. Why online broadcast ads are a disaster.

by Magnus Shaw Hello. And welcome to the Creativep ... LOUD MUSIC, SHOUTING, SOUND EFFECTS ... ool blog. I thought it would be useful to dis ... POP SONG, KIDS GIGGLING, CORNY JINGLE ... cuss how advertisers are handling broadcast ads on the inter...

Workshop

Opinions - Closed for business. Why some agencies are their own worst enemies.

by Magnus Shaw Last week I wrote a piece for Creativepool (which you can read here) explaining how the rubbish customer service offered by Orange ensured I would never purchase from them again, and simultaneously wasted their advertising budget. So...

Workshop

Opinions - Livestand is dead. Why has Yahoo pulled the plug on its digital magazine?

by Magnus Shaw Yahoo - that other search engine - has announced it is to axe its personalised, digital magazine Livestand, after just seven months of publication. Don't worry if you haven't heard of it, the platform was only launched in the States...

Workshop

Opinions - It's only natural. The American instinct for marketing.

by Magnus Shaw I'm in America. Staying in Kissimmee, Florida and genuinely delighted to see things looking a lot better. Last year I was alarmed at the number of boarded up stores and saddened by the prevalence of regular Americans soliciting money...

Workshop

CV + TLC = Job

by Jinx Jeffery, Dynamic New Alliances. I know a great deal of you reading this will probably have read something similar before, so please forgive me if some of this comes across in a wave of deja vu. But the information is clearly not sinking in -...

Inspiration

CP Loves... Plane brilliant. How to get passengers to watch the safety film.

by Magnus Shaw I'm easily annoyed. So it really riles me when my fellow airline passengers don't pay attention to the safety film. Indeed, I often notice travelers reaching for a magazine as soon as it starts. Presumably this is some childish...

Workshop

Opinions - Bus stop. Public transport, free speech and the battle for sexual choice.

by Magnus Shaw When I was a kid, homosexuality bemused and troubled us. I went to a public school and, despite the stereotypes, any boy even hinting at same sex attraction would be inviting ridicule or worse. That's how stupid we were. Now in...

Workshop

Do you network?

Up until a month ago I'd never attended a networking group. In truth I didn't know much about them. I assumed that they were for geeks and braggers, for the totally incompetent and the mildly desperate, for people either short of friends or folk who...

Workshop

Portfolio Tips

What happens when you do get an interview? How will you ensure your portfolio impresses your interviewer or client? Here are some tips that are essential in creating a great portfolio: 1. Keep it to an A3 size minimum Contrary to what your tutors...

Inspiration

Google's top ten April fools.

I suppose when you create the most useful invention since the Corby Trouser Press, you have the right  to outsmart your audience. And the good people at Google certainly like to take advantage of their elevated position on the first day of the...

Blow your house down is the new Guardian campaign as clever as it seems?

In comparison with the tabloids, The Guardian uses television advertising sparingly. This may be a cost consideration, but actually ensures a rather pleasing impact when a spot does appear. In the past, the paper's TV efforts have been intriguing,...

Inspiration

Product design to kill for: designer coffins

Unless you're getting on a bit, you probably haven't given much thought to what sort of coffin you'd like to be buried in when the time comes. There's a funeral director in Golders Green that displays one in his window with a picture of a Spitfire...

Inspiration

Ronnie Wood: I Can Get Art Satisfaction

You can't get much more rock 'n' roll than the Rolling Stones...and you can't be more rock 'n' roll than Ronnie Wood, with his former lifestyle of drink, drugs, sex and out-and-out hedonism. But I recently stumbled across a gallery just off London's...

Inspiration

How cool is your office?

It's a well known fact that some agencies spend huge chunks of their hard earned money turning lifeless commercial spaces into bastions of creativity. These interiors provide insight as to the breadth and depth of their thinking and creative...

Inspiration

The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman

Turner Prize-winning artist and craftsman Grayson Perry is one of the most recognisable figures on today's art scene. Perhaps due to gaps in my knowledge and certain preconceptions (or misconceptions), I had never really taken to him before dressing...

Workshop

CV Tips For Graphic Designers

1. Keep to an A4 size This is pretty obvious. Who is going to print out an A3 CV for their records anyway? Provide your potential employers the convenience as they are really busy people. It's politeness. They will need to print out your CV for...

Workshop

Ten of the best image editors

The range of image manipulation software available has grown significantly. Whether you're looking to create a digital art masterpiece or just want to quickly take the red reflections out your friend's eyes or crop them out the shot entirely, there...

Inspiration

Murray Beckers photograph of the Hindenberg

It was to be a routine assignment. Assembled as part of a massive PR campaign by the Hindenburg's parent company, twenty-two still and newsreel photographers are on hand for the landing the Hindenburg. The photographer Murray Becker of Associated...

Features

It works or we fix it for free. The story of the Zippo lighter.

One evening in 1933, above a garage in Bradford, Pennsylvania, George G. Blaisdell clicked open the first ever Zippo lighter. That was more than 425 million Zippo lighters ago. Today in a world where products are redesigned on impulse rather than...

Workshop

The Agency Workers Directive (AWD)

October 11th 2011 may seem like a very long way away right now, but it marks a landmark date that affects every business that recruits freelance workers through a recruitment agency or business Most of you that are reading this article will have not...

Features

Where now for the idea?

Most professionals provide an easily identifiable service. The lawyer offers his advice and representation, the dentist his drill and pink water. But the stock in trade of the professional creative is a little harder to pin down. Is the designer...

Inspiration

Nostalgic Advertising- why fix it if it aint broke?

When it comes to trends, what goes around comes around. Trends will invariably repeat themselves once enough time has passed for them to become 'In Vogue'again. This is true across the board, from fashion and interiors to music and lifestyle choices....

Features

Patrick Collister on "Does digital need art directors?"

What do you call a designer who can't draw or use a computer? That's right. An art director. I found that posted on a blog. Ouch. And yet it is true that the role of the art director has been transformed by technology. When I was the creative...

Inspiration

Sex Doll Raincoats, Recycled fashion gone too far?

A Dutch artist who goes by the name of Sander Reijgers has taken ethical fashion to the extreme by creating a series of coats and tracksuits made from recycled sex dolls. Some of the pieces feature a patchwork of body parts taken from the dolls (and...

Inspiration

From the people that brought us Kinetic Cats

Upon deciding that Brooklyn creative agency Labour were to be the first topic of my first Creativepool blog, you cannot begin to imagine how long I toyed with the idea of a political pun for the blog title. So long, in fact, that I was beginning to...