No Need to Sugar Coat

There is no need to sugar coat anything, especially design. Long, clever sounding words that is just not needed. This happened to me in my first job after graduating - a snooty PR individual attempted to loose contact with our audience by taking up un-needed, extravagant amplifications in our communications!

Not quite sure how to describe the comical design and appearance of projects and brand such as these but I love it. Ben & Jerrys, Innocent Smoothies and the famous Welsh brand (formely known as Mr Creemy) Subzero Ice cream all choose a specific approach to attract and engage with their audience. Innocent Smoothies is a prime example that doesn't offer a product range but a 'family' of smoothies, juice drinks and other creative approaches to squeezing in your 5-a-day. Their new 'Superhero Smoothie' TV ad follows a DIY approach to creative TV adverts with a simple smoothie bottle on a stick. Very Blue Peter but still quite successful.

Ben & Jerrys have a strong presence in the UK and provide as much fun, games, flavour and goodness as it possibly through colourful TV adverts which drive traffic to their website, successfully making you want to go out and get your head into a tub of chunky monkey.
Mr Creemy has been around for years but due to a dispute over its trademark, it opted for a rebrand and what turned out to be a whole new direction.

Subzero was the result to compete as a contender against big names on the supermarket isle. The 'ultra cool', contemporary and sophisticated new look with quirky website was obviously all aimed at attracting a younger, more affluent audience and I hope it has.

My conclusion for this approach to design and advertising ... very art-and-craft-esque! Enough of this pretentious hogwash and baloney - keep it simple!

Photo of a bin.

From this: To this:

These are a few of our favorite things ...

I created this advert as a concept for a campaign to encourage the use of sending air mail packages through the Post Office and Royal Mail. In todays society, it would remind people how pleasant receiving a package from friends and relatives really is, instead of text or email. Designed to show that the handlers care a great deal about what they do, this could easily be adapted and work well in magazines, newspapers, street billboards as well as online

St. Patricks Day

I am a huge fan of St.Patricks Day, an excuse to drink more, go out in the mid week and pretend that everyone is Irish, bas it become to commercial like Christmas where everything has to be green? I am however a massive fan of turning the river Green in Chicago and Boston. So just uploaded a few inspirational ideas and creative images to wish you a Happy St. Patricks Day 2011!

Reggae Inspiration

I have bee trying to find some new musical influences and have gone from CCR, to 10CC now onto the wonderfully happy world of Reggae. 'Wonderful World, Beautiful People' by Jimmy Cliff ... if this song is not one of your top 3 feel good songs of all time then you're pretty clueless! This dramatic change from Rock 'n' Roll and Country has given me a sence of inspiration and a definite 'spurt on' to finish my current part time Art + Design Diploma. Fingers crossed this should then lead me onto a Masters course. In this recent sence of inspiration, I spent most of today day completing painted illustrations of Tobasco bottles and pencils. Let's see what magical creations I can come up with in the next day or two?

the bigger the better

This image has been a wallpaper on one of the mac's in the design studio since September and has always caught my eye. So I finally decided to look into the work of American photographer Greg Crewdson. His style and techniques are well known for being large scale and rather elaborate with most focusing on American small town suburbs and rural neighbourhoods. He brings the use of light into the equation due to his fascination of the 'poetic condition of twilight', which give a distinct signiture to his photography. Each image is a staged scene with actors on a large set, a crew and the use of lighting and other special effects like fake rain, smoke and dry ice, all affecting how you see the image.
His collection “Beneath the Roses” came together with work from over six years and was completed in 2008. The image below is of Massachusetts in Winter (obviously) and is hanging in the V&A photography gallery. It is needed to be seen, as this small image does not do it justice. With so much going on, details and aspects of the image can be easily missed. So well brought together, his techniques would prove to be powerful images for an advertising campaign.
You can clearly see from this small selection of his photography, that a lot of time and work goes into setting up the scenes. On a much less grand a scale is a small creeative project I brought together last month using a few Swansea Met Art and Design Students. Below you can see the effort that has gone into staging this image, that was a part of a small series that were meant to play a trick on the viewer. Let me know what you think!

Stop Motion

This is such an easy technique of making short films. With a bit of time, effort and thought it can be such a clever and unique way to advertise. An idiots guide to the process is: taking loads of photos of objects that you move slightly in every picture, then add all the frames together in a film. I'm sure every British person has seen episodes of Pingu as a child!? Here are a few stop motion videos that are worth seeing:

Something that is a bit less dreamy and more trippy is this music video. The Swedish band Rymdreglage produced this '8-bit trip' that consists of a gazillion hours of footage and countless lego bricks. (I lie...it was actually 1500 not a gazillion) Be warned - it is reeeally trippy!

This music video Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie was created on a larger than usual scale moving objects on a bed as someone sleeps. There is also an equally amusing and far less graceful 'fat guy' parody.

This Western Spaghetti video took a bit of doing involving household objects as ingredients to cook up a pretty tastey looking dish! This won several awards including being voted #2 in TIME Magazine Viral Video of the Year.

I have made a few including one 40 second drink aware advert including sausage rolls, dancing wotsits, beer and a tin of vegetable soup - it was a bit messy!

Anyone for Pimm's?

In the last week, like a game of cricket, our glorious Summer sun has been called off due to rain. Yet this doesn't mean we can't all still enjoy a well made glass of Pimm's. This 'classy' and very British drink has seen a sharp growth in the last three years, establishing itself as the second most valuable brand during Summer. Over the last decade, the success of the brand has been supported by the humorous upper-class character Harry Fitzgibbon-Sims seen in the TV adverts, played by actor Alexander Armstrong.

In 2005, to further boost sales outside the summer months, some clever thinker came up with the idea of relaunching Pimm's No 3 as the Pimm's Winter Cup. This is a brandy based drink blended with orange zest and spices. Re-launched, it came with a branded teapot and tea cozy that brought limited success, other than being a novelty.

Pimm's TV ad's over the years have been a triumph and emphasised the link between the beverage, summer and all things British. This ad from the 1980's is an early example of the drink that's long on style showing that chic trends come and go, but Pimm's will never go out of fashion.
The new ad for Summer 2010, created by London agency Mother is an original and clever concept that will be sure to help boost the Pimms brand strength. Filmed in areas of Notting Hill and Clapham, it shows a typical English gent branded with the screen message 'Pimms No. 1'. He struts around the streets, picking up followers that are all labled as a required ingredient for a decent Pimm's. Costumes give each character a sence of importance and taste, carried out by new age Costume Designer and Stylist Mr Gammon. Whilst keeping the well established 'It's Pimm's O'Clock' message, it is a well executed campaign. With all the awful 'go-compare-the-money-super-market-with-the-use-of-a-meerkat.com' that has been all too common this summer, Pimm's 'The Call Up', is an ad that shall be remembered with an excellent creative answer to campaign brief and enjoyed by all. "Now ... Anyone for Pimm's!?"

Campaign Concepts - Levis

I have to admit: I am not a copywriter, so no good at juggling around words. As a wannabe creative, I am never short of a few good ideas. If you haven't heard, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (a company I would love to work for) has just ended their 28 year long account with Levis. (Take a look at this Guardian article for more info). Due to this, I set about seeing what I could come up with and have produced three campaign concepts ...

Concept 1. Fat Guy Friendly

Not a p**s take but a comical approach to promoting how flexible and comfy Levis branded jeans can be. It has hidden messages showing that it's not about body size, it's about feeling comfortable and in Levis jeans - anyone will.

Concept 2. You too could look this good*

A cheeky campaign stating that in a Levis pair of jeans...you could look as good as this average everyday Joe/Josephine.

Concept 3. nothin' butt

Again showing how comfortable you can be when wearing a pair of Levis branded jeans. Snug and sitted yet flexible and snug!

Concept 4. take note

Instructing the viewer to pay attention to what Levis have to say about, you and their products.

I'll put more visuals and mock ups on the ol' facebook page and see if I can't submit some on the Creative Review Feed. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Here's my business card ...

I seemed to have developed a strong interest in business cards. Here is a collection of creative business card designs. If that isn't enough, here are another 44 top business card concepts, to view and be inspired by!
It can act as a simple source of information and contact, be a good conversation starter and networking tool and more importantly be the first (and some times only) opportunity to make a good impression.
This is probably the most amazing business card video ever. It's yet another smashing viral ad from those clever muffins at Go Viral...so may I present to you the Master of Business Card throwing! I think I need to hire this guy for a day, to throw some HIRE ME business cards into the offices at BBH, Ogilvy and Fallon, see how that goes down!

Things are not always what they seem!

I was always a huge fan of LEGO as a kid, (obviosuly the sole reason why I have uploaded this image!) but yes indeed: things are not always what they seem. Take a look at this poster advert, promoting 'LEGO for adults'. The pixelated figure is actually made out of lego blocks...or is it? That must have taken some doing. It would have been fun to have come up with the creative strategy to this! It was part of a short series of similar posters but it does do the job. Just goes to show, the key to a good campaign: keep it simple. In all fairness, it's clever, but does it jump out at you? For more LEGO antics, visit the HELLO YOU CREATIVES blog where thay have a video of a fully functioning LEGO printer. Also take a look at the campaigns section of my website where my LEGO campaign got featured in Nuts magazine!

Keeping with the fact that 'things are not always what they seem', something a little bit more traditional is the work of artist Gareth Hugh Davies. He currently has a modest exhibition in the St Davids Hall. His work is all well painted and shows his clever understanding between light and dark, attention to detail and his use of shadows around light. So much so that the paintings, both large and small scale actually look like photographs. Has been a busy week, bearly celebrating my birthday, with a CIM deadline on top of being the newly appointed 'official company web designer'. What's html again!?!

Do you Virgin!?

"Heck yes I Virgin!" And where-ever possible when it comes to transport, and can say: I am a fan. Still I don't drink virgin coke & wasn't too impressed with TV & broadband customer service, but that beardy Branson (who has appeared in some of the ad's) and his Virgin transport marketing boffins have got it right. I hate to give in to advertising but glad I did when it comes to air travel. Rather than flying Kuwait Airways, the last two times I flew Virgin Atlantic, the 'inflight everythings' had an element of funky-see-through-blue-plastic-edgey-ness.

When I used to visit Birmingham every 2weeks with Virgin Trains, the carridges did smell, they were far too busy and I almost always had to give up my seat to someone else and stand for the entire journey and there was an absence of windows to stick your head out of BUT none of that matters - their advertising and marketing campaigns are just spot on! My trips up to Brum were similar to their 'Booty Train: Where do you want to be?' advert, where for about a year after graduating I made the trek up to see my long term loved one. Their Native American ad, directed at business types is quite amusing however their launch advert was seen on platforms, billboards, online and TV. The Return of the Train campaign re-launched train travel and set the standard for other rail providers.

With all this recent commotion with British Airways, Virgin have now proved to be the flag flyer for Britain. Their 25th celebration is a perfect piece of creative, followed up with faultless production and direction. 'Still Red Hot' was launched and was aimed at such a wide target audience. There were complaints about how the ad was insulting to women, which you are bound to get, but was dismissed by The Advertising Watchdog. It was created by London based creative ad agency RKCR, whose website is certainly worth visiting. There is now so much brand awareness and customer loyalty/retention through their quality of service and for what you get for your money as the CVP. (Customer Value Proposition).

I watch the Red Hot ad and BOOM! It is such a well executed ad: from the props, the costumes, the soundtrack, the lighting, the hidden messages and for the positive image it gives the brand - it really is advertising that works!

Top 3 ad's for Friday

In my current job, I spend more time making tea and waiting for photoshop to format and save, but when creating a new concept or campaign, I am never short of an idea! Whilst at a Students Union, my aim was to maximise activity whilst working to small budgets, through coming up with damn good ideas. Take a look on the campaign page of http://www.owenmorgs.com/ and see what advertising and awareness campaigns I created.

These days, with a good idea, it's so easy to create brand awareness for a product or cause using viral or hype advertising (via social media/ word of mouth). I am constantly on the look out for advertising that works. Here are my top three for this Friday:
1. Old Spice - an original ad that is planned out to the last detail. Wieden + Kennedy, a creative agency based out of Portland, Oregon took 3 days to create without using special effects. Everything you see is real! (execpt the diamonds). There is such a huge difference between how advertising effects a brand. Old Spice in the USA sponsor NASCAR yet in the UK it's known as an 'old man fragrance'! If they brought the ad over here, it would certainly boost sales.

2. In this ad, Air New Zealand send out the message that their company has nothing to hide in their air travel costs. It shows air cabin crew and pilots with their uniforms body painted on! I spotted this and had to send the link to a professional bodyartist, called John Davis. The ad isn't that amazing but a clever ad' all the same.

3. In my last blog, I mentioned the awesome Drench campaign, well Evian made a comeback with a clever computer generated gang of breakdancing, roller skating babies! After watching the video - make sure you see 'the making of...' . Vince - the cute chinease baby is just great ... 'whatup'! The global creative agency who developed the concept was BETC Euro RSCG, who carried the advert on via youtube. A London based visual effects company filmed a total of 134 babies at Pinewood Studios, UK to follow up from the underwater baby ballet of '98.

ps.

today is the 30th birthday of pac man-visit google to see what they came up with!

What to drink?

With so much choice out there, I'm just getting confused as to what to drink!? I usually drink 1 of 4 things: water; beer; tea; and orange juice. Now imagine the choice of brands for each product. That must show the massive influence advertising has on todays generation as to what to consume! Advertising and marketing has such a ma-hoosive influence on what we drink and to end up creating ad's on such a large creative budget would be awesome!

It's not so much about the product these days (unless your innocent smoothies) but it's about the image you portray. Drench seem to have a good strategy to get people drinking their water as opposed to any other H2O with the youtube hit: Dancing Brains from Thunderbirds & the Hampster Band!

Another awesome campaign was the Lambrini. Aimed at a target demographic (female 18-30) it again didn't offer a quality product (lets face it, it's cheap+doesn't taste tgreat) but the image. It was successful as it drew in a wider following. Even I attempted to learn the routine! It does offer a feel good factor and gives you that 'i just wanna dance' feeling.

The alcohol industry however can get nasty, not so much in the UK but in the USA, beer giants Miller and Bud went head to head in the 'Great Beer Wars'. Their advertisment doubted each others patriotim through TV ads. I have always been a coors light drinker (since it's less calories) and ended up knocking up an ad. Sent it off to Coors and they gave me some pretty good feedback, just hope this doesn't cause offence to drunk ex girlfriends around the world! The creative team at bud light have come up with some gems - take a look at my top 3: Appology Bot 3000; Coffee Cup; Swear Jar.

Day 4: Now that was clever idea!

Spent most of yesterday doing market research analysis :( but in a brief tea break, I came across this cracking creative idea that deserves some more recognition. Homebase added a slash of colour (and a heck of a lot of furniture) to an big empty train station. Their message 'make a house a home' along with the well planned stunt shows what you can do to any space.

This amazing guerilla advertising campaign created so much positive PR across social media: the video via TV+youtube; flickr; with a "Keep Carlisle Train Station like This" facebook group set up. Since it was a listed building, the council repainted the station, but Homebase will be continuing to transform more space across the UK as part of the ongoing campaign, so keep your eye's open. It would be so much fun writing a press release for this! I also wonder if they could do something to spruse up Swansea station!?

I love advertising that turns heads - have a look at the campaigns I was responsible for when working at Swansea Students Union at http://www.owenmorgs.com/ - a much smaller scale but still original. Another quirky viral ad out recently created by the clever folk at Mother of London. It's the Travelodge Zzz squad - it's so cute and runs on print, online and TV.

It seems a bit OTT putting out a 'daily' blog, it's lasted a week but will now be just a 'whenever' blog. Have to round up some web design today, proof and send design to the printer then heading to a small art exhibition opening this evening ... TFI FRIDAY!

Day 3: Wallace & Gromit still got it!

Good to see the Aardman Studios are getting work ... and why not! Wallace and Gromit are well known + adorable. They have come a long way from Christmas specials and appeared in the launch advertising for Harvey Nic's, Bristol. A large wod of the budget must have been put aside for creative work + ad space. They used the lovable characters to promote the opening and I'm sure you'll agree, Wallace wears his wool Paul Smith suit well!

NPower have again busted out the duo for their 2018 World Cup backing bid ad campaign - it's worth watching. I see Louis Spence getting his moneys worth from his new found fame-appearing in a viral video to launch a new channel for lasminute.com. Man that guy can move! I would love to be able to work on creative campaigns of such a large scale - I'll keep at it and will strike it lucky.

Finally got my website up to scratch - take a peek at http://www.owenmorgs.com/. Then if you got 2minutes, take a look at the photography belonging to Stephen McLaren - it's well worth it!