I stumbled upon this wonderful website for virtual snowflake making. You click with your mouse the same way you would cut with a scissors to create your own elaborate snowflake. The best part? You can download a JPG or EPS of your flake (or one of the 20 MILLION that are in the gallery) so you can have a template to cut out one for your window. Love it.
So thrilled to wake up this morning in London and find out that my DUCKS have defeated the BEAVERS in the biggest Civil War Football game to-date, and are now on their way to the ROSEBOWL.
37-33 Ducks win.
London Loves the DUCKS!
Who doesn’t love free tickets to see Rihanna, Jay-Z, and Young Jeezy to cheer up a Monday?
First Rihanna…
Then Young Jeezy…
Then Jay-Z
And then before we knew realized, it was over! Awesome concert. And props to Kevin Hastings, the keyboardist for Rihanna, representing Salem, Oregon and rockin hard on stage 
Last week I was lucky and got to take a week off to spend with my boyfriend Jon when he came and visited from America. It was very hard to not diligently be on my email all the time, and feeling a bit disconnected from the agency while I was away, but it didn’t take long to settle in and enjoy myself.
Jon and I got to do some of the sterotypical touristy things: National Portrait gallery, Natural History Museum, Tower of London, Big Ben, etc. but also got to visit Bath & Oxford, neither of which I’ve ever been to before.
It was so funny to visit the two of them back to back. They are both very much what you’d expect a “British” town to be, but looked SO different from each other. Bath has “Georgian” architecture… very clean, beautiful stonework, iconic scenes like the Royal Crescent, and feels very regal. Oxford, the “city of dreaming spires”, is beautiful, antique and cozy. The buildings all look like beautiful ornate cathedrals, and there is stained glass everywhere. Very different from the clean lines in Bath – but equally beautiful and interesting.
Here’s a few photos from the trip, and here’s a link to see the rest of the photos from my week away!
Only in London can you draw a picture of a monkey and get a whole bunch of whiskey goodies.
Yep. That’s right. The first week I got here, I was sitting at the Sunday Up market with Zak, waiting for Katie and there were these little cards sitting on our table that said “Draw the money and win Money Shoulder Whiskey!” I wasn’t really interested in the monkeys, or the whiskey, but moreso just killing some time. So I doodled away, and as we left, Zak and Katie convinced me to drop my submission in the box.
Cut to 3 weeks later. I’ve totally forgotten about it, and get a smam-looking email. But when I saw the words “monkey” and “drawing” in the subject line, it started to come back to me. Turns out, I was a finalist!! After a patient week of waiting, I finally got my goodies today!!
A t-shirt, a monkey moleskine with whiskey mixer recipes inside, a deck of cards, a keychain, some monkey cufflinks (wtf?), and most importantly, some monkey whiskey.
I love London.
This last weekend we went to Brighton, which was wonderful. It was exactly what I expected of a British beach, a bit chilly and mostly wonderful. People thought I was crazy to want to go to the beach, but I wasn’t expecting malibu. And I’m from Oregon for crying out loud, only the crazy people get into the water there because it’s too cold.
We went to the Royal Pavillion which was amazing. From the outside it looks like Taj Mahal, and the interior is entirely Chinese and completely ornate. They wouldn’t let us take photos inside, but visiting their website gives you a bit more of a taste of what it looked like.
We walked along the pier, got some fish and chips, and then spent the rest of the day finding hidden gems and cheesecake. Quite a successful trip. Below are just the highlights, but if you want to see more photos from the trip, you can see them here.
Yesterday we had an opportunity to meet with Paul Colman, a planner here at WK. The subject of the talk was “What is Strategy”. It was really great to listen to him talk about the way he, and Wieden, approach strategy, see how it gets broken down, explain why it’s important and why it’s good when it works, and how much it hurts when it doesn’t. I definitely learned a lot, and I’m sure it was really helpful for those who don’t come from an advertising background, to be given insight into this important part of our creative process. I could go on forever about how interesting strategy is, but instead, I’d like to share a few snippets and soundbites from the meeting:
-With no strategy, it’s just art.
-Don’t count the people you reach, reach the people that count
-Don’t take what people are doing & just reflect it back – lead, inspire, guide them where to go.
-Find the truth, tell it delightfully
-Dig. Talk to real people
-You shouldn’t have to explain why it’s good. You should feel it.
-Don’t obsess over insights
-Strategy IS execution.
This talk just confirmed the importance of having a solid strategy. I think there is a lot of work that looks nice, and a lot of work that has strategy but no aesthetic. But the really great stuff is that middle overlay of the Venn diagram where the two meet, and all the parts together make the work stronger as a whole. It’s pretty with purpose, and aesthetic with intention. I remember back to the days of Visual Communications with Dr. Bill Ryan telling me to make every decision about my work intentionally. Our group is still growing and learning to work together as individuals, remote and London-based. But I think that we have the potential to nail our strategy with so many diverse ways of thinking to help us wrap our minds around it. I’m excited for this.
Last weekend I went to Portobello Road for the first time, and it was a TREASURE HUNTERS DREAM. There are so many interesting stalls with antique telephones, old cameras, sets of china, typecases and wood type, and everything in between. It’s probably one of my favorite markets to walk around in. They also have AMAZING crepes. I recommend strawberries with nutella on a cold day. AMAZING.
Here’s just a glimpse below of the beautiful colored houses as you enter the road, but click here if you want to see more photos from the trip.
My flatmate Chantalle and I, enjoying the trip!!
Yep. That’s right. There was hula-hoop class at WK last night. SO much fun.
This weekend I went to the South Bank of London with Yuki and Teemu. I was thrilled to go outside on a beautiful day, and to do some cliche, but very exciting tourist things. It’s funny. You see iconic images of the world like Big Ben and the Parliament Building your whole life. But actually standing in front of those things is very surreal, and a bit overwhelming! London is just one of many cities in Europe that have this beautiful juxtaposition of the old and new right all mixed together. You’ll have something as modern looking as the Millennium Bridge, and then not far away is the famous Tower Bridge.
I absolutely LOVE London. It seems very much a perfect fit for me, something I don’t know I expected. I think in large part it has to do with the area I’m living in. Shoreditch in particular is FULL of vintage shops and markets where you can find everything from old photographs and matchboxes, to more wooden letterpress type than you could ever have a need for. Being the “treasure hunter” that I am, this is a DREAM.
Not to mention that, by the way, I am seriously at my dream agency. Even in the few short weeks I’ve been here, it’s been overwhelming in the most wonderful way. Every single person I’ve met has been so friendly and welcoming. Especially considering the serious rock-star status of some of the people in the agency, I don’t feel intimidated asking questions, or that anyone here is unapproachable. It is a culture where I truly feel encouraged to learn and grow, and where they recognize that creating an environment that fosters those things will ultimately help us create better work.
Working with the Platformers has also been extremely instructional and a big learning process. It’s an interesting challenge trying to establish a creative process with 12 people, where the language barrier is the easiest thing to overcome. We come from 12 different cultures, ways of understanding, areas of study, and creative disciplines. The majority of us actually come from a non-advertising specific background…everything from Urban Planners to Product Designers. And while these fields may all seem like they fit under the same “creative” umbrella, when we share ideas it’s obvious that each of our processes and ways of approaching the brief is very different.
We’re also battling the fact that some of us must work remotely due to visa issues. We’ve encountered a myriad of issues trying to Skype people into our meetings. The biggest issue is the time difference. The advertising industry is fairly chaotic, and I think it takes someone who can be extremely organized and flexible to survive in a world of constantly changing deadlines, timelines, meetings and briefs. But this isn’t as easy when you’re scheduling a meeting in London, and trying to include people literally on opposite ends of the globe…. right now, from San Francisco and Venezuela, to Turkey and Asia. We’re trying to share as much of our ideas & post our sketches on the virtual site, so that those who are remote can be as much a part of the process as those of us in London in the meeting room. I think this is the best compromise we can think of at the moment to satisfy the needs of everyone, but I do think that it is in fact, a compromise.
The ideal situation for me would always be for all of us to be in the same room, not dealing with technology, not having to repeat ourselves by uploading everything online after already explaining it in the meeting. I also think that unless a task warrants a 12 person crew, it can be almost counter productive to have that many minds trying to find a compromise that pleases everyone. At this stage in the game, I think we’re still learning to detach our egos and emotions from our ideas, and look at the idea objectively in order to analyze whether or not it fits the pitch. It feels like we should already have it figured out, but as Donna pointed out yesterday, it’s only been two weeks! We’re still experiencing growing pains and haven’t yet figured out the logistical/technical obstacles, let alone learning how to get the group to find their groove among personality and cultural differences. Overall, I think the entire group of Platformers is on board, ready to tough it out and find solutions, and maybe we need to be less harsh on ourselves and take a step back and be a little patient : )
Things I hope we can figure out:
-A better solution for meetings with virtual platformers (internet connections, time zones, sharing the content of the meeting if they can’t be present)
-How to establish an effective creative process for a group of 12 people (less tedious sharing of up to 48 ideas between the 12 of us each meeting, and a decision making process that will enable us to be straight forward and direct about why things work/don’t work. At the end of the day, we have to come to a decision.)
-Flexibility & Structure. (It’s hard to find a balance between these two things. Both are necessary, and finding that happy medium is a challenge.)
In the meantime though, here are some pictures from this weekend:
Creative strategist, art director, and student of the world currently exploring/inspiring/creating with Platform at Wieden + Kennedy London.
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