#branding

How Brands Like

Manchester United

Are Getting It Wrong

1 min

Don’t survive, Live!

There was a time in the evolution of the human race when survival was the only thing that mattered. A time when we never what the next day would bring, for our race, not us as individuals. We all know this is true yet often these survival instincts take over and we find ourselves on automatic pilot, just coasting through the days, one after the other. Unfortunately it often takes a major incident to shake us out of this. A disaster like New Zealand or Japan has faced recently

1 min

Light the path for others and one day they will do the same for you

Can you beat the odds when they are stacked against you? Can you defeat the demons that you create? Can you be positive in the face of a negative sea that continues to sweep over you wave after wave? These are the circumstances we face in our daily life, these are the chains that hang around you dragging you deeper into despair. But you hold the keys to release the chains, you hold the answers to the puzzles of your mind, you hold the balance in your mind between moving forwa

2 min

Fuel the spark of dreams that lie within you

A change is as good as a rest, they say. Getting stuck in a rut can really destroy your moral and spirit as it takes away any sort of natural decision making, and therefore creative thinking. I do not believe that only artists, designers and people with creative occupations are the only creative ones. We are all creative by nature as it is part of what has helped us evolve over the years. It is this creative spirit that has forged new inventions, created new industries, creat

1 min

Two careers, one love.

There are times recently that you are far away. Life has taken our paths into different directions. Success and ambition drives us both forward, achieving goals that seem to appear on our separate paths but always knowing that we are thinking about each other. As there is no success worth reaching and no ambition worth achieving unless we reach there together. 12 years ago you barged your way into my heart, loudly, as only you could do, whilst still radiating beauty and poise

1 min

Two careers, one love.

2 min

Did I really say that?

Do you spend hours, or some amount of time, torturing yourself over what you didn’t say? Or is it just me? This is more about something I have battled most of my life. I have always found that after any conversation and disagreement I cannot stop going over every single sentence, word and how they were meant or could be contrived to mean. I spend countless hours brooding over things like this when I am pretty sure that the other person had comfortably moved on in life. Me, on

2 min

Did I really say that?

2 min

Does your imagination rule your day?

I found myself in a supermarket queue of some length yesterday. You know where the other isles seem to be on fast forward, yet your line seems to be in a perpetual state of animation, moving in slow motion. Even sounds of the bar code reader bleeping seem to be dragging on for double the amount of time. Although none of the customers in front of me had much in their trolleys, the sudden realization on them that yes, indeed you must have your money ready to pay at the end, see

2 min

Does your imagination rule your day?

2 min

Burn bright little meteor, be all you can be in your life.

Our life can be compared to a meteor. We hurtle through the vacuum of space trying to grasp an understanding of what it’s all about. We start from different positions in the cosmos that we all call home. We are created differently and start in different parts of the universe. From the beginning, we burn brightly without care or abandon as to the dangers we face. We interact with other meteors on our journey as we pass, some change our direction slightly, others can be life ch

2 min

Burn bright little meteor, be all you can be in your life.

1 min

Tough times call for tougher solutions

A feast of interesting items to see today and I know I usually pick up a motivational quote or saying to include but I loved the irony of the poster below (bottom right), with its “This poster is half empty.’ message. I also like the one next to it where a graphic designer has created this as a self promotional piece by saying, “Hire me I’m cheap.” They do say that in tough times we tend to find interesting solutions to the problems we face. And let’s face it these are tough

1 min

Tough times call for tougher solutions

1 min

The old creative ‘switcharoo!’

The power of branding. Take a look below at the Marlboro and Campbells soup comparison (3rd row on the right) I found myself just thinking that they look very familiar for at least 5-10 seconds before suddenly realizing that the actual packaging was switched. Maybe I’m just getting old! On another note, our Y&R Dubai office do a lot of work on Harvey Nichols and they have won many awards on the process with some very nice work. But one of my favorite ads for Harvey Nichols wa

1 min

The old creative ‘switcharoo!’

1 min

How ideas infiltrate the subconscious mind

This is a wonderful video by Derren Brown. I love the way he turns the tables on two great creatives in London. I found this to be very insightful to share with creatives about what kind of things they are inputting into their minds when not at work, as you never know where or when you next idea is coming from. #Advertising #ideas #subliminaladvertising #Creative #logo #DerrenBrown #branding

1 min

How ideas infiltrate the subconscious mind