Resolution

I've for most of my life been motivated by guilt. If I don't do something, I fear regret and feel guilty until I do it. In advertising we use this "device" often. Mostly in cases of charity, non profit services and excercise equipment. But what if you didn't have to feel guilty about eating fourteen pounds of Christmas cookies in order to start working out? What if you donated and participated in save the world charities without Sally Struthers or Al Gore. What if you were inspired to create change. Oooh, breakthrough. Not really. I know it's not a new concept in advertising, but in our personal lives, maybe it is. If you can eliminate the need to feel guilty about something in order to motivate change, than maybe you can prosper easier. So my new years resolution is to search hard to find motivation through inspiration rather than regret. We're reminded all the time to get inspired with our work. And if it makes our work better, it must work for other things too. I've also heard it prevents becoming a jaded pessimistic asshole.

But side effects may also include overoptimism like this guy.



Hmmm. Get pumped 2008 it's time to get inspired.

From the Vault..

To See

This break I decided to stay in Richmond for a week before going home for the yuletide season, so I could get work done, think about my book, my future plans, work on ads, photoshop, concept, etc.

Now the time has come. But without TV, a car that's on the fritz and only some part time internet, procrastinating has been difficult. So, I watched some movies.



Great to go into blind. And really great casting of someone you will have nightmares about. Best to watch with a loaf of bread smuggled from Panera and a good companion.



A collection of amazingly written, edited and directed vignettes about love in Paris.
A must see if you're into lots of directors, love and Paris. A must not see if you don't know how to read or don't have a soul.



The first story I've seen in a while that doesn't follow a predicitable line. Don't know if I like it, too many traces of Wes Anderson in it when it wasn't just his movie, but an amazing cast and well written. Overall, enjoyable.



No.

Next on my list: Juno.

It's time to get up CPBear

wow. After about 64 hours of sleep this past weekend, I feel like I've finally caught up after last week of only shutting my eyes for a few hours to dream about photoshop and killing myself. But after getting some good rest and putting my book aside I've realized that I'm extremely behind on everything else. So it's time to restart some things, like running, blogging, trip planning, christmas shopping, reading emails, eating whole meals of food and breathing normally. Yep, it's springtime again everyone. Time to feel like a real live person.

The best thing since Ren & Stimpy

Dear Creativity

I miss us. I don't know why you left me. Why you stormed out of my life and left me with ideas that I couldn't even sell to AppleBees. I thought we had something good together. I thought you loved me. Please come back to me. I should have never cheated on you by calling The Hills a good show. I know better now. I promise I'll be more original, more inspired. Please come back. We belong together. Like Bonnie and Clyde. Like Claire and Cliff Huxtable. Like Britney and Doritos.

I'm a YouTube star!

Snide comments

I have a problem. But, I've done a little research and now I know who to blame for my disorder.

Revenge of the authentic nerds

A few weeks ago I shamlessly rented "Blades of Glory," hoping to get a laugh. I knew it wasn't going to be good cause everyone told me it wasn't going to be good. But I spent 4 dollars on it anyway. And it wasn't good.

But that really didn't disapoint me. Besides the terrible writing, what disapointed me was that the casting just didn't work. After seeing Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite, I just couldn't watch him in this role. I think it's because he just seemed so authentic as that other character. I really thought Jon Heder WAS Napoleon Dynomite and I had a hard time separating the two. It led me to the conclusion that if you really want a good movie, you have to be authentic with casting. So from now on, I think only nerds should be aloud to play nerds.

Then I unearthed this treasure as the best an purest example of my point. This is REAL nerd genius. Not that fake Jon Heder stuff:

Dear running,

I hate you. You take up too much of my time and way too much of my energy. You make me want to puke.

See you tomorrow,
Jillian

The Amazing Maize Maze...Amazing

This weekend I had the pleasure of experiencing one of my favorite pastimes. Getting lost. Which, is fun for about 45 minutes, but when it's 90 degrees and sunny outside and you have pasty white english skin like mine, an hour in a corn field with no know way out can be a little testing on your patience.

Here's a picture of me just before I gave up.

It's a bird, It's a plane, It's.....BrandCenter

If you didn't know already, BrandCenter is not about creating advertising. It's about saving the world. "We're not here to change the world, just how we advertise to it" is dead. Now, we are changing the world. One fake campaign at time. I'd write more about this, but I have to spend my time concepting for how to change the world's dialogue about religion, how to launch BrandCenter, how architecture saves lives, and how to end global warming. And then I'm going to sit and write about how good I feel about it. And make a map about it. Sorry, I don't make ads anymore. I create culture. I change things. I'm a hero. A real live fake hero.

Today In School Today

School starts tomorrow. Ok, it started last week, no, two weeks ago. But with all the welcome wagon hoopla, labor day festivities and no major assignments I'd say it starts tomorrow. And like all other new years, it's time to make some resolutions. This year I've decided to post them so that anyone reading this can keep tabs on me, or follow my lead. Whatever.

#1. Relax. No one's lives are at stake here. And even if you really screw up, you can always take out more loans and go to law school.
#2. Work smart. Remember that time and your brain are your most valuable resources. Don't completely waste too much of either.
#3. Don't eat like a 14 year old boy going through puberty. Try to eat at least something healthy everyday.
#4. Use the stairs at Adcenter. It's only one floor fatass.
#5. Take at least one weekend gettaway trip outside of Richmond. Your book will still get finished if you miss two days.
#6. Take what proffessors and other students say, chew it, taste it, and spit it out. Your gut will usually know what's best to swallow.
#7. Don't hate on group members. Unless they kicked you in the face. And even then, you probably deserved it.
#8. Enjoy the last nine months you will have at this bizzare place with these bizzare people. For in many ways, it's better than having actual clients.

Signed, JD

End of post.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Your birthday is on the Internet.

AdCenter! Try it! It Works!

I've noticed a lot of posts about the anticiaption of the new class arriving, and how exciting it is, and how anxious they are to meet them, mentor them, or be mean or nice to them. Perosnally, I haven't concerned myself with it that much becuase didn't really have a mentor. I had someone assigned to me, but I never talked to them and they never talked to me. This person was probably the best mentor I could ask for and I'll tell you why. YOU HAVE TO FIGURE THIS OUT ON YOUR OWN.

That's the point. And therefore, my one and only piece of advice I will give to any first year, mentee or otherwise is:

TRUST THE SYSTEM. Don't agrue with it, complain about it or feel like you're above it. You are here because you want to learn and the people here are the people you learn from. Including yourself. You may feel like you're wasting your time doing Coz ads, or listening to Wayne tell you to push it, but you have to do it in order to realize at the end of your first year that you actually did learn something because you acquired the skills needed to do the super cool work that you thought you would be doing when you first got here.

Even Picasso painted a whole butt load of fruit bowl still lifes before he became a cubist master.

I'm just saying.

Survey

Three weeks til school starts. Who's ready? And more importantly, who's not coming back, Dana? And the big question, did the summer burn you out or fire you up?

All I want for Christmas...

Notice how the river runs through him! Amazing.

Fashionably Confused+Today's Video=Yes

So yesterday I went to lunch in SoHo when I stumbled upon a "fashionista" that grabed my attention. Now, the fashion scene is predominately owned by the 80's revive hipsters or the quasi Eddie Sedgwick 60's throwbacks. Sometimes a mix of both with a boho twist or a twenties flare. Huh? Exactly. With these rules it seems anything goes as long as you hit up one of these categories and are conscious of doing so. However, upon what I whitnessed yesterday, it seems the rules may not apply. Or, they may already be dated.

This girl was wearing Wrangler jeans circa 1990, a tucked in turquoise T-shirt with animal illustrations printed on it, and solid black saddle shoes. At first glance, I steroptypically and critically thought, hmmm, tourist from iowa? But as she stood in line at the pizza place with her seemingliy hipster co-worker, I thought maybe not. Maybe she's actually a little ahead of the curve. Maybe she knows something we don't. Maybe this is beyond what's ahead in the fashion world. Maybe...she's perfectly on the border between what's considered dated, ugly and out of style, and what's just over the horizon and will soon be funneling down to department stores 3 years from now. After all, if you're already wearing what you see in the stores than you're already outdated right? Maybe...

Then I ate my pizza and wished i had new clothes. But to curb my confusion, here's the video of the day, that to me never goes out of style.

Blackle, the Green Google

For David Byrd and other greenies, check this out:



It saves watts of electricity by having a black screen instead of white. Cool?

Procrastination Nation

Why is it that every time I get assigned a project I need to do everything besides start the project before i start the project? Like how I'm writing this blog entry right now instead of concepting for the print campaign I just asked to be a part of yesterday?

Non-Traditional Advertising Can Be Cumbersome...

This weekend Kacey and I stumbled upon a non-traditional branding marketing advertising street teamed event for Vitamin Water. We got to play Vitamin Water Plink-O for great prizes like a free sample of chapstick or a trial size bottle of triple x pomegranete and blueberry blended Vitamin Water. And, I won the grand prize! Now for someone that never wins anything I was extremely excited. Until I found out that the grand prize was a bucket full of 8 Vitamin Water bottles, coupons, chapstick and a t shirt that i had to trek 30 blocks uptown to my apartment. But I think the advertising worked cause my sore arms today are a constant reminder of how great Vitamin Water is. I think that was the message, right?

Here is a picture of Kacey and I at the event:

What constitutes a successful internship?

So I have about a month left and for the most part it's been a really good experience, personally. I've worked on some major brands, a big pitch (some of my work is in testing for it right now), I'm starting to make some money that will stay in my bank account for more than a few days and I've gotten a really good feel for how this agency operates. Yet, if asked whether or not I think they would offer me a job after this, I'd have to say I really don't know. I don't really know if I've done anything that's job offer worthy. I don't know if I've contributed anything to the agency that another art director couldn't. I don't really know if I've proved myself enough to be remembered by, reffered by or praised by anyone here in the future. At least not any more than the other art directors or some of the other interns. It makes me wonder, what is a good internship? Is it better if you have personally gained from it? Or is it better if the agency and the people you worked for gained from it? I'm starting to think it's the latter.

Umm, yeah

Today, at work today

I had to find a picture of a blonde Japanese woman in pigtails dancing at a Jamaican take-out restaurant. I really wish they'd give me some harder tasks, I mean c'mon. E.Z.!

Video of the Day

D.A.N.C.E by Justice

For all you designery illustratory art directory cool types

If you ever have $180 laying around and you don't know what to do with it, either send it to me or buy this book.

I found it laying around at work and I'm in love.

Check out the website:
http://www.designedtohelp.com/

This isn't CATS

So I've just gotten a new assignment: Tidy Cats. I repeat: Tidy CATS. Nothing could be worse than cats. I'd rather work on Tidy Clowns. I've spent the past two days trying to figure out why cat lovers love their cats and I still can't figure it out. What do people see in those things? I'm completely stumped and have hit an offical slump. I will never be a cat person and even if I can somehow come out of this assignment with some work that doesn't make fun of cats or their owners, I still won't like them. In fact, the only cat I had really ever known was the one my parents had when I was little.

His name was Lucifer.

One of my fav music videos

Microsoft is cool?

www.clearification.com

You Tube...more like Poop Tube

So I spent almost my enitre work day yesterday surfing You Tube for some really funny, smart, good stuff to get inspired by for the TV spot I'm working on and I came to one BIG realization. You Tube is really not all that. Yes, I'm a hater and I'll tell you why.

There is so much crap on you tube that isn't remotely smart, funny, entertaining or even interesting. Maybe I've just become a snob since I'm in advertising, but where is all the really cool, creative user generated videos? I thought bad homemade creative went out with Bob Saget's Americas Funniest Home videos.

Come on people.

Yes, You Tube is remarkably innovative and is a great idea for it's time, and we've all laughed at vids like "The Landlord," or gotten famous for pretending to be a homeschooled 15 year old, but it's time to move on. And by move on, I mean demand better.

Stay with me people.

If some company like say a big entertainment /media company developed a video sharing site that focused on creativity, I think there would be a strong enough niche to battle with the Tube. A site where videos are filtered and judged by respectable creatives in the industry. A site that's a little more discriminating and challenging for people who seriously want to make good stuff. A site where you couldn't put up a video of your three year old god daughter dancing to "My Humps" in the back seat of your car no matter how "cute" you think it is.

I'm just saying.

R.I.P. Sopranos but cry not, AMC has "Mad Men"

This July there will be a new series on AMC about the ad world of the 1960's. From AMC:

Mad Men is AMC’s provocative new original series from writer and executive producer Matthew Weiner of The Sopranos. Set in 1960 New York, Mad Men pulls the viewer into an unexpected new world - the high-powered and glamorous “Golden Age” of advertising - where everyone is selling something and nothing is ever what you expect it to be.

I think it's worth checking out-looks a lot like the Sopranos. Too bad I don't have a TV.

Check out the trailer

Still At Work...

Ok, so I started my internship on Monday, and I'm pretty much still here. It's already been a lot of work, but it's going pretty well, although I've been nervous the entire time because I don't know if I'm doing anything right. But on the bright side, I'm being treated like an actual art director. And by art director I mean someone who art directs. And by art directs I mean someone who directs other people like designers and illustrators to make my artwork so I can lay it out. And by lay it out, I mean make real ads.

Blogging, or Gastrointestinal Discharge?

Is it just me, or does "blogging" sound like some sort of really gross disorder you never want to experience. "Sorry I couldn't make it to the game today. I've been blogging all morning."