More D&AD Reflection

I should start this post with an apology, because lately I've been relentlessly spamming the social networks with news of mine and Olly's D&AD Student Award nomination for our Peace One Day project. I think one has to be a fairly shameless self-promoter when getting into this industry, but the downside is that those who know you well can get a bit sick of it all. So to those people, sorry.

I also feel sorry for a team from Sunderland, who had almost exactly the same idea as us - you can view it here - but didn't win a nomination (though they're going to the BBH Barn shortly, so their story has a happy ending).

I wanted to work out why our version of the idea won out - not to gloat, but to understand, so the success can be repeated. I think the answer is simply that we worked harder at ours. We tested our thinking and our strategy at every stage, and we pushed our ideas as far as they could go, asking advice at every turn.

As a result, you find the little differences. Our method for getting people to play football is probably more technically realistic, as we found out that simply switching to a sports simulation engine within Battlefield 3 would have been extraordinarily difficult to code. The person who told me this also suggested using Electronic Arts, as they produced major videogames in both war and football - a fact which led us to the "pEAce day" logo, a useful stroke of luck.

Our research also led us to develop a realistic user journey, that took into account likely scepticism on the part of gamers, and therefore harnessed in-game advertising opportunities and created incentives for them to participate. Throughout, we were determined that the idea would fit into peoples' lives and habits, rather than expect them to take a leap into the unknown.

And that's it, really. It turns out that hard work counts as much as a good idea. And on that bombshell, I'm going to bed.

A couple of awesome D&AD winners

"D&AD winners never sell anything". That's the most common complaint about awards like these, and in some cases, it's fair comment. But on the other hand, these are the Design & Art Direction awards, and for those more interested in success, there's always the IPA Effectiveness Awards.

So, here are a couple of stunning pieces of craft. First of all, in the packaging category, the Shanghai 1910 special edition Johnnie Walker bottles by Love Creative. It's not rocket science why these won - yes, they're on brand, but any two-bit agency can make something look a bit Chinese. Not everyone can make it look as sumptuous and classy as this though - the perfect representation of a masterful, premium brand (click to enlarge).

Then, in the music videos, is "Simple Math" by Manchester Orchestra (who are American and not an orchestra) and directed by The Daniels. It won a yellow pencil for special effects, but for me the video was so full of depth and emotional weight that it deserved to take a bigger prize.

No embedding. Go here to watch it on Vimeo and get it fullscreen.

Other nominated videos, like this fun one for Is Tropical, may have a more memorable central concept. But as a marriage of music and images, it's just about unbeatable.

It's in the way you instantly know you're looking at the singer as a child and his Father. It's in the great acting job by all 4 main characters. It's in the way that you can watch the video 5 times and still see a new symbol tying together each strand of the plot. And it's in the way the editing is exactly in time with the music - not just in a simplistic "dramatic thing happens on big chord" way, but in subtle changes of pace and energy.

Great stuff - and it wasn't even the team's only nomination.

What Dee and Ady taught me

First off, an apology. This blog was required of me by my school, so I apologise if it comes across like one of those awful student blogs that is clearly a mandatory requirement of passing the course, complete with a clunking "what I learned" section at the end.

Last week was the deadline for the D&AD student awards. I managed to get an entry away before the deadline - with my partner Olly we've entered the "Peace One Day" brief, which asked us to find ways to raise awareness of International Peace Day, which is on September 21st. Look, I'm raising awareness even now.

The first thing that I learned is that D&AD operate with a level of control and paranoia I haven't experienced since I had a call from the Disney trademark infringement department a few years back. To be fair, their staff are lovely, but their rules and regulations are remarkably stringent. For example, you can't use any copyrighted images without permission except those of the sponsor - and as ours involved suggesting a corporate tie-in, this meant half our time was spent on the phone begging them to let us use their logo.

My belief in the strength of creative partnerships was reinforced considerably. More than any other project we've worked on, where very often the idea has been mostly down to one of us, this was one that we could never have produced without each other. The strategy - finding ways in which the themes of peace and conflict can be found in our everyday life - was mine. This then inspired Olly to have an idea - which I then researched and suggested an improvement to, including the name. And then we pushed the idea forward together.

You have to learn to be careful when asking for advice, because you can easily lose sight of the objective - winning the award. We spoke to a very helpful industry insider and used many of his technical hints, whereas the creative advice suggested was more appropriate for a business pitch rather than an awards entry.

And lastly, I learned that Olly Wood is the most talented, dedicated, and reliable Art Director in the known universe.

Thanks. I'll be gushing or sarcastic about another advert tomorrow.

D&AD Awards / Creative Circle Awards

Today Molly (just about) finished our entry for the D&AD student awards. We're feeling pretty good about it, we've had some great feedback from mentors at the school, and we've tweaked just about as much as anything will take being tweaked.

Due to D&AD rules, I'm not a liberty to show you the idea until we know whether it's won or not. But it was interesting to note that the advice was either given, or had to be taken, in two ways. Firstly, in terms of what you would do if actually approaching the client, and secondly, how you would convince an awards judge to put you through.

Which raises the question of what extent I might end up doing that as a creative professional. I'm not the first person to ask it, but it's a timely one, as the Creative Circle Awards are descending into booze-soaked chaos at the Roundhouse as we speak.

I haven't had chance to check through all their winners, largely due to their website's flashy but frustrating (ok, just plain fucking stupid) interface, but the Gold of Golds for John Lewis (by Adam&Eve) is fully deserved. And you can bet that the creatives' focus was aimed fully at the needs of the client.

But then there's work like BMB's ad for Thomson's Holidays, which won a Gold. I've critiqued it before, and the disconnect between the well-spoken, precociously articulate boy and his well-dressed family, the luxurious locations, and the instagram-y filtering on one hand, and the type of low-cost mass-market holidays that Thomsons sell on the other, still persists.

It feels like an advert the agency made for themselves, not for their client and certainly not for the audience (unless the creatives genuinely thought families watching the X-Factor were going to be captivated by a bit of cod philosophy over a piano re-working of The Pixies, in which case, can I have their jobs please?).

I have no problem winning awards. I just hope never to win an award and be ashamed of it.