"Righter Writing", thats right.







Friday past I attended a copywriting course in the Guiness storehouse (see attached pics). The course, "Righter Writing" was hosted by the lovely Patrick Collister of Creative Matters and previously every agency in the UK it would seem. Impressive CV.

It was a mortifying experience for an Art Director clueless in copywriting, particularly because I stupidly and naively sat at the front. I guess the same set of rules of stand up comedy shows apply in lectures. Don't sit at the front if you don't want to be picked on and most importantly- if you're an idiot. I got both wrong.

Our first task was to write ones own obituary. What a hideous task. We had five minutes. I drew a coffin with a grim reaper sobbing over it. A speech bubble from him said "She was so so young. It was an accident". The drawing was shocking. Underneath it I wrote 1982-2010. I then sat for two of three minutes and wondered what the 25 strangers in the room were writing. Everyone seemed to be diligently scribbling away. Shit, better put something down so I wrote 'Annie will be missed very much by her friends and family because if she's not she will come back and haunt them till the end of time.' 

Time was up. Momentary relief for me as we put our pens down. I never expected my idiocy to be exposed. Can you imagine my utter humilation when Patrick said "so....what have you written?". Sheee-it. Was he talking to me when he stood in front of me, looking at me asking that question? Surely not! Incrediously I looked left, then right and said "who me?". My inner monologue did a series of panicked f*ck, sh%t and cr@p's. I spluttered that I didn't have anything. Phew. Anyone else might have sensed I was a cretin and moved on, but Patrick perservered and encouraged, saying things like "come on, I seen you writing" and "don't be afraid, it's good to share. We're all learning here." Undeterred I persisted that I had nothing and I clung to my notepad as though I would reveal the 3rd secret of fatima were anyone to see it. I was prepared to eat that piece of paper before I'd share with the group. Eventually Patrick realised and moved on. Halleluia. This is what my obituary should have said:

Annie, female, aged 28. Died mortified. Suffered from horrendous congenital stupidity. 

I can't help but feel my erratic behaviour set a precedent for the rest of the talk. I spent ages wondering if he thought I was an idiot, asking myself why the hell didn't I just say it and get it over with and a substainitial amount of time mentally slapping myself in the face. 

In between all the self torture I was doing I managed to pick up quite a few tips. None of which I've implimented here, which is great. He's actually really smart so please don't let my writing be a reflection of the day.  

Although not strictly just about copywriting and more about concepting I found his suggestion of approaching advertising from seven key points to be quite helpful for when you've hit a creative block. He broke down those seven types into key points. 

1. The Presenter
2. Demonstration
3. Problem/ Solution
4. Analogy
5. Inversion
6. Slice of life (observation)
7. Borrowed interest.

You can approach any brief  by looking at one or all seven of these themes. It's a clever way to think in terms generating thought starters for when you seem to run out of steam.

This isn't all the information I took from the day, it's just some simple pointers that help you over the hump. I'd have to write a dissertation or include the actual presentation if I was to go through everything. If you ever get the chance to see Patrick speak I'd highly recommend it. 


An bhfuil éire go brách?

This is a tactical idea we had for the four door MINI Countryman coming up to the budget in Ireland. Everyone's aware of financial shambles Ireland is currently in and there's public outcry at politicians arriving in the Dáil in seperate chauffeur driven cars- that's where the new MINI would come in. Clever eh? Unfortunately this idea won't be going ahead but wouldn't it of been awesome. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.



I've just finished shooting the eMobile Christmas ad. eMobile is a mobile service just launched in Ireland in October. It primarily targets the 35+ age bracket. In this ad we aimed to reiterate our simplicity message by stating there's a phone for everyone at eMobile stores. The charachter Nick is an extension of the theme eMobile rolled out from launch in which different personalities from eMobile aim to make your life easier. 


Here's some 'behind the scenes shots'. I had a particular fondness for the old man. He was just so jolly. (the whiskey before call time probably helped). 
Interestingly we fake snowed this whole ad and Dublin is now covered in about 5inches of it. It's so pretty and such a novetly. I wonder how long it will last. We walked home on Saturday night in it. Check out some of the scenes from my iphone on my dailyography

Well, well...

Look what I just retrieved from my Spam...what is the world coming to when such emails appear unwanted?! 
I know if I'd a penis I'd want it to be a cool one. 

Date: 24 November 2010 18:56:24 GMT
Subject: It's just cool!
It's just cool! Have a cool penis!

*Please note I am not encouraging you to click the above link and therefore can take no responsibilty for any viruses/ implosions this site may cause

A loud laugh bespeaks a vacant mind



I just watched the above clip literally eight times. It's so brilliant, I cannot stop laughing. This type of thing entertains me no end. Writing that down makes me feel really sad. None the less it is fact and here's proof. A selection of shots of me and my lovely ladies photo-boothing ourselves. I also have a series of videos but I have been forbidden from sharing "for my own health and safety". The clip above is much more awesome that we could ever have achieved, we spent too much time fighting over who was getting a look in. Also I have a really big hunch that we think we're much funnier than we really are in reality. Hey, as long as we're happy.







Please note that these shots are old and from a period I like to refer too as "what the F were you thinking". I have since return to my blond* roots.


*chemically enhanced

Super Grannies



This is so fricking cute it’ll make your heart melt into marshmallowy gooey goodness. Photographer Sacha Bada photographs his granny in some seriously cool set ups. With this series he has made super gran a reality, not just an awesome 80's kids TV hit. 


I find it really endearing that he took the time and effort to make his gran feel this special, it's a bonus that his images are so super (sorry about that). Check out the whole series on his siteHere’s a little background: 
“A few years ago, French photographer Sacha Goldberger found his 91-year-old Hungarian grandmother Frederika feeling lonely and depressed. To cheer her up, he suggested that they shoot a series of outrageous photographs in unusual costumes, poses, and locations. Grandma reluctantly agreed, but once they got rolling, she couldn’t stop smiling."

She's an amazing lady. The whole series made me think of the time I spent with my granny and also of a series of photographs I took. My effort was much more pathetic by comparison (damn you Sacha) but I'm really pleased I have them to look back on now. It also should be said that granny was a much less willing accomplice. There is also the argument that she hadn't really any idea what she was doing. It's no wonder she became irritated at my persistence that "these are your actual glasses granny, honestly". She was on to me. Anyhow, enjoy these and I'll sign off before 'Friends of the aged' catch up with me and have me put on some sort elderly abuse offenders list.

Ask me anything? (please)

Someone? Anyone out there use formspring? Well, either it's just not taken off in Ireland or it just hasn't taken off anywhere. Surely it's implausible that no-one would want to ask me anything, ever. Scoff, scoff. Isn't it!?! 


What's really tragic about my formspring profile is that I still continue to answer the computer generated questions in a vain hope that a real person may eventually ask me a real question. (Ultimately allowing me to warble on about myself to feigned interest from real person). Please be that real person. I'd love to share my favourite colour with you. 

Offsetting my drama





I spent some weekends past at offset in Dublin's Grand Canal theatre (pretty). How very cultural of me, I know. Anyhow, my inspiration was undermined by the dark cloud hanging over me having essentially crashed the company car earlier that morning. It's a long story, one which (incase anyone from work ever comes across this) I refuse to make any further comment on until I see my lawyer. Oh fuck it. Here goes.... The main thing you should know is that I made it to my destination alive, but not before proving how utterly incompetent and generally mentally unstable I am.

The actual incident itself is pretty unmemorable, the bottom of the car was hanging low due to absolute negliance of a company pool car, this coincided with the sheer hard luck of a slow puncture meant the damn thing would not clear a speed ramp coming up to a roundabout. Some spine chilling screeches later and I have essentially torn off the bottom section of the car. It looked pretty bad- some little black wires, the lights and small springy bits jutted out from underneath adding to the "holy fuck" factor. That's about as much technical information I can give you. 


So I'm sitting awaiting my brother to my rescue with a hammer, or a wrench or something from a tool box and I'm feeling useless. I decide my flat buster tyre, broken lights and hanging off bonnet are not enough to be concerned with and 'feeling sorry for myself' should get a look in too. So I have a good cry to myself, demolish a pack of Mega Monster Munch and shamefully half a packet of malteasers someone had stowed away in the glove compartment for god knows how long (they were slightly chewy).


I soundtracked this eating/weeping fiasco with some Johnny Cash on repeat. "Hurt" was particularly poignant because my pride was so very hurt-ed. I was beginning to enjoy the drama and melancholy of it all when I realised I'd probably flatline the battery. iPhone to the rescue, I found the ultimate power ballad- featuring Bonnie Tyler and Meat loaf (WOW)- wait for it "Have you ever seen the rain". Power ballads are so empowering (hence the name I suppose). About 38 secs into the track I realised Bonnie was talking to me and no sooner had I realised but I was imagining myself as some kinda of tragic heroin from a movie who would despite everything would over come all the odds before being carted off by a handsome prince on a white steed.
I can recommend this little trick to any emotionally unstable ladies out there. Suddenly your situation is less pathetic and strangely epic. Thankfully this is the point, where imagination and reality would have collided. Patrick, said brother arrived and sorted everything out. Not silently of course. He moaned and groaned, because he's my brother and I'm an idiot. Thankfully I've mastered the technique of selective hearing learned from my father and his instruction to "drive very slowly on the motorway" as I had "a temporary tyre on and it was very hazardous in the wet conditions" was absorbed and all other lecturing dismissed.


Off I headed chugging along through the apocayltic rain at 40KM per hour down a MOTOR-WAY. It took about 6 minutes before it dawned on me that he was actually trying to fucking kill me. Motor-way's in torrential rain at 40mph per hour are not a safe place, let me tell you. I guess this was his pay back for all those years spent torturing him, hogging the front seat, making him play Flower Fairies, calling him out on a Saturday morning to come and rescue me from a motorway with a flat and a busted light. That type of thing. People are crazy fricking drivers now a days. One truck practically forced me of the road, this is fact. I wish I had evidence apart from 01-DL-1962, just kidding. I've no idea of the plates I was too busy trying to save myself from imminent death. It wasn't all bad though, I quite enjoyed when speeders let me know I was only doing 40km in my tricycle by sitting on the horn whilst rearending me for 99.9% of the journey. That wasn't stressful at all. When I arrived in Dublin, 3 hours later I realised I should probably have put on my hazard lights. Let's never speak of this again. 


All this trauma made it difficult to concentrate on offset, which is a shame. I will say though that Chris Haughton was my highlight and Gary Baseman was my lowlight. You can see an interview with the lovely Chris here. And hopefully never ever have to endure Basemans creamy love without previously consenting to it. 

 


Check out me re-design

Got me some large image display going on now. Magic, though I may need to call upon the trusty photoshop for all future shots of my lovely self featured. Either that or I'll politely request you only view this blog drunk (it'll be much funnier then too) or without your glasses/contact lens in tact. Drunk is my preference though, beer turns 'bow' into 'wow'.


That is all.

Focus Ireland




I meant to post these sooner. Some work I've just finished with photographer Liam Murphy for Focus Ireland job. See my previous post for an unprofessional look at our lovely model Ciara

Nerd happiness

I'm currently experience a euphoria I can only describe as tragic. A blog post of some notebook sheets I found on etsy and shared has just went viral. In the space of a day 1,600 people have visited my blog. My wee dashboards having a coronary. My anayltics, previously guilty of flat-lining have went into anaphylactic shock. And I feel strangely proud. I mean, it's not my work that's going viral, but I'm reaping the rewards- how cool is that. I now owe the universe something. Please accept the dinner I concucted last night from left over fajita's mix and a potatoe and two peppers. It was ok, someone somewhere would be thankful. I'll put it in a portal I call the fridge and throw it out in two days time if none-one wants it. 

I should say too thanks to you RetroNaNa for coming up with this super fabric and making the blog word love it but mostly thanks to myself for being a serial shopper and discovering it on the ever fabulous etsy. Todays a good day.