Saturday, April 28

DHL is the devil.

Brilliant. I have finished my painting stuff and am happy as happy can be. Nobody can interrupt this feeling of total happiness. Noone except DHL. It's impossible for them to get a painting of 90 to 70 to 4 cm to fucking London. Hello? Why does fucking DHL own a fleet of trucks, Boeing 747s and probably ships? To carry postcards? Or to just show off? Listen, why it's possible to get a 120 to 60 to 60 cm box that weights 35 kilogramme to every goddamn place in the world? And why then it's not possible to get a smaller painting that probably weights 1 kilogramme only because it has 10 cm more on one side (and instead 30 and 50 cm less on the other two sides) to London? Hello? Hello-ho?!
You know, what DHL? I don't give a fuck about you as much as you don't give a fuck about me. Because I now will ship with the lovely and helpful people at UPS. It did cost me some hours because they usually serve this stuff only to commercial clients but I managed to solve this problem thanks to Meike's dad (Thank you very much, Pete). And by the way: they charge 50% less than you would have. Now I just hope that they won't fuck it up as you did. Thanks for the attention.

Wednesday, April 25

Commercial of the Week: Nike.

Addicted to running? No, not me. But the new commercial for Nike+ by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. A lot of "+" in this sentence, don't you think? Shortly after Nike handing over their US running account to Crispin, Porter + Bogusky I saw it on television yesterday. My first thought: Woo, what's that? Brilliant copywriting and great execution. That's what running is about, isn't it? And though I really like CP+B for their groundbreaking work I think they'll have to walk in huge footsteps. Never forget: Dan made you do it.

Tuesday, April 17

Potato Fun.

During lunchbreak we had some fun with a mini potato gun, built by Johannes and Fabian. Nice one. And no, it doesn't hurt no more. Thanks for asking. And yes, we do work stuff as well. To be precise a lot of it right now. That's why from time to time we need to do stupid things. Serious.

Monday, April 16

Where is all the humor gone?

This iPod singing thing reminded me of something probably burried in the past. Not sure, but is it true that music videos some years ago were more humorous than they are today? Maybe it's that mostly videos by Blur remained in my head but I have the feeling that music videos today are primary aimed on "let's make the band look cool" (Rock), "let's show some dancing chicks with bouncing butts and maybe let's have some more naked body parts as well" (Hip Hop) or " we don't have any clue what this video is about so we just booked some dancers" (Pop). Okay some try to have at least a bit of humor or one or two witty takes as in Lady Sov's video for "Love me or hate me". But most vids are very generic. Put a Franz Ferdinand tune over a Arctic Monkeys video. Nobody will get it. It's sad, isn't it? Take Blur. In the 90s they had videos with nice humor. For example "Parklife" (though it looks very 90s). But the last Blur videos just had nice looks. That's another thing I came across: A lot of videos do look very, very arty. Unfortunately it's arty for the art's sake and not because of some nice idea. Many videos are visually nice but that's it. Of course this could make sense because the audience will concentrate on the music and see the visual execution as "just nice looks". And that's okay. But I prefer videos that are witty, weird or have some kind of message or tell a story. Like the next two examples. First is Jurasic 5. Unfortunately they split up. "Unfortunately" because they wrote intelligent songs (for the homie in you: the kicked intelligent rhymes over bouncing beats) and had some nice videos. Though this one includes the Dave Matthew's Band...ugh...here's "Work it out": The next one is a strange, witty and weird video of a great band. Muse mix up Science Fiction and Western for their brilliant directed video "Knights of Cydonia". Brilliant song as well. Prog Rock. Great. Hm. Any thoughts on this anybody? Let's hope that young bands will try to not only do good music, as well. Just saw the new Arctic Monkeys video...a bit dissapointing compared to their music.

Update.

After cutting stencils for 2 hours it's a bit frustrating that I used them for at least 5 minutes of spray painting. Now the beginning is made. Next will be giving each bubble a different happy face. This is scheduled for tomorrow evening and night. Let's see. Any suggestions, support, help, critic from the artist in you? Any helpful comment is welcome. Thanks for attention and stuff.

Sunday, April 15

From Failure to Planning.

Yesterday around 10 pm I horribly failed in my painting process. A lack of knowledge in chemistry and physics destroyed two hours of work (paper, wet colour...you can imagine). With a knife I tried to save the work but I failed again. But it's okay. It will be the "failure...embrace it"-back of the thing. After work I returned. And I had my "doing the painting"-shirt with me. As Lauren suggested in her comment on my last painty post I got myself a cardboard to try colours and just screw it up and see what happens. Just look: While thinking about how to start I discovered an old, dusty box with spray cans. Great. I missed to buy some so I was thankful. Until now I don't know if the colours are still okay. They seem to be very old because they still had pre-Euro price tags. Right now I am doing drawings to get an idea of what I can arrange around my scary centre of the painting and to get out what ideas or bits and pieces to keep or to abolish. Here you can see some of the drawings I did. They were done quick-handed just to get the feeling of it. And as I said before: I am a copywriter that can't draw. This whole process is strange, scary and I completely enjoy it. There are a lot of ideas in my head and I feel overwhelmed but planless as well. Where to start? What goes in, what not?

Commercial of the Week: Volkswagen.

I like to watch commercials. Especially when they are well done. That's why I thought about honouring commercials that I really like on this blog. Hopefully I will manage to do this every week. That's why it's called "Commercial of the Week". Maybe some of them are not the latest ones, please forgive if that may happen. The first in row to deflower this new category is Volkswagen with a commercial for the Tuareg. Usually SUV commercials will show the car rushing and fighting it's way through the irrepressible wilderness of nature. Brilliant, it is what they are made for. But none the less it's like showing a washing machine while washing. DDB Amsterdam did it differently for the Volkswagen Tuareg. No daredevil drinving scene, no serpentine, no 70 degree ascent. Just a man talking about how easy he could overcome this obstacles. Then why he doesn't demonstrate it? Watch:

Agency: DDB Amsterdam
Production Company: CZAR, The Netherlands
Director: Bart Timmer
DoP: Lex Brand

Saturday, April 14

Give me a minute and my glasses.

Just saw a new commercial for a promotion by Opel (Vauxhall in the UK). Simply couldn't believe what I saw. The story was forced as forced can be: Cars playing "Catch me if you can" and having some kind of mind voices...hello? This was followed by the usual suspect: a chart saying "blahblah...limited edition...blahblah...many extras...blahblah...save money...blahblah...you can lease it....blah." Nothing special. But then, for approximately one second this chart appeared. What? What, what, what? Who is supposed to read this copy? Superman? A megabrained live-form from another galaxy? Is this the target group Opel (Vauxhall) is heading for? Honestly, what do you think your actual customers will think? Well I thought that someone (you) doesnt't want me to know the dark side of this offer and therefore is hiding it inside of some very fine-printed copy. Will I consider getting more information about your offer or maybe buy a new car? Well, lovely marketing experts at Opel (Vauxhall), here is my answer and I have put it in a way that might suit you: And, by the way, may I add a suggestion for improvement? The logo at the end of the film...it can still be bigger.

This is getting scary.

Okay. After rumbling with myself and a pretty hard working week today I started to let things get scary. If you take a look at the right top of this blogs' sidebar you may find the word "copywriter". That's what I am usually doing. But since I started to work in advertising I disappointed every art director I had by doing layouts as well. I thought it would be helpful. They thought I would disrespect their work. Hm. No. Anyway I usually do the writing stuff for our ideas. So this time I will do something I've never done again since I left 4th grade. I will do some painting stuff for some people over there in London. The first thing I got, was some acrylic colours (thanks for help, Marcus), brushes, some glue and tape.
I have no trust in canvas. So I bought a thin wooden plank to paint on. It's about 90 to 70 cm. If you wonder why the newspaper under the thing is taped: I will do the painting work next to a big panorama view window. To get some of the sun of this beautiful summer's day.
Nevertheless I simply can't draw and paint. That's why I am doing some planning and things on my new MacBook. Got it when I was in Zurich. Beautiful little machine. Then I will have some stencils of the work I am doing digitally and will use them on my wooden blank. Let's see. All that may sound very amateurish to the artist branch (hello Lauren, hello Marcus) but as I said: I am a copywriter that has never done something like this. And honestly I am a bit scared that I will fu&%$ it up. Will post some progress later. Hopefully.

iPod Singing Number 4.

After Marcus' spectacular performance I felt the desire for some falsetto singing as well. And what did my iTunes offer? The biggest boygroup of all times, Take That. So here it is: "Never forget". You should. Quick.

Okay. Unfortunately that's not all. Mathias, a brilliant and aspiring young copywriting intern, left the agency today. Inspired by Marcus we turned the farewell party into some kind of iPod singing contest. We had a hell lot of beer what caused in disintonation and lyrical blahblah. Nevertheless it was a great evening. But I am not sure if should post the outcome. We have Billy Idol, Boney M., Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams, Queen and the Beastie Boys on offer. Anybody interested in some blokes singing the hell out of themselves?

Friday, April 13

iPod Singing Number 2.

So this is my first contribution to iPod Singing. "Countryhouse" by blur. Maybe it doesn't pay this song the tribute that it deserves. Great song, great band and my lack of lyric knowledge. Already working on the next one. A piece of music history.

Thursday, April 12

In the middle of the forest.

This is a post I wanted to do for a very, very, veryvery long time. Then after reading this post by Marcus I decided to do it today. But I have to warn you: It is some very serious promotion. Not nice, intelligent advertising but the never-ending repetition of "for god's sake take a look at this page"! Or simply click the pictures, they are linked with the page as well. So CLICK them!
It's the website of my former partner Andreas. We worked together for only 2 years I think. But it was a great time, we did some nice work and had even more fun. Unfortunately at some point Andreas left the agency to work as a freelancing graphic designer and illustrator. I guess that's what he always wished to do. You should have seen him doing the art direction of campaigns, films and ads. He did most of the things by hand not by Mac. And from his face and enthusiasm you could tell that he deeply enjoyed doing this stuff. Before and during the Football World Cup in Germany he was exhibiting over 80 illustrations of famous football players. As a supporter of Arsenal London I instantly bought Thierry Henry and Freddie Ljungberg. After Sol Campbell scoring the 1:0 during the Champions League final against Barcelona I ordered his portrait as well. Sadly he left the team. So here you can see Sol and Freddie:
Here you can see some other illustrations he did. If you visit his page you can see some of the advertising stuff he (and me) did. The website is in German. So here is some short guide: Arbeiten=Work, Werbung=Advertising, Zeitschriften=Magazines. Some of the football portraits you can find under "Verlängerung". By the way he isn't just a great illustrator and designer, he is a nice chap and has become a good friend as well. So if you would like to own some of his brilliant work or would like to have the squad of Chelsea (you wouldn't, wouldn't you?) hanging over the chimney, feel free to drop Andreas a mail. And if you need a great graphic artist and nice person for your ad campaign, drop him one as well. Thanks for your time.

What I forgot, for those of you wondering about the headline of the post: It's the translation of the German name of his website, "Mitten im Wald".

Wednesday, April 11

Do you look like this?

Then you may or should be a prisoner of German jail "Berlin Tegel". Twenty of them merged their faces into one portrait to create some averageness. The average prisoner, to be more precise. On their website you can find a merged CV as well. Got kids? Finished school? You are not as save as you may think. Because they have as well. And imagine that: prisoners having their own website. Weird. But interesting.

Tuesday, April 10

Less Britney, more Aries.

This video made this Tuesday a nice day though it felt like a Monday. I know it is just another impersonator but I liked it. LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, DMX and Jay-Z compressed into one body. Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the performance of Spears. Not Britney but Aries. Nice.

Saturday, April 7

Snapshot Saturday.

Over the last weeks I slightly forgot my "let's get some structure into this blog" ideas but maybe they were born dead from the beginning. Nevermind here is the return of the Snapshot Thursday which has become a Snapshot Whenever-I-Have-Time-Day. Anyway. Before I went to Zurich we had a good week at the agency. Or to be more specific not at the agency. Because Nina and me decided that it would be a great idea to work outside. In the sun.
Working outside.
So we went to the "Amphore". A cafe, bar, restaurant and whatever. From there we had a nice view of the harbour. And some delicious pizza, panino and chilled drinks.
View from Amphore.Harbour seen from Amphore.
Nina turned herself into Gretl. I like it a lot when she has braids. Sweet, isn't it? By the way you can see our creative directors in the background. Sven is the art part with the bald head on the left. On the right you can see Lorenz, the copywriter, who is called Lawrence by our clients. We don't know why. Maybe they are fans of Peter O'Toole.
Gretl.
So after this great but stressful week I went to visit my mate Hannes in Zurich as some of you might have read on this blog. Zurich view, again.
Zurich is a lovely and nice city. They might be known for cheese and chocolate but they should be known for their hairdressers. This was a shop packed with old guitars, pictures and stuff. And it had a nice moped in front of their window.
Outside a Hairdresser.
Hannes got me my new MacBook. So we started to play around with photo booth. Don't we look like a painting of Picasso next to a proboscis monkey? Sorry for this comparison, Hannes. Hannes and Seb
Thought this would be a nice angle to photograph a statue. Riding the sky.
Only in Zurich it's okay for Cartier to have an advert with a lepard. Though Hannes said that he liked it because you don't see a woman walking through a city with a lepard that often. Oh, really? How come? Cartier in Zurich.
After some adventurous walking thought the city Hannes took me to some location called Bierhalle. Hannes at the Bierhalle.
We had some great food. Here you can see Schweinsleberli with Roesti. Was good. Just like a mum would have done it. Not mine, but some Swiss mum. Hmm, food.
In Zurich they don't have a Metro. Everyone is using the Tram. And it was great. It felt that the Tram driver was using his hands to steer the thing. Not a computer. Was a nice feeling. Quite antique and oldschool. Like you don't get something from an assembly line but something hand crafted. Nice. On the Tram.
A lot of buildings in Zurich look very arty. Maybe it's because in Switzerland they have a feeling for art direction and architecture. This is the Museum of Design. They had some great exhibitions there. Museum für Kunst und Gestaltung
Here you can see a small part of their exhibition, the winning entries of a competition called "50 years of Helvetica". As the name says it's all about this nice and simple typeface. The one on the lower left side has a really nice headline about the designer's relationship to Helvetica:
"It's like runnning into an old girlfriend and being surprised at how attractive and sophisticated she still is."
50 years of Helvetica.
In the museum there were a lot of screens and headphones and like children always do this boy just sat down on the floor and watched and listend. Just nice. Established a nice feeling of being home at a museum. Boy in museum.
As I said the Swiss people have an instinct for nice graphic design. So even the signs of laundry shops look nice. Laundry.
Here are some more pictures of Hannes. One day he will be a well known architect. Believe me, he will be. But now he's just a true friend and it's fun to spend time with him. By the way, he looks like a brother or at least family member of SACRUM, doesn't he? Hannes. A small shop that does only stock condoms. And it's not situated in some sort of red light district but in the old and beautiful part of Zurich. Lovely. Condomeria.
To finish this post here is my daily view out of the window of Hannes' appartement. It was great to wake up in a big city where you open the window in the morning and can take a deep breathe of fresh air you'll only find in the mountains. View from Hannes appartement.
Okay. That's it with Snapshots for today. If you like to see more lovely pictures from Zurich or Nina and me just visit my flickr. I will go to Sylt until Monday so there will be no posting and commenting. Blogfree time. Somehow it feels sad. But I will be back on Monday evening. Have a wondeful easter eggy weekend and thanks for the attention.

Wednesday, April 4

Can anything be beautiful?

So Nina and me were too late for that "WKside"-task. But we have no time mourning about that because we have got our own scary task and are working on that. Hence thanks to Val I have found some answers to the question mentioned in the headline on YouTube. Two of them are really lovely and well done. The first is a hand crafted and nice animation film and the second a wonderful poem. Good luck two both and if you have some time take a look at both films. They are worth it. Thanks for attention and stuff.