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I’ve written in the past how much it annoys me when planners say “they’re curious” as if they’re the only people in society who are possessors of that trait.
Seriously, police officers, lawyers, doctors, scientists – and probably my Mum – embrace curiosity more in their lives than the average planner.
That’s not meant to piss on the discipline that has given me – and hopefully continues to give me – such an interesting life, but just to highlight that for all the talk we make about ‘being intellectually curious’, we don’t tend to find things that fundamentally changes or challenges the way we work or the things we achieve through our work.
Sure, there’s some people that achieve it … sure, there’s a bunch of reasons why things don’t happen as much as they could or should … but for the amount of planners out there in the World, the amount of things we fundamentally change through our ‘curiosity’ is small.
Maybe the ugly, unspoken truth is that unlike people in say, Silicon Valley, planners tend to be only curious about the things that are already out there, not the things we could discover or create off our own efforts.
As the quote above says, anyone can run towards the light, it’s the people that actively turn towards the dark that can be deemed the truly curious.
As I said, this is not meant to piss on the planning discipline – we do a lot of really good, important and valuable things – but maybe we wouldn’t be so discounted by so many if we didn’t keep banging on about things that we – as a discipline – so rarely demonstrate in our work, at least in a way that is fundamentally different to everyone else.
Another reason why I value planners who have empathy rather than those who say they’re curious and can only demonstrate it through a brief or a powerpoint presentation.
God, I’m in a shitty mood today aren’t I. Sorry.
Filed under: Comment
No, this is not a post about global warming.
Besides, if it was, wouldn’t I have to title it, “Hello More Summers”?
No, this is a post about saying goodbye because today is Richard Summers – planner extraordinaire – last day at Wieden.
Rich has been with W+K for 6 years … first in London and then with us.
Over that time, Rich has been involved in a huge amount of stuff, however the best way to show how much it’s changed him is to compare photos from his time in London …
… with that of his time in Shanghai …
Yep, he’s gone from clean cut, lover of stylish, laid back shades-of-grey to semi-drunken, cliched french/burglar fashionista.
Alarming.
That aside, Rich is going to be missed hugely by colleagues, clients and me.
Apart from being smart, hugely talented, immensely creative and a fellow lover of documentaries [not to mention being the possessor of the largest bank of definitions for sexual perversion since Heidi Fleiss] he’s done fantastic work on everything he’s touched, from Converse to Umbro to P&G to Beats to our own W+K Open Office.
In addition, Rich sent me my favourite ever SMS.
Yes, EVER.
A bit of a back story.
A few years ago I wanted Rich to go and do an experiment for us about China’s fastest growing cities.
While the end result of that was our lovely BoomTown Stories what isn’t known is that I sent Rich off to do it in mid-winter … and just to add to the hardship, I said he wasn’t allowed to pre-plan much, he had to do it on the fly.
I can’t remember why I said that, but I’m sure there was a reason for it. Ahem.
Anyway, I was in an airport about to fly to Portland when I got an SMS from Rich where he stated he was so cold, he’d had to steal toilet paper from the hotel to insulate himself from the freezing temperatures.
God, that makes me sound like a complete bastard doesn’t it.
Ahem.
Anyway, while I’m very sad Rich is going, the fact he was handpicked by Anomaly to be their head of planning for their new China office gives me some comfort.
Not just because one of my colleagues was recognised by a great company for his skills and talent … not just because he is going to a place that will continually embrace and push his talents … not just because it will be very exciting to see what he does and creates … but because I know he will make Anomaly even better and that will push the creative standards of China which will make the industry better for everyone.
Rich, thank you for everything, you leave a lot of memories and a big hole and we look forward to competing against you in the near future.
___________________________________________________________________________
PS: Don’t worry Rich, even though you won’t be with us anymore, I’ll make sure you still get your annual birthday cake and sing-a-long from us, because I know how much you used to absolutely love it and look forward to it.
Filed under: Comment
Like architects being commissioned to create a building in Dubai or China, I reckon the holy grail for any creative is to be asked to do a perfume or cologne ad.
I swear to god the general consensus is anything goes.
ANYTHING.
Every month, as I trawl through my list of magazines, I stare in amazement at the preposterous, pompous rubbish that fills the pages.
On the bright side, at least most companies have got past their ‘scent strip’ advertisement phase.
Seriously, in the late 90’s/early 2000’s, picking up a magazine in the newsagent made you smell like a whores knickers within 15 seconds – so this is a step in the right direction.
Anyway, a while back I wrote about how mental the Brad Pitt ‘Chanel’ campaign was, well I came across something recently that makes that look like Shakespeare.
Cop a load of this …
Now I know it’s Versace – a brand that thinks matching zebra stripes with gold lame is sophisticated – but seriously, WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. THAT?
Yes I know they’re playing off the whole ‘Eros’ thing [the names cologne/perfume come up with is worth a post of its own someday] but seriously, this is insane.
I should point out I’m not saying ‘insane’ in a bad way.
In fact, it’s so utterly ridiculous, that I think it’s almost good – no seriously – however that’s not the point of this post, it’s just that I’m wondering whether the creatives behind this ad did it as an utter piss-take [which does occasionally happen as some friends of mine once did a Kellogg’s ad that featured – in the background – the sort of imagery that was very family unfriendly] or are such utter daaaaaaarlinks, they think they’ve just created a piece of art rather than a print ad that can double as a comedy sketch.
Where does something like this start?
Surely there can’t be any planning involved?
Oh I could make some up.
How about, ‘In today’s society, where men are feeling more and more undermined, the desire to feel like a warrior [of love?] is highly aspirational.”
Any good?
No, I didn’t think so either.
Anyway, in an industry where more and more creatives feel their creative juices are being stifled by planners, clients, budgets and brand guidelines … my advice to them is to quit adland and get a job in the marketing department of some perfume/cologne brand, because before they know it, they’ll be churning out the sort of mental shit a coke habit and 3 LSD pills a day couldn’t come up with.
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Look at that photo.
Isn’t it amazing!
A ship from the 1600’s.
A giant, silver US Navy airship hanging in the air.
A flotilla of small, relatively modern boats giving chase.
And a modern, urban city emerging in the distance from the sea.
It’s even more amazing when you find out it’s genuine.
No photoshop.
No computer graphics.
No nothing.
It was taken in 1957 and captures the moment the Mayflower II heads into NYC after completing it’s transatlantic voyage.
The story of the boat is amazing enough, but that photo is just magnificent.
I am utterly transfixed by it, mainly because it’s so mental and yet it’s absolutely true.
I love that.
I love that those things happen, maybe not every day, but some days.
When you consider I work in an industry that is constantly trying to capture societies attention … using more and more outlandish approaches to interrupt our busy lives … the opportunity to make or do something that literally affects people for decades to come is there for the taking and yet so often, we choose to shun reality and create a momentary distraction that rarely ends up distracting.
And that’s why I love the vault of lost photographs that National Geographic has just launched.
Page after page of stunning moments from past and present, earth and solar system.
NatGeo have always been masters of capturing humanities most wonderful moments [as well as some of our most terrible and destructive] and this tumblr account reminds us that so many of these things are all around us if we just look at our a bit World differently.
We should all try it some time.