I set off before the Christmas break this year with high aspirations of gallery visits, an intellectual reading list and a general full-on immersion into everything cultural. The reality, as so often happens was a heady mixture of family reunions, social engagements and hunting Japanese bargains at Dover Street Market.

Fortunately the first week back in January I had booked a short trip to Venice, four days of nonchalant meandering around this beautiful Italian city built on water. The place was amazing (my first trip) incredible architecture, a million churches, fantastically overpriced Gondolas and an awe inspiring display of sunglasses.

The highlight of the trip however was a visit to the Punta Della Dogana, an incredible contemporary art gallery on the banks of the Grand canal. Part of the Francois Pinault foundation and something I had been particularly looking forward to seeing, the gallery housed a range of pieces from international contemporary artists including Subodh Gupta, Chen Zhen, Paul McCarthy and my favourite Maurizio Cattelan.

The building itself was pretty spectacular, reimagined by Tadao Ando – who has collaborated with Francois Pinaut in Venice before – the architect had managed to beautifully combine the old and new; maintaining the essence of the original building. His new vision created a modern, visually imposing interior that acted as the perfect canvas for such a collection. It reminded me of everything I love about the Tate Modern here in the UK.

In regards to the collection, I knew I was in for a treat the moment I entered the first room. The untitled work of Maurizio Cattelan featured a full size, taxidermy horse with it’s body jutting out of the brickwork. Creating a paradoxical trophy (normally its the head that sits on the wall of a dead animal), I loved the imagination and dark sense of humour I took from the piece. Others highlights included Edward Kienholz’s Roxys, an  “environment tableau” offering his twisted version of a 1940′s house of ill repute – it felt like staring straight into the set of a David Lynch nightmare. There were a series of Jeff Koons sculptures, inflatable toys mirrored to perfection out of Stainless steel and a selection of works from Paul McCarthy that reminded me very much of some of the Chapman brothers’ work from the mid 90′s.

I am a great lover of contemporary art and find it incredibly inspiring when thinking about my own work and the broader field of branding. It’s the sense of storytelling; quite often contextualising a thought or feeling which in essence has been explored before and representing it in a way that simply has not. It’s here I find the parallel with branding; communicating a companies values often not a million miles away from their competitors – variations on trust and openness immediately spring to mind, and telling that story in a way that delights, intrigues or dare I say shocks.

It’s so easy to find yourself looking through the usual design books and blogs for inspiration when starting new projects, but why not cast the net slightly further a field? By looking outside our immediate world the constraints for creativity can suddenly feel so much more imaginative and challenging.

Firstly, the trees in Central Park have been changing since I arrived:

and 10 days later:

It’s taking longer fro me to get used to the way things are done in America.
How direct the advertising is for example:
But my faith in humanity was restored however when I visited the New York gem that it the ‘The Highline’:

A beautiful park above the streets of West Manhattan, created along an old freight railway track. It’s a peaceful break from the traffic below and has been expertly designed to include things like this window that simply looks out onto the street below. You can’t help but sit there and wait for rush of traffic below every time the lights turn green. http://www.thehighline.org

Now I know that Americans can sometimes come across a bit too patriotic for our stiff British attitude, but if it means my milk look as funky as this, then that’s fine by me.

On a last, more cultural note, do you recognize this?

This is a shot of the slide at Carsten Höller’s solo exhibition at the New Museum (www.newmuseum.org), a gallery in the downtown neighborhood of Bowery. The exhibit features a number of different works, including a full-size mirrored carousel and the ‘psycho tank’ (a pool of highly salinated, skin temperature water that is supposed to be void of any sensory experience), but the slide is undoubtedly the main attraction. It runs across three floors, the exit being in a strobe lit room with life size fluorescent crocodiles, hippos and some other creatures I couldn’t work out. Höller has definitely succeeded in creating an overall experience that makes you feel like a kid again, even if some of the pieces seemed to lack any real or worthy purpose…

I’m going to try and feature a range of things here from New York, but as an official ‘alien’, I may need some help. If there’s anything you know about and can recommend, then just post it below.

So, earlier this month I went back to university in Hertfordshire for the day to talk to next summer’s up and coming talent.

Having sat in the induction of what is arguably a student’s biggest year, I listened to the students’ worries and concerns on the year ahead. I couldn’t help but think that I was in the very same position this time last year, the feeling of worry not only for my future but for something I’d given so much time to, not to mention the financial cost of a higher education.

Having been in their situation I went onto explain the one thing that helped me get through my final year at university was sheer fear. Fear that I wouldn’t pass, fear of not being good enough for industry and fear of being one of the thousands of graduates waiting in the job queue. My fear was failure. And out of this I was determined to succeed and was willing to do absolutely anything to get to where I am now.

I began my final year by completely shutting myself off to activities that were taking up too much of my time, such as gaming, going out and religiously watching Sky Sports news. As stupid as it sounds I had to do this to enable time to read blogs and books and go to exhibitions, talks and events. Not to mention time to focus on my work. The only way I could describe it, is a hole. But far from the dark and dingy hole you imagine, it was a colourful and creative one, embraced with deep affection for design. I was more than committed to what I wanted. This may not be the right solution for everyone but I found that it was the only answer for me.

By engaging myself in this ‘creative abyss’ I found that the anxiety of grades  disappeared and my main focus was now on my portfolio. This should be the same for each and every student at this stage. Your third year is about building a portfolio that reflects who you are and learning about the wonderful world of design. If you don’t devote yourself you’re forever asking “what if?” Students should find a way to commit themselves to design in order to be the best they want to be. A lot of students are quick to blame their tutors but the problem lies within the student’s commitment to the course. Design is both a lifestyle and a full time hobby, embrace it and commit to it like a marriage, but most importantly enjoy it.

Every month I will post a blog called ‘My first year’ in which I will be writing about the things I have learned in my first year in the industry.

Managing to transcend style and fashion in art, Hamilton believed in engaging the mind of the viewer and never just the eye. His belief was in the idea and intellectual insight, combined with harmonious outcomes that utilized technology and media of the time. As he continually explored with technology and applied his intellectual eye to various cultural and political topics – from drug policing in the 60′s, to the Irish hunger strike, and the political stories of late, I don’t believe he ever failed in this career-long pursuit.

Reading the obituaries this morning, I realised it’s this dedication to a belief in art, that since the age of 15, has made him so inspirational – and seems to have strongly influenced my endeavor as a designer – whether I really realised or not. Whilst many of us hope we have many different sources of inspiration, it was Hamilton who, for me, sparked a love for highly creative images.

A thanks is definitely due.

Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? (1956)

Swingeing London (1968-9)

The Subject (1988-90)

Shock and Awe (2007-8)

What emerged through the course of the talk was that Self has been converted from a driver to a walker of cities. He was very inspiring about how walking allows one to understand the city in a way no other form of transport allows (the ‘psychogeography’ of a place). His contention was that in order to reach this level of understanding you need true commitment, like any higher calling. This is not about a short stroll in the park, but necessitates high mileages, upwards of 25 to 30 miles in a day if one is to reach such a state of blankness (someone once said ‘munching on nothing’) that the mind is set free from the ‘man/machine matrix’ of the city.

His description of walking to Heathrow airport from South London was entertaining, as was the idea of then getting on a plane to LA or NYC and immediately circum-ambulating that city. The extreme combination of international jet travel and walking, our most ancient form of travel and our most modern, is stimulating. As is the idea of walking such distances in an urban setting – so challenging to the conventional bucolic experience of rambling. Interestingly, in his walk to Heathrow, Self claimed that in the 18 miles or so, only three had to be walked on public roads.

Still, when I tried to explain this in the studio this morning, the first question I got was ‘hasn’t he heard of the Heathrow Express?’ which means that my relaying of the arguments are wholly inadequate. I guess you had to be there as they say, but because you probably weren’t you could read Walking to Hollywood which will expose you to the full Selfian satire and wonderfully baroque vocabulary without any blunting of it by me.

This spike in media attention is attributable to a report commissioned by the UK Government and written by a committee led by Lord Davies of Abersoch. We were happy to help this worthwhile cause by designing the report, which you can find on the Department for Business Innovation and Skills website.

Interesting highlights for me in the report are that the UK trails South Africa and Israel in the proportion of women to men on corporate boards, that the top reason cited for this effect is boardroom attitudes (‘bias, prejudice and stereotypical behaviour’), and that at the present rate of change it will take 70 years for the UK to achieve gender-equality on boards.

You can read the report (and enjoy the lovely information graphics) here.

Then the tournament started with a new ball from Official Partner, Adidas, which no England player had played with before. The Premier League’s Official Wacky Ball Partner is Nike. No wonder the Jabulani proved so difficult for us to control.

Then, Mahindra Satyam (what do you mean, who?) turn up as FIFA’s Official IT Services Provider. England’s Official IT Partner is, er… Maybe that’s what David Beckham was there to do.

Tongue-in-cheek comments, but no more than such ridiculous terminology deserves. But the terminology is not the limit of the problem in such sponsorship. Despite the intended implication that ‘partners’ are acting, almost philanthropically, in the best interests of football, I suspect that the structure of these relationships may even be having a significant negative effect on the game. It’s a case of the tail wagging the dog; the sort of thing that gives marketing a bad name.

Let’s take the Jabulani ball created for this tournament. Adidas would no doubt argue that they designed it so as to improve the quality of the game for players and fans. But the truth is they designed it so they could sell more balls. The World Cup didn’t need a new ball but it got one because, Adidas, in cahoots with FIFA, needed to find some way to achieve a return on the investment of their sponsorship. No doubt the original brief to the designers had the intention of producing a ball that would yield an extensive YouTube catalogue of spectacular goals, and had that happened I’m sure we would all let them enjoy their commercial gain. But the fact is it’s been clear for some time now that this ball does not work as intended – it’s worse for players and worse for fans – and in the best interests of football it should have been abandoned long before the tournament began. But I suspect that because of Adidas’ commercial relationship with FIFA that option could never be discussed. I wonder how different this tournament might have been with a different, more familiar ball instead of one that no one asked for and no one, except the sponsor, needs?

And what about goal-line technology, such as would have spotted the one time that Frank Lampard did actually manage to squeeze the Jabulani under the crossbar? I wonder how much influence the sponsor line-up might have now that it’s inevitable that a foolproof system is introduced. There are two goal-line technologies currently in consideration – one is the Hawk Eye system, developed by a company that is owned by Siemens, and proven to work in cricket, tennis, and snooker; the other embeds a microchip in a ball, in a system developed by a collaboration of which Adidas is a part, around which some doubts still exist. As Siemens have no commercial arrangements with FIFA, I suspect the decision-making criteria may not be limited to which works best. Perhaps FIFA’s reluctance to adopt even a goal-line referee (after Thierry Henri’s antics in the play-off against Ireland) might be related to thoughts of commercial ‘partnership’ being put ahead of the good of the game.

Now, none of this is to say that I believe sponsorship to be a bad thing – the funds and the enthusiasm that it generates are clearly beneficial to the game. It’s also true that in many cases sponsors provide products or services for which there is a real need – I’m sure Mahindra Satyam are doing a fabulous job with IT. But sponsorship is at the back end of the marketing chain; it’s a blunt but effective communication tool, and that’s where it should stay. Marketing works when it identifies an audience’s need, creates products and services that satisfy it, then communicates and delivers the solution. Allowing sponsors to dictate the agenda of the game by inventing products or services so as to exploit their sponsorship, rather than the game’s true needs, is the wrong way round – the tail wagging the dog – and it’s time that this was stopped.

Unless for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil someone comes up with a ball that, when Rooney lets fly from 35 yards, is guaranteed to go in.

This music video is such a joy to watch, taking a ‘mini-swipe’ at the ad boys. It’s by Los Angeles rock band OkGo (produced by Syyn Labs) who are famous for their cleverly choreographed music videos. The premise is nothing new, but they’ve taken it to another level in sheer scale, you can’t help but be dazzled by it.  Next, I’ll rant about T-Mobile and social media…

Click here to view the embedded video.

For those of you that don’t know, WEF is an opportunity for those who are at the head of the (board)table to thrash out their views about the state of the World and what they are hoping for in the upcoming year — a big, big deal. I overheard someone in the corridor saying; “If you’re in to politics, this is the place to be.” So no pressure then? Previous years have seen such heavy hitters as Richard Branson, Tony Blair, and even ex-president Bill Clinton attending the event hosted in the small Swiss skiing resort — such is the importance of the WEF conference. With the World economy recovering from crisis, this years WEF focused on the topics of Rethink, Redesign and Rebuild.

We were asked by our client to set up some digital brand communications within their corporate sponsored area. This took the form of a series of branded animations (two animations for each day of the conference) playing across large screens mounted along the walls so that the guests could watch, and follow, the animations as they moved through the space.

Without going into lots of information about the animations themselves, I thought I’d treat you to a video of my non-scripted ramblings via a Flip video camera that I recorded whilst I was there.

(Expect some mild expletives and some general poo-pooing of every other branding scheme…)

Click here to view the embedded video.

The answer from @hjonesy (that’s our Helen) was as profound as it was immediate: it’s a social experiment; something to try to see if it works. And I think she’s hit the nail on the head.  This isn’t about music. This isn’t about the X-Factor, Simon Cowell, wee Joe, or some funny fellas in hoods. It’s about the most seismic shift in consumer behaviour that has happened for a generation, that has started in earnest in 2009.

If there is one thing that we are to remember 2009 for it must be the rise of social media and its ability to empower people, en mass and as individuals, as never before. For providing the opportunity for a single voice to express an opinion and for that opinion to join with others that are similar; growing, developing and coagulating as more and more join in, until their presence can no longer be ignored.  Until their presence is so great that it becomes more significant than the subject that inspired the first voice to be raised. Until the desired and necessary change occurs.

Think Jan Moir. Think Trafigura. Even watch Gordon Brown on TED (no, do). In 2009 we have passed the tipping point at which the balance of power shifts from corporations and institutions (the brands) to the people. It marks the point at which brands have to start to think and operate differently. The point from which no organisation can ever be forgiven for putting itself first and for not taking its responsibilities to its audience, or the wider world, seriously.

Now, the RATM movement isn’t quite the real thing just yet. As Helen says, it’s an experiment rather than a genuine desire for a Christmas No.1 of one type versus another. It’s wrapped up with the irony that the real winner is Sony BMG who have both artists on their label – some will argue that the ‘enemy’ ends up winning after all. But that’s to miss the point. The enemy here isn’t Sony, or Cowell. It’s the old way of doing things. The past. And, in 2009, it’s been defeated.

I’m looking forward to 2010.