On Wednesday I was lucky enough to be part of the judging panel for this years D&AD graduate academy. The afternoon consisted of me, and a collection of fellow design bods, locked in a boardroom reviewing a large selection of entries over coffee and sushi. This is the first time I have taken part on a judging panel like this and I found it an extremely gratifying experience, so thank you to D&AD for the privilege.

The work itself was mixed and interesting. The brief – written by academy sponsors HP – was open and creative: Create a campaign/idea to communicate HP workstations as the alternative to Macs within the design community.

Students had six weeks to answer the brief, and for the first time it was not only open to this year’s graduates but previous students up to and including the 2009 intake; a great opportunity for people still trying to get into the industry.

So, some comments about the work. As I mentioned the standard was mixed, some exciting ideas vs what seemed like some less complete and notional ones. It was the more resolved ideas and campaigns that stood out and grabbed the judges’ attention. This wasn’t necessarily all about polished macced up visuals, just an idea with insight that had been followed through. Branding, advertising, and design is an incredibly exciting world to be in these days with such a multitude of communication channels and platforms, it was the work that felt dynamic and made the most of these that went through. With so many people competing for places on these important stepping stones into the industry it’s really important to go the extra mile – it gets noticed.

Personally speaking, when it comes to creativity the idea is always king. Sure, make it look cool, but the work needs to have substance and originality to inspire and motivate. A large part of branding is telling a story. You’ve come up with a great idea; now show me how it comes to life and where it goes. Also: do the unexpected. Ultimately so many people are saying the same thing so it’s imperative to find a new angle to hijack your audience’s imagination. It was work that involved these more unique and captivating elements that I championed.

My own involvement in the process made me think back to when I graduated and what life was like vying to get early recognition. Now I’ve been in the industry for several years, it’s very easy to gloss over that initial struggle and take it all for granted. You forget how ridiculously competitive it is when leaving university and how hard an arena it can be to make inroads, especially over these recession years. I was always schooled that talent will win out, if you have good ideas, ambition, and enthusiasm then opportunities can and do arise in this industry. I certainly feel this is still the case so for anyone reading this looking to get a job – just keep on going.

As a insight to future applicants push yourselves creatively and enjoy the process. Ideas can be as big as you dare, just ensure they are communicated clearly and in a way that immediately grabs the judges’ attention.

Congratulations to all entrants that make it into the academy (winners will be announced shortly) and the best of luck to those that didn’t.

Apologies for the lack of visual stimuli in this post, the work is currently under wraps at D&AD but will be released shortly.

New face on TP webcam

You may have noticed a new face appear on screen at the-partners.com yesterday. This was due to the fact that Ghana, who played England in a friendly at Wembley Stadium last night, were sporting our FIA Decade for Action tag on their kit.

Despite the fact that we should really have been supporting England (apart from the Scottish, Irish and Welsh contingents here of course who’d all rather support ANYONE else) we were rallying behind Ghana for their commitment to the Road Safety scheme. The resulting 1-1 score was a perfect, equal measure, outcome.

Go Ghana! (and England…)

Stanley Honey Pots - The Partners, 2003

They say that good ideas spread, and a recent discovery would suggest that the sentiment is all too true.

In 2003 The Partners designed some packaging for a lovely, independent, honey-maker based in South London. In the early days of sustainable packaging becoming ‘trendy’, The Partners came up with the idea of making a honey pot reusable, as a flowerpot, in order to encourage bees to make even more delicious honey.

Seven years later, we’re still getting requests from publishers and journalists to feature the popular pots so we’re aware of what an inspiring concept it was. Only yesterday we received a email from a friend with a picture of a familiar looking pot. The idea of making packaging reusable in a sustainable and engaging way is such a delight that it’s good to see our idea has pollinated, and hopefully will be helping to keep our bees nice and active next summer.

A pollinated idea

Stanley Honey - The Partners, 2003

First Floor takes up the challenge

Now, don’t deny it. You’ve been on tenterhooks for the past 2 weeks wondering how our guys are getting on with their hair-growing efforts in the name of charity. Well…we have an update…

As you can see some of the guys are doing really rather well, although suspicions have been aroused about the possible use of GM crop feed on Sam G’s upper lip (centre, top row). If you feel you have a ‘tasche of your own that competes with our Sam’s then be sure to send it to us and we’ll post it up on here too.

Remember that you can help support our lads by donating some some to the Movember appeal by visiting their sponsorship page.

Only 8 days to go…Come on lads…..PUUUSSSHHH those hairs out…PUUSSSHHH!

Week commencing 22nd Nov

Our CEO Jim Prior, Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland and The Sound Agency’s Julian Treasure, were realising the dream they had conceived at the TED Global conference in 2009: Could they produce a TED event dedicated to a marketing and advertising audience, and would anyone come?

Not only were people applying to attend in their masses (we ended up being 400% oversubscribed for the event), but speakers were lining up to take part.

The conference was based upon the theme of ‘Why Better Human Understanding is the Key to Future Business Success’, and was broken down into four sessions over the course of the day.

The first session, Future Thinking was ‘an examination of how the mind works – what, how, where and why do we think’. This session included talks from advertising and behavioural economics legend Rory Sutherland who looked at the way we consider and purchase and how subjective that decision really is. BBH’s mobile (and gambling) afficiando Peter Sells presented the argument that not all data and research can be a true indicator of human behaviour. The (incredibly moving and inspiring) neuro-scientist Jill Bolte Taylor discussed the disconnect between the traditional left and right brain and how she monitored her own brain pattern during a massive stroke. IPA winner Tim Jones discussed the rising emergence of gaming principles in brand communications and how it appeals to consumers emotional needs, and the King of (Quite) Interesting facts John Lloyd filled our heads with insight and knowledge of varying human behaviours, past and present.

Rory Sutherland - A Few Lessons Governments Could Learn From Marketers

Peter Sells - A Nice Soft Wife On A Sofa, And Other Stories

John Lloyd - Really rather very (quite) interesting

The second session of the day focused on Future Connections. This session explored ‘emerging thoughts and new insights into how we will connect and communicate’ . First to take the stage was the CEO of Ecademy, Thomas Power, who encouraged us to form a ‘Digital Mindset’ for the future.  He was followed by Brooke Molinaroli from BT discussing how to successfully use social media channels for business. Pranav Mistry unveiled some technology so ground-breaking the room was awash with gasps of wonder. Research Fellow, Tim Ambler, who was unfortunately unable to join us live on the day had pre-recorded his talk on the mind and neuroscience, which kept the audience captivated. Then, to take us into lunch the much-anticipated Mark Lund, CEO of the COI delivered his talk on the future of our ‘Connected State’.

Thomas Power - The Future of Social Networks

Brooke Molinaroli - Social Media As A Business Tool

Tim Ambler - Ours Is Not To Reason Why: The Mind And Neuroscience

Mark Lund - The Connected State

After lunch we kicked off with the third session of the day: Future Senses. This session explored ‘the nature of experiences and the memories they formed’. We were, aptly, treated to a very special performance by musician Randolph Matthews. His music, formed of a melting-pot of wonderous sounds, really helped to liven and inspire everyone after lunch (I congratulated him later on for succeeding in getting a room full of business leaders to ‘hoot’ and ‘yelp’ with wild abandon – a truly remarkable feat). The TED video of Daniel Kahneman followed on from Randolph where he delved into ‘The Riddle of Experience Vs. Memory’. The Sound Agency’s Julian Treasure then took to the stage and treated us to an education in sound and how the mind & body reacts to different sounds. The ‘magnetic’ Simon Gosling, from Framestore, then impressed us all with demonstrations into the latest mobile technologies using high definition special effects. Finally, wrapping up the third session, Mark Davy from FutureCity discussed the connection between business and social purpose, and also introduced me to the name ‘Spitalditch Gate’ which I’ve been searching for on the tube map ever since.  Sadly it’s not there…yet…

Randolph Matthews

Julian Treasure - The 8 Expressions Of A Brand In Sound

Mark Davy - The Connection Between Business And Social Purpose

After a short break we entered the fourth, and final session of the day, Future Value. This session explored ‘new definititions of business success and a more holistic interpretation of value’.

Independent consultant, and former ad-man, Paul Feldwick started the session off by challenging the very definition of creativity. CEO of Marcus Consulting, Lucy P. Marcus instructed us on how to create a revolution in the boardroom. Laurie Santos followed with her talk on how humans and monkeys are not all that dissimilar when it comes to being bad with money. Media futurist Gerd Leonhard presented a lively, and fascinating, talk on the future of Intellectual Property and how in our increasingly ‘connected world’ ownership can no longer be truly exclusive. IPA Winner Sarah Morning the delivered one of the most-revered talks of the day. In only 5 minutes she introduced the audience to the concept of brands taking the ‘long approach’ and using digital methods to reinvent the notion of rituals (Sarah, and Tim’s full essays appear in this week’s Campaign magazine supplement). Jeremy Gilley, conceiver and founder of the Peace One Day movement then inspired us all as he told the story of how he took the concept of a one-day global ceasefire from being just a dream in his mind to an actuality, managing to agree a ceasefire with the Taliban and United Nations Forces allowing  him to arrange the  innoculation of a staggering 1.8million children against polio in just one day. Left somewhat sideswiped and speechless from the enormity of emotion in Jeremy’s message, Rory took to the stage for a final time and reflected on the day and what the true meaning of value is.

Paul Feldwick - Aesthetics And Jugs And Rock'n'Roll

Gerd Leonhard - The Future of Intellectual Property

Sarah Morning - The 10,000 Year Clock And The Eternal Coin

Jeremy Gilley - Peace One Day

After a long, and mind-expanding day, all that was left was for host Jim Prior to thank everyone, including our sponsors Millward Brown, and partners Haymarket Brand Media, Haymarket Events, and Deloitte. As the conference came to a close we all filtered through to the drinks reception full of chatter and ideas to share with our peers over a glass of wine.  Without a hint of bias, it really was an amazing day. Pick up a copy of this week’s Campaign magazine for a full-page write up from Jeremy Lee, and be sure to keep checking back on the official TEDxNewSt website as all the speakers videos will be posted up there shortly.

Here’s to TEDxNewSt 2011…

]]> http://www.thecrossedcow.com/2010/10/21/tedxnewst-the-day/feed/ 0 http://www.thecrossedcow.com/2010/01/28/ford-blue-blood/ http://www.thecrossedcow.com/2010/01/28/ford-blue-blood/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:12:39 +0000 Nick C http://www.thecrossedcow.com/?p=1719 Continue reading →]]>

The Partners 2003 (top), Paul Rand 1966 (lower)

It was cool to see a discussion about the Ford Oval in the NY Times last week. We were lucky enough to have the chance to update the Ford Oval in 2003 for the centenary of the company. The mark has become symbolic for Ford, with a lot of pride invested in it – they have a saying in Dearborn that true Ford people ‘bleed Ford blue’! It wasn’t an option to do anything as radical as Paul Rand’s job back in the sixties, especially as Ford were struggling financially at the time. We also found that there were hundreds of versions of the oval all around the world (we lost count at 400), so our task was to create one that could be used everywhere. Needless to say the debates about every slight tweak were prolonged, but we were very careful to preserve the character of the ‘original’. The new Oval revealed on top of ford HQ in June 2003 was the first new standard since 1967. That made us proud too.

This week (November 2009) the latest table was published. The Partners is No.1.

Now this blog isn’t a place to be boasting – we’ll do that elsewhere, I’m sure – but we thought it deserved a mention nonetheless.

Thanks to everyone, within and without, who has helped us achieve that. It feels kinda good.

Ray was a straight talking, bullish teacher, who told it like it was. He taught us that the idea was king and that a simple communication is more important than the looks.  I know for a fact, I probably wouldn’t be here at The Partners if it wasn’t for him. We Wish Ray the best of luck in his retirement.

The Partners has once again teamed up with Richard House Children’s Hospice, heading back into the City to flex their fundraising muscles with another fantastic event, the Richard House five-a-side football tournament.

Aimed at naturally competitive City workers the idea highlights the rivalry that exists in the office and encourages them to bring that to the pitch. In total 20 teams competed with Baker McKenzie becoming the champs in a stunning 3-0 win.

The Partners has designed a logo, posters and other promotional material for the five-a-side event.