LOVE

Air bags

We're doing some backpack stuff with Nike. They've now added air technology to the shoulder straps of some of their bags which is an interesting development. The picture below shows a behind the scenes view of someone trialing these new bags. Some of their other bags are for those kids that ride BMX's. Here's one at it. We've got our friend Klaus to shoot this for us. Here he is huddled in his little home on set.

Little People

Just found 'little-people' through Serif. Fantastic. And you can see more at an exhibition at Urbis in Manchester soon.

Ads We Like

Such a good poster campaign. 
Weiden + Kennedy.
Again.

Science Needs You

Science is very misunderstood.  Many people think it's too geeky, or too hard, or that a career in science means being a badly paid lab technician in an ill-fitting white coat and with unruly hair.  So we're helping The Science Council to build a new website so that young people can find out about all the interesting areas of life that need scientists.  The first thing we're doing is giving the site a new name, so we've developed a shortlist of six alternatives with the help of some young designers.  We're putting each to the public vote.  Please can everyone vote at www.sciencevote.co.uk.  Please also ask everyone else you know to vote too - young, old, schoolchildren, your children, scientists, designers - and if you can pass on this message to any helpful friends (especially schoolkids) that would be much appreciated.  10 Ipods are there to be won as an extra incentive to take part.

Trains

A quick note to anyone with short, brown hair, who wears a dark grey suit, and catches the 0738 trans-penine express service from Leeds to Manchester Picadilly. On a half empty train (or half full*, depending on how you want to look at it) there is no need to sit directly opposite someone on a four-seater table. The correct place to sit is diagonally opposite them (as illustrated in the picture below) allowing both passengers the full amount of leg-room, and table space. Thank you for listening, we hope you have a pleasant onward journey.

*Do optimists see train carriages as half full, or half empty?

Alan and Jerome

I know it's not the most recent of campaigns, but I've been looking for Cliff Freeman & Partners' campaign for Fox for ages, and they've finally turned up on YouTube. These guys were so good they deserved their own TV show...

Glamour

Photo shoots should be glamorous. Exotic locations, beautiful women and all the rest. So at around six on Saturday, myself and Antony Crook rocked up at Bolton West service station. It involved a six year old boy, 2 packets of salt and vinegar discos, a box of liqourice allsorts, a pink poncho, lots of space related toys hanging on fishing wire, and a lot of jumping in and out of cars to avoid the freezing conditions. At around 2am, when none of us could feel our fingers, we realised just how fortunate we are to be involved in such a glamorous industry. Here's an out take from the shoot which we think looks pretty beautiful all by itself.

Monkey see, monkey do, monkey blog

There once was an utterly pointless blog called standinaqueue, recording the nationwide queuing experiences of one William Deed. I say utterly pointless: it was also utterly brilliant. We even had William come in for a couple of weeks to work with us (we forgot to tell him about the dodgy loo flush in the gents’ toilets) and everything looked rosey in the garden of Deed.

And like that *blows hand* he’s gone.

Vanished into thin air like Keyser Soze. Some believed that William had caught the “50-year queue” somewhere off the west coast of Australia; others whispered that he’d taken a full-time position at his local Greggs. But just as we were starting to get worried, up he popped again. In the Congo.

Now most of you will know the Congo as a place in Africa inhabited by brightly coloured cartoon animals who like drinking sickly artificial fruit juices. But it’s actually a real place that exists in real life too. Sadly it’s currently ravished by plague, civil war, poverty, and corruption, so not the nicest of places to be.

Will’s been out there since the beginning of March working on a project called Wild Life Direct, whose aim is “to provide a platform, through blogging, for the people here to talk about their day-to-day lives protecting the wildlife of Virunga National Park, including the now vulnerable Hippos as well as the critically endangered Mountain Gorillas.” You can visit Will's blog here. I’ve got a lot of admiration for Will – it’s the kind of stuff that I wish I could be doing, if only I was a little younger, a little smarter, a little braver and a little less addicted to the current series of 24.

It’s quite humbling to read about the work he's doing, along with the other rangers, Elie, Aloma, and Deo. If you get the chance, do drop by their blogs and say hi, send encouragement, donations, best wishes and general cheer. Unfortunately there’s currently no way of sending pasties, steak bakes or breakfast melts.

Note - Sorry about the Um Bongo references Will. Just lazy.

The Tits?

Courtesy of Serif.

Film of the Week

Days of Thunder
Cruise. Kidman. A wheelchair race in a hospital. 'Go low Trickle'. Genius.