I just don't know what to do with myself....

Well D&AD New Blood is packed up and over...




It was good fun while it lasted. We also managed to squeeze in a workshop at a digital agency called R/GA. They set us a brief to advertise a new bubbly chocolate bar called 'Mars Bubbles' and find an idea that could be used across all media. T'was really informative so we'll probably pop back for a book crit. Was also really interesting to see work from other teams in the same position we are.

We also fitted in book crits with Adam & Eve, Dare and Ogilvy. The consensus seemed to be that there are no placements left in London this summer, but we will keep trying! They all gave us some great feedback and were really encouraging about the future.

Vicky and I have now parted for a few weeks to get some more work done, and hopefully earn a bit of money as I am currently the poorest I have ever been, ever. I would ideally love a bit of work at a local agency to tide me over and get some experience. But for now I am unemployed and in and out of the local job centre, how lovely.

6 Words

Another excersize we did with Roger Horberry: The six word story.

So the Guardian ran a blog competition for readers to upload their own six word stories:

Where the fuck's the door handle?

Life. I want my money back.

They also published a few from some more experienced writers:

Armageddon imminent. Make list. Tick most.
Ian Rankin

Found true love. Married someone else.
Dave Eggers

Big bang. No God. Fadeout. End.
Stephen Baxter

And here are some of my attempts:

Hit pheasant. Should have worn glasses.

Red wire? Blue wire? I'm colourblind.

The Horberry

A couple of weeks ago I attented a copywriting workshop wit a man called Roger Horberry. Why am I only telling you about this now? Well I've had things to do and people to see.

Roger has a book:

(No you can't click to look inside, I just stole the picture off Amazon)

He got us to do some really fun exercises to get our creative juices flowing. One of which was to re-write a paragraph selling a product in the style of a celeb we would get at random. I was given the name of Peaches Geldof and decided to get her talking about wine...

"This wine is like totally epic, and like really fruity. It's got loads of grapes in it, not that I give a shit. I've got better things to do. It comes from Burgundy - my dads probably been there, he's like... really famous. You can buy it from Asda, I've never been there, but you could send your assistant? That might be cool."

I really think I captured the Peaches we know and love.

Roger also told us a few things about tone of voice:

It is content + expression + audience.

It is personality in print.

It is everything you don't have to say, but probably should.

He told us some other interesting things like how we could summarise text down into bullet points but it would take out all the character and tone of voice. He showed this by getting us to cut down famous speeches into bullet points - they were very uninspiring after that.

I would probably buy Roger's book if my Amazon wish list wasn't a mile long already. I still believe that I will one day win the This Morning competition, pay off my student loan and buy all the books I want. One day...