Meet Rajesh Bhargava:
If you are growing a moustache this Movember, look no further than Delhi for inspiration. Rajesh is Head of Production in our Delhi office, and he's currently setting global standards in the W+K Moustache Competition. To keep up with more news from the W+K Delhi, you can read their blog here.
If you were made of gold or silver, how much would you be worth?
When people stand on the gold or silver scales outside our window in Hanbury Street, the PLOT mannequin heads move to reveal the person’s worth in pounds sterling (their weight x price per ounce of commodity).
The mannequin heads were sourced, wood was ordered, and flockers found to transform our basic Styrofoam heads into Glorious Pink Divas - for those curious designers out there, yes, that is Pantone 232 C.
The weekend installation was fun for at least two reasons. One, with the busy-ness of Hanbury Street, the install was very much a performance piece for curious passers-by. And two, because we were justified in saying "flocker" as often as we liked.
198 Brick Lane.
After some early design experiments...
We are happy to land here:
As you can clearly see it's a competition, for growing moustaches, and it's been going since the beginning of the month. The closing date for top lip growth is Monday 30th Movember. The comp is open to folk from all our offices, and there's reports of some impressive top lips already in existence around the global network. We're stoked to have Evan Dumas from our Portland office on board acting as our official sponsor. In his spare time he runs a Moustache Wax company with a friend on called 'Man's Face Stuff'. There's currently a couple of tubs on their way to each office in time for the closing date.
W+K London is proving to be a significantly hairier place than usual this Movember.
Monday night saw Nokia hosting the eagerly awaited Rihanna gig live at the Brixton O2 Academy.
Rihanna's hotly anticipated live comeback gig following her tumultuous year was enjoyed by a packed Academy along with a worldwide audience courtesy of the Nokia live stream. Audiences were entertained with new tracks from Rohanna's upcoming album Rated R in addition to the classics.
Nokia’s loyal customers as well as many other lucky revelers were rewarded with free tickets in a big giveaway, driven online and through the Flag ship store.
The W+K team were out in full force and with a crew of Platformers enjoying the musical talents, a great night was had by all!
If all this wasn’t enough excitement Rihanna brought along some friends: Young Jeezy made an appearance and the crowd went wild when megastar Jay Z appeared on stage, treating the worldwide audience to a rendition of ‘Run this town’.
Nice one, Nokia.
Find out more and check out extra footage from the event at: www.nokia.com/Rihanna
Congrats to former and future strategic guru Nick Barham, who has been promoted to
co-executive creative director of W+K Shanghai. Barham
previously served as the director of W+K Shanghai Planning and is the first
planning director in W+K history to be promoted to a co-executive creative
director position. Maybe also the first ever planning director of an agency to become its creative director?
Nick will join co-executive creative director
Nick Cohen, making a Nick-Nick CD combo, and managing director Kel Hook to complete the management team for
W+K Shanghai. Barham joined W+K Shanghai in 2007 to work on Nike’s
communications leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. As the agency has
grown, he has worked across all of their clients, helping those clients to
develop a diverse body of work, including a rock ’n’ roll road trip for
Converse that took two Beijing bands across China. And he's worked closely with us in London on shared clients Nokia and Nestea.
He has also been involved in developing W+K’s own content, including a documentary on Chinese beatboxing, an interactive installation at Shanghai’s eARTS Festival and a limited-edition line of watches in collaboration with the Shanghai Watch Company.
“Today, the qualifications for a true creative director have evolved beyond craft and management; broader skills are required in order to lead brands with speed and cultural relevancy. W+K Shanghai is constantly redefining the norms of brand communications, and Nick has been a creative leader in our office,” said John C. Jay, global executive creative director of W+K. “Nick has been instrumental in developing documentaries, music videos, event websites and applications, and in collaborating with emerging artists and musicians in China and across Asia.”
Nick used to be at BBH London, where he worked as a planner and then a cultural reporter, keeping the agency’s brands (Unilever, Audi, Johnnie Walker and Levi’s) informed about changes in contemporary culture. During his time as a planner he was a Gold winner at the APG Creative Planning Awards and wrote a winning paper for the IPA Effectiveness Awards.
In July 2005, he moved to Shanghai to work at TBWA with brands such as Adidas and Chivas Regal. “I expected to work in Shanghai for a couple of years,” he said, “but the speed of change here, and the opportunity to tear things up and produce work that changes the way that brands behave, has made it very difficult to leave.”
Nice work, Nick.
With the help of some fearless clients, WMH has gained an international reputation for creative and commercial success. They have won major awards at D&AD, Design Week, Clio and New York Festivals and been named No 1 for Creative Awards in 2005/6/7 (Design Week) and No 1 for Design Effectiveness 2003/4/6 by the DBA for work with clients like Clipper Teas, Cobra and Sainsbury’s. This has led to Garrick Hamm being appointed D&AD President for 2008/9 and WMH featuring in The Guardian’s ‘Top 50 Hottest Names in Design’.
They were responsible for this famous and highly successful bit of packaging design:
And recently created this airfix kit-inspired work for the Jamie Oliver Recipease brand:
It was an entertaining and thought provoking talk - always interesting to hear how other creative businesses in different fields approach what they do.
WMH apply 5 principles to their work. (I hope I scribbled these down right).
1. Difference - imitation should have no place in branding
2. Focus - try to say one thing well
3. Bravery - embrace risk
4. Judgement - trust your instinct and intuition not research
5. Think big - the idea is the most important thing
Big thanks to Richard and Garrick for taking the time to come in and talk to us.
Misfits, E4's latest youth drama sensation, started last night and is available to watch on their online player, 4od here.
Today's review in the guardian:
ITV's No Heroes was the last show to play with the idea of British superheroes, but it was very much a sitcom, packed with little nods to comic book history. Misfits is a much darker proposition, more like E4's zombie drama Dead Set in tone, and confident enough to operate in its own universe and set up something new. It's also using that Skins technique of presenting us with a tabloid stereotype - the asbo teenager - and then slowly pulling back to show us the real people behind the hoodie headlines.
Together with E4’s digital agency, six2start, we're working to connect fans of the show to its characters through a number of content led initiatives - the cast are uploading live stories to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks and we're creating a Misfits widget and mobile app that collates all their updates into one place, keeping fans up to date in real time.
We're also using their updates to create anticipation and excitement for a season finale event - seeding clues that lead to your chance to win passes to an end of series Ovi Misfits party.
Our intelligent, gorgeous and lovely client, Fiona Bosman (Head of Marketing Activation at Nokia UK) said:
“Our partnership with E4 for Misfits is a great way for Nokia to connect people with not only entertainment but also great technology. People who love the programme will have the chance to engage with the characters in the show all via a bespoke Misfits Ovi app. ”
Get hold of the widget here: http://www.ovimisfitsapp.com/
The artist, Alex Daw http://www.hanguppictures.com/_webapp_143523/Alex_Daw brings his warped view of the world of fashion, status and advertising via his ongoing series of compelling contemporary mementos of modern life. He utilises anything at his disposal - he cuts and paints on a number of surfaces. Culling fragments of pop culture, fashion and art history, Daws' obsessive nature to critique and de-construct objects, results in cut up magazines, and paintings on canvas and glass pieces. Here is Alex at work.
From our perspective, in this relentlessly digital age, we felt a collaboration of this kind was a lovely opportunity for us to, old-school style, create a 'real-life' experience. Not to mention a chance to take advantage of the wonderful event space we built this year.
Piece from the current issue of architecture and design mag Blueprint about our new office space.
We are proud to announce the launch of Wieden + Kennedy's own line of contemporary jewellery,
with a conceptual twist.
Lisa Prince, a planner at W+K who
encounters a lot of data in her day to day job, noticed from sitting in
the
(occasional) boring meeting that the way in which data was being presented was
becoming
more interesting, and if you squinted your eye a little, even quite
beautiful. When Nicholla Longley (an
art director at W+K) also noticed the
rising standard of information graphics they decided to launch a
brand that
would bring data and beauty together.
The result is PLOT, a brand that
takes interesting data and transforms it into wearable art. Art that
enables the wearer to be
informed on a surprising subject, and that gives them a story to tell.
We're always looking for the opportunity to work in
new ways that are beyond traditional advertising channels. (For example, this year we designed windows for Selfridges department store, launched a product
range, created a promo video for We Have Band, and designed a generative brand identity for the onedotzero festival, which manifested itself into an interactive experience.)
The first PLOT line to launch in
mid-November is a range of necklaces that celebrates the humble
data behind mighty economies: commodity prices. Each piece is lovingly handmade
for us by
Hannah Havanna in her London studio.
gold
necklace is simply a striking graphic shape. At second glance you can inform
the admirer that
it is actually the graph for gold prices from 1979-2009 and
that Tiananmen Square caused the peak in
1989.
And then there's lead...
See what we've done here with pencil "leads":
Gold and oil plotted together:
All your christmas gift worries sorted!
You can check out Plot on Facebook:
As of now, the first release
of the wieden + kennedy Plot range will be available in:
Beyond the Valley, Newburgh
Street, Carnaby Street. Luna & Curious, Brick Lane.
Or direct from www.thisisplot.com
For more info see the plot website or brand book.Download Plot Brand Book_RRP
Good morning, mein kampfers!
This is a genuine new business enquiry we received today:
Just a brief introduction to what I am interested in. I am looking for an agency to market a 5-day holiday internationaly here in germany concerning Adolphs Hitlers life eg. birth place, house he was born etc. bunker sight-seeing etc. Please have a look at our website (xxxxx) and get in touch with me again to discuss the matter further regarding a meeting etc
We declined the invitation. Not just for moral or ethical reasons but because of the unforgivably sloppy grammar and punctuation in the prospective client's approach.
The sad and terrible truth is that some agency will find a way of convincing themselves that Hitler holidays are not necessarily a bad thing and they will go after this account.
On Friday we said goodnight and good luck to producer extraordinaire Jon Chads, who has been lured away to the dark side by BMB. He's done some terrific work with us and we'll miss him.
If you know Jon, you can send him messages of congratulations / commiserations or just take the piss at the Facebook page we set up for him here.
It's Monday morning. And we're rebranding.
Even more for your money...
the runners-up
And here's a section:
And here's Danny, Shay and Karrelle - just three of the many, many people involved in its creation.
The permanently fixed structure is housed at The Emirates stadium, and features every Arsenal player and manager to have appeared at Highbury, the Club’s home of 93 years. You can find it at the South end of the public walkway around the Gunner's state-of-the-art home and will remain as a constant symbol of the Club's proud history.
The research undertaken to create this artwork has been developed in conjunction with the Club historian Fred Ollier. It is also crafted to include images ranging from glass negatives to modern digital photography.
From 1913 to 2006, over 490 first team players and managers graced the Highbury turf. Images for all of them have been included, with the exception of just four players who still remain missing - Tom Maxwell, William Maycock, James Caldwell and Fred Jones. Arsenal is inviting all supporters to complete the picture by emailing any images and background information of the missing four to spirit@arsenal.co.uk.
Tony D particularly pleased: “"I said two years ago that I wan't going to cut my hair or shave off my beard until this project became a reality. I've had to spend all that time with an itchy face wearing a hat. I'm bloody delighted that The Spirit of Highbury’ will be there to act as a great testament to how good ideas can continue to resonate in the future. I'm off to the barber's now."
Here's a time lapse film of the structure being built:
We're shooting some new work for Lurpak at the moment.
Dick Powell of Seymourpowell Design visited the agency yesterday evening to give us a fascinating and inspiring talk about design and innovation.
Great to hear from someone who really knows about what
they're doing in this sector (everything from cordless kettles to
spaceships) from a creative and business perspective.
A couple of interesting things:
- seymourpowell's creative process (they call it a 'crucible process') is based on visual concepting - you have to
actually draw the product idea to show how it works, the written word
being too open to varying interpretations.
- they believe that much of the skill of the product designer is in 'plate-spinning' - balancing all the considerations of how people use things, how they're made, how much things cost, what the client's business needs, etc.
- innovation isn't usually about looking for the 'big idea'; it's about bringing together a series of small ideas in a new, surprising and relevant way.
A final thought from Dick, via Shaw, paraphrased by me:
You see things and you ask 'why?' But creative people dream things that never were and ask, 'Why not?'
Here is Interactive Producer Ryan with London's poshest creative, Freddie Powell, indulging in a spot of fishing in the depths of Thamesmeade
Karla Stewart - the epitome of 'working remotely'
Giles our UK client lending Freddie a helping hand after a long day on set
The TV idents, as well as the Mobile App and Widget break on 12th November.
The team at Platform, Wieden + Kennedy London's new exerimental creative school / business have been working away on various projects. They also found time to create their own 'top trump' business cards. Here they are.
This win is the latest in a pretty good run of pitching success this year:
- Nestea global (pitched and won).
- Visit Wales (retained after repitching in statutory review).
- Arla International (pitched and lost to BBDO. Grrr.)
- Arla Lactofree (pitched and won).
- Fairtrade Foundation (pitched and won).
- Selfridges 100th anniversary window installation (pitched and won against a bunch of designers and artists).
- Onedotzero brand identity design (awarded without a pitch).
Six out of seven pitches successfully converted is a pretty good run.
Planner extraordinaire Lisa Prince is on maternity leave but she popped in today to catch up on a new project she's developing for us.
We had a surprise celebration in the agency this evening for ancient and venerable Exec Creative Director Kim Papworth, who just turned fifty. We gave him a lovely chair that is as old as him. Because he likes chairs.
Kim's partner Tony paid tribute to 'the nicest man you'll ever meet in advertising' and we had a 'NICE' birthday cake. (Insert obligatory joke about huge number of candles constituting fire risk here.)
Kim attempts to blow out raging inferno.
Thinks: ""if only I hadn't teamed up with bloody Davidson all those years ago, just think what I could have achieved".
Does this milestone mean we can now officially stop being thought of as a trendy 'yoof' agency?