She Says May edition...

Absolutely incredible!
What a hit this month's She Says was... with around 65 women in attendence, to listen to 4 of the big guns of digital (and offline in the case of Rhona) agencies speak about their tips for success, as well as their biggest mistakes...

Firstly Jane (Recollective/Framfab) spoke very openly and frankly about everything from her active attitude to being a mum... a really funny and inspirational talk... and she had a great tale from our deepend days about the perils of not checking your presentation for mistakes before you go to the client (Thomas Cock anyone?)

Tamara (fronm SPF15) warned of the problems that the instant delivery of technology can get you in - watch who you send those emails and text messages to! She took us through the thinking behind her work for Superdrug - and what results!

Lee (Dare) was an absolute craik - even though she admitted that she'd written her talk last night whilst watching Big Brother it was captivating, and a great insight into a highly energetic and passionate individual... as all the women said - ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY! Her "greatest mistake" came from not knowing her material well enough when presenting to a client, thinking that other members of her team would be talking through it... and realising that she had to do it all on her own!

Finally (after racing straight from a late-landing Squeesyjet plane from Gatwick to our door) Rhona gave a really revealing talk describing some of her biggest blunders, and the importance of being incredibly honest and owning up to your mistakes. what a lady!

Afterwards there were questions galore, and a chance to network over drinks and food provided kindly (with the venue) by Propel, Thanks Emma, Mel and the rest of the girls!

the next event will be at the end of June, where we will also hopefully launch our site and viral campaign!

Butter me up!

Some more magical work from Wieden - for Lurpak.
The Bread one just made me druel whilst watching TV...
Potato:

Bread:

Mushroom:

GTV 9 Get the Feeling promo ID 1972

Can you believe someone has found this and posted it on YouTube? Featuring every true-blue Aussie x-gen's favourite mute bear - Humphrey B...

kuala lumpur

My first scare...

SO, a warning to all you pregnant women out there: dont over-exert yourself - pulling a ligament is no laughing matter! Lunchtime in KL and I was feeling something akin to a strain or cramp in my lower abdomen - nothing to write home about, I thought, and continued walking...
Cue two hours later, and were sitting outside Maharajalela station and I cant stand up anymore. The pain is spreading up to and past the right of my navel and becoming more intense. Dan and I abandoned our plans to find Chinatown, and headed off to Asian Heritage Row (near Medan Tuanku station) to try to find a coffee shop/bar.

WHAT A GREAT STREET!

By this stage I couldnt sit on a stool and had to recline on a sofa, getting more and more panicked about the increasing amount of pain. After one drink I just had to head home to lie down, where the pain kept increasing, even at rest.
I ended up in tears, as much out of a total lack of understanding for what was going on in my body than the pain, and had to call the doctor... at which point I totally broke down.
After a reasonable consultation, an explanation of what to look out for (in case it was premature labour) and a lot of reassurance that it was probably a strained ligament I calmed down, and we eventually made it out to a very quiet but lovely dinner.

LESSON: They dont tell you to take it easy for nothing...

graffiti - malay style...

the magical durian

Delicious! So, the only thing that youre not allowed to bring into the hotel in Langkawi is Durian...

Whos a pretty boy, then?

A pic of Nitin and I, taken in his local bar, on the waterfront in Manly...

A great idea for teaching design from the heads of the JBs

Chatting with Brad and Dan at the flat tonight, and the issue of teaching design came up.
Dan had a wonderful point - that more and more the designers role is to help identify and navigate different types and themes of information. Although this has always been true to some extent, digital media has made it much more so.
So rather than concentrate purely on the visual/layout (often not really even reading what youre designing), more attention needs to be paid to really understanding the content of ones work.

Dan and I developed a great little teaching excersise for this whilst we were walking around Chinatown later in the evening.

To gain a better understanding of designing with content top-of-mind, divide the class into groups of 3.
Each of them must write a piece of unformatted content (or you could use pieces of random content).
NEXT: They pass their content on to the next designer, who works at defining content types/possible linkages and grouping content according to meaning. They then write a design brief - not with directions such as placement but purely with the cues they have gathered on this content/meaning. This will help the designer articulate their thoughts, and understand what another designer might need to work from.
FINALLY: The 3rd designer actually lays out the piece (be it digital or otherwise) using the content brief.

They would be allowed to ask questions of the students further up the chain, but it would hopefully mean that during this excersise they would start thinking in a more intellegent way about the way they work.

its a boy!

Meet Casper (ish)... Sucking his thumb (and kicking relentlessly) at 20 weeks... It really is beginning to feel very real now...

halfway!!!

upside down Miss Jane!

I've been waiting since YouTube kicked off for someone to post a snippet of Mr Squiggle up there, so that I can finally explain to everyone in the UK what its all about! It was one of my all-time favourite shows as a child - though I'm not sure if I ever actually sent in a squiggle!
Its a shame such creative, simple and original storytelling is no longer the staple of kid's tv!