Guest blog posts...lets begin!

Hello all. I think it would be fun to do a bit of a blog swap - I'll guest blog for someone else and they can do it for me. Now since I am a person with an advertising centric blog the guest blogger should be someone creative. You could be in the same industry, or in something related like marketing or media, or simply have your own craft blog or write poems about pandas...or something else...fridge freezers perhaps.

If you are interested in guest blogging for me, or me guest blogging for you, please let me know. It's a great way to gain a few more followers and it will be fun too.

The most beautiful books

If I was judging a competition to find the most beautiful book covers then I think that Coralie Bickford-Smith’s Penguin designs would win. With their beautiful patterns that look a bit like very expensive wallpaper the covers give a subtle hint at some of the themes of the book.

"The cover is there to serve the content, so the content has to be taken into consideration. How and to what extent the content is represented on the cover varies of course – sometimes it will be quite literal, other times more oblique, or even just a suggestion of mood and tone.” ~ Coralie Bickford-Smith




Dorian Grey's peacock design reflects the idea of vanity.



Great Expectations's chandeliers suggest the trappings of wealth which Pip falls for when he moves into society leaving Joe behind. Also the beauty and allure of Estella.



Tess's cover suggest the rural setting of the book and the hard farm work, as well as earthy natural beauty.



Fitzgerald's books were written in the 20's and contained themes associated with the era of decadence and flapper societies- reflected in the art deco designs.



Thanks to Brain Pickings for these pictures:
Read more: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/11/22/coralie-bickford-smith-penguin-book-covers/#ixzz1HEdseO7P

There's an app for that!!!

Loving this cute song by sesame Street which nods towards Apple

5 x 15 - Talks

My work colleague Jane is attending a speaking event where they have 5 respected figures each allowed to speak on any subject for 15 minutes. The speakers are journalists, television presenters, writers etc...here's Janet Street Porter doing a hesitant and slightly scared but still funny piece on her uses for shower caps. Enjoy.

http://www.5x15stories.com/index.php?/videos/Janet-Street-Porter/

Alpha, Bravo story

My colleagues are putting on an art show soon and they asked me to write some stories for it. The theme is the alphabet and their angle was the phonetic alphabet - you know: alpha, bravo, charlie etc - the thing you say on the phone when someone doesn't understand your Welsh accent. Anyway the challenge was to write an extremely short story - no more that 150 words using all of the words in the phonetic alphabet once. Here are 2 of mine:


Victor Bravo had been champion Tango dancer. He had also danced the Foxtrot in an Oscar winning movie. Those were the good years. He’d played golf with Mike Tyson, dined on kilos of caviar and romanced rich yankee women with names like Sierra and Delta. But, it was hotel gigs that kept him going. India, Quebec, Lima: he’d danced the world and tried every style, even Zulu! But then he met rich Juliett November. She swept him up in her purfume calling him her “Romeo” and threw out his sparkly uniforms. His love made him her pet, her echo and she could see through him like an x-ray. Her Papa, Charlie contantly belittled him for not being an alpha man. That’s why Victor Bravo had taken to hiding whisky bottles around their home.

Juliette had only known Romeo three days, 2 hours and 37 minutes. But she had dreamt of him since last November. He was an echo in her mind, dancing the tango, the foxtrot with her in the exotic India hotel. And when she finally met him, a Yankee smart in his uniform drinking whiskey with Victor and Mike, she felt as if he saw into her soul, like an x-ray. Born in Delta, Colarado, he had spent that last 5 years in Quebec, Lima and the Sierra mountains and a little place called Papa in Somoa, leading his group. He was a real alpha male, as fierce as a Zulu warrior, yet funny. On their first date they watched a Charlie Chaplin video, she nicknamed him Johnny Bravo and he confessed he played golf merely because he thought he should. They talked about Oscar Wilde and ate a kilo of ice cream. It was then she asked him to marry her.

Fancy a go? I'd love to read other people's so if you do please post them on your blogs and link them here - or just comment them. Thanks!

Cats with THUMBS!

Lovely advert for Cravendale. I was a big fan of the last stop frame animation Cravendale campaign, but this is great too! Apart from the animation at the very end when they walk through the door that is. Over done egg.

Books not Bullets

Untold Stories is a short animation which is part of a new campaign, Books Not Bullets. The campaign seeks to highlight the plight of child soldiers. Books Not Bullets is the brainchild of a group of Kirklees teenagers after they heard firsthand tales of genocide survivors. Its a sweet film with a very naive drawing style influenced by the work of the pupils. Take a look and tell me you're not moved.