Dadvertising - Mum's Not Dead Honest. Pt. 2

For the second part of my Dadvertising piece I bring you the brilliant Lego advert, Build Together (watch below). This is a masterpiece in Dadvertising, brilliant script, great tagline and what really blew me away about this is it's placement. It's not on in-between The MilkShake Girls, no, it's on when Dad's watching the TV on his own and it's reigniting his passion for Lego by appealing to his selfish nature, and, sorry, but it works. I want to build this house with my son.

The strapline is brilliant as well, so simple and totally inspiring. Build Together (nice typography as well while we're at it), is positioning Lego as a social activity, rather than a toy, it's an easy way to spend time with your family and everyone have fun at the same time. I mean has anyone ever played Elefun? It's hard to feel challenged as an adult catching butterflies out of a 3 foot long Elephant trunk. This Advert sells the idea that products works across all ages.

If an advert is only as good as it's product, then the advert is great because Lego has always been great. That's another thing I like about this, it's back to basics for the product. Lego has lost it's way over the last 10 years, there's too many movie tie-ins and too many specialist parts, and that's taken the imagination out of the bricks. But this advert goes a long way to building it back in, it's a triumph for Lego, for Dadvertising and for imagination.

What makes this the pinnacle of Dadvertising is Mum doesn't poke her nosey little face in at the end to prove she's not dead, no she's probably out doing the Christmas Shopping, buying this little chap a big rubbish plastic oven.

Let us know what you think? Are Dadverts going to take over TV, is the word 'Dadvert' annoying you?

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07738 175 614

The Daily Torygraph

The Daily Torygraph is great site, take a look. It's published by Dave Waters of Watermill who has been responsible for some pretty impressive work, he was Creative Director of Top 30 Ad Agency D.F.G.W, back in 1989, which eventually sold to Freud Communications. Watermill have had a hand in some of more memorable ads on TV for companies like Audi, XBox and John Smiths , as well as the opening credits for Die Another Day, and Dave himself was part of the creative team that worked on the Millennium Dome project when that opened in 2000. 

I wanted the logo to show exactly what the site was about. It's a simple premise, it takes the front page of The Telegraph, and, each day subverts the headline to form some satirical comedy. This made the premise for the logo quite simple, I took the technique used by Dave for manipulation of the headline - Tipex and a graphic pen, and applied this to the masthead of the Telegraph.

Look out for the site, there's posters going up around London soon, and it's clocking up an astonishing amount of daily hits (30k last count). It's a great project to have been a part of, and backed by a truly creative force.

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010

N13 Logo

I'm very busy currently working on the New Cassettes album and single artwork, (which is looking really great, and I can't wait to share with you on here,) we're working with N13 Music in New York. Everything was progressing nicely, until, we got to a point where the pack art was finished and it was time to drop the logos on, and they remembered they didn't have one.

No problem, Citizen do logos.

And that's how it happened.

Plugged in and switched on.

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010

Howdy Partners

I've recently updated the Citizen site to include a list of partners that I work with, I'm hoping this will increase Citizen's offering and expand the size and scope of work we're able to go after.

You may also notice that we've gone from an 'I' to a 'we'.

The first person on the roster is Maria Ingram. I've worked with Maria for many years. She's a creative copywriter who's got a good eye for detail, and a sound conceptual brain. She's great for bouncing ideas around with, and then sewing a concept up with a neat little strapline.

Next up, Karen Brown. Yes my wife, but also my partner in business and someone I've worked with at my previous agency. Karen is a great help to me at Citizen, she's an incredible organiser, and solid strategic thinker. Previously Karen worked at BBH, on the British Airways and Audi accounts where she was named 'Project Manager of the year in 08 and 09'.

Finally (for the moment) Phil Sharp. Phil is a magnificent photographer, I've worked with him lots of times over the years including on the One Leicester campaign in 2009.

Phil's work had been all over the place in The Guardian, Wallpaper, Time Out and NME, and he's recently been directing the photography on some short films. What makes him such a great portrait photographer is, (along side his technical skills) his ability to relax his subjects, and really get the best out of them. I really enjoy working with Phil, the best work I've done has come from this partnership.


So, there's the basis of the Citizen team, and I have no plans to stop there. If you think you have something to offer us, please get in touch and perhaps we can create something together.

I've taken some pretty big meetings in the last couple of weeks, and I've got some interesting projects lined up, so far so good. One month in and Citizen is still standing, I'm proud of that.


www.citizenstudios.co.uk
Ben@citizenstudios.co.uk


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Back to the drawing board

As mentioned previously I'm trying to work more and more from paper beginnings. Especially with logo design I'm starting to explore the relationship between the letters and words more with a pen; rather that darting around in Illustrator.

I think my lack of formal training has meant that I've never really done this, and the need to get jobs done quickly has always been a barrier. Since the start of the year I've done 5 different company logos and all of the best results have been from paper to screen. (Not that these are the ones that got chosen).

I wonder how many designers really work like this anymore? As stated previously, it's my aim to bin the laptop and send all my work in the post by the time my laptop (which feels like it's on the way out) dies.

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RAW Productions logo

"Simple, modern, and conveys something about what we do."

The 'A and W' represent film strip, in pervious versions they has beading along the edges to look more like film, but after some discussion we decided to drop that and go with a subtler approach.

This is the second logo born from the pad, as part of my New Years Resolution, all conceptual logos are starting life as pencil drawings. For my sins this isn't something I've always done, it's always been too easy to jump straight onto Illustrator and take it from there. It's working out nicely, one day I hope I can get rid of the Mac all together and send my client their designs in the post.

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010

Glasgow Wedding Collective

This was a nice little job that I got through our Wedding Tea Towel contacts, the brief was really well constructed and GWC sent me so many ideas and references that I really got a good flavour of what they were looking for.

The basis of the logo was a font called 'Handmade' and from this starting point we worked to embellish it, creating a decorative 'Rococo' feel that works well in the industry while at the same time eluding to the companies 'collective' nature.

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010

Week One.

I'm not planning to update every week on how I'm doing, but week one of Citizen was interesting, and at the end of it I was happy for people to tell me I looked 'tired'. I've realised that I'm happier when I'm working, and when I'm busy, creatively.

Sunday night I filled my blackboard with all my jobs and meetings and spent the week hammering through it. (Taking the odd beak to smash snowballs over my own head with Archie.) The variety of work made it so much fun, I pitched freelance design for Motorcross Helmets, and for an online Portrait company (which I won), as well as picking up 3 small logo jobs.

I've learnt that it's very competitive out there. people want a lot, for as little at they get away with, and even after they've had it, they'll keep coming back for more. I've been working from some of the freelance sites and the scope of work to budget ration is at times amazing. It's clear that when people aren't dealing face-to-face with folk, they really do take the piss, but, on the other hand the worldwide pool of designers mean, there's always someone, somewhere to do the work.

So, I was happy I wasn't sitting round with my hand down my pants, I've got some great meetings lined up this week that I'm really excited about, and a big project about to kick off. Last Friday bought with it a nice meeting in a coffee shop with my wife, and a whole raft of opportunities that I hope will come to fruition in the New Year. 

I can see how keeping things in perspective mentally, going forward could be my biggest challenge, but I hope the positive energy from the first week will keep me, keeping on. Here's to a new week, a new year and a new way of working...

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010