Dan Germain

it was very interesting

I enjoyed interesting. There were a lot of good people there, and I think I understood most of the stuff that people were talking about, although I did struggle with the origami exercise.

photo from gorgeoux's flickr stream

After receiving David's suggestion in the comments under this post, I ended up speaking about those sunsets. You know, the ones you take pictures of. I think it went well - I managed to mention how sunsets are linked to death, but then end on a rather upbeat note, which was a relief, as I spoke at the end of the day and there was no-one to be upbeat after me.

Thank you Russell for organising it. And thank you to Marcus, whose video contribution to my sunsets bit has now turned into an informative series.

a milestone

The old dog. The cosmic blue chariot.

My car has been called many things in its lifetime. And it has achieved. It has broken down. It has lost fights with pheasants. It has been to Winchester (no link available – it wasn't that exciting). So it was with great joy that we celebrated a landmark on Saturday evening, together, halfway round the bottom of the M25 on the way back from watching Gillingham draw 0-0 with Bury.

123456 miles on the clock.

I've been waiting for it to come up for a while, and now it's passed, we are ready for 234567, driveshaft permitting.

good people to meet

I would like to link to some people who have good blogs.

First, Dan Heaver.

Dan is a good man. I hope he doesn't mind me using this photo of him that I found on his blog. Sure he won't. He occasionally writes innocent labels for beer money and spends most of his time doing things with film for people. Grows veg, makes chutney, fashions catapults out of squirrel bones (maybe). You should get to know him.

Then there's James. His blog is called Seen By Sigmund, or maybe it's Pushes Emotional Buttons. Anyway, it's a good blog, even though I have no photo of James playing a guitar.

steve paskin

I learned a lot from Steve Paskin. Steve was an art director at Lowe during the time that we (innocent) worked with them, and he worked on most of our campaigns. He's a gentle, generous man, a great art director and a good writer, even though he might not consider that last bit to be his thing.

Before I met Steve I would always start off trying to have ideas by writing things and perhaps doodling a bit. Words would always feature heavily, as that's what I consider myself to be best at – writing. So that's where I thought my best ideas would come from. But then I started watching Steve, observing how he had his ideas, and he did it differently, usually by leafing through seemingly random scrapbooks and books full of photos and art, until he'd find something that might start a train of thought.

Now, this may not be a revelation to those of you who are art directors. This may be the way things get done. But for me it was new. And since I watched Steve do it, I've tried it myself, to good effect (good for me anyway). I came up with ideas that I would never have got to with words and scamps and doodles alone.

I've never worked at an agency and so I was always grateful to the creatives who'd let me sit in their office and talk crap with them, and watch them at work. Steve was one of those kind people, and one of the loveliest, most honest people I have met so far in advertising. Great artist, excellent ad man. You should have a look at his new site and get him to come and work his magic on whatever you're doing next.

a sock within a sock within a sock within a sock...

My earlier red sock post earned respect from Colman, who some say is the father of all red socks.

Then we got some red sock love from Brett in Vancouver.

Now we are starting to see one of those excellent screen within a screen within a screen things going on. Is there a fourth red sock post out there somewhere?

rocking the red sox

Just like Colman. He's a fashion inspiration.

ben harris

 

I met Ben Harris a while ago. He is a great writer, a funny man and a proper gentleman. He's just refashioned his blog, entitled I Don't Know Do I? and I think it will turn out to be one of my favourites. Please pop over to Ben's for a quick how-do-you-do and some tips from Mr Vonnegut.

paul came back

Paul Colman is one of the world's finest bloggers, even if he is rubbish at cricket. It is a great pleasure to see that he is blogging again after a bit of gardening leave, whatever that is.

picture stolen from Ben – the usual stuff doesn't apply

Welcome back Paul. Maybe I should start posting a bit more stuff too.

julius caesar, by mustashrik

Mustashrik is an amazing illustrator who worked here at innocent as a designer for a while in 2007. He's only been out of college for a year but has already had his first book published – a manga version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

What a feat. Definitely puts my doodlings and scribblings into perspective.

There's more Mustashrik here.

mongol maestro

Please spare a thought for young Adam Whitaker and his friend Tamsin. Adam, graphic designer and photographer extraordinaire, has been forced to the do the Mongol Rally after a saloon bar wager went tragically wrong. Now he must raise £5M or be forced to stay in Ulan Bator for ever and ever, amen.

Actually, I think my friend Adam chose to do this rally thing himself, for fun. And he's going to drive all the way to Mongolia in the fine Maestro that's pictured above. You can support this noble venture by sponsoring him here - all money goes to some fine causes.