November 18, 2005
intoxicated
The groovy cats at Craven’s, a medium-sized ad agency in Newcastle just commissioned me to draw some cartoons for their website and in-house collateral.
Probably the coolest thing were the new business cards. The staff could individually pick any design they wanted from the twenty or so drawings I did for them. Private-label blogcards, as it were. The cartoon above is one of them.
Jamie Warde-Aldham, the Creative Director is a good friend of mine, who I occasionally freelanced for during my pre-blogging days. Craven’s and I go back a long time. Rock on.
"Hugh's Daily Cartoon" Newsletter.
A new cartoon sent out every weekday morning to your inbox [RSS version here.].
A wee chuckle to start your day off right etc.
Forgive my lack of marketing vocabulary, but…
What is “in-house collateral?”
Well done on getting a gig out of your hobby and all that, but looking at their site, something feels wrong.
I’ve seen lots of your cartoons, and their general feel seems to be highlighting faults in the advertising and media industries, or character flaws of the people involved in them.
Having seen Cravens’ front page, my first thought was “who is this cartoon poking fun at?”. Apparently nobody, which is disconcerting in itself. It’s like Chris Evans being on Radio 2.
I don’t know much about advertising, so I can’t say how different Cravens are to the dinosaurs you usually mock. They seem to offer solutions rather than opening up conversations, and they don’t appear to mention blogs, other than that they read yours. Maybe it’s just easier to appear to be progressive by having your cartoons on their site.
Looking at the “people who pay their wages” section, I read: “every piece of Aqua Sphere’s communication to the market — including product ads — has to be a brand building ad too.“
Remembering that you maintain that branding is dead, I wondered why you agreed to work for Cravens.
I searched your site for blog posts about branding being dead, and found: “Besides, nobody is currently offering to pay me the big bucks to help keep the ever-drearier Brand Metaphor alive on their behalf”.
So, did you work for them because you’re proud to be associated with them, or because they offered you the big bucks?
Nice
It must be a great feeling seeing your doodles spreading.
“So, did you work for them because you’re proud to be associated with them, or because they offered you the big bucks?“
Heh. You assume my motivations were limited to just pride and/or greed. Interesting.
“in-house collateral”… brochures, business cards, compliment slips, stationery for themselves, that kind of thing.
The site looks absolutely great. Very cool stuff.
Pitch Or Perish
Hugh MacLeod has produced some doodles for his friends at Cravens Advertising in Newcastle, England. While snooping around their site, these etymological gems surfaced. I’ve been reading “Which Lie Did I Tell” by William Goldman (the guy who wrote Butc…
this is brilliant… and very very “i will also get back into using my black pointer phase“inspirational thing. way to go!!!!:)
“You assume my motivations were limited to just pride and/or greed. Interesting.“
Yes, I suppose I did assume something like that, which I shouldn’t have — sorry.
So if it was neither of those, does that mean they’re ok, and not the sort of agency that you would usually draw cartoons about? If so, then fine, I’ll remember their name, and I’ll get in touch with them if I need an agency. If not, I’d be interested to know why you’d want to be involved with them.
Simon, Jamie Warde-Aldham is a capital fellow, and I was delighted to have the opportunity to work with him. I also happen to think highly of his colleagues.
Nice company, great people, plus the have a huge aversion to the normal agency bullshit I despise.
The other thing: because they’re based in the North, it saves them massive overheads, compared to London. A man without fear is less likely to lie to you.
Faux blahgKards…
Faux blahgKards
Cool. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
That’s hilarious. When I left college many years ago, I had my first and only ever ad company interview with Cravens in Leamington Spa. It didn’t appeal at that time. But — interesting that it’s a company you rate, in a sphere you don’t. Maybe our paths would’ve crossed.
BTW — you still you looking to rejoin the dating game? I know someone who may be interested and is very interesting. Email me if you’re game.