When we were given the brief, my partner, Helena Banks (the one and only) and myself did not feel over-whelmed by it. We had already discussed doing a similar thing, independent of the university. On our list was setting up a website, getting in contact with advertising agencies we liked and creating a portfolio of our work. We used this first session to browse a selection of local, national and international agencies and make note of contact details for them. Top of our list is BMB, as Helena has met up with partner Trevor Beattie a few times in the last few months and had sparked up a good relationship with him. We also like a lot of the work they have done, including the campaign for Carling (below). We planned that we would use the next session to start on creating a website.
BMB's Carling Advert 2010
Thursday 7th October 2010
Today we discussed with the class, our point in the brief and what our aims for the next couple of weeks were. We made a start on our website, but as neither of us have an amazing knowledge of web design, we did not get that far. We wanted to create a brand identity and the idea that we came up with is garden gnomes. Visually we like the faded glamour, British tack look they have, but we also just thought they could develop into a fun campaign, if you like. We decided to call ourselves Gnome House and use the gnomes as our symbol and maybe as a way of catching the eyes of some of the agencies we hoped to get in contact with. We talked about which campaigns we have done that we think would be suitable for our book and discussed which competitions we would like to enter this year.
Monday 12th October 2010
I have found a blog that someone has posted about self-promotion that I think is quite interesting. Here are the key points:
1) Confidence and inspiration
2) Spread your ideas. Brand yourself and your ideas as unique.
3) Start a campaign.
4) Don't be afraid.
The full blog can be found at http://www.copyblogger.com/shameless-self-promotion/
Wednesday 13th October 2010
Today Helena and I started working on the competition briefs we had chosen. We felt that this was a great opportunity to play to our strengths and go really "off-the-wall" with our work. We figured that if we were pleased with the outcome, it would be great to include this work in our portfolio, especially if we won anything.
Wieden and Kennedy's Cravendale advert 2009
Thursday 14th October 2010
We carried on working on our website, unfortunately neither of us have any experience when it comes to building websites and we felt this was holding us a back slightly. When we had gone as far as we could, we went gnome shopping. However, there were no gnomes to be found in Leeds, so we will have to think where else we can look. At home I collated the best of my/our work from the previous year and had a look to see if anything needed to be polished before it was put on the website and in our portfolio. I also started to look into designing a logo for Gnome House (below).
Sunday 17th October 2010
I spoke to friend about whether she had any experience when it came to web design and she passed me on to someone who has. I have arranged to meet them next week and should be able to help me with the things I don't understand and make it look more professional.
Thursday 21st October 2010
Today we got back our final major project's from last year. Helena and I looked through them to decide what our strongest pieces were, and what needed to be improved upon before posting them up on the website or into our book.
As it was our last session before reading week we had a tutorial where we addressed any achievements made since the beginning of the year or weaknesses that we could work on. I talked about the books that I have been reading that I have found really interesting in regards to strategy and critical analysis.
Monday 25th October 2010
Found the first gnome for the gnome collection!
Wednesday 3rd November 2010
In preparation for our 24 hour brief set by Trevor Beattie, Helena and I collated our best work from first year to present in our book in case he got a chance to look at. We wanted at least 5 different projects to show, choosing the best ads from each campaign.
Tuesday 9th November 2010
Today Helena and I worked on our website. We had been struggling to work our way around the website, finding it difficult to edit and create pages how we wanted them to look. We uploaded the work that we had saved on the LCA network, the rest is on our individual computers ready to be brought in. We also discussed the other pages on the site, deciding what we would like to put in the "About Us" section. I now feel happier with the website, we should have it finished by the end of next week.
Thursday 25th November 2010
More than one week on and we are still putting the finishing touches on the dreaded website. We have found wix (the website creator) difficult to use. Today we had a critique discussing our progression of the final major project brief. We got good feedback about our campaign, people seemed to think the gnome theme was a good representation of Helena and I as a creative team. Now that all of the gnomes have arrived, we can start making our film about their search for a brief. The next free day we have is Wednesday so we are hoping to get all the footage then, which can then be edited and burnt onto DVD, ready to send to companies. We shall also enclose a cover letter to explain who we are, with a link to our website. We aim to have them all send off by Monday 6th December, so they will reach the agencies before christmas.
Tuesday 30th November 2010
We drafted out the storyboard for our short film, we wanted it to be clear in meaning as well as being fun.
Wednesday 8th December 2010
We had originally intended on making our gnome film last week, however, the weather conditions were so bad we had to postpone it. The snow still has not completely cleared up but we want to get the film made and sent off as soon as possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-NqRbxK-G4
Thursday 9th December 2010
We had previously made a list of all the agencies whose worked we liked, we went back over it, writing down their addresses so we could post them our gnome films.
Monday 10th January 2011
Getting back into uni after the Christmas break, I learnt that Helena had sent off the gnome films. We checked our joint email to see if anyone had received them and got back to us yet. No one had yet, so we decided to email Trevor Beattie to see if he had received his, we also asked him if we could come down to London to meet up with him soon.
Tuesday 11th January 2011
Today Dave and Janine took myself and Helena aside to talk to us about our work. The suggestion was that we try collaborating with other people, as it appeared we were not working well together. I did not want to stop working with Helena altogether, but I was not opposed to the idea of working with others, as it would be interesting to see how different the work may be. I spoke to Tom Bird and Myles Vincent and they said they were happy to work with me on a competition brief each.
Wednesday 12th January 2011
This was the first day I worked with Tom. We had a look through a series of competitions briefs we could attempt and flagged up a couple of possibilities. From the beginning, I saw the difference in how we worked compared to Helena and I. Helena and I always seem to have an order of doing things, whereas Tom and I sat and just talked about ideas straight away.
Thursday 13th January 2011
This morning I started on another competition brief, but this time with Myles. We chose to rebrand an existing product- Philadelphia. To get started we went out and bought the product (and ate most of it). We wanted to fully experience the product. We then started to research the brand- what other products they have, who owns it, how it started etc. I felt like we achieved a lot in a short space of time, we had a few small ideas that I think we can start to expand.
Helena and I spoke in the afternoon and we agreed that we needed to send off more gnome films as we had not got a response from anyone yet. I researched different agencies and found the addresses for them.
Friday 14th January 2011
Helena reworked the gnome films slightly, so the contact details at the end were shown for longer. I changed the DVD cover so it had a bit of information about us on it. Helena then sent me the final film edit and I started burning it onto disk.
Monday 17th January 2011
Meeting up with Helena in uni today, we packed all the new set of DVDs into envelopes, addressed and stamped them and sent them off. I'm starting to get worried that we won't get a brief so I wrote down the email addresses I could find of the people we sent the DVDs to and sent them a message asking for a brief too.
Wednesday 19th January 2011
Today, I started to think about whether we needed to add more to our self-promotion. The lack of response we had got so far is worrying me so I sat down and tried to think about how we could expand upon what we already have. I got some feedback from the class about the website, and it seemed like people had found it really difficult to navigate around so I thought about how it could be redesigned. I then considered what we had already sent out to agencies- the gnome films. I thought that one way of taking it a step further was to send them actual gnomes; perhaps they could be gnomes who have got lost, or gnomes that want to experience life in an agency, or are looking for adventure. I found a latex gnome mould online which I have bought, it should arrive within the week.
Thursday 20th January 2011
Helena spoke to each other to discuss the further ideas. I drew out scenes from "gnome house" for the website and we storyboarded the stories we had created about the gnomes. I scanned all the images into photoshop to add colour and make them more professional and then preceded to upload them onto wix.com (where our current website was). We also discussed the "lost gnome" idea further to see how effective it would be. I like the idea of them being "travelling gnomes" where the creatives can send us photos of what they get up to- see http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Travelling-Gnome/85313101905.
Monday 24th January 2011
Over the weekend, Helena came across a website called ideabounty.com (www.ideabounty.com). Clients can list their briefs on the website and offer a cash prize to creatives with the best idea. The brief currently listed is for a company called playhugelottos.com. We registered with the website and downloaded the brief.
Tuesday 25th January 2011
Creating the website is a very slow process, I have been fiddling with it today, trying to get it to work and look how I want it. Helena has been working on the jukebox songs we have chosen for one of our gnomes to sing (we want to add depth to their characters). The gnome mould is due to arrive tomorrow so I have bought some casting materials so I'm ready to do it as soon as it arrives. We will choose our top 5-10 agencies to target with this more direct approach.
Wednesday 26th January 2011
Gnome mould arrived today so I started casting all the gnomes that we will drop off at agencies. When I went into uni, Helena and I started to come up ideas for the lotto brief, researching and playing with different themes.
Thursday 27th January 2011
Today we worked on the lotto brief again. We spoke to Janine and Chris, discussing whether this would be suitable to be included as part of our final major project, as it was a live brief. The first ideas that we came up with were contrived and quite dull, and then we had a breakthrough. We developed our idea into a viral and talked about how we would go about filming it.
Friday 28th January 2011
After leaving the new gnomes to completely dry out, Helena came round to help spray paint them.
Saturday 29th January 2011
Helena came over again today and we did our filming for the lotto brief (deadline tomorrow). I then used iMovie to put the clips together for the viral. When we were happy with it we submitted it onto ideabounty.com.
Monday 31st January 2011
Now that the idea bounty brief was out of the way we could go back to focussing on the gnomes. With them casted and painted we had to consider the best way to package them. We also needed to include something (a note maybe?) that explained what it was about. That would also link the recipient to our website so we had to make sure that was finished.
Wednesday 2nd February 2011
Helena and I listed and split tasks to do in order to get stuff finished. We both had things to do on the website and I was in charge of the gnomes. We decided to include little letters in mini envelopes with the gnome explaining what it was about. Helena drafted the letter while I made the envelopes. I also cut out tags to put on the boxes they would be in. When I got home I measured the gnomes as pairs to see what size boxes I would need for them.
Thursday 3rd February 2011
This morning I trawled through hundreds of box websites looking for the right size (and right price!). Eventually I went onto ebay.co.uk and found something appropriate. Now all we have to do is wait for them to arrive!
Monday 7th February 2011
I decided to compile a list of my 5 favourite Manchester agencies that I would like to take the gnomes to when we go. I was specifically looking for agencies whose work I liked, as well as We had discussed going this Wednesday, but it does not look like the boxes will arrive before then, so we might have to postpone it until the following week.
Today I also started doing some personal self-promotion, thinking about doing my own website to show the work I done by myself. I was thinking about how creativity can sometimes seem like this wild animal that, when it is released, is hungry and driven. I liked the idea of my creative side being represented by a slavering dog or wolf that has to be locked up because it's rabid or something! I do not think that I am a particularly loud or out there person, but I do not think that that means my work is always conservative and safe- so I wanted to show that while I am not this over-the-top showy person, I do have that side to me.
Wednesday 9th February 2011
Today the boxes (finally!) arrived, after a quick check that they were in good nick and the right size they were unfortunately shunned into the cosiest corner of my bedroom while I went to hand my critical studies essay in.
I also spent some more time doing my personal self-promotion. I was thinking about my character (which I have named Hester) who is "hungry" for work to do. If I were to get in contact with agencies, my endline would be "Hester's Hungry." I think this evokes curiosity and mystery which is the approach that I want.
Thursday 10th February 2011
As we have only one week until hand in, Helena and I listed out all the tasks that needed to be done. These included finishing the website, collating all the worksheets and buying any extra things needed for the Manchester trip.
I also looked at the idea bounty website again to see what the new brief was. Helena was not fussed about doing another one but I found it to be a really good experience and thought I'd have a go at it. It was for a bookies called Paddy Power, you can bet online, over the phone and in the betting shops. The brief was quite detailed, the campaign had to get across their sense of humour (which is pretty bad taste) as well as targeting their predominantly male target audience.
Monday 14th February 2011
This morning we had our final critique. We presented the live brief we had done for PlayHugeLottos.com, showing our viral idea to the group. Dave gave some feedback about it, suggesting improvements, which I have just finished doing, to make the viral more effective. I also went to the shops this afternoon to pick up some tissue paper and artificial flowers to line the "gnome boxes" with. When I got home I got the boxes out and proceeded to glue them together. After a horrific accident with an exploding PVA bottle I left the boxes to dry out ready to be filled tomorrow.
I have also started photographing parts of this project- the link to this is http://chloerobinsonlca.blogspot.com/p/photo-diary.html
As extra preparation for Wednesday, I have narrowed down the list of agencies I like to 7 of them, which are:
Love
ADZ Media
Radford Advertising
CheethamBell JWT
Gyro
BJL
TBWA
I will see which ones Helena like best to we can whittle it down to 5.
Tuesday 15th February 2011
This was the last day we had to pull stuff together before heading off to Manchester tomorrow. In the morning I went into uni, we had a critique first thing then I was going to talk to Helena about Wednesday's trip, but she text me saying she wasn't feeling well, so could not make it in, but that she would be ok for the trip tomorrow. So I went home after the critique to get things done at home. I had left myself quite a few things! I went to wilkinsons to pick up some twine to tie the boxes up with. I started off by filling the boxes with newspaper as padding, covering it with the tissue paper and then placing the gnomes inside. I put the artificial flowers over the top and that was all I could do until Helena had the letters ready to put in as well. I did more work on my blog and started drafting my evaluation. I also printed off a map of Manchester to see where the agencies were so we had a route planned. In the night I text Helena again to make sure she was ok and if she was definitely going to be alright for the Wednesday. She text back saying she would not be, by this time it was really late so I went to bed.
Wednesday 16th February 2011
When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was see whether I could carry all 5 boxes by myself. I felt really let down that we could not go after all the planning and effort that gone into the preparation. I could barely fit 2 of the boxes into my suit case, let alone 5 so I had to accept that it was not going to happen. So I figured the next best thing was to send them by post. Of course, because I had not seen Helena I did not have the letters to go in with the boxes, so I quickly wrote them out and put them on my USB stick. I found a printers close to where I live and got them printed on nice paper (see copy in my research folder) so they looked as professional as possible. I put them in the boxes, taped and tied them all up along with the addresses on tags and they were finally ready to go!
I took them down to the post office and sent them off "special delivery". As soon as I got home I drew up a "Missing" poster to put on the website, so if one of the creatives went onto our website they would see it, and hopefully it would be an incentive to get in contact with us.
www.wix.com/chloeandhelena/home
Also check out my photo diary at: http://chloerobinsonlca.blogspot.com/p/photo-diary.html
Thursday 17th February 2011 (Hand in day!)
RESULT!
Bibliography
www.bmbagency.com
www.youtube.com
http://www.copyblogger.com/shameless-self-promotion/
www.ideabounty.com
www.playhugelottos.com
www.ebay.co.uk
www.lovecreative.com
www.adzmedia.co.uk
www.radfordadvertising.co.uk
www.cheethambelljwt.com
www.gyrohsr.com
www.bjl.co.uk
www.tbwamachester.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Travelling-Gnome/85313101905
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2543264/Telegraph-solves-the-mystery-of-the-travelling-Gnome.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1543330.ece
