Art Direction

Never let it get in the way of an idea.

‘Visual language is more important than the word.
Visual language is universal,
communicating across cultural and language barriers.’
– Warren Eakins, Leagas Delaney

‘I often produce about a hundred layouts over a few days.
When I arrive at one that feels right,
I scrutinize the layout over and over again,
then I improve it.’
– Alexandra Taylor, Saatchi & Saatchi

Be simple. Be fresh.

‘People are bombarded with imagery. So keep it simple, like a billboard. And you will win.’
- Dean Hanson, Fallon McElligott
‘Don’t be different just to be different. Be simple. Be visual.’
- Luke Sullivan, Fallon McElligott

Keep a twist in the headline or in the visual.

'If the idea in the ad is being carried by the headline, it means the headline will contain a twist, a shock factor. Therefore the accompanying visual must play a subservient or straight role. And vice versa.’– Jim Aitchison, The Ball Partnership

Should you be rational?

‘Anyone who thinks you need a rational benefit is ignoring 90% of the human brain, which is irrational. There is no rational benefit to Coke and Pepsi.’
– Neil French, WPP

Look for an idea.

‘People are hard to shock with execution. You tend to remember execution for a short while. You tend to remember ideas for a long time.’
– Gary Goldsmith, Lowe

‘I think in the best execution routes there is an idea. In a lot of it there isn’t, and unless the image is truly outstanding, it isn’t as memorable.’
– David Abbott, Abbott Mead & Vickers.

Avoid the obvious.

Find out what everybody is doing in the category and do the opposite.

‘Research said that all beer must be light coloured these days, so we decided to make ours black. It must be light in alcohol, so we made ours 12% alcohol. The ads must have photographs of girls, so we decided not to have any photographs of girls. They must have status symbols, so we said, no status symbols. They must have crowds of blokes having a jolly good time in a pub. We said we’ll have none of that either. Every rule we could find about beer advertising, we decided to break.’

– Neil French on XO beer -

Find a unique feature in the brand

The feature could be in the brand name, packaging, shape, design, or price. It could be a little detail in the production or history of the product. For this you must learn as much of the product as possible.

‘In the absence of knowledge, you will be doomed to rely more and more on adjectives; always a mistake.’

– Bob Levenson, Doyle Dane Bernbach-

Print advertising changes superficially...

Print advertising changes superficially.We go through fashions– borders, typography, colour type, etc. Techniques change, but I don’t think the enduring principles of good communication will change that much. Because it’s about human behaviour and reaction.

– David Abbot, Abbot Mead & Vickers -

POEM - ANYWAYS

Life as a leader, Life as a dreamer

People are unreasonable, illogical, self-centered

Love them anyway

If you do good

People may accuse of selfish, ulterior motives

Do good anyway

If you are successful

You will win false friends, and true enemies

Succeed anyway

The good you do today

May be forgotten tomorrow

Do good anyway

Honesty and frankness

Make you vulnerable

Be honest and frank anyway

People favor underdogs

But only follow Top-dogs

Fight for some underdog anyway

What you spend time building,

Maybe destroyed overnight

Build anyway

People who really need help

May attack you if you help them

Help them anyway

Give the world best you got

And you may get kicked in the tee

Give the world you got anyway

NOTE: Never realise who wrote this poem... but i liked it a lot.

Slowdown and the fear of loosing your job

Last few weeks have been discomforting. Got news from my previous company, that some 500 people were asked to leave, on grounds of non performance and cost cutting under slowdown... some people had been hired less than 12 months ago. The aftermath saw about 10 more people quitting almost immediately, the reason 'I will quit before I am asked to leave'. over the past one month had heard atleast 20 other stories of people being asked to leave from various media companie, TOI, HT, IT, Outlook, Reliance Retail, Subhiksha and a few more...
Some of the companies were actually doing quite well or so it seemed, and then it makes you wonder, whether this is happening because of the slowdown or are the companies firing under cover to undo some of their past sins.
A company I know, showed about 30 crores of loss in the last quarter. the official news was that the loss was on account of firing some 300 people and the pink slips cost them that amount. The fact was that they had to write off about 30 crores of accumlated bad debts over the past 5 years. some retail companies again fired a lot of people, maybe because of their over exposure to taking risks in rampantly opening retail outlets in every nook and corner they could find to have the first movers advantage rather than actually studying the viability of the outlet in that area.
But whatever the reason for firing, there is a sense on uncertainty and insecurity with employees.