Ben Culpin

Last week I wrote about pushing myself to be more like my student self. After I wrote the post my attention turned to an old friend (@rinikulous) who I referred to as my creative partner. He recently moved out to be an interactive creative at Critical Mass - Calgary. Instead of writing him an email with a simple “heyyy man, how’s it going?”, I decided to send him a blank photoshop file and see what it would return with. The intention was to sling the file back and forth for a bit and see where we got. It’s riddled with private jokes, but I thought I’d share the result. Are there creative ways you’ve managed to keep in touch with old friends?

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

                                                   —————

We’ve all been there, after a long day at work, maybe a long night also, thinking about anything other than vegging on the couch is far from appealing. 

Recently I’ve been mulling over some self-assessment and I’m wondering: am I getting too comfortable on the couch? If so, what kind of impact is this having on me, especially at work?

I read an article written by Robert Campbell a few weeks back and it articulates a lot of my own thinking. Basically, if you get too comfortable, you’re missing out on so many opportunities to be a better you. 

If we rewind back one year, I was a newly graduated student who had done a million and one things to be more employable, interesting and above all, happy and content. I had been an Advertising and Design student which meant I had a creative partner and we worked on briefs together. The program encouraged me to try new things and as a result I learnt a lot. 

Back in the present, it turns out Planning is a great place for me, but I’m definitely not as creative as I used to be. But why? Planning is a creative profession and I sit comfortably on the creative floor surrounded by some of the most imaginative people I know.

Here’s the problem. Since I’ve started work, it’s been easy to get sucked in and focused on the deadline.

So after a long day’s slog, instead of opening up another episode of True Blood I need to pause and think about the following; my personal projects and hobbies have taken 3rd place to sleep and work. Personal projects could be anything, from learning Dutch to thinking about something and making a point to blog about it. If my personal projects were my body, I’d be fat. Like going to the gym, it takes practice before you start to notice the positive impact it can have on your life.

To some of you this may be obvious, but for me this is a first time experience that has come about by my first real job. Without making wild promises, I’m going to make an effort to not blame the deadline, to push personal projects, and most importantly, not to shy away from the uncomfortable. Hegarty seems to have got it right:

So on that note, who else is in?

A script played in my head as I went past this scene

http://www.neighbourhood29.com/ kind of reminds me of a photo I took while in Pristina (2007) @pmcentaggart #awesome #photos

While you take a smoking break, I take a fresh air break.

An idea on the rise? Maybe…maybe not.

I don’t know if I’m in the minority, but I seem to have entered in to a game with a lucky few. What you do is basically play ‘tag you’re it’ with your friends via the Facebook ‘poke’ function. There are about 4 people I play this game with at the moment and it seems to be escalating.

I think that some endurance brand should get on this; Lucozade, Duracell, you name it. Take over Facebook poke and sponsor a Pokathon.

(some of my closest competitors)

Could be fun? Do you do it? Or am I alone in the dark?

“Tiredness can kill - take a break, have a kitkat!”

I’m not a photoshop pro but wouldn’t it be great if KitKat plastered stickers over motorway signs? Not cool? Just an idea…

Wow what fun! I was reading the Guardian’s Tech Guru Elevator Pitches and I came across Xtranormal, a place to make a simple movie online for a variety of purposes. 

Give it a go and show me what you can do!

I was on my way to work today and Kate Moss grabbed my attention in a Dior campaign labelled ‘Addict’. She gets caught up in a Cocaine scandal, dropped by H&M but then skip forward 6 years and it’s being used as some silly pun in a Dior campaign. Am I the only one that finds this annoying? Not for me. #fail 

Delux Walls Ad: taken from TED’s Ads Worth Spreading http://www.ted.com/initiatives/aws

The Lynx Excite Angels

Captivating, Benjamin Zander on music and passion

Flipboard beware, something better is on the rise

The scary movie of virals

Today Ashly, Yuli and I visited three museums: the Uitvaartmuseum, De Appel and the Tropenmuseum. At the Uitvaartmuseum there was an exhibition by Ashley Gilbertson called ‘The Bedrooms Of the Fallen’, a collection of photographs from bedrooms that once belonged to men and women who died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

I’m not politically engaged or particularly fond of discussing war (perhaps I turn a blind eye?) but I think that a really great point was made during a featured documentary video. You have to find new ways to show people old messages. Before this project, Ashley Gilbertson was frustrated that his photos typically depicted guns, tanks and explosions. Frustrated that people have been saturated with this kind of imagery and wanting to find a new way to breakthrough to desensitized viewers, Ashley went about a new project. By photographing the bedrooms of the fallen we are taken away from the familiar backdrop of devastated streets and in to the vacant bedrooms of the departed. We are swiftly reminded that they are not just soldiers, but before the war they lived and slept just like us, at home. I think that this is a great way to draw empathy.

Artsy Fartsy

De Appel was short and brief. Not only were there very few rooms, there was often very few things featured. I don’t have much to say about this, only one thing came to mind:

I suppose some things aren’t for everyone, or maybe I just need to give it a second chance?

Life’s Colourful

Troppenmuseum was great and the ‘Rood’ (Red) exhibition was what grabbed my attention. It is entirely dedicated to the colour red. It stresses how throughout the world the colour Red has different meanings and applications. Upon entering the museum and reading the introduction I am immediately reminded of my old supervisor at the University of Leeds. We had to pitch our work every week and sometimes we’d be slightly lacking in material and try to talk through an idea. He would always reply with “you’re idea of orange might be different from my idea of orange, show me some work!”. Similarly, I was reminded of a lecture that Stephen Westland gave which was specifically called ‘Colour: Branding and Marketing’. This was a very long lecture which touched on many concepts: symbolism of colour, colour and food, colour and physiology. However,  what I recalled was the idea of colour and ownership, or when something becomes synonymous with another. Like when I think of Cadbury’s chocolate I think purple.

While I’m sure there is debate to when a colour becomes synonymous with something, I think that exhibitions like ‘Rood’ is a great way to look at the world; something will always have a different meaning elsewhere. I saw this poster from the middle of the 20th century advertising the Chinese Communist party. In this poster Mao’s face replaces the sun and only warm red hues and yellows were allowed to be used - other colours were strictly forbidden. 

While a little further west in the Netherlands, a poster which is also entirely red promotes a completely different political leaning (the Social Democratic Labour Party). In this case, red has different meanings.

What have I learned?

Maybe I’m not turning blind eye to something like the war, perhaps the messages just aren’t getting through to me? The exhibition by Ashley Gilbertson was a reminder that finding a new way to articulate a message can be a great way to get through to the always switched on and plugged in individual, who is in fact not paying attention. 

Secondly, talking about colours didn’t just help me recall old lectures, it reminded me that, particularly when working on a global account like Emirates, my idea of Red and what it symbolizes might be completely different in another part of the world. 

See you tomorrow!

Today Ashly, Yuli and I visited the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. 

At approximately 10.45am I’m lining up at the main entrance to the Rijksmuseum. This experience can only be matched by a trip through an airport. The security are pretty thorough on frisking you down and any photos taken are quickly deleted. That being said, the Planners at SF are a resourceful bunch and we still managed to gain some photos of their state-of-the-art security system. Eat that Mr Security Man!

Feeling at home

Nobody likes security and lines, but for me there was one pleasure hiding in the midst of busy bodies; hearing english spoken outside the home and office. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve started tuning out the Dutch around me and I didn’t realise how much my senses have subdued themselves since arriving in Amsterdam. It’s like turning the tuner of a FM Radio which slowly transforms from static in to audible sound. Hearing the world around us is where we get our killer insights right? Well if you’re working in advertising but don’t speak Dutch (or the language where you currently reside), I suggest you do some touristy stuff and get your hands dirty. Besides, how many times have you moved to a place and only done the tourist stuff when visitors are in town?

Anyway, for most of the Rijksmuseum I didn’t need headphones for an audio tour because I listened to the conversations around me. Ranging from a little boy pointing out how stupid the clothes were in the 19th Century, to an excited mother explaining to her daughter how the Dutch came to drink tea and coffee. Bliss. 

Rijksmuseum is BIG

On reflection I have two great museums to compare and I feel that they were contrasting experiences. The Rijksmuseum was massive, and honestly I can’t remember nearly as much detail as I can from the Van Gogh museum. Why?

In a nutshell, the Rijksmusuem felt like a mammoth ball of information without structure. Just take a look at the size of the place, it’s massive!

In this museum the failing factor for me was the descriptive text that sewed the art together and gave a back story. They were out of sight, dimly lit and hard to read. That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy this museum, I just think I’ll have to put my ‘Museumkaart’ to good use and go again! 

Van Gogh knocked my socks off

The Van Gogh museum is pretty big too, but on the contrary the exhibits had a nice easy flow of information which was easy to digest. The exhibition is broken up in to the places that Van Gogh lived, so for example, there is an Antwerp section with a brief description from that chapter of his life, and then there is a wall of his paintings from that era. All in all, I walked away feeling like I had read a book or been told a riveting story. It was great.

Today I learn’t

This week has been awesome. We’ve been building up our repertoire of experiences, insights and knowledge, and I’m sure it’ll make us better planners. Just today I’ve witnessed the importance of getting the copy right, whether it is positioning or timing. Similarly, I noticed first hand the necessity to stimulate all the the senses in creating a richer experience. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds!

It’s not everyday your boss requests that you visit as many museums as possible in one week. What follows isn’t necessarily a blog, but more of a log. Maybe a blog will blossom at the end of this adventure.

First off a plan is needed, a wish list of museums must be made! I am a planner after all, isn’t that supposed to be my role? (joke). 

On the wish list:

• De Appel
• Filmmuseum
• FOAM
• Huis Marseille
• Nederlands Uitvaart Museum
• Rijksmuseum
• Stedelijk Museum
• Tropenmuseum
• Van Gogh Museum
• Verzetsmuseum

Monday

On this adventure Yuli and Ashly are joining me, my fellow planners at Strawberryfrog. First things first, we need to sign up for a ‘Museumkaart’. 25 euros and a years free entry to some of Amsterdam’s best museums. Money well spent.

R. Pamper - you like what we did there? Original stuff.

In NEMO I learnt that this is apparently called ‘The See-Saw’:

Augmented Reality, gimic or cool?

According to these circles, ‘personal space’ is approximately 1.2 - 0.5 meters:

NEMO was good fun for all the family, especially the youngsters, but Foam was personally the favourite of the day. Ashly, particularly felt at peace in this exibition:

The exhibition that took my liking was ‘W. Eugene Smith - More Real Than Reality’.

Example of works:

I really enjoyed viewing these ‘picture essays’ that Smith has been celebrated for. Capturing the moment in a few photos, culturally relevant stories of that time come pouring through. Advertising is about telling a story right? This seems like a pretty cool way to do it.

[more coming tomorrow.]

Here’s a thought. Have you noticed that by the coffee stand, whether it be a Buckstars or an office coffee pot, there is a stash of sugar sticks which will almost always have a recycled ‘half-stick’?

Somebody has opened the sugar and used half. Instead of throwing the rest away or bunging the whole thing in, they kindly prop the sugar-stick back in place.

I think about the kind of person that would do this. To me, it is someone I can respect. Someone that is modest and knows his or her limits.

I first noticed this when I lived in New York. Besides a ‘waste not, want not’ attitude, a friend of mine claimed that when he found a ‘half-stick’ he felt a gesture of goodwill from a fellow stranger, and reassurance that in the big bad world of NYC, there are others that think like him.

Sadly I have a sweet tooth and cannot participate to this underground movement. It’s just a thought. If anything, it’s a nice example for ‘SMART’ coffee drinkers.

Every Tagged Photo on FB, nice find @BenShaw