Its been far too long...

It seems like forever and a day since i last blogged... i hope all my followers are fine and dandy!

Things have been a tad crazy in the world of The Hungry Graduate, and it doesnt seem like things will slow down anytime soon. I have just returned from an epic weekend trip in Sweden! It was my dear friend Dario Darnell's 21st birthday and his lovely and ever so kind dad (Kid Creole for any of you old enough to be fans!) let us crash his beautiful Swedish house!

I have never seen so much snow in my life and it made it even more beautiful! I made loads of new buddies, and even managed to converse with fellow advertising people! The advertising over there is so unusual, i noticed a lot of copy based campaigns especially in English which would seem strange in a foreign country as here in the UK we rarely embrace different cultures within our advertising. Overall it was an amazing experience and id love to revisit in the summer time when there wasnt mounds of snow up to my thighs!

Heres to more regular blogging dear friends,

T.H.G x.x.x

That's coming along swimming-ly!

As i was doing some research for a re-branding module i am currently doing in University, i came across this new logo for the North Devon resort Ilfracombe. As you can see below the new logo has caused a stir in the town, with people likening the swirl on top of the 'I' to that of a sperm cell. The Town Council, whom dished out £5,000 to Bread Marketing for the redesign, are assuring locals that it was merely meant to represent a dolphin or a fish. However this hasn't changed the opinions of the locals who see it as a laughing stock!

The live brief I am working on at the moment, is to redesign the Staffordshire Moorlands town of Leek, however i don't think the Leek locals would go for such a drastic change as they have in Ilfracombe!

Ooooh and incase you were unaware, it's only 4 weeks today until the big day!!! Let the festivities begin!

T.H.G x.x.x

Oopsiee daisy Google...

My dear friend has just informed me of a HUGE mistake Google has made... when she typed in 'ladies fashion' in the search icon and the 'very well paid for' sponsored links appear at the top of the search results, the new clothes site 'Very' has a spelling mistake in the access link, ww.very.co.uk as appose to www. meaning that the Very page cannot be accessed... Check it out below or for yourself!!!

This mistake is surely losing out to customers visiting the site and i'm sure Very wont be Very happy with this mess up!!!!

You heard it hear 1st.

T.H.G x.x.x

This christmas... theres only one place to be.

I know i keep banging on about Christmas but this year i'm really getting into the spirit of things!!! The new Waitrose Christmas ad has tantalised my festive spirit now, created by MCBD (Miles, Calcraft, Briginshaw & Duffy) it features the beautiful voice of rising star Camilla Kerslake. Home is the central theme to the ad, and it really plays on this, tapping into a very wide target market that probably will be returning home for Christmas! Take a look...

Waitrose uses delicious, mouth-watering food as its selling point and this really does prevail over the overall 'Home' theme. Good news for my hungry appetite :-)

Merry Christmas!!!

T.H.G x.x.x

Mac v's PC...

I am, and always have been in love with the Mac v's PC ads! They are cracking! I am, and proud of it, on team Mac and the humour that is portrayed in the short 30 second clips is absolutely and contagiously hilarious! You find yourself thinking "that is so true" whilst smiling excessively. I think this is helped by the story of how Apple grew from a small time, nerdy brand, in the shadow of the Microsoft skyscraper, into a cool, streetwise, must have brand!

Im a tad annoyed however, that we are constantly being bombarded on prime time TV (between Corrie, Hollyoaks that sort of thing) with the new "PC" ads, with everyday consumers, doing everyday things in gyms and taxi's, claiming they designed windows 7 (or 2 year olds showing us how to sort out our pictures). And im starting to get really irritated by it! Im not too sure how it works but ive never seen a Mac ad on TV at prime-time or any time thinking about it? I think it could be that they are already so uber cool that they don't need to stoop to PC's level of rubbing Macs in peoples faces! They have their ace ipod ads which make you want to reach out and hold one of their savvy, lightweight pods in your tech-no hungry hands!!

Im still holding out for the day when everyone on planet earth realises Macs are the future, and leaves their stone-age PC's as far in the past as possible! If you haven't already check the ads out and you'll see what i mean...

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

Happy Tuesday.

T.H.G x.x.x

The big bad Wolff...

Many apologies, I have been a very busy undergraduate recently and haven't blogged for AGES! Thus meaning that i have a lot to talk about!!

Last week I was in the beautiful city of Liverpool, at the Liverpool Design Symposium to listen to the captivating and legend that is Michael Wolff. He was giving a talk on "Branding the City" which conveniently co-insides with my latest Uni project... re-branding the town of Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands. I've never heard him speak before and i was genuinely captivated by all his views and opinions and his straight talking approach to the advertising industry. For anyone that doesn't know he was the second half of the iconic agency Wolff Olins (that is still very successful today, be it without Wolff)

He had a very philosophical theory, that design practitioners have 3 muscles... the inquisitive muscle, the appreciation muscle and the imagination muscle. All 3 of these must be present to really succeed and achieve in the design field, and I really love this theory! Without these 3 'muscles' then nothing can really be achieved. He also touched on the issue of 'like'.. how can advertisers and designers really know what everyone likes in order to please them all? We don't really ever know why we like something and there isn't a set route or instruction, it just either ascetically pleases us or intrigues us to think more about it. This got me thinking is branding about creating desire or like-ness or is it about giving something a meaning and being? And how do agencies or designers really address all these issues? After all a bad experience that someone may have can overshadow there overall opinion of that thing. Just like if you visit a city you've never been to before and the first thing that attracts your attention is litter, your impression of that town will always begin with the litter...

Wolff talked openly about his experiences within the advertising industry, saying that he feels some agencies have become more concerned with the salaries and cars than producing truly inspiring like-able work, and also that he felt they lacked courage and passion to be daring with design, sticking with the mundane norm. This is a brave opinion to put out there and i feel he isn't completely right. There are some agencies who truly do push the boundaries with their work considering all target markets, or really know the ones they aim to attract and these get it right!

He left us with a final thought on city branding... Its an easy illusion to brand a city, but it only covers up what is wrong at the heart of that city. Do things that reach people, touch them and truly gives them an experience.

I hope this inspires!

Toodles for now.

T.H.G x.x

Let my creative-ness shine...

Today I had a real student challenge, my good friend and house-mate Kimberley originates from a farm in Wiltshire, and the last time she visited home she brought us back lots of tasty home grown vegetables!! They have, however, been sat in our fridge festering so today i decided enough is enough! I used my initiative and made a Gorgeous celery and carrot soup!

It was so easy... first I (as my mother taught me) 'sweated' the chopped onions, the celery, and the (very tiny with very long roots) carrot. Then i added stupendous amounts of vegetable stock and some potatoes... popped on the lid and Wallaaah, Bobs your uncle! It did however take around 3 hours to cook, but it was definitely worth it and think of all those vitamins! Students have never ate so good!

Then again i am known for being hungry!

Much love T.H.G x.x

The history of T.H.G...

When i was little i used to love reading and being read to. My favourite book EVER was Eric Carles' "The Hungry Caterpillar". It's an iconic children's book, and it recently celebrated its 40th year anniversary after being published in 1969!! A very long time ago!! If you've never read the book a.) i'm very disappointed and b.) invest in a copy and you'll see why it still remains in my top 5!

This is where my inspiration flourishes from... We are currently doing a module on 'Self Branding' and i thought it would be very fitting to incorporate one of my all time favourite novels into something that reflected me and the stage at which I am in my life. The concept of 'The Hungry Graduate' perfectly describes the hunger I have and the passion to succeed in the big wide world of branding and advertising!

Tatar for now

T.H.G x.x