Recently I applied for and was accepted into AWARD School. A course run by the Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association for people who want to become copywriters or art directors in the advertising industry. To be accepted into the course, I submitted a folio of work based on a brief set by the co-ordinators of AWARD School. Bellow are three of the seven brief questions and answers.

NitWits Natural – Expel Nits.

Brief: Find a bad print ad.
Using pen and paper only – no computer layouts – create a better ad for the same product.

LaZBoy Recliner Chair – Research Centre.

Using pen and paper only – no computer layouts. Create an ad for the following brief:
Product: La-Z-Boy Recliner Chairs.
Goal: Get people to buy one.
Proposition: The most comfortable chair.

Aussie Bodies Protein Drinks – Drink Responsibly.

Using pen and paper only – no computer layouts. Create an ad for the following brief:
Product: Aussie Bodies Protein drinks.
Goal: Get people to drink them.
Proposition: Aussie Bodies Protein makes you physically stronger.

In answer to the theme of “Future”
I decided to take a minimalist approach in the design but with a strong idea. The future is a concept and very subjective but one thing that is certain about the future is that it is always coming.

I worked with the owners of Mozzarella Gourmet Pizza Bar to start creating an identity, when they were first starting up. I still have more ideas of how and where this can go and grow.

Stay tuned for more.

Just entered the mambo global artist search competition.

Iron designer, one of the events at Sydney Design 2010 and presented by Studio Binocular. The iron chef of design was held last Friday (6^th August). It followed Sydney Design’s theme of “Tell us a story” and competitors were given 20 minutes to showcase their creative process and communicate an idea in an entertaining manner to a live audience and a judging panel. The panel consisted of Teri Winter, Ralph Myers and Jess Scully, and the event and hosted by Robbie Buck. There were three key ingredients in each of the three rounds, and each one needed to be referred to in the execution. There were two rounds of four teams, and the winner of each round carried on to the third and final round.

Eight teams of two to three designers competed for the trophy including: Frost Design, UTS School of Design, 4Design, Sixty40, Blue Sky Design Group, Tribe Studio, PIDCOCK Architecture & Sustainability and Digital Eskimo. The seemingly outnumbered team of two extremely entertaining creative’s from Sixty40 took home the trophy, proving 2 heads are better than 3. Second place went to Frost with their very eccentric but competitive team and third by ¾ of a point was Digital Eskimo. Our/Digital Eskimo’s team consisted of Diana Mounter, Nathan McGinness and I (Scott Nolan).

The event was very exciting, engaging and I was thrilling to be involved. It was a lot of fun and great to meet other creatives, but I don’t think it is a completely accurate depiction of how any of the competitors agencies work in coming up with ideas and executions. Having said that we (Digital Eskimo) attempted to bring a user centered design approach to the competition. We think we did well coming third. Our three words were Jesus, Energize and Square, we came up with “Holy Shit it’s Water” or HSW blessed water aimed at geeky (square) Christians (people who follow Jesus) to keep them hydrated and energized.

This specific video I created at digital eskimo. I had a very helpful intern(Claudia De Bel) help write out the message on the roll a very painful task trying to not rip the paper, and then equally painful operate the camera hitting the shutter every couple of seconds, whilst I illustrated the tree. But all that hard work paid off, creating something creative, effective and worth while.
It was made to support the Australian campaign to replace virgin fibre toilet paper with recycled paper.
Every year we chop down 98 MILLION trees and wipe our bums with them … wipeitout.com.au

(with special thanks to Bill McDonough who's TED Talk we paraphrased)

hot house

I did 1 of the 12 spreads in “Where’s Michael? and many others” a book
by Xavier Waterkeyn