(Just to clarify, I’ve recently stumbled into a job as a digital designer in an advertising production agency, the result of an excellent opportunity that appeared, I seized and so far haven’t regretted.)

Advertising used to be a widely respected industry. The 1950s ad men have been revered as driving forward the American spirit of enterprise and commercialization that has made the Western world wealthy. Now public perception has changed somewhat. Advertising is the public face of capitalism, which if you believe the protestors recently dragged off the steps of St. Pauls, is the root cause of all the economic woes we are now suffering; corporate greed personified.

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“Just do something a bit more creative” is one of those sentences that strikes cold fear into my soft design heart. Few phrases upset me more in fact. The notion that a designer, or as we’re referred to cringingly in the ad world ‘creatives’, has a big sack bulging with ‘creative’, a woolly, abstract word at the best of times, is as ridiculous as the words that so often proceed it; “I’m not very…”

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Augmented reality has been around for a good few years but it’s only with the growing penetration of smart phones and tablets that it’s moving from a fancy gimmick to a powerful new advertising medium. Lynx’s Angels Will Fall campaign that took over video billboards in Australia and the UK was achieved the fabled viral effect, with thousands of people viewing the You-Tube videos even if they didn’t see the campaign live.

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It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. In an information saturated world, the quickest way to convey the message is perceived as the best, and the immediacy of photography is often preferable to a carefully written statement. What few forms of written communication there are left are being eroded, or maybe streamlined is a better term, the nineties had text speak, the noughties had twitter. By the end of this decade all that’s left of the english language will be a series of punctuation marks drawn in your choice of coloured crayon.

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In a couple of days men all over the world will forsake shaving their top lips and attempt to nurture some facial hair growth in support of the Movember campaign, a month long charity event that seeks to raise awareness of men’s health issues. Being a man (possibly with issues) and additionally already possessing a fine beard I’ll be donating my face to the cause and proudly sporting a moustache all through next month to do my bit to help bring this strangely taboo subject out in to the open.

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I should apologise since my headline is a bit misleading. First of all, I wasn’t up for any sort of award, nor was anyone in the company I work for, indeed anyone I actually know. Secondly the award ceremony in question wasn’t one of those glitzy affairs with industry big wigs drowning themselves in booze and making tits of themselves. It was, however, the Ocean Art of Outdoor competition, and it was, truthfully, the first advertising awards ceremony I’ve ever attended.
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In the advertising business there’s not often the chance to do something for the betterment of mankind rather than for say the flogging of cornflakes. Luckily for my conscience the good people of Pixel Group held an event last night called Brainy Hacks, inviting creative types to an evening spent working on a brief for a charity client, for free, food and booze thrown in. To add a bit of interest the attendees were divided into teams and a panel of industry big-wigs, including James Hilton (AKQA) and Jonny Watson (DARE), acted as judges of everyone’s efforts.

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A couple of weeks ago I was invited back to Groundwork Hertfordshire, and environmental charity with regional branches across the UK, to run a workshop with a two graduates from their Green Team program. Several years ago I had helped the charity to produce a promotional poster and flyer and as part of that I met with members of the Green Team, a youth employment scheme for young people who’d struggled to get any qualifications, to help them gain a recognized award and hopefully a job.
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One brilliant thing about living in London is I can now actually go to all the cool events I hear about last minute on twitter. I say all, of course I mean just one so far, the DIY Digital Type workshop run by jotta.com at the Design Museum on Saturday as part of Intel’s (and jotta’s) Remastered project.

The Remastered idea itself is very cool, a project that invited 12 current artists and designers to come up with a new take on classic works of art, including works by Picasso, Leonardo Da Vinci, William Turner and Edvard Munch. The website is definitely worth checking out and I really hope they bring the exhibition back to London as some of the work looks awesome.

Anyways, on to the day itself…
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Some might say it’s been a long time coming, but I am, at last, leaving Norwich. And not in a its-a-jolly-holiday kind of a way but a proper kiss-you-on-both-cheeks, tear-in-the-eye, farewell. I’m very sad indeed to be leaving the fine city, a place I think is much under rated and too often mocked. Norwich is home to the world’s largest covered, 6 day a week, market, a bloody big cathedral and a Premier League football team. It’s been my home for two years now and the place of my first full-time job, at a fantastic digital agency, Soak. There’s been arts festivals, beer festivals and even a Hindu wedding. But Norwich, I’m sorry to say that I’m leaving you.

I’m going to London, a long held ambition of mine, to a new job and new opportunities, to live in Hackney, the obvious destination for all trendy young hipsters, with full beards and fixed gear bikes.

When I first graduated from uni I tried to move to the big smoke, to find my fame and fortune or some such bollocks, but I couldn’t find any place to work, the recession being shiny and new at that time. So I ended up in Norwich landing a job at Soak Digital, for which I am entirely indebted to Mr Mattie Lynn who put me forward (take note graduates, it’s really not what you know but who).

But now I find myself about to start work at an ad production agency in Clerkenwell, something that I’ve always said I wouldn’t do. At uni I read a lot about ethics in design, and formed a sort of moral code of my own, based partly on the First Things First manifesto and partly on Bill Hicks famous line “if you work in advertising, kill yourself”. But this personal hypocrisy aside I’m pretty damn excited about the future.

More tales from the country-boy in the big smoke soon.