An Ode to the Fiddlers

Here is a little song I wrote about the MPs expenses scandal.

The sound quality’s not ideal, and the washing machine raging in the background sounds less than professional, but other than that I hope you will enjoy.

10 ordinary things I really must start doing

1. Drink water
2. Keep the front door locked
3. Wear a helmet whilst cycling
4. Wear matching underwear
5. Write a shopping list
6. Drink wine
7. Eat vegetables
8. Exercise
9. Clean the windows
10. Water the plants

Royal Rainbows

On a recent visit to the Science Museum, Chi and I stumbled across ‘Social Lite’, a piece of interactive artwork by New York artist Scott Snibbe. It allows you to manipulate shadows to reflect laser beams and create rainbows. This is our video which I dubbed with a cheery little ditty from The Beatles.

New website header

As you may remember from my post back in November 2008, I really disliked the header on my website that came with the WordPress theme I had chosen. Unfortunately, uploading a new header was not as simple as I had imagined it would be because the header is split into three separate image files.

Here’s a reminder of what the site looked like before:

This weekend I spent hours, literally hours, learning my way around Adobe Illustrator.

I then bought an illustration on iStock from a designer called -M-I-S-H-A- whose illustrative style I love and used Adobe Illustrator to modify the illustration to fit the header space.

Considering my lack of design skills, I was thoroughly pleased with the result. It still needs a lot of tweaking until I’ll be entirely happy but it’s a vast improvement on the stock-like imagery that was there before.

See my new header here.

On the needle – update

Getting better. Slowly.

Guess you all know what you’re getting for Christmas.

On the needle

Last night I taught myself to knit.

After a disappointing start (half an hour to find the end of the yarn), I finally worked out how to tie a slipknot and cast on a foundation row:

My second attempt was a little more successful:

My third and final attempt for the evening was actually pretty darn* good:

OK. “Good” was a bit of an overstatement.

*Terrible pun. I am ashamed.

What’s in a name?

I’ve recently grown very uncomfortable about my internet privacy, or lack thereof.

Facebook. Twitter. MySpace. YouTube. Bebo. LinkedIn. Friends Reunited. Face Party. Flikr. hi5. LiveJournal. WAYN. Yammer. I’ve signed up to them all at some point.
Banking. Council tax. Bills. Food shopping. Loyalty cards. Video rental. I manage these all online.

All of these accounts! All of my personal information dancing around the intertubes! I’m an open book! An eBook, if you will.

In fact, “uncomfortable” is an understatement. I’m concerned. I’d like to go back in time and set up an entirely new online alias. All of my details, opinions and insults, would become theirs and Amy Daynes? Well, she’d just be ‘that girl with the curly hair’.

I am a copywriter working in digital advertising, so I am keen to advertise myself online and make use of all new digital technologies. And so I have. But the difficulty lies in the crossover between my professional presence on the web and my personal one.

“amy daynes” currently returns 394 results on Google and, rather alarmingly, “amydaynes” returns about 364,000. The latter is my username for almost everything and so Google will return every action I have made on these accounts in the past. That’s not cool.

I don’t mind people knowing I’m a copywriter and seeing my work. But if people can just search “amy daynes” and read my comments and opinions on different subjects, all spread across various blogs, forums and sites, well that’s perturbing.

I am a stalker’s dream. Just look at Facebook photos for a visual and visit my site to find out where I work. I’ll even give you regular Twitter updates in case I deviate from my usual routine.

Hmm. I think this digital alias thing may not be a bad idea.

Our House

This is for you, mum and dad: a little tour of my flat and my first attempt at video editing.

The Copywriter vs. the Art Director

Scamp’s recent blog post, “Help Settle an Argument”, debates the differing personalities of Art Directors and Copywriters.

Copywriters tend to be the talkers, and the strategists, whereas Art Directors prefer to say less and do more (even if what they call ‘doing’ I call sitting in a photographer’s studio reading the newspaper).

Scowling A.D. complains that “Art Directors aren’t always strong silent types – just as likely to be stereotypically louder, more energetic, more colourful, harder-partying, more passionate than Copywriters.”

Who is right? If you meet a team in the pub, can you always tell which is which? Or is there no real difference between the two breeds?

In my admittedly limited experience, I cannot say I have noticed many character traits that flow unfailingly through one discipline and not the other. I have met energetic, colourful, hard-partying, passionate Art Directors. I’ve met equally energetic, colourful, hard-partying, passionate Copywriters. Maybe we shouldn’t even try to analyse role vs. personality. Perhaps our definitive difference is in our approach to a brief.

Dave Trott once wrote:

“Writer” is actually a misnomer.
The job is actually more of a strategic thinker.
While an art director’s job is more of a tactical thinker.
Think of it as a military airplane.
The writer is the navigator, the art director is the pilot.
The navigator is in charge of the mission.
The pilot is in charge of the plane.
For simplicity, split it into right and left brain.
Right brain is emotion and feeling.
Left brain is reason and logic.
Right brain is the senses: pictures and sounds.
Left brain is thought: words and numbers.
Right brain can tell you what’s good, but not why.
Left brain can tell you if it works, but not if anyone will like it.
Right brain is brand, left brain is product.
Right brain is sizzle, left brain is sausage.
Right brain stops you, makes you read the ad.
Left brain makes the ad work, makes you want to buy.

I tend to think of our creativity on a scale – like this:

We are all somewhere on this scale, irrelevant of personality. I would imagine the more symmetrical a team is on this scale, the better they will be for each other. For example, a particularly visual Art Director may benefit from a Copywriter with a strong strategic mind – to balance each other out. Creatives who work solo are most likely to be successful when they are near the middle of the scale and are able to balance themselves.

Campaigns can be one-sided, but I don’t think creative teams should. Because like Dave says, “in any team you need both”.

I heart complaint letters

Of all the snidey remarks I’ve made in complaint letters over the years, it is this one that makes me the most proud:

To make this process as simple for you as I can, I have enclosed everything. I trust that this will be everything you need, as it is everything. Please read it carefully and refrain from responding with any further apathetic, deferring drivel such as that which I have had to endure so far.