the birdfeed

[thebirdfeed]

W+K Portland, again with fire.

[thebirdfeed]

The word ‘style’ doesn’t sound right when talking about a lot of things. Skateboarding however...

[thebirdfeed]

We recently shot a new product campaign for Desperados. My first ‘proper’ product shoot. By that I mean we had a ‘professional spritzer’, who - for those who don’t know - is a person that makes a living from carefully painting droplets onto bottles.

I can’t recall many product shoots that have captured my imagination, bar maybe the infinite ABSOLUT ______ campaign. I’m afraid this isn’t one of those, but the brief was interesting: ‘energy’. Seems obvious in hindsight, but it didn’t occur to me at the time that ‘energy’ is completely at odds with still life photography.

That was until we found Mr. Ben Stockley. And what a fine job he and his lighting technician, Jarred, managed to do. Couldn’t of asked for a couple of nicer guys to spend a few days standing around in dank clubs whilst stone-cold sober.

[thebirdfeed]

Love this little ditty from an early Layzell Brothers vid for Mazes. Took roughly a year to make apparently, but the combination of shakey-hand footage with animation still blows my mind: https://vimeo.com/21073127 

[thebirdfeed]

Every so often a music promo will come along that reminds me of some of the great concept driven videos of the MTV2 era. This one by Hiro Murai is one of them.

[thebirdfeed]

[thebirdfeed]

I TUMBLR IN MY CALVINS

The schmultzy world of designer fashion has never really been something to steal my attention. Especially when it comes to film. There’s only so many sullen stares, breathy sentences and walks-to-nowehere-in-particular that one man can take. But then there’s the new SS16 work for CK...

Yes, it is much ‘vibey’. But at least the vibe feels genuine. Both film and stills (which are equally lovely) are shot by one of my favourite directoral talents Tyrone Lebon, still, it’s the editor that I hold my hands up to. It’s a true masterclass. And Calvin Klein’s bold new musical steer is one that I hope lives on far beyond this campaign.

[thebirdfeed]

Latest Nike spot. Nothing mind-blowing. Just a lovely thought about marathons, and always with that same sense of class.

[thebirdfeed]

Wouldn't it be great if printing single-sided was deemed to be socially unacceptable?

I made a heavy-handed notice to remind the office that there aint nothin' wrong, with a little double-side.

Download it here, stick it above your printer and fight the good fight!

[thebirdfeed]

Penguin published a book called 10 Billion. Maybe you’ve read it?

It explains, in no uncertain terms, just how badly humankind has fucked the world, and therefore, itself.

It’s a powerful read, but I always thought there could have been a more powerful approach to the cover design. Here’s my two cents: dead Penguin.

[thebirdfeed]

A good friend of mine helped start a great project called Builders.

It’s a brand of tea, sold in brick-like packaging, where each ‘brick’ purchased helps to fund the building of a new well in Malawi.

Aside from a great little website, they don’t have much other communication, so here’s a few (work in progress) poster concepts I made for them.

They’re holding down a stall in Spitalfields Market this Sunday (13th Sept), so get yourself down there, put the kettle on, and get building!

[thebirdfeed]

BIG TIME SENSUALITY

The video for Björk’s ‘Big Time Sensuality’ is one of my all time faves.

As the story goes, a totally different video was planned, though after the label decided not to allocate any money to it, the plug was pulled on the project. Stephane (Sednaoui) promised Björk that given 24hrs, he’d come back with something new that would barely cost a penny. And whilst taking a cab back to his place on Lafayette St and looking out on the traffic, he penned what became the video that has recently been a centre-piece of Björk’s MOMA exhibition.

Recently, Sednaoui released some BTS shots from the day that they drove up and down Manhattan in a flatbed truck, blaring the track for all of New York to hear. How I would have to loved to of been on that truck...

The ‘performance video’ is a notoriously tough one to crack, but I can’t recall one that grabs my gut in the same way as this. You could say, “Well if you’ve got Björk, you’ll do well to fuck it up” but on the other hand, the task of finding the right concept / framework to fit such a big personality into far outweighs the name.

I find it hard to explain why I love this so much. Maybe it’s the weird pixie-like naivety that we all love Björk for, contrasted against the raw harsh city. Maybe it’s the sheer bolshy-ness of the idea. Maybe it’s the simplicity or just the fact it’s shot on 16mm film. Whatever it is, it’s worth your time...

[thebirdfeed]

PROJECT ROCKER - Part. II

And finally... after a few weaves of hemp rope, some extensive hammering of some pesky wooden dowl and a couple of coats of wood dye, Project Rocker was rocking.

For the (still unfinished) finishing touches, I bought the rad lipstick fish print (above) from the awesome Aaron Ziggy of Day Job collective. He kindly made it in into a repeat pattern which I’ve since printed onto some heavy cotton, ready to be upholstered into a cushion for the back-stand (hemp rope isn’t the most forgiving of materials).

Stereotypes will lead you to believe that rocking chairs don’t really serve a purpose until the owner hits 80 years of age, so I’ve still got 55 years in the bank to finish up those last bits.

[thebirdfeed]

PROJECT ROCKER - Part. I

Too much computer time isn’t just bad for your eyes - it makes your hands go soft. And silky soft palms make me suspicious.

So in a bid to get some dry skin and callouses, I signed up to a 10-week furniture restoration course at The School of Stuff. It was great.

I had plans for a very ambitious rocking chair. The kind of ambition you have when you have no idea what you’re doing. And as it transpired, ‘little tasks’ like calculating the ideal concave for ultimate rocking enjoyment (weeks 3+4), and chiselling pencil-perfect incisions into fragile wooden legs (weeks 6-7) in fact takes a longer than expected.

Either way, a great deal of joy can be found in simply shaping and sanding a rocking beam. I also finally understood why Tim ‘The Toolman’ Taylor did that “ho ho ho” grunt on Home Improvement. Makita jigsaws do that to a man.

Check Part II above to see the final chair...

[thebirdfeed]

I’m not one to get in a fluster over a brands social posts, but we recently created a series of lovely images for Martini. I think they look f**king wicked. Here are a couple of examples...

The series helps educate people about the 40+ botanicals that are used to infuse Martini’s various vermouths.

[thebirdfeed]

Like the majority of the UK, I’ve got a lot of time for FCB’s recent ‘This Girl Can’ work for Sport England.

I imagine it’s not an easy one, working on behalf of the government. I can already smell a big messy lasagne of committees. But this doesn’t at all look like a horse that became a camel.

This is just plain honesty.

It shouldn’t be anything special, but when you see it, you realise it’s actually quite rare to come by these days. Here’s an interesting conversation with the team behind it.

[thebirdfeed]

At the end of the week at Mr. President, the creative department hosts ‘Friday Fika’ - an hour of coffee, cookies and bonding over something fun. Each week, one of us is nominated to make a flyer for the event. Here’s my flyer for Friday Fika #6...