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World Press Awards 2007
BY Ninart Lui
BY Ninart Lui
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Graham Warsop
Look through a D&AD (Design & Art Direction) annual from the 80’s and early 90’s and you’ll see the degree to which writing was once employed to enhance a brand’s communication. The funny thing is, many of those ads would work as well today. Everybody talks about the seminal Lemon print ad for Volkswagen produced by Doyle Dane Bernbach. Read the body copy, it’s superb. The idea and the art direction pull you in, but it’s the copy that really persuades you to believe in the brand. I recently sat on the Press jury for the UK’s D&AD Awards and was heartened to see all the 2008 Nominated work was copy driven. Let’s hope this heralds a return to a discipline so neglected in recent years.
TAXI >> There is the judges’ favorite — the clever, witty use of visual clutter in StuffIt Deluxe software campaign — and then there is the power of white space, as demonstrated by the ads for Olay and Colun Spreadable Butter. Does nothing really equate to something?
Graham Warsop>>Over and above the power of the big idea, there is the arresting impact of great art direction. I implore my creatives to always study the publication in which their ad is due to appear, be it a newspaper or a magazine. Invariably the hallmark of most publications is clutter, so blank space can be used to great effect to attract the reader’s attention. Obviously, a good art director will weigh up the benefits of blank space relative to show-through in newspapers. It’s important to consider the ad as it will actually appear and not simply how it will look as a pristine machine proof.
TAXI >>I’m looking at the ad by DDB Barcelona for Audi RS4. Given that the name for your agency, The Jupiter Drawing Room, comes from a “special room” in a Guy de Maupassant short story, sex still sells, doesn’t it?
Graham Warsop>> Well, it all depends on the brand you’re advertising, the market you’re advertising to and the medium you’re advertising in. Generally consumers are so literate today they see right through any attempt to persuade them to buy a product because there’s a girl in a bikini in the ad. In my view, sex sells best when it is used in a tongue in cheek manner – the Axe campaign from BBH being an excellent example.
TAXI >>For the fourth year running, the Jupiter Drawing Room retains its title as the Best Company to Work For. As talent pools grow diverse, how do you sift the wheat from the chaff?
Graham Warsop>> The starting point is to have an agency brand that stands for something. One that hopefully makes it a magnet for the best talent in the industry. At The Jupiter Drawing Room we have a Latin motto Rem tene, verba sequenter – Grasp the subject and the words will follow. Our agency has always believed in an integrated approach and in craftsmanship of our work. We’ve also been quite uncompromising in fighting for the ideas we believe in. So, we’ve tried to recruit creative talent that believes it’s important to be with our agency because we stand for these things. We also try to give our creatives a really desirable environment to work and play in, one that makes them feel they’re part of a family rather than a company.
True to that ideal, I say to our new recruits “It’s not enough to choose an agency that wants to change the world, you need to chose an agency that wants to change your world”. We have always recruited a disproportionate number of youngsters – eighteen to twenty-four year olds. Some of them have graduated from advertising schools, others have never studied advertising before. We put them on our one year Apprenticeship program and give them substantial responsibility early on in their careers. Pretty soon we’ll have an idea, based on talent, attitude, enthusiasm etc, who is likely to make it in our industry and, even more importantly in our agency. We set the bar high, so it means something to be accepted as a full time member of the creative staff. The way our teams work together is changing and we’ve been trying very hard to break down the walls between the various disciplines. I can honestly say we’re growing a department of creatives who believe in the design and digital space every bit as much as in the advertising space.
TAXI >>You have a Masters degree in law from Cambridge University under your belt. Since your foray into the advertising industry as a junior copywriter, you have been blazing trails, and you are the first South African creative director to have judged the Big Four (Cannes, The One Show, D&AD and Clios), and have had the honour of judging D&AD three times in the last five years). You have contributed The Law of the Silver Elephant to the book, 22 Irrefutable Laws of Advertising, by Michael Newman. Would you enlighten TAXI readers what a silver elephant has to do in advertising?
Graham Warsop>> When Michael Newman invited me to write a chapter for his book The 22 Irrefutable Laws of Advertising I didn’t want to use a predictable chapter heading. Many of the chapters were concerned with the techniques for producing great advertising e.g. The Law of Simplicity, The Law of Relevance etc. I wished to focus on an aspect to producing great creative work that is frequently overlooked or under recognized. That is the desire of the best creative people to bring something in the world that transcends what has been done before. If anyone would like to know the relevance of the Silver Elephant, they are welcome to email me at gvwarsop@jupiter.co.za and I will gladly forward them the chapter.
TAXI >>When you were still a student, you made an attempt to write a novel, which you are still trying to complete. Does such perseverance pay off in the cutthroat world of advertising?
Graham Warsop>> My admiration for novelists knows no bounds. To take a year or more of your life on a first novel, with no guarantee of publication or income shows tremendous conviction. I gave up law with the intention of writing a novel. I found it immensely difficult and when I ran low on funds, took a job as a copy writer in an advertising agency. I simply could not believe that one could be given three days to write 120 words for a radio spot and actually paid a wage to do so! Less than two years later I founded The Jupiter Drawing Room.
A friend of mine once said to me ‘If you give up on your novel to become an advertising practitioner, you are nothing but a harlot’. That’s one of the reasons why I named the agency after a room in house of ill-repute in a Guy de Maupassant short story. But I digress. In answer to your question, a different type of perseverance is required in advertising. We’re not required to write 90,000 words of copy for a single ad (to the relief off all consumers!) Our discipline lies in expressing an idea in the simplest, most succinct and memorable way. We need the perseverance to keep going until we find the best creative solution we’re capable of and then (and let’s not underestimate this aspect) the perseverance to get it through the client’s approval process and bring it to life in as pure a form as possible.
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
Graham Warsop>>Courage.
..........................................................................................................
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Jim Aitchison
TAXI >>Fellow judge for The World Press Awards, Mark Tutssel, was also captivated by the copy-centric Havaianas campaign. Another all-copy campaign is the series of stark, black on white, print ads by Dublin-based agency Chemistry. Perhaps going back to basics once in a while brings a breath of fresh air in the graphics-saturated industry. How can pure copy engage viewers when visual elements can grab eyeballs in a second?
Jim Aitchison>>How odd. I've always thought words were visual elements. They sit on the page with all their serifs and curlicues and transmit amazing messages to our brains.
The problem is, generalisations get in the way of serious debate. I could argue that if something grabbed my eyeball in a second, what would happen after that? One quick hit, and then nothing? No depth? Just a superficial, forgettable blip, gone and forgotten in a nanosecond?
Everything in life and advertising always hinges on the skill of the designer, the art director, the writer. David Abbott's great Economist campaign, a handful of words on a red background, proved how the visual and the verbal can unite for a far greater impact than either might have achieved singly.
TAXI >>The number of high quality, exceptional copy-based ads has not escaped Tham Khai Meng’s attention either. In reference to the ads for Marmite Squeezy and Penguin books, he foresees the emergence of a distinct hybrid of a genre: The visual copy. What does the author behind Cutting Edge Advertising, otherwise hailed as the bible for advertising, have to say about this insight?
Jim Aitchison>> When you can integrate text and visuals (like the East Timor campaign did), you communicate faster. You will have removed the differences between words and pictures, reduced the number of elements in the ad, and made it easier for readers to assimilate them.
I hope we can see some new hybrid genres evolve. The old visual pun has been around far too long!
TAXI >> Advertisements evoking a retrospective mood, such as Leo Burnett Mumbai’s work for McDonald’s and its counterpart Leo Burnett Chicago’s work for Altoids as well as Ogilvy & Mather Singapore for JetStar Asia, have also made their way into the compendium of heavyweights. Why does the old always have something new to offer?
Jim Aitchison>>Because the past is a rich vein of experiences, humour, and visuals. And because we don't have to live in it, we can enjoy hijacking it.
TAXI >>In your illustrious career, you have earned yourself a name as an “awards machine”. But what do you think is the greatest thing to achieve in advertising?
Jim Aitchison>>Take your pick.
One: to have started an agency that pioneered a new creative ideology that reshaped the way advertising works (BBH, Howell Henry, DDB);
Two: to have written one of the world's great iconic ads;
Three: to have touched somebody's life with an ad.
TAXI >> Is inspiration over-rated? You once said that inspiration is very fickle, and the reason you finish a book is because you cling to discipline.
Jim Aitchison>>Totally. Ideas either drop from heaven into your lap, or emerge fully formed from your deepest subconscious. Either way, "inspiration" has nothing to do with the process of generating ideas.
You, the creator, have to exert intellectual effort. You can't just sit staring at the wall waiting for a thought to occur... that is just pathetic.
Generating ideas (be they visual or verbal) is all about making connections that haven't been made before. Our brains are actually the most powerful "search engines" on earth. However, if we don't switch them on and give them tasks, nothing will happen... just like Google search engines --- if we don't ask them to do something, they won't.
All creative people face moments when ideas don't come, which is another`reason why inspiration is fickle and over-rated. We`have to learn how to achieve creative breakthroughs irrespective of whether we feel inspired. (Imagine if surgeons could only operate when they felt inspired!) The only way to do that is to programme your brain to start work at the same time every day, and continue working for the same number of hours every day.
TAXI >>As one of the contributors to The 22 Irrefutable Laws of Advertising (And When to Violate Them), what is the rule that you constantly break in the course of your work?
Jim Aitchison>>I don't think about rules when I work. I don't say, oh, wow, we're breaking a rule doing this, aren't we clever.
As an author, my focus is keeping my reader engaged with my story. As an ad writer, my focus was to make someone fall in love with the brand. No other considerations come into it.
TAXI >> Last question: Which WORD do you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
Jim Aitchison>> Respect.Respect...
meaning respect for the consumer as well as respect for our own talents and judgment as design/creative professionals.
..........................................................................................................
Read OTHER INTERVIEWS on DESIGN LEADERS
Steven Heller, Chip Kidd & Stefan Sagmeister
Sara Little Turnbull & Darrel Rhea
Adelia Borges & Linda Fu
..........................................................................................................
© 2003 - 2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
Interview with Graham Warsop
 | TAXI >>Hello Graham. A picture speaks a thousand words. However, the copy-driven ads for The Singapore Hospice Council have left a good impression on you. “Skilful writing and wonderful typography” — has the power of copy become an underrated virtue in the demand for visuals? Is it, as Neil French said, making a comeback?
Graham Warsop>> Copy should be making a comeback; in fact it should never have left the stage in the first place. It’s very tiresome to keep seeing the same old argument trotted out; “People don’t read any more”. It’s absolute nonsense. People have, do, and will continue to read what interests them. The challenge facing our industry is how to write something that interests someone enough to engage them. In the past, our industry boasted a host of brilliant writers, able to capture both the essence of a brand and the imagination of the reader to superb effect. David Abbot’s famous Father’s Day ad for Chivas Regal is but one example that comes to mind. |
Look through a D&AD (Design & Art Direction) annual from the 80’s and early 90’s and you’ll see the degree to which writing was once employed to enhance a brand’s communication. The funny thing is, many of those ads would work as well today. Everybody talks about the seminal Lemon print ad for Volkswagen produced by Doyle Dane Bernbach. Read the body copy, it’s superb. The idea and the art direction pull you in, but it’s the copy that really persuades you to believe in the brand. I recently sat on the Press jury for the UK’s D&AD Awards and was heartened to see all the 2008 Nominated work was copy driven. Let’s hope this heralds a return to a discipline so neglected in recent years.
TAXI >> There is the judges’ favorite — the clever, witty use of visual clutter in StuffIt Deluxe software campaign — and then there is the power of white space, as demonstrated by the ads for Olay and Colun Spreadable Butter. Does nothing really equate to something?
Graham Warsop>>Over and above the power of the big idea, there is the arresting impact of great art direction. I implore my creatives to always study the publication in which their ad is due to appear, be it a newspaper or a magazine. Invariably the hallmark of most publications is clutter, so blank space can be used to great effect to attract the reader’s attention. Obviously, a good art director will weigh up the benefits of blank space relative to show-through in newspapers. It’s important to consider the ad as it will actually appear and not simply how it will look as a pristine machine proof.
TAXI >>I’m looking at the ad by DDB Barcelona for Audi RS4. Given that the name for your agency, The Jupiter Drawing Room, comes from a “special room” in a Guy de Maupassant short story, sex still sells, doesn’t it?
Graham Warsop>> Well, it all depends on the brand you’re advertising, the market you’re advertising to and the medium you’re advertising in. Generally consumers are so literate today they see right through any attempt to persuade them to buy a product because there’s a girl in a bikini in the ad. In my view, sex sells best when it is used in a tongue in cheek manner – the Axe campaign from BBH being an excellent example.
TAXI >>For the fourth year running, the Jupiter Drawing Room retains its title as the Best Company to Work For. As talent pools grow diverse, how do you sift the wheat from the chaff?
Graham Warsop>> The starting point is to have an agency brand that stands for something. One that hopefully makes it a magnet for the best talent in the industry. At The Jupiter Drawing Room we have a Latin motto Rem tene, verba sequenter – Grasp the subject and the words will follow. Our agency has always believed in an integrated approach and in craftsmanship of our work. We’ve also been quite uncompromising in fighting for the ideas we believe in. So, we’ve tried to recruit creative talent that believes it’s important to be with our agency because we stand for these things. We also try to give our creatives a really desirable environment to work and play in, one that makes them feel they’re part of a family rather than a company.
True to that ideal, I say to our new recruits “It’s not enough to choose an agency that wants to change the world, you need to chose an agency that wants to change your world”. We have always recruited a disproportionate number of youngsters – eighteen to twenty-four year olds. Some of them have graduated from advertising schools, others have never studied advertising before. We put them on our one year Apprenticeship program and give them substantial responsibility early on in their careers. Pretty soon we’ll have an idea, based on talent, attitude, enthusiasm etc, who is likely to make it in our industry and, even more importantly in our agency. We set the bar high, so it means something to be accepted as a full time member of the creative staff. The way our teams work together is changing and we’ve been trying very hard to break down the walls between the various disciplines. I can honestly say we’re growing a department of creatives who believe in the design and digital space every bit as much as in the advertising space.
TAXI >>You have a Masters degree in law from Cambridge University under your belt. Since your foray into the advertising industry as a junior copywriter, you have been blazing trails, and you are the first South African creative director to have judged the Big Four (Cannes, The One Show, D&AD and Clios), and have had the honour of judging D&AD three times in the last five years). You have contributed The Law of the Silver Elephant to the book, 22 Irrefutable Laws of Advertising, by Michael Newman. Would you enlighten TAXI readers what a silver elephant has to do in advertising?
Graham Warsop>> When Michael Newman invited me to write a chapter for his book The 22 Irrefutable Laws of Advertising I didn’t want to use a predictable chapter heading. Many of the chapters were concerned with the techniques for producing great advertising e.g. The Law of Simplicity, The Law of Relevance etc. I wished to focus on an aspect to producing great creative work that is frequently overlooked or under recognized. That is the desire of the best creative people to bring something in the world that transcends what has been done before. If anyone would like to know the relevance of the Silver Elephant, they are welcome to email me at gvwarsop@jupiter.co.za and I will gladly forward them the chapter.
TAXI >>When you were still a student, you made an attempt to write a novel, which you are still trying to complete. Does such perseverance pay off in the cutthroat world of advertising?
Graham Warsop>> My admiration for novelists knows no bounds. To take a year or more of your life on a first novel, with no guarantee of publication or income shows tremendous conviction. I gave up law with the intention of writing a novel. I found it immensely difficult and when I ran low on funds, took a job as a copy writer in an advertising agency. I simply could not believe that one could be given three days to write 120 words for a radio spot and actually paid a wage to do so! Less than two years later I founded The Jupiter Drawing Room.
A friend of mine once said to me ‘If you give up on your novel to become an advertising practitioner, you are nothing but a harlot’. That’s one of the reasons why I named the agency after a room in house of ill-repute in a Guy de Maupassant short story. But I digress. In answer to your question, a different type of perseverance is required in advertising. We’re not required to write 90,000 words of copy for a single ad (to the relief off all consumers!) Our discipline lies in expressing an idea in the simplest, most succinct and memorable way. We need the perseverance to keep going until we find the best creative solution we’re capable of and then (and let’s not underestimate this aspect) the perseverance to get it through the client’s approval process and bring it to life in as pure a form as possible.
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
Graham Warsop>>Courage.
..........................................................................................................
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Jim Aitchison
 | TAXI >> Hello Jim. To pursue your love for writing, you left a successful career in advertising after 20 years. The selections of The World Press Awards demonstrate a profound appreciation for the written word. Chairman Neil French said: “Copy is far from dead, and in fact may be making a ‘comeback’, if indeed it ever went away.” Do you see this appreciation confined within the creative circle, or have value-obsessed clients seen the light too? Given your experience, what are your thoughts of visual-driven ad campaigns as opposed to one where copy takes centrestage?
Jim Aitchison>> Question: why would anyone in their right mind read a long-copy ad? Answer: only if it were the most interesting thing they'd seen all day. It's not a case of saying words are dead, visuals are alive. Let's be brutally honest. Most advertising is a wasteland... it's patronising, boring, indulgent, insulting, irrespective of what leads it -- words or pictures. All print creativity starts with a blank page and all we should be concerned about is what will serve our client best on that page... what will be most appropriate creative genre for the brand, the product, the target audience, the media environment? Then there's Sir John Hegarty's view of life: when others zig, you should zag. So if everyone in your category is running long-copy ads, maybe you should consider a visual ad... or vice-versa. To say that a wordy ad won't work is like a designer clapping a ten-year ban on the use of the colour red. It's pointless! |
TAXI >>Fellow judge for The World Press Awards, Mark Tutssel, was also captivated by the copy-centric Havaianas campaign. Another all-copy campaign is the series of stark, black on white, print ads by Dublin-based agency Chemistry. Perhaps going back to basics once in a while brings a breath of fresh air in the graphics-saturated industry. How can pure copy engage viewers when visual elements can grab eyeballs in a second?
Jim Aitchison>>How odd. I've always thought words were visual elements. They sit on the page with all their serifs and curlicues and transmit amazing messages to our brains.
The problem is, generalisations get in the way of serious debate. I could argue that if something grabbed my eyeball in a second, what would happen after that? One quick hit, and then nothing? No depth? Just a superficial, forgettable blip, gone and forgotten in a nanosecond?
Everything in life and advertising always hinges on the skill of the designer, the art director, the writer. David Abbott's great Economist campaign, a handful of words on a red background, proved how the visual and the verbal can unite for a far greater impact than either might have achieved singly.
TAXI >>The number of high quality, exceptional copy-based ads has not escaped Tham Khai Meng’s attention either. In reference to the ads for Marmite Squeezy and Penguin books, he foresees the emergence of a distinct hybrid of a genre: The visual copy. What does the author behind Cutting Edge Advertising, otherwise hailed as the bible for advertising, have to say about this insight?
Jim Aitchison>> When you can integrate text and visuals (like the East Timor campaign did), you communicate faster. You will have removed the differences between words and pictures, reduced the number of elements in the ad, and made it easier for readers to assimilate them.
I hope we can see some new hybrid genres evolve. The old visual pun has been around far too long!
TAXI >> Advertisements evoking a retrospective mood, such as Leo Burnett Mumbai’s work for McDonald’s and its counterpart Leo Burnett Chicago’s work for Altoids as well as Ogilvy & Mather Singapore for JetStar Asia, have also made their way into the compendium of heavyweights. Why does the old always have something new to offer?
Jim Aitchison>>Because the past is a rich vein of experiences, humour, and visuals. And because we don't have to live in it, we can enjoy hijacking it.
TAXI >>In your illustrious career, you have earned yourself a name as an “awards machine”. But what do you think is the greatest thing to achieve in advertising?
Jim Aitchison>>Take your pick.
One: to have started an agency that pioneered a new creative ideology that reshaped the way advertising works (BBH, Howell Henry, DDB);
Two: to have written one of the world's great iconic ads;
Three: to have touched somebody's life with an ad.
TAXI >> Is inspiration over-rated? You once said that inspiration is very fickle, and the reason you finish a book is because you cling to discipline.
Jim Aitchison>>Totally. Ideas either drop from heaven into your lap, or emerge fully formed from your deepest subconscious. Either way, "inspiration" has nothing to do with the process of generating ideas.
You, the creator, have to exert intellectual effort. You can't just sit staring at the wall waiting for a thought to occur... that is just pathetic.
Generating ideas (be they visual or verbal) is all about making connections that haven't been made before. Our brains are actually the most powerful "search engines" on earth. However, if we don't switch them on and give them tasks, nothing will happen... just like Google search engines --- if we don't ask them to do something, they won't.
All creative people face moments when ideas don't come, which is another`reason why inspiration is fickle and over-rated. We`have to learn how to achieve creative breakthroughs irrespective of whether we feel inspired. (Imagine if surgeons could only operate when they felt inspired!) The only way to do that is to programme your brain to start work at the same time every day, and continue working for the same number of hours every day.
TAXI >>As one of the contributors to The 22 Irrefutable Laws of Advertising (And When to Violate Them), what is the rule that you constantly break in the course of your work?
Jim Aitchison>>I don't think about rules when I work. I don't say, oh, wow, we're breaking a rule doing this, aren't we clever.
As an author, my focus is keeping my reader engaged with my story. As an ad writer, my focus was to make someone fall in love with the brand. No other considerations come into it.
TAXI >> Last question: Which WORD do you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
Jim Aitchison>> Respect.Respect...
meaning respect for the consumer as well as respect for our own talents and judgment as design/creative professionals.
..........................................................................................................
Read OTHER INTERVIEWS on DESIGN LEADERS
..........................................................................................................
© 2003 - 2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
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