Back in 2006 I took part in a student competition to produce a piece of work for the NSPCC which would encourage men not to treat child abuse as a taboo subject, which often only added to the harm.
Peer pressure coupled with historical indoctrinating as to what it means to ‘be a man’ was to blame for a lot of men being reluctant to talk about their experiences, and reluctant to engage others with opening up about theirs. Reaching this audience would be very difficult, as the whole problem is …

About 3 years ago while still at Uni I started planning a campaign to promote myself  to the local ad agencies in Edinburgh.
I decided my USP was that I have an opinion on everything (especially ads), whether I love it, hate it, am bored by it or just plain don’t get it. So how do I get the local agencies to notice me for a budget most would spend in the pub on a Friday night?
I decided on a sticker campaign attacking good, bad and just plain weird adverts in …

As part of the development work for the same RSA competition mentioned in this post, I wanted to reach users at their most vulnerable point. View a close-up of the print ad here.
The need for a quick and immediate method of donation led me to consider premium rate phone numbers, and on to mobile phone ringtone and wallpaper advertisements found in the back of newspapers and magazines associated with the younger and more downmarket audience. With their saturation of b-list celebrities, TV catchphrases and sexualised images, they’re an accumulation of …

This is an old piece of advertising work I did back in the middle of my University life. It was entered into a student RSA competition (didn’t win). The brief was to raise awareness in the UK about the difficulties many people in the world face collecting water every day.
After going back through a lot of my old work, this is one which stood out as still being relevant. It’s simple, it’s timeless and it’s engaging, and I think it ticks a lot of boxes for being a good ad, …

This is really just an introductory post as this subject matter is bigger than can be imagined, really I just want to introduce one of my most favourite authors of all time.
I’ve never been a fan of comic books, but I found myself completely encapsulated by Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. I’ve had my copy for several years now and it spawned a steady purchasing spree of similar graphic novels, including of course many of the other Chris Ware publications I could get my hands on.
Apart from the …