Posted by Guy Downes on July 22, 2010 under Black & White | 
View from Institute Arcade, Darling St, Balmain, Sydney.
I’ve set myself a new rule. Wherever business takes me around the country, I’ll endeavour to come home with a couple of new, quick and lively pencil & ink drawings in my sketch book. The catch is that I’m only letting myself spend about 10 – 15 minutes to finish each sketch.
Drawing at speed really means I need to make sure I’m focusing and studying what’s infront of me right there and then. Shapes, perspectives, negative spaces, shadows, dimensions. It sharpens my sketching skills and brings greater confidence. As I perch on walls, window ledges or at cafe tables with my pencil and pad, it’s amazing to witness life as it rushes past. Meanwhile, I sit, study, look and let my pencil create simple lines across the cartridge paper.
Nepalese Gardens with the Ferris wheel as backdrop, South Bank, Brisbane
These are some quick sketches from recent trips to Sydney and Brisbane.
View from the Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane
Posted by Guy Downes on July 14, 2010 under Illustration |
Working with the Edelman Technology PR team in London, I recently illustrated what the types of people using (and not using) digital media may look like. My three fictional cartoon characters accompanied a survey press release by HP PSG on digital media evolution and usage in the UK.
The HP survey revealed that while Brits ‘are not in the Dark Ages when it comes to the progression from physical to digital ownership of media, they’re far from being Space Age’. For example:
- While 86% of the population access some form of digital media, 68% still prefer photographs to be physical rather than digital, 64% for music, 75% for films and a massive 95% for books.
My illustration brief was to ‘bring to life’ three possible digital media personalities based on generalised typologies:
- A ‘Future Head’ (approximately 16-30 years old) who is the key embracer of change, always choosing digital over physical ownership. Basically, ‘gadget-mad’.
A Future Head: crazy about technology
- A ‘Rolling Stone’ (roughly 30 to 50 years old) who rolls with the best of both worlds. They are technology literate but not obsessed and will adopt a technology only if they see a clear benefit (and usually after the ‘early adopters’).
A Rolling Stone: leading a busy life - no time to be too tech obsessed!
- A ‘Suspicious mind’ (probably 50 years old and over) who are the most resistant to technological change and still love, consume and own media in traditional formats.
A suspicious mind: nothing digital please!
It was a great project to illustrate and working across the time zones between Australia and the UK worked out really well – when the UK was sleeping, I was working on the brief.
Edelman is a big and trusted name in PR. They’re the world’s largest, independent PR company with over 3,200 people in 52 offices worldwide. In addition to being one of the leading PR firms, they are well known for sharing insights and reports, in particular The Edelman Trust Barometer. The Edelman Trust Barometer tracks trust in major institutions across Business, Government, Media and NGOs; in industry sectors; and the credibility of sources of information. The Edelman UK tech team also have a blog worth checking out if you’re interested in snacking on regular tech insights and opinions.
Posted by Guy Downes on July 9, 2010 under Cartoons |
I tuned in today to watch Viocorp’s Future Forum webcast on the “Future of news reporting”. A good panel with interesting insights and discussion. It got me thinking about another theme - how future generations may view the current or ‘old’ technology we use to consume ‘media’. One day (…perhaps in the not so distant future), will the TV be completely alien to a younger age group?
Posted by Guy Downes on July 5, 2010 under Cartoons |
Posted by Guy Downes on July 2, 2010 under Cartoons |
Having had a few days to stew over the Socceroos World Cup effort, I think ending on a high will really set the tone for getting to the next World Cup. The victory over Serbia was a good one with two great goals and fans and new players coming up through the ranks have lots to look forward to. The momentum and spirit would be entirely different if we’d lost. Instead, I feel Aussie spirits may be deflated but not demoralised. Here’s to the build up for Brazil 2014.
Posted by Guy Downes on under Illustration |
One of my (Life Considered) cartoons recently featured in an ADMA Forum Seminar white paper, titled: ‘Lift the creative performance of your next DM campaign with 8 simple steps’.
Written by Rod Smith, Creative Director and Founder at creative marketing consultancy, greenflare, the paper explores how DM creative in 2010 needs to reflect changing trends in the ways consumers process information.You can read the full version here.
'Pictures sail through an ocean of words...': my cartoon in the white paper
My ’Pictures sail through an ocean of words’ really sums up why I exist – my belief that images are extremely effective and can make connections with audiences (e.g. ‘A-ha’ moments) much quicker than words.
Rod’s executive summary of his white paper reveals some eye-opening statistics on how people behave when reading DM material. He also goes on to explain the importance of visual imagery by saying, “We’re living in a visual snapshot culture. Storytelling with engaging imagery has never been more important”.
‘Executive summary: DM creative in 2010 needs to reflect changing trends in the ways consumers process information. The success windows are getting smaller:
- in 2010, barely 18% of your list will read your DM piece. These people will scan headlines, subheads, offers, images and captions.
- Roughly half will then perform the Brain or Bin Split: a pile goes into the bin, with the remaining pile set aside for further reading. All this is happening faster than ever before.
- Our research and learnings across 2009-2010 shows you have about 12 seconds to hook into the Brain pile. If your message doesn’t scan positively, it’s game over…’
ADMA Forum 2010 is a conference and exhibition for any marketer looking to stay ahead of the competition and better their marketing performance. It’s designed for Australia’s multi-channel marketers to gather, learn and network.
