don’t try this at home…

Well first it was my finger and now Sandy is injured… I was at the station on Thursday on my way to work, when someone left a message on my voicemail. A cry for help! I called back as quickly as my fingers could dial hoping I wasn’t too late! My mum had fallen off a ladder.

The crazy little woman thinks she is invincible. She was alone at ‘the house’ on top of a ladder painting when she tumbled and became tangled under a giant mass of aluminium. The paint tin of went flying she lay in agony with white paint in her hair until I arrived thirty minutes later. No matter how many times we warned her of the dangers, she stubbornly went about getting things done no matter how risky what she was doing became.

Off to the hospital we went where they told us she would have to stay admitted and receive surgery. After many x-rays and a few boring days waiting we were told that she if she had surgery she would be unable to travel for up to ten weeks. Thus there was no surgery.

She’s recovering after arriving home today and will hopefully be taking it easy and letting that bone heal, after all it did break in two places.

Time to leave it to the professionals. 

Although I hear she is getting some sort of electric wheelchair to go and supervise the project.

Note: Should start up a DVD rental facility at Cabrini… or they should get Foxtel

4 sentence , thoughts

Nico – I think it’s fantastic that youre looking at merging this’old school’ form with something new age like the Internet. I think it will breathe new life into it, especially as today’s youth are so computer driven and most likely havn’t really experienced comic books as we have. This seem like it will be a very creative and fun project. The only kind of issue I see, is that I can’t really identify the problem you’re trying to solve or if there is an issue at hand.

Arnie – This has the potential to be something really amazing! It’s a very ambitious project and will be excellent if its done properly. I can see you making something really unusual and entering it in tropfest! It’s a really practical project and may get you some great work. I see a small problem in the sense that you appear to want to appeal to too many audiences. I don’t think you can truly be both Australian and universal. I think your movie will be a lot stronger if you stick to one audience.

Sarah - Radio has been one of the most important media in history and it will be really interesting to see what you’ll be working on! I think its one medium that in a sense seems to have been left behind creatively in the television and Internet rush. I suppose it’s been seen as less glamorous. I think there’s a lot of potential to do something unusual and unexpected.

Michaela – This is a topic that will appeal to a lot of today’s public. People have become increasingly sceptical especially these days with all the talk of ‘terrorism’. The focus of your topic is very strong and what you are debating is very clear which is fantastic. You seem very certain but what if it’s not all black and white?

Sue – It’s great that you’re looking at something that isn’t geared towards modern media!This will be a very interesting project, it does seem to be an enormous topic to look into though and I couln’t quite grasp which area you’ll be focusing on.

Pheona – This piece looks like it will have the potential to make you some $$! It’s a very original project in an area that definitely needs some sort of overhaul in its teaching process. How will you measure it’s effectiveness?

Kris – This is a fantastic idea,  it’s also great as your background will serve as an advantage in terms of being able accurately interpret the culture and being able to correctly explain. It’s such a broad topic, will you be focusing on a few specific films?

 Viv – I can see possible problems with my project if it’s not properly organised… I will be working together with Verity so I have to make sure we are both on the same page as to what we want out of it. We will need to define exactly what components will make up our project. We are looking to start a business but what will form the main parts of our project? The planning for the business? The actual work that we do for real clients? or the research we do into the rural sector? I think it will be comprised of all of these things. It is a substantial amount of work but I have to remember that it will be divided between two, so therefore needs to be structured as a larger project.

brainstorming qualities…

Hmmm, so what qualities may we want our advertising business to have?

… HUMOR – IMAGINATION – EXCITEMENT – REASON -BALANCE – FRANKNESS – DETERMINATION – WIT – STRENGTH – BODY – UNDERSTANDING – EMPATHY – CLASS – INTELLIGENCE – CREATIVITY – DRIVE – SPARK – FLAVOUR – SPICE – CHARM – FRESH – FUN – CURRENT – UNUSUAL – ENERGY – BOUNCE – SPIRIT – URBAN…

Ok, so how will our business be/show these qualities?

HUMOR
We don’t want to be too serious in the sense that we don’t want to be seen as uptight. Under the right circumstances we also want to make people laugh, I think that when an ad makes people laugh they get a good feeling about the product and also find it memorable.

IMAGINATION
We need to come up with ideas and strategies that will stand out. For this we will need to have imaginative thinking. Off the wall ideas will only come delving into our imagination. At times these ideas may be on the verge of ridiculous or possibly be just right. Ultimately we need to find different ideas that will work for our clients.

EXCITEMENT
We want to surprise people. Be doing things that they don’t necessarily expect. As we are starting out we also need/want to generate some hype.

REASON
We will need to have sound research and understanding of our products to be able to rationalise our ideas.

BALANCE
We don’t want to have too many of one type of client. We want to show that we are versatile.

FRANKNESS
We need to be upfront with our clients. We don’t want to be given the run around or be caught up with clients who are problematic. Therefore we need to be straight up about how we work, what goes on with the creative process, what outcomes they can hope for, our responsibilities and what we expect from them.

DETERMINATION
We will need determined to push though the most creative ideas possible and not allow clients to make them wishy washy if they think they are too different. We need to show them that we are determined to make great ads in Albury. We have to make sure the clients understand that the work we are doing won’t be the same as what is already being done. It will take courage on their part to be different but will be worth it. We are determined to change the face of advertising in this rural metropolis.

WIT
See humour… We want to create clever ideas that will make people think.

STRENGTH
We will have to be strong to be able to start up from scratch. There are many obstacles that we will have to overcome and we won’t get past them if we are a weak team.

BODY
Hmmm… We need to show a body of work that shows we are versatile and can actually do what we say we can.

UNDERSTANDING
We will need to understand that our prospective clients may not be comfortable in doing something that they believe to be risky. It’s most likely that they will be conservative and quite new to the advertising process. They will probably be quite wary of us so we will have to do our best to put them at ease and make them feel comfortable.

EMPATHY
See understanding…

CLASS
We will aim to bring some class to some products that people think they have to go elsewhere to find or that they don’t think they sell in places like Albury.

INTELLIGENCE
We need to make clients feel at ease and comfortable with us. To be able to get them to trust us we have to show them that we know what we are talking about.

CREATIVITY
Our business will revolve around creativity. We will need to think differently. If we don’t come up with creative concepts we will not be a success.

DRIVE
We will need drive to keep the ball rolling. We want to show that we are a dynamic business.

SPARK
We want to be lively… We want to be light in the dark…

FRESH
We want to do things differently, if possible breathe new life into businesses whose image in the public eye may have become a little stale over time.

FUN
See humour

CURRENT
We need to show that we are down with the times and therefore can portray the clients we are representing as modern, desirable and that they know what their customers need and want.

UNUSUAL
Coming up with unusual ideas will appeal to people, they will provide cut though and people will be more likely to remember them.

ENERGY
We don’t want to appear sluggish or lazy. We need to show our clients that we are motivated. That we will get the job done efficiently and they will see results.

research begins…

Well, I made my first trip to the library on Tuesday! The research has begun!

The bricklayer I met at the house on Sunday was very eager to proceed with getting a new business card designed. He was surprised by how quickly I got back to him. Some extra cash in the pocket… It didn’t take me long to design something much better than the dogs breakfast he had as an excuse for a business card… That reminds me, I have to get mine made too…

The reading for comm.rev. is moving along, every moment I can find I am looking for ‘The dossier’.

injury and a possible client

Well I almost had to get stitches to hold my finger together but the doc ended up using a special glue which bonded the skin back into place. Revolutionary stuff.

I got a bit excited at how fast those tiles were coming down as we ripped down the entire sheet of plasterboard. Much more effective than my tame effort with the chisel and mallet… they sure came down fast, right onto my finger. The edge was razor sharp and sliced to within millimetres of the bone. Mum thought her one single worker was now long gone but after a dose of panedine forte we went from the doctors straight back to the site… some painting and filling calling but the tiles I’ll leave for someone else, Abuelita?

Strangely, one small job possibility came up amongst all this. During the day one of the scarce tradesmen turned up to look over the specifics of a job out the back. It turns out he’s getting new business cards printed… After one look at his mess of a card I suggested he needs a new design, I would be happy to do it, for a fee of course. Will be emailing him an example of one I’ve done in the past. He also mentioned that he would need some advertising work done in the future as he’s planning on expanding his business, things like a website, logo design etc. I’m sure we at Lantern Creative will be able to work something out for him.

Although that does bring up another thought…. Being that we do want to target businesses in rural Victoria/NSW what should we do about work that pops up in Melbourne through people we meet? I think that it would be benefficial for our business to take on small projects in Melbourne as It will give our business credebility. Seeing as we are starting out we need as much work as possible to develop for our folio.

task 2

What makes a good project or topic?
-  I think a good project needs to show depth and understanding of a key issue.
-  It needs to be clear as to what it wants to say or what it intends to accomplish.
-  A good project will show that the topic has been thoroughly explored through
    research.
-  It will show both sides to an argument and debate them.
-  A good project will set out to find a solution to the issue at hand.
-  A good project will be organized and coherent, it will cover any key elements
    related to the issue and be presented in a way which can be understood by all  
    those who interact with the project without prior knowledge on the topic.

What and who is our project for?
-  Our project will serve two purposes. The business side of our project is useful to
    business owners in rural areas who need advertising done.
-  Our written aspect of the project will be for those in industry to gain a more
    thorough understanding of the issues faced for these people, this will help them  
    have more of a positive approach to working in this side of the industry and will
    make it easier to deal with these clients. I believe it may possibly also serve to
    encourage those creative heads in the area to look towards doing some work for
    the business around them rather than always moving to Melbourne or Sydney
    straight away to work.

The four sentence abstract:
 A shortage of advertising services in rural Australian areas means that business owners in country areas such as Albury/Wodonga are posed with the inconvenience of having to source advertising work from agencies in other cities such as Melbourne and Sydney. Almost all creative heads which live in their areas move to find work in larger cities where there is more work and money.  So, lets start an agency in the country and relieve some of the workload.

How my project will be presented:
I think my final project will be made up of a number of related and interconnected pieces. I will be working together with Verity so we will have to have a large body of work. As we are planning on starting up a business there will be various components that will make up the final project. The planning and research: this will include the business plan and our documented findings on the rural market and client base. The actual business will form the second part: our website, and real work for real clients. In a sense it will be a series of projects which join to form our major project. It will be a lot of work so I am worried that it may be a bit too ambitious, but I do believe that it is do able…

We want our finished work to display a number of these qualities:
Humor and wit, Reason, Balance, Frankness, Determination, Strength, Body, Understanding, Class, Intelligence

future music

Another weekend passes and we’re already well into March, there’s always another party or plan in the works. I told myself that as soon as I got back from overseas I would settle down and work hard, save money and only go out on the odd weekend and for special events… At the moment there seems to be a never ending stream of ’special events’ weekend after weekend… Future music this labour day weekend was awesome, Melbourne came out to play for one of the last summer parties. Note: Have to make sure I don’t become a regular at revs…

Spent today painting the outside of our old place with mum and Steph, the renovation works on the house are moving along quickly, mum is racing to finish before she goes back to London, our new house is manageable although we still have a broken stove and problem with the fridge. For now, we can manage.

setting up my project…

I am having some concern as to keeping to a schedule in relation to getting work done. Having to set up the project myself has posed the issue of me needing to be disciplined in terms of actually getting a move on and making sure I get things rolling. This week I’ll set out a time-line to help me plan out what I’ll be doing and stucture my project. I’m working five days a week at the moment and will need to be very organised to be able to juggle both work and uni.

el principio…

Well this whole internet thing seems to have a tendency to become somewhat addictive, I hope this blog becomes useful for me in some way… If nothing more I hope it eases the pain of some course work and helps me write some of my exigesis….