This is richard flintham. He art directed the umbro ads I mentioned previously. I’m sure he’s produced lots of great work since, with the help of his copywriter colleague, andy mcleod. I thought I’d put a face to the name.

dooff

I walked past the home in the picture below, and guess what? Two kids were using it for a goal. DOOFF! Goal! DOOFF! Goal! DOOFF! Goal! …Wait for the car to go by… Saved! DOOFF! Goal! DOOFF! I could here the noise from a long way off. Bad or good architecture?

 

architecture

This is one of the recently-completed apartments in the new england quarter. What is the wooden construction for? Deckchairs? Wheelie bins? Practising your golf swing? Football? AHA—They are perfect for a game of penalty shoot out!
In fact, they remind me of the fallon ads for umbro from 2002(?) directed by richard flintham. Makeshift goals for spontaneous football. A lovely campaign. Bleak, understated photos that evolve into nostalgic warmth when the penny drops.

 

that is my single biggest achievement

People ask me, ‘What do you think of Coldplay?’ I have no opinion of Coldplay. I’m 50. I didn’t ask my dad what he thought of Roxy Music. I’m more interested in Newsnight than the V Festival.

Rock’n'roll introduced us to ideas of gender, equality, peace, war, freedom. But those ideas have been grasped. You can sleep with your girlfriend now; your parents take more drugs than you.

I owned one (house) briefly and gave it back to the Halifax Building Society in the last recession. I just about break even in my earnings; I’m only just getting to the point where I’m solvent.

I was worried he was turning into a bitter design celebrity, so it’s good to see Peter Saville blowing his own trumpet  and disarmingly revealing about his earnings in this interview. Bizarrely, the auto-generated ads at the bottom include two promoting the Halifax. He’s hardly endorsing them, is he?

Photo by Donald Christie 

It bothers me_pt1

 

Anything bother you about this picture?
On December 03 2006, magnetic ben posted about his design disease. A lot of people have commented in agreement. I’ve tried to avoid joining in, but there is something I find worryingly troubling. It’s all because of improvements at work. New elevators have been installed. So new flooring has been laid. I didn’t see the flooring people at work, but it irks me they didn’t line up the join in the floor with the join in the elevator doors. I’m sure they had good, pragmatic, practical reasons, but it bothers me. Every time I walk up the stairs. Hopefully, now I’ve got it off my chest, I can move on.

 

fotobox X

I blame Richard.

 

fifty brand 50

I have got half a dozen ring binders of match box labels collected by my mum through the 70’s.

She almost threw them away in the 90’s, and I almost sold them a couple of years ago.

 

old job

Quirky maths diagrams? Plenty here…

goldsmiths whiteboard

Take two random words, then show how many possible avenues are open if you break them down. Not new. But very effective.

Is the word brainstorm offensive? Not according to the experts.

 

walk in the woods pt4