W+K London

January 11, 2006

WK side 2.0

The experimental first attempt at WK Side, held in the last quarter of 2005, was a success. So we’re going to do it again, in a revamped and improved version of our original intention: to bring in people from outside the world of advertising for three months to work at Wieden + Kennedy London on everything from client briefs to internal projects. In the process, we learn a fresh perspective from them and they learn about the ad industry from us.

Dear X

It was great meeting you for the WKSide interviews and we are delighted to be able to offer you a place on the second WKSide scheme starting in January 2006.

The start date for your group will be 16^th January and the scheme will last for three months.

Here are the four new Siders who start on Monday and who will keep you posted on their progress via this blog.

Barbara, 27. Followed dreams to London. Studied graphic design in Australia and worked in illustration, magazines, design and advertising. Loves drawing, making things, art, travel, films, bars, and finding inspiration and humour everywhere. Terrible barmaid, but bakes a mean pecan pie. Almost understands offside rule. Hopes never ever to work as a barmaid again. Bad things: Once flooded an entire function centre. (You have been warned.) Hates burnt coffee, close- talkers, and Hits CDs. On a good day, loves pretty much everything else. Wants to do great things.

Hi, I’m Ben, 23 from West London and have just finished a multimedia design degree in Leicester. For $$ I work on graphic and web design projects for people like www.monorex.com . . . Fun things I like doing is to make hip-hop music and music videos and write rhymes with my boys the ‘Infallibles Foundation’ – BIG UP! hit up www.infallibles.co.uk/foundation for the sounds… I skateboard outside when dry & sunny and listen to music/eat nice food inside when cold/wet. I don’t hate much. If I told you my most embarrassing moment it is sure to ruin any possibility of a) being looked at eye to eye, and b) you wanting me to work for you. I wouldn’t even tell my brother. So here’s a second most embarrassing moment – I was running, front on, to a bus just about to leave at a busy Acton bus stop full of the usual loons when I accidentally joined their hordes by running full pelt into the ‘elephant ear’ style wing mirrors, cracking my head loudly and hard enough that the driver had to get out his cabin and fix it whilst ‘actual’ crazy people laughed at me,,, not too embarrassing really but it was damn funny. I am commonly found at parties free styling at young ladies who think stringing an abstracted sentence together is like sooooooo amazing! Ha-ha.

Hello. I’m Sophie. Here’s a little bit about me:

I’m from South East London. I did a graphic design degree in Nottingham, but I also made films. Ideas are important to me. I’m 22, but people always think I look younger. I really like pasta. My mum is English and my dad is American. I only realised in the last year how much I like parsnips. I don’t like feet or grading things on a scale of one to ten. When I was a little kid I had wonky eyes, but now they are straight. I like music but I never learnt to play an instrument very well, although I did try. I like to take photographs. My hands are cold most of the time.

Ok, that’s it for now. Bye.

I’m the other Ben (Everitt). I grew up in Lewes, just outside of Brighton. I moved to London to study at Camberwell where I’ve been ever since.

I like football on Saturday afternoons, papers on Sunday mornings, sausages and Peter Blake.

My pet hates are Harry Redknapp and milky tea.

My most embarrassing moment was making a loud gagging noise due to an unpleasant garlic mushroom during the speeches at my gran’s 80th birthday.
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January 9, 2006

cheryl in shanghai

Cheryl Rogers is one of the account directors here at Wieden + Kennedy London. Except at the moment she’s not here, she’s in Shanghai. We’ve only recently set up W+K Shanghai and, with the win of the Nike account in China, things there have been manic. We got a call to ask if anyone could go over to help and Cheryl volunteered to spend a couple of months over there on secondment. So, at the start of the year, she packed her bags and headed off to seek out new life, new civilization, etc. She’s promised to send us regular updates and I thought I’d post them on here so we can compare life at W+K London with how things are at W+K Shanghai. Here’s the first message from Cheryl:

I am freezing my ass off and am existing solely on coffee and takeaways (chinese – such a cliche) and don’t think anything could quite have prepared me for the madness that is W+K Shanghai, but it’s all good.

I have to admit I haven’t seen much of the city apart from my apartment, Starbucks and the office, but it’s early days and I’m just settling in.

Everyone here is really nice and yes I am being looked after, although they were a little bit too happy to see me! This was quickly explained via a six hour status meeting two hours after I landed. (Translating stuff makes things seem twice as long – but at least I’m learning to speak slower and think about what I’m saying before I say it – which is a novelty!). Apart from that the work is great and the scope of the projects we’re working on is pretty amazing.

I headed across to Nike today and they have a great view of the city (if you can see it through the smog), even if it came with two nail-biting taxi rides to and from. I was reminded by a local that cars didn’t exist here 6-7 years ago and that completely explains the no road-rules policy – it’s each man for themselves and no colour of traffic lights is going to stop them! it was nice to get some perspective, though. I wander through washing lines to get to work, so it was interesting to see the ‘other side’.

I’ve taken a few snaps and will send them through when I get a chance, internet here is intermittent at best and never again will I take it for granted.

I’ll keep in touch,

Cheryl x