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WK side update

WKSide under the spotlight

On Friday we did a five minute presentation at the agency meeting.Five minutes, four of us, that’s only one and a quarter minutes each. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but we were all really rather nervous. Everitt was pacing around the room and all the colour left Tubby’s face. Our nervous dispositions were mainly due to Dan Wieden’s presence at the meeting. But it all went smoothly in the end. We mainly talked about how we work together and what we’ve been working on and what our experience has been like here at WK.

They look serious here but we got a few smiles

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These are some animations we used in our presentation. Click on the file to play each animation:

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Liza Lou exhibition at the White Cube

Cell 

The Liza Lou exhibition at the White Cube gallery is worth checking out for this cell alone. You can’t see from the picture but the entire surface of the death row cell, including the bucket, is created with beads. Each is applied with tweezers, and by using different colours and textures of beads she created breathtaking detail down to the watermarks and stains on the wall. Even the ceiling is completely created with varying layers of beads. It was incredible. You literally have to see it for yourself to feel the effect, which is very moving. You view it through a small window, and you just want to get up close to it. When you think how she studied the detail of the bricks it makes you think how a prisoner must know every square centimetre of their miserable cell, and the artist  mapping it out and beading it is almost doing time as a tribute. It’s amazing. The other pieces were equally detailed: a razor wire cage which was made of silver beads, even the bolts were beaded.

I took a cheeky photo while the gallery staff weren’t looking, but you can see the detail:

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There was also the body of a man leading against a wall, lifesize down to the beaded fingers and toes. It almost hurts your head to think that someone would even attempt it, and not just say, sod it, I’ll just make a little padlock or a small skull (or something). But the result is a shimmering, sparkling reflection in real scale of confined spaces and the human body, capable of both creating and (surviving in) such a horrible thing.

Check out  www.whitecube.com for more info. Apparently the film is good too.

Don’t know, I missed it- but it plays every hour.

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24 hours of a pitch

We pitched for Arla Foods (Lurpak and Anchor butters) at the end of last week. It’s a big piece of business and we put in a lot of work over the last few weeks. Pitches like this mean working weekends and nights. The last night before the pitch tends to be an all-nighter. With lack of sleep and nourishment provided chiefly by dodgy takeaways, hysteria can set in when trying to assess creative work at around 2.00am. This is Stu and Chris taking us through creative ideas, at some point in the wee small hours of Thursday morning:

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Jonathan and Sophie seem to like it:

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KIm’s not convinced:

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Most (but not all) of the team were home by 3.00-4.00am. A few hours kip, then off up to Leeds for the pitch presentation at the client’s offices. Boffey and Ben debate strategy on the train up to Leeds:

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KIm chips in:

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Waiting in reception to be called in to pitch. (Start was delayed, so this was a long period of nail-biting.)

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We did the pitch. We were last on, following two other agencies, so I guess it had been a long day for the clients. With this in mind, we tried to keep the presentation brief. Though we were all tired, the adrenaline kicked in and it all seemed to go OK. We should hear feedback by the end of this week. Fingers crossed.

The train back down to London that evening. Relaxing with a few cans of Carlsberg and some crisps. Aah, the glamour of advertising. Now for a Big Sleep.

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