Ruminations #1: Starting down the path

Right here we go I guess, the stream of consciousness that is to be my first SCAB (may want to rethink that acronym, its rather gruesome)…. 

I guess the first question is how have I been getting on, I think up until now there’s been a lot of listening, a lot of reading and a lot of brainstorming. I’m still trying to conceptualise my video and image submissions. I’ve had several ideas for the image but nothing I think is ultimately strong enough to create a lasting impression, or at least interesting enough to draw the eye. With the video the brief is somewhat perplexing, how do I illustrate and change in something as conceptual as my thought process. 

I’m thinking of going fully abstract, have been getting into making movies with micro photography recently, wondering if there’s anything I can create to fulfil the abstract nature of the brief by being equally as abstract? 

I’m making my way through Dave Dye’s podcasts, although the ones I have listened to seem focused on advertising in the 60s through to the 90s, chequebooks seemed more open and accounts seemed more unrestrained in the halcyon days of the late 20th century. Perhaps not the greatest reflection on the industry as I embark on a potential career into it. Although I can yearn for a few three martini lunches once in a while can’t I? 

I’m really enjoying reading Rory Sutherland’s book, I like the quirks and intricacies of human behaviour making case studies in how we interact with objects & products in our everyday environment. The fact that the non-sensical behaviour actually makes sense when you think about it, or how our inherent peculiarities can be understood and then manipulated. It reminds me of a story of King Louis XVI who popularised potato consumption by having royal guards patrol the potato fields but instructing them to let any thieves escape and thus attributing an air of sophistication to the humble root vegetable (this is a poor summation, I’d recommend you look up the story). 

Luckily I already had ‘Hey Whipple Squeeze This’ sitting on my bookshelf, I suppose I now have the perfect excuse to pick it up and thumb my way through it. ‘How To Do Better Create Work’ has already touched on a thought that I had, had in that I was worried there was maybe too much advertising/products/too much bullshit in the industry and I would have to resign myself to that being the sum total of my career, adding more shit to the pile so to speak. However the more I research into the industry the more I realise there’s potential to eke out a living making some good work, that matters, at the least if I apply myself and keep that as my mission statement. 

I’ll stop ruminating now and get back to work.