Dave Dye, one of the UK's finest Art Directors, has started sharing "assorted ephemera from solving problems, creating stuff & making things" on his blog. Ben Kay wrote about this a while back. Stupidly, I ignored his advice and only decided to look give it a look yesterday.
I was floored.
The blog is a treasure trove of information and great work. It'll make you envious--at least it made me envious--of the places Dave worked and the types of briefs he worked on. There is a tightness to the thinking and the assignments that is so fresh, even though some of the ads are from very long ago.
Each of the blogs tackle a different project or set of projects he's decided to show off. They all illuminate something different about the process of making very, very brilliant advertising. Things that I'd never experienced (like sending an assignment out to 10 different illustrators). It made me remember how exciting a print ad or billboard can be. That's something that used to happen for me all the time when I was trying to get into advertising. I would sit and read and dissect great ads from the past and feel my blood boil. It was that excitement that got me into advertising and that excitement has been waining for a little while.
For me, this blog has been a great discovery. It's really really wonderful and I think you should read it, too. Especially because nothing on Ad Age or Creativity will be as illuminating about the craft of advertising as any of his posts.
And because it's a blog you don't even have to put on pants to learn. How's that for convenience?
Dave Dye: STUFF FROM THE LOFT
