ADVERTISING

Advertising has been my main career for many years. My move away from it never meant I really left, and I continue to consult for agencies and direct clients. The work featured spans some time, but I hope there is some timelessness in it for you , as much as there is for me. 

Agency: Cobalt Blue
 Animal Liberation Victoria - cinema

I was recently asked by Animal Liberation Victoria if I could give a little pro bono advice on how best to execute a cinema ad as screen time had been donated  to ALV and suddenly they had to find a way to fill it. It became clear there was a way to do a very effective piece if I could pull a few elements together, as my advice became a pro bono production of some scale. Thanks to Wes Greene and Nalu Productions, with their wonderful Red cameras and the luxury of a high frame rate, we were able to capture the moment when an otherwise fractious creature looks you straight in the eye - a moment of true connection. Shot in an afternoon with some very patient helpers, this was the result.

Agency: Cobalt Blue.
Concept and Direction: Mick Sowry. 
Produced by Nalu Productions
Director of Photography: Wes Greene
Editor: Brendan Weston, Nalu Productions
Colourist: Thomas Kilner, Nalu Productions
Cast Care: Felicity Andersen, Ross Bird, Robyn Cochrane, Peter Crosbie, Jeanette Crosbie, Patty Mark

SOCIAL MEDIA
Agency: Cobalt Blue
bamboo monkey

With social media communications changing the way we engage with the world, heads down in our smart phones more often that we should -  and being able to shoot high quality vision with the same ubiquitous tool, it is no surprise the ability to produce engaging pieces at a low cost is important. 

Agency: Cobalt Blue
headsox

MINI DOCS
Agency: Cobalt Blue
baum cycles

Agency: Cobalt Blue
the conversation

corporate induction film
Agency: Cobalt Blue
australian home care

print
J Walter Thompson Corporate

Darren Woolley, former CD of JWT invited me in to have a crack at a corporate campaign for the agency. A fresh head.

Darren had developed a strategy based around the strength of JWT’s concerted efforts to understand the emotional drivers of the markets of their client companies.

I based the campaign on the observation "We listen for the whispers of their hearts", and built the subsequent ads around relationships, life, and need to take risks in order to achieve. The ads seemed to write themselves. Internally the work was extremely well received, but ended up being canned as too emotional. The drier end result did retain some elements of the work I developed.

The following layouts are a re-work to the current JWT style, to keep abreast of the times.

The photography is courtesy of Hayden Richards @sa_rips for all images except for the final be-dreaded lad, my errant and beloved son Tom, photographed by me, at a favourite place near home.

HAIGH & HASTINGS - Great Ocean Quarterly

Haigh and Hastings were one of the first advertisers in GOQ. A new player in the world watch market, as were we in the world of publishing, we contributed our creative expertise as we felt fellow explorers into new worlds. The image was shot by photographer Ed Sloane, beneath the mighty Teahupoo in Tahiti. Our swimmer was Novocastrian Aaron Rich. Both swam the couple of kilometres out to the break alone. Speaking to Ed recently about the shoot he said "I don't know what we were thinking". Respect.

Reality Group - SAAB

Saab had been struggling to settle on a campaign idea for a limited edition lime green convertible, but the key strategic line in the brief was ' that this vehicle should be irresistible'. It seemed to be stumping creatives world-wide but then it occurred to me to mix Convertible and Irresistible. Irresistivertible. My spell checker hated it, but it went global.

The Age

Created in cahoots with writer and all around good guy Mike Mulcahy.

Dennis Family Corporation

Springhaven

Housing developer Dennis Family Homes were developing a small gated community called Springhaven. It was in early concept stage with no visuals of the estate, and no estate design style, but something was needed to lift it into a place a little magical. I had the idea of a little girl flying on the back of a budgie, and from that flowed, with the help of illustrator Jim Tsinganos, some fun flights of fantasy. The writer was the late Keith Davidson. One of the funniest men I ever worked with, Keith was the spitting image of Woody from Toy Story.

Lintas - Daimaru

Daimaru was one of the big accounts of the nineties, and it was won by Lintas in a very intense pitching process that aged me and our team quite a few years. I worked with writer Jackie Dickenson (now Phd and a senior faculty member at the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at Melbourne University) on the account. We had a lot of fun, and got to work with some great people. A case in point was Tat Ming Yu, a fabulous talent and still a good friend of many years. Tat had taste, and was an art director's nightmare as he was a better designer than most, was not afraid to call bollocks on bad work but despite all that...we got on. This multi-double-page-spread is some of what we got up to.

Cobalt Blue - Rip Curl

The Search is Rip Curl's campaign theme of many, many years. A brilliant idea, it was conceived by Derek Hynd for 'The Curl' back in the early nineties. Around 2000 I was asked to consult to RC on a brand revitalisation program and as part of that was asked to speak on the agency creative process, and how it might influence their internal briefing. To demonstrate a case I was making I did a couple of 'scam' ads that were less directly related to surfing than was the norm at the time. They fell on deaf ears sadly, but I still like the sentiments expressed.

Tad Shallow

Tad Shallow is/was an idea cooked up between Chris Connell, Darren Henderson and I. A T-shirt brand that still sits waiting to be born, Tad's naissance stalled as all the other things three very busy guys trying to finish everything they start... simply got in the way.