Author Archives: dbs81270

Trust me I am a creative.

Over my career I have often heard people talking about formulas. A foolproof way to arrive at a perfect creative result. To replicate something over and over. A system for ideas. That’s like saying, let’s use communism to create lego. Sometimes, I still have nightmares about 700 page style guides. Whole forests have died inContinue reading “Trust me I am a creative.”

It’s the cracks that let the light in.

I shot this photograph 20 years ago on Rockey Street in Johannesburg. It’s an important photograph for me because it represents my philosophy on creativity. Creativity is a very strange process. It involves having a vision that you completely believe in and would defend to the hilt. It also involves having the ability to throwContinue reading “It’s the cracks that let the light in.”

Cool Runnings. What a Jamaican Eatery taught me about boardrooms.

Growing up I was always fascinated by stand up comedy. I would watch early Saturday Night Live tapes of Belushi at his best and his worst. Bill Hicks destroying audiences and them laughing and thanking him for it. Richard Pryor being a free basing genius. I think it was the mixture of sheer terror ofContinue reading “Cool Runnings. What a Jamaican Eatery taught me about boardrooms.”

If Russell Brand doesn’t have a fat friend called Greg, he has a problem.

Russell Brand is using his many skills as an a stand up comedian against Jeremy Paxman in an interview we probably have all seen by now. As I watch it, I have this overwhelming feeling of de ja vu. I have seen many speak like this before. And they are normally one half of aContinue reading “If Russell Brand doesn’t have a fat friend called Greg, he has a problem.”

Trying to find Jesus through advertising

The team started to explain their idea to the Group Account Director. He wasn’t having the best of days. I was watching his face as he listened. It began to change with a small laugh. Then he started laughing uncontrollably until he was crying.Tears were rolling down his cheeks. Laughter is a very powerful thing.Continue reading “Trying to find Jesus through advertising”

Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever.

      A great quote from Napoleon Bonaparte. Admittedly, it all ended pretty badly for him on a godforsaken island in the South Atlantic but I am sure on a clear day the views were almost spectacular. The reason I use this quote is I was recently reading Dave Trott’s remarkable and excellent bookContinue reading “Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever.”

When photography was music

I read a stat the other day from the Executive Chairman of Alphabet (formerly Google) Eric Schmidt that was remarkable and pretty fucking scary. We now generate as much information every 2 days as was generated from the beginning of time until 2003. Every 2 days. To be honest, my brain just starts singing comfortingContinue reading “When photography was music”