A truly sad day to see such a man leave us all. A man who made culture accept color much before Tiger Woods and Obama.
Michael Jackson Dangerous
Dangerous Album Cover - The most inspiring album cover that intoxicates me with nostalgia. RIP Michael!
About a month ago, Bert and Annie Sue recommended a book called ‘E by Matt Beaumont‘.. HILARIOUS and INSIGHTFUL TO THE CORE! is all i have to say. Just thought i’d pick a bit from the book to share here. This is the bit where Daniel Westbrooke (Head of Client Servicing) sends an email to Katie Philpott (intern), briefly telling her about advertising and ‘who does what’ in an agency.
Daniel Westbrooke - 3/ 1/ 00. 10.35am
to. . . Katie Philpott
cc…
re: bienvenueKatie. profound apologies that I will be unable to sit down with you this morning. You have jo ined our hap py fami ly at the busiest time and I find myself caught up in getting the Coke pitch off to a roaring start. I am sure that you must feel a little dazzled by the glamour of it all, but you will find your feet in no time. I have attached a crib sheet that sets out the key roles in our agency. Previous neophytes have found it to be indispensable. Any questions, ask James Gregory, whom J have appointed your ‘big brother’.
Attachment …
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER - il maestro, le cllef de cuisine, the head honcho and the per son with whom the bu ck most certainly stops.
HEADS OF CLIENT SERVICES - the power behind the throne, if you will. Custodian of all the agency’s client s and responsible for the performa nce of everybody in th e Account
Management Department. A cruc ial part of his job is to approve every CREATIVE BRIEF before it goes to the Creative Department. These unassuming A4 sheets are the ’sacred texts’ without
which no piece of advertising can be conceived. It is fair to say that with such a spectrum of responsibilities, a head of client services must possess both fierce drive and a passionate vision.
ACCOUNT DIRECTOR - In charge of day-to-day running of one or more accounts: runs a team of account managers and executives; in turn reports to the Head of Client Services.
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR - if the Head of Client Services supplies the client with an expansive blank canvas, then the Creative Director applies those vivid splashes of cobalt, verditer and vermilion that bring his humdrum products so gloriously to life in the nation ’s parlours.
THE CREATIVE TEAM - each comprises of a COPYWRITER and an ART DIRECTOR. The Creative Director allocates creative briefs to teams, and then nurtures from them their finest work.
Following that very “indispensable and appropriate” introduction, James Gregory (Account Manager) sends another email to the intern Katie. This time someone finally tells her like it is.
James Gregory - 3/1/00, 10.36am
to. . . Katie Philpott
cc . . .
re. . . hello, new girlHi Katie. I’m James and I’ll be you r account manager on Mako. Dan Westbrooke has asked me to keep a close eye on you. I’m up to my neck organising this afternoon’s Mako meeting (usual bloody panic), but I’ll clock in with you later. In the meantime, enjoy reading the attached. It was penned by some an on. copywriter and has been handed down through generations of trainees.
It tells you all you need to know about how your typical agency works (or rather, doesn’t ).Attachment …
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER - some CEOs have been known to have a brass sign on their desks that reads THE BUCK STOPS HERE. This is either a misprint or a bare-faced lie. It should say THE BUCK STARTS HERE. The CEO is in the highly responsible position of having to designate the mug who will officially carry the can for whatever mire the agency has landed itself in. All he!she needs for this are a comfy and ergonomically designed swivel chair, an internal phone list and a nice, shiny pin. Decisions, decisions …
HEAD OF CLIENT SERVICES - sounds grand, and so it should because this title was invented as compensation for those witless account directors who will never, ever make CEO. They have no power whatsoever, but if they begin sentences with ‘as Head ofClient Services .. .’ often enough, it will make them think that they do. This title also impresses at cocktail parties where no advertising people are present.
ACCOUNT DIRECTORS - Light bulb joke #1:
Q - How many account directors does it take to change a light bulb?
A - ‘How many would the client like it to take?’
This tells you all you need to know about account directors.
CREATIVE DIRECTORS - All creative directors are Useless Tossers. This fact has been established in a number of clinical trials. It doesn’t matter how good they were before they were creative directors (and, no kidding, some of them were certifiably brilliant), the moment they settle into that palatial corner office with the wide-sc reen TV and Bauhaus furniture, they assume the mantle of Useless Tosser. This phenomenon has baffled the few scientists who give a shit, which to be frank, isn’t many.
CREATIVE TEAMS - Legend has it that the modern copywriter! art director creative team was invented in the sixtiesby the advertising luminary Bill Bernbach, This is bollocks. In fact it couldn’t be
more bollocks if it were wrapped in a soft leather scrotal sac and suspended between the hind legs ofa bull. The truth is that the first team actuallypaired up after seeing the not orious David Baileyshot
of the Brothe rs Kray. Upon inspection, this visionary twosome figured that if they, too, dressed in black and looked well ‘ard, it would serve to scare anyone from account management off, who had the temerity to suggest ‘a few little tweaks’ to their work.
Lightbulb Joke #2:
Q _ How many art directors does it take to change a light bulb?
A - ‘Fuck off, I’m not changing a thing.’
Love it! Love it! Love it even more because its all absolutely true! 
Anyway, be sure to pick it up from Kinokuniya or order it on Amazon. Should get my hands on ‘E Before Christmas’ which promises to be equally exciting. I’m taking early gifts for my birthday, so do the right thing !! 
I know that the next post in queue was going to be dedicated to how awesome me and my writer were at the ‘Dubai Young Lynx 2009′ But i am forced to digress and crib about a depressing brief i found laying on my desk this morning. It was for the lack of a better word - CONDESCENDING!! - a brief that required me to design a poster urging mall shoppers to wear respectable clothing!! Now don’t get me wrong… i don’t usually consider any project as ‘beneath me’ and i have been charged guilty on numerous accounts as being the eternal optimist who sees a fluttering potential in mostly every shitty situation.. but somehow i considered it purely offensive and borderline insulting when i was asked to replicate an existing artwork for which we were missing our very own digital files. NOW THAT! IS BENEATH ME!
Anyway.. the drama queen within me found peace at the thought of ‘taking the piss’ !! mwahaha! If you can’t beat em - join em, is what they say ??? The call against ‘indecent exposure’ turned into a support for ‘decent exposure’ and i was calmed by the sound of my own brain giggling at these silly little figurines wearing these modestly shaped designer shopping bags. I mean after-all, if you can’t show any skin - you may as well wear the damn bag yea ??
Click on the image to see it BIG!
Hey! what’s up folks ?
Clearly i’ve been on a bit of an involuntary blogging sabbatical (thanks to Mr.Mali Shous that crept onto my server files). Anyway, the room is all clean now and I have made peace with Google, Facebook and Twitter after convincing them that i was not a hacker with an agenda to spread my binary germs around the world wide web.
SO!! Moving on…. i’ve tried to repackage and reorganize this blog a little. I added the following:
- Floating menu on the top takes you across linearly to the other sections of the site other than this blog.
- Iphone+Blackberry compatibility added
- Tweet Status on the sidebar
- Recently clicked photographs updated by rss.feed on the sidebar
Regarding my posts henceforth, i am going to be desperately shameless and will blog about everything from sensational-office-politics, trivial-epiphanies, ego-boosting-’pat.on.the.back’-moments to current events and matters of world economic stability. So, no matter what - you’ll get it all here and if you don’t like it, just BtB - Blame the Blog!
Coming up next:
Dubai Lynx 2009 celebrates the young creatives of the year - Jex and me !!
This piece was done quite a few months ago.. but never really had the time to put it up. So here it is. Honestly, a tough piece to pull off considering Bassam and i had absolutely no clue what hedge funds, investment banking and the intricacies of a financial center was all about. In came, good friend investment banker guru Rocky with his bag of insights and knowhoos and this spot here was the result of an hour of 3 brains storming up. The piece is in arabic but the subtitles should suffice. Currently playing on Channel - Sama Dubai.
Introducing MY NAME IS ROBOT, the Middle East’s first custom toy show. Robotandspark invited 37 regional artists, designers, typographers, jewellers, artists, sculptors, photographers and leading creatives to customize the 8-inch resin robots and display them at thejamjar Gallery on Thursday February the 19th 2009.
The list of artists include Chor Boogie, Lisa Geuvarra, Rollan Rodriguez, Lewis De Mesa, Eduardo Yap, Paolomaria, Buffi Jashanmal, Renata Giovanoni, Diya Ajit, Hani Reza, Vivek Premachandran, The Tribe, Leo Burnett, Malek Ghorayeb, JWT, Zaid Alwan, TBWA, Khulood Khoory, Nina Jaitha, Cynthia Wong, James Gibbs, Roula Ghalayini, Bianca Bernstein, Nawal Khoory, Hind Iskander & Talayeh Jenab, Laughing Man, Stuart Harris, Darwin Guevarra, Yalda Jafari, Ogilvy One, James Clar, Amritraj Gupta, Joseph Manata, amirah t, Tony French and Jalal Abuthina, Expression and Hind Mezzaina.
Once the artists had finished, leading photographers from Bareface were asked to photograph the robots in any which way they wanted. These prints will be displayed alongside the robots and all artwork will be auctioned off for the charity START (www.startworld.org)
DJ Dany Neville from Underground Procedures will also be opening the exhibit with a live set.
The exhibition will run from the 19th Feb until the 23rd Feb.
Visit www.mynameisrobot.org for more info
So… now my turn to ramble ! I’ve been trying to get back to my roots again and return to my typical kitsch ‘omkara’ hindu art style again. This time round, the piece is called ‘My Name is Robot Kalki’ - The name Kalki means literally, “of iron” or “machine.” As this avatar, Lord Vishnu will incarnate himself as the machine-man, who will come riding his white horse and a blazing sword in his hands. He takes on his multi-armed form and as he punishes all evil-doers in this world, he recites the verse from the Hindu scripture- “Now i am become death, destroyer of worlds.” At the end of Kali Yuga, he will, destroy this world supposedly and recreate a golden age again. Here is a little video i slapped together inspired by a Nitin Sawhney track that has been my muse for the longest time ever!!!
See you at the show 
So i recently thought it’d be a good idea to pop the twitter cherry and really look into what the hoo-haa about twittering was all about. Despite my over zealous colleague - Kedar’s unconditional endorsement, i found myself strolling quite lazily into this twitterworld of colorful chirping sparrows. I am now twittering @ artraj
Am still trying to figure out exactly how it turns me on. But until then, this shindy called the Twestival totally caught my attention (courtesy Kedar who tweets @ floatr) Up for grabs was a T-Shirt design gig for charity:water and so here we go.
Platform - a creative lifestyle magazine based out of New Delhi recently got in touch to feature ‘The Omkara’ in the January issue. So there we go. Glad to see the encouraging support to indian artists in other parts of the world. Three cheers and hats off to Shahnaz Siganporia and the rest of her team at Platform. Thanks!
http://platform-mag.com/
Didn’t quite expect to spend an entire day at INDEX, but the exhibition was almost the size of 20 football fields, hence the sore feet! Anyway, this is hardly going to be a review of the show, but more of a mental-note of the more interesting exhibits, artists and pieces that i came across. And yes! Ladies and Gentlemen - i spluuurged and i am pretty thrilled about it (albeit fractionally guilty). Anyhow, the following pieces seemed to appeal to my simple aesthetic senses quite a bit.
1. Lunablocks - Designed and created by Thierry Nahon and Philippe Landecker. (www.lunaticconstruction.com) Based on an original concept, the transformation and enlargement of bricks used in building games for children. Easily stacked together, functional and totally versatile, these Lunablocks are designed for the world of decoration and for the home. And guess what ? they come in light and compact, opaque, transparent or luminous materials. Sadly, i couldnt afford the acrylic and/or gold plated blocks, so i had to settle for the polysterene version (a collection of 7 blocks for a total of 168Euros)
2. Fatboy by Marimekko - Designed by Maija Isola (www.fatboy.nl/marimekko). She apparently found inspiration for the pattern whilst fetching water from a well. Well… whatever her inspiration, it definitely served as much needed delight for me when i saw the ‘Desert River’ exhibit and ten glorious fatboys sitting plump on a green stage. I walked away at first, but i came back sooner than expected to get myself my own ‘kaivo red’
3. Sculptural work by Gibbus (www.gibbus.cz). Some really elegant iron work from this very talented sculptor. His agent could not speak a word of english, but i guess what he was trying to explain was that his work is moderately inspired by Dali. That seemed just about right
4. The Timebeam (www.timebeam.com) This little piece of contraption is considered a classic design and ‘the antique of the future’. Its pretty neat actually. Think the price on this niftiness ranged from 600 to 1000 AED. The difference in pricing is because of the intensity of the light projected.
5. Thierry Bruet (www.thierrybruet.com). Now this painter-sculptor extraordinaire was something else. It was clear from his book that he had a passion for political sattire, but his style had such a unique touch to it that it would almost drift seamlessly between animated forms, lines and brushstrokes into realism. Very very nice indeed. Please check out his site - its totally worth it
6. SoWatt (www.pierremachinal.com) This contemporary chandelier of sorts honestly stole my heart. The artist Pierre had used porcelain light bulbs intertwined with a mesh of optic fibres to create this really wholesome piece of spatial and graphic art. Even the light bulbs were dimly illuminated by an optic fibre that passed into it. Immaculately Gorgeous! Priced at 14,406 USD, it seemed fit only for the lobby of a hotel or a restaurant that i would be initimidated to visit.
7. Emotional Doors (www.chiariluce.it) Some really cool emotional doors by chiariluce. Thanks to the awesomeness of LED technology, these doors are just perfect for spas me thinks. Less suited for residential thoug (but hey! this is Dubai)
b. Oscar Sierra (www.oscar-sierra.com) Interesting style of photo-collage memoir from Oscar Sierra. Think its quite a fun little thing to do at any place. So simple that you could almost do it yourself, ofcourse what you would be missing is Oscar’s stamp of approval, the slick finishing and the perfectly manicured plexiglass framing unit that comes with Oscar’s bill of 10,000USD !
There comes a time in every creative mans life when he decides to stop procrastinating and get his ‘Book’ ready. This ‘Book’ that i talk about is not a collection of pages with hardcovers on either side, but more so a collection of past creative exploits that individuals of cosmoplastic stature believe is worthy of sharing with those who sit perched above him on trees other than his own.
And now that i have exhausted myself by sounding so pointlessly proper. Let me tell you what i called my book !!!
It’s called ‘Bread, Butter & Jam’ - TaDaa!! Take a bite here and tell me what it tastes like to you.