Pilfer is human curated media search. Save and share images, videos, sounds, tweets, fonts and colours all from a single elegant interface.

Pilfer solves two interrelated problems, firstly that media search is hyper-fragmented and secondly that there is an extremely high shit to quality ratio. It is a pivot from MoodShare based on learnings and customer feedback, as well as adopting the lean startup framework.

Pilfer is my second digital product, and quite frankly the product that should’ve been built back in 2009. In other words, a solution to a focussed problem with a huge Total Addressable Market.

Pilfer is launching Q2 2012.

MoodShare is a tool for creative professionals which solves the thorny problem of not being able to read other people’s minds. Instead, we believe that collaborative mood boards are the best way to get consensus around an idea and it’s execution.

MoodShare was conceived in the Summer of 2009 out of my frustration with certain parts of the creative process. Six weeks later, I had quit my job as Associate Creative Director of R/GA London with no Technical Co-Founder, but no end of stubborn determination to see it made.

In early 2010 James Robb joined as my co-founder, and by March that year we were one of the 80 teams (selected from over 1,000 applications) pitching to Paul Graham at YCombinator.

It has been a roller-coaster ever since, and we have learnt the hard way why there’s lots of talk within adland about creating product but very little action. Quite simply, there is a vast gulf of understanding between knowing how to make (and be willing to support) digital products as opposed to knowing how to make advertising. To say that we’ve learnt a lot would be a phenomenal understatement.

We went closed Alpha in December 2010 and open Beta in March 2011, just in time to present as part of the UK Trade & Investment delegation to SXSWi. We grew 1200% that month, and since then we have been growing consistently at 35% month-on-month.

Welcome to the end of the beginning :)

MoodShare. Selling ideas just got easier

Off the back of my work with Fallon on the Sony pitch, I was asked to help pitch for the Nationwide UK account at 18 Feet and Rising.

Nationwide is a building society, not a bank. Building societies answer to their members, whilst banks answer only to their shareholders. Unfortunately most people don’t know this. Our challenge was to make what many wrongly consider a semantic difference into something tangible that they could talk about in the pub.

- Route #1 -
- Rewarding Members -

Belonging.
We all want it, and we all need it.
Community is at the heart of belonging,
And membership is at the heart of community.
You could even say that it’s fundamental to being human.

Whether it’s church on Sunday, or the mosque at 5am.
Perhaps it’s football practice on Tuesday in preparation for the derby,
Or a cheeky pint on Friday night after work.
We all need to believe in something bigger than the individual.
And we become richer for doing so.

Nationwide’s heritage is unquestionable.
From humble beginnings in the Midlands,
To one of the world’s safest financial institutions.
We’ve always dependably stood behind our members.
But today’s economic climate demands a more tangible benefit.

We have to be bold.
Now is the time to be brave.
We must become the world’s first members only bank.

Which means doing things differently.
Like new customers can no longer walk in off the street,
But need to be invited by a current member instead,
With both parties rewarded for growing the business.

Think of the publicity.
But this is no hollow PR stunt.
Nor is it exclusivity for it’s own sake.
It is wholesale change to restore a cynical public’s trust,
And empower staff and members to take control.

It’s banking on a whole new level.

Nationwide. Rewarding Members.

- Route #2 -
- Clearly Better Banking -

Understandable.
Responsive.
Transparent.

Doesn’t really sound like a bank, does it?
Which is a shame.
But worse, it’s a problem.

Any recent online review of Nationwide confirms it as true,
And no amount of advertising will really fix it.
Because changing perception is not true change.
True organisational change trumps advertising every time.

We need to be humble enough to admit the problem,
And in doing so, we create a massive opportunity for Nationwide.
Nationwide has always treated all customers equally.
It’s now time to capitalize on this and extend the natural lead.
We can be more easily understood.
We can be more responsive.
If only we embrace transparency as our guiding principle.

We have a responsibility to present the good with the bad.
Uncomfortable truths become a catalyst for change instead of something to hide.
Both members and staff deserve nothing less.
They have a vested interest in the business.
So let’s empower them to carry the message,
That Nationwide walks the walk.

We begin with the very vocal appointment of a Chief Transparency Officer,
To lead all employees on a quest for true organizational change,
From the CEO down to the envelopes.
It’s time to challenge the status quo.

Together we can reinvent banking.

Nationwide. Clearly Better Banking.

Headspace is a startup that aims to make meditation an indispensable tool for modern life.

Working alongside the core strategy team at BBH London, my role was to source and direct a team of super talented freelancers. In a few short months we created everything you can possibly imagine for the new brand – logo, tone of voice, explanatory illustrations and animations, guided meditations, films, emails, Keynotes, stationery, books, and of course an entire website and iPhone app.

Creative Director – Zoltan Csaki
Strategy – Emma Caldwell (BBH)
Strategy – Ben Shaw (BBH)
Production – Alice Bullimore (BBH)
Illustration – Cristina Guitian
Animation – Ewen Stenhouse
Design (Web) – Ghazwan Hamdan (Maek)
Design (Print) – Alicja Pytlewska
Design (iPhone) – David Black
Copy – Clare Aitken

After creating the most memorable ads of the noughties, Fallon London had to re-pitch for the global Sony account in late 2009.

With enough traditional creatives to sink a ship, my brief was to diversify their pitch offering by conceiving platform ideas across every facet of the Sony Corporation.

- The Adwords Novel (Experiment #2) -

Sony is an entertainment company. But people don’t necessarily think about it that way.

So we create a series of experiments that challenges consumer’s perceptions about what ‘entertainment’ actually means in a world defined by digital media. And we get them to re-evaluate Sony in the process.

The Adwords Novel is one such experiment, redefining search as entertainment.

Using Google’s Adwords system, we create a choose-your-own-adventure-style novel across the internet. We commission a series of authors to begin the process, and we then open it up to bloggers via the Adwords system on their own sites. The result is an ever-evolving narrative. At any point people can purchase the novel as a physical object via Lulu.

The consumer experience starts when you type that most well-worn of beginnings into Google: “Once upon a time…”. But when does it end? How deep does the Rabbit hole go? Read on to find out…

- Audio Engineer -

Streaming music services have revolutionised how we listen to music, but often do not appeal to audiophiles due to a perceived lack of quality.

So there is an opportunity to create a service allowing you to get the most out of your hi-end equipment without sacrificing your favourite streaming service.

Sony Audio Engineer is a monthly subscription that automatically provides custom EQ settings for every song that ever existed and adjusts your system on the fly. Sit back and relax knowing that you’re hearing each and every song in all it’s glory, from Brahms’ choral classics to Beyonce’s crooning.

- GeoDrop -

GeoDrop is a service that allows you to leave digital messages and media at physical locations for your lovers, friends and colleagues to collect when they pass through the same area. Imagine you’re walking to work and your friend Sarah has left you a song that she bought yesterday and thinks you’ll like.

Interestingly Caterina Fake (the co-creator or Flickr) launched Pinwheel in early 2012 which is exactly the same concept.

But GeoDrop is more than a virtual geocaching service. Coupled with a game mechanic, it becomes a platform for launching new albums and/or films.

Random clips of unreleased content are left around the physical world, and tactical location-based ads/media are used to create a game to hunt them down. A simple mobile app is created that works much like a radar, beeping “warmer” around content caches.

But the snippets are not time-coded, so the community is encouraged to post whatever they find online. Because you don’t know if it’s the beginning, the middle or the end, the challenge then becomes to reverse engineer the track. The first person to correctly engineer the clips gets to meet then artist and also gets their name/s in the credits.

Used in this way as a launch platform, GeoDrop not only ensures deep engagement but also a ready-made pool of remixes by the time the original version is released.

- UMMDB -

The Un-Made Movie Database links aspiring directors and writers (and everyone else associated with film production) with investors around the world to collaboratively create indie films.

Think Angelist but for movies.

- Second Unit Bazaar -

Sony creates a global marketplace for second unit shots. Directors can post a briefs and budgets and have local crews respond. For example, Spike Jonze needs a shot of a lonely cottage in the Scottish Highlands.

Think 99 designs but for motion picture production.

The fantastical world of Avatar is set in the year 2150. Yet we are stuck in the very real world of the present day, trying to sell products with 2009 technology.

‘Connecting Worlds’ was an unrealised ARG concept to bridge this gap, where Nokia creates a version of it’s future self set in the same world as Avatar. Our vision was to enhance the film going experience, whilst creating a legitimate space for Nokia to own the discussion around the future of communication.

- Your passport to the future -

Based on the insight that everyone is inherently curious to explore the future, we create a series of wormholes as a mechanic to link the two worlds.

The most basic wormholes exist as QR codes on seemingly innocuous press ads of future Nokia products such as the N-7370 ‘Direct Neural Interface’. But there are hundreds of other wormholes hidden in plain sight across Twitter, Youtube, Nokia websites, partner websites, interactive fly-posters and digital OOH.

- Redefining a film partnership -

When you exit a wormhole, everything is familiar yet very different. Everything is in stereoscopic 3D and the internet has gone intergalactic, with planetary domains.

There are two major entrance points to the 2150 content – nokia.com.earth and navi.pandora – and the central challenge was to make them cohesive and complementary regardless of the consumer’s place in the engagement pyramid.

Nokia (Earth) is a place to explore the future of communication. New Nokia products as well as archives from the R+D labs of 2009. An interactive timeline back to the N97 charting all the major technological developments and Nokia patents. A film about Nokia’s recent work with the “Charity For Returned Marines Unable to Adjust to A Singlular Body”

Whilst the Navi (Pandora) site is an encyclopaedia of all the planet’s flora and fauna and an anthropological study of the native Na’vi culture narrated by David Attenborough’s great-great-great-grandson.

- Example Journey -

I thought it would be nice to take de-commissioned train departure signs (the rotating ones), and repurpose them to display a Twitter feed / hashtag. Currently looking for collaborators…

This was the first pitch that we won after creating the de-construct office in Amsterdam. The brief was simply to connect Tommy Hilfiger Denim with music.

Eschewing the easy route of simply associating Hilfiger with whatever semi-famous band they couldn’t afford, we decided to create a meaningful in-store experience instead.
My Denim, My Music is an interactive audio installation that allows customers to release the sound of the new denim styles whilst browsing in-store.

Together with Kin, we installed 38 super-sized ‘cassettes’ outside the changing rooms of the major Hilfiger stores around Europe. Each cassette was over 1 metre tall and contained a Mac Mini, car amplifier, subwoofer and speakers.

Hidden within every pair of jeans was an RFID chip which released the unique soundtrack of that style whenever anyone walked out of the change rooms. The result was a tangible in-store connection to the strapline, which surprised customers and ultimately drove sales.

Agency – de-construct NL
‘Cassette’ creation and installation – Kin
Music – Skinner Bros. Music

Everything Matters is much more than a consumer-facing website. It is the entire comms platform for Panasonic Europe through to 2010. And its the culmination of almost a year’s work which began with the strategy, in conjunction with Strawberry Frog (NL) and Vizeum (UK).

As a website, ‘Everything Matters’ is a content portal. It was created to be a central repository for the various brand stories that Panasonic has to tell. Both in style and approach, it is a radical departure for Panasonic. There is very little product detail on the site and the soft grey gradients on white was dispensed with for a more tactile, human art direction. Major battles that we fought very hard to win.

Awarded the FWA Site of the Day 02.09.2008
Awarded the Interactive Pick of the Day 05.09.2008 by Creativity Online

The content on the site was conceptualised to be varied in both form and depth – sitting somewhere between a print ad and a website. In other words, some information but with the visceral impact and simplicity of a print ad, aided where possible by interactivity.

It is scheduled to grow massively over the coming 3 years, from world-firsts through to tiny details that make their digital cameras the best in their class. All reinforcing the philosophy that ‘Everything Matters’.

I was the conceptual and creative lead on this project, with a team of 3 designers, 3 flash devs, a 3D animator and a sound designer.

Launch Everything Matters

2007 saw Adidas (global) focus most of their marketing budget on the second version of their ‘Impossible is Nothing brand campaign. de-construct created this destination site to house the inspirational content of Adidas’ stable of world-class athletes including David Beckham and the current men’s 100m World Record holder, Tyson Gay.

Awarded a Gold Clio 2008, Content & Contact.

With deeper user-generated content ruled out by Adidas, we were left with tonnes of video content – courtesy of the ATL agency 180 Amsterdam – but nice films do not a website make. So we set about translating the athelete’s ‘impossible’ stories into a series of interactive games. We also opened the engine up to all users, allowing them to create their own ‘impossible’ games and then embed them in their myspace/blog.

As the Art Director, I was responsible for 3x online shoots in London, Madrid and Los Angeles as well as a team of 8 people including 3x designers, 3x flash developers, 1x sound designer, and the external agency creating the games.

Launch Impossible is Nothing

‘Un-illustrated’ explores the power of illustration using absence to speak volumes.

I set about removing illustration elements from iconic pieces of communication / graphic design. Then I set up a Flickr group and opened the project up to anyone willing to spend 15 minutes in front of Photoshop. This was both an experiment into the ‘stickiness’ of the idea as much as a way of distributing the workload. It continues to be a work in progress.

Launch Un-illustrated

Just another Jesus shirt you’re thinking, right? Not exactly… ‘Muslim Jesus’ is a reflection on the futility of religious intolerance. From afar, Jesus stares serenely at those surrounding you. But up close, Islamic crescents cluster together in abstract patterns. Anyone close enough to know this and still want to have it out, should’ve already registered on your fuckwit radar.

‘Muslim Jesus’ is one of the t-shirts I designed for the-affair. The graphic itself is the output of a Flash engine I developed which takes an image and replaces the pixels with a symbol. Its actually an iteration of a previous project Your Own Personal Jesus, where you can read more about the process and Flash engine.

Boredom Is Your Fault was an outlet to hone my critical thinking and writing about the advertising industry for many years. The name serves as a personal manifesto and the logo intentionally mimics children’s fridge magnets, to remind us all that we should look at the world as with the eyes of a child.

Begun in January 2006, its an uncompromising filter of the best creativity that our little globe has to offer – be it art, design, advertising, music or fashion – an archive of all the best stuff I discover during countless hours spent scouring the web. Its the space where I can say what I think about other people’s work whilst shamelessly promoting my own.

Discontinued in January 2010 owing to time commitments.

Launch Boredom Is Your Fault

‘Your Own Personal Jesus’ is a project that explores the idea that religion has been replaced with global consumer capitalism and its associated vices.

Taking an iconic image of Jesus as a template, I developed a system in Flash which replaces the pixels with any symbol desired. The example above is a composite as follows: Alcohol; Death #1; Tobacco; Cocaine; Caffeine; Wealth #1; Ecstasy; Death #2; Wealth #2 (running top-to-bottom).

Launching soon as a website, Your Own Personal Jesus will open this project up for anyone to upload any symbol of their choice, then publish the result as part of their blog, allowing them to quickly and easily make a comment on religion today. The results will be exhibited in London.

Launch Your Own Personal Jesus

This wall was the second collaboration between myself, Dangerous Dave and Wen. We began a few days before halloween with 20 litres of black paint, the previous mural and numerous cans of cheap lager.

Volkswagen UK partnered with 4 illustrators across Europe to create a series of de-cals for the New Beetle. Apart from a microsite, it was decided that VW actually needed a new brand to best communicate the concept behind the project.

After many proposals, ‘Art’ was chosen. From this point it was a small, logical step to use the gallery metaphor for the microsite.

Launch Beetle Art

Article published in Computer Arts magazine about branding in the digital world.

My position was – and still is – that brands can and must interact individually with the online consumer. It is no longer enough to design a logo with only the printer in mind because a rigid set of guidelines cannot effectively communicate with an increasingly fragmented audience.

Online, flexibility is key, and the most successful brands respond to their audience, give them feedback, and grow and change over time. In terms of creating marques that embracing this flux yet retain a consistent message, the only way is to create systems as opposed to static logos.

Read the full article

These seven images are a small selection of a much larger series completed in 2000, whilst I was living in Barcelona. Though many of these images are not from Spain, they reflect my own search for identity whilst assimilating into another culture.

Each image captures a single protagonist engaged in their own life, thoughts and desires. Stylistically borrowing from the social-documentary images of Inge Morath, the series is an attempt to capture the inherent beauty of the everyday whilst metaphorically capturing my own situation.

Exhibited May 2002, Palace Cinemas Leichardt, Sydney.