P THERE, directed by Malcom Murray & commissioned by Stella Artois, is a moving short documentary that “reveals the dying craft of large-scale hand painted advertising and the untold story of the painters struggling to keep it alive.”

Capturing a trade that is equal parts artistic precision and grueling labor, the film presents a painting tradition pre-dating modern advertising. A craft that today finds itself dangling precariously on the brink of extinction.

The film was captured during the making of The Ritual Project, a 20 x 50 foot stop-frame animation painted by a talented group of daredevil artists high above the New York City streets. The animation showed a glass of Stella Artois beer being poured into a glass by tap, and the excess foam scraped off with a blade. The animation took place over three weeks, and the artists kept a daily account of their work via The Ritual Project’s online journal which is also fascinating in itself. The second video is a time-lapse of the stop-frame animation taking form.

ebruary 18, 2010 marked Farfar’s last Tumblr post. It contained an image of a Wacom pen and LaCie Rugged Hard Drive with the caption, “The world’s youngest Farfar turns ten today.” Farfar, in Swedish, means grandfather. If it had been written today, it might have said this instead: “The world’s youngest Farfar ends today.” According to Adland, the Swedish advertising agency officially shut its doors and gave its remaining sixteen employees their pink slips.

It had been a tumultuous last couple of months for the company. Earlier in March, Farfar founder Matias Palm-Jensen quit along with the rest of the Nokia team, indicating that the agency’s owner Isobar was largely to blame. Isobar’s CEO Mark Cranmer felt the closure was necessary for whatever reason, albeit difficult and admitted that today was “the worst day of [his] career” having to fire everyone, but was also quick to add that Farfar was a small investment anyway, however contradictory that all sounds. There seems to be a whole lot of finger pointing, but one thing is for sure: the people at FarFar haven’t been happy under Isobar for quite some time, and now they’re jobless.

This scenario reminded me of The Designer’s Republic being laid to rest in 2009. Like Farfar, the news came as a bit of surprise, but unlike Farfar, the situation had to do with a different combination of factors dealing with internal money and tax issues. Aside from various online sources, I personally have no internal knowledge of how these deaths went down, but as someone who runs a creative studio, I do know this: Don’t be greedy. Which means, don’t grow bigger than you can handle. The best way to maintain control is to build your company off your own dime rather than someone else’s checkbook. It might be a slower process, but it sure beats having your “owner” shut you down. Matias Palm-Jensen even said himself, “I would have continued to run the agency rather than shut it down. And I would have had everyone who left with me onboard...” If you must take out loans or seek investors, make sure you know what you’re getting into. Learn to sniff out pretense a mile away. And for God’s sake, remember to pay your taxes. They don’t call it death and taxes for nothing.

Lastly, I think I’m expected to say this: So Long Gramps, and Thanks for All the… Ads.

Cliff Freeman of Cliff Freeman and Partners, collector of vintage radios and the man who created Where's the beef? for Wendy's, in his New York City office. Credit: Chris Glancy.

David Kennedy at the Portland, OR offices of Wieden+Kennedy during the filming of ART & COPY. Credit: Michael Nadeau.

Chad Tiedeman, erecting billboard for iPod during the filming of ART & COPY. Credit: Michael Nadeau

David Kennedy and Dan Wieden at Sundance

Doug Pray, director of ART & COPY. Credit: Michael Nadeau

ART & COPY trailer from Baldwin& on Vimeo.

‘ll go ahead and admit here that I have a secret love of advertising. Maybe it’s a byproduct of a childhood spent in front the television or a rebellion to my subsequent years in punk rock where all commercialism was despised. Whatever the reason, I remember the day well when, after deciding to officially call myself a graphic designer, I picked up a copy of Ogilvy on Advertising by the legendary David Ogilvy and realized the medium wasn’t entirely corrupt.

If asked about their feelings towards advertising, most people will not hesitate to tell you. They hate it. Between annoying commercials and intrusive billboards, we live in a world bombarded with logos, images and slogans placing ad men in the same paradox that exists for lawyers and cops; you hate them until you need one. And when you do, you’re going to need a good one. Call it a necessary evil or an evil necessity, either way, advertising isn’t going anywhere.

As creatives we are naturally inclined to look at advertising from a different perspective than the one designed for its proper target market. Typography, color psychology, copy, photography, music and brand. Our worlds reside in this universe and rotate around the same sun. Advertising is like a distant cousin to design and just like running into your annoying cousin Fred at a family function, you always feel that conflict between blood-ties and personality. It’s a slippery slope and I have to admit here that I would avoid cousin Fred if I knew he was responsible for the 80% of the crap I see every day. But here’s the rub: what if cousin Fred worked for Apple? Or Google, or any number of other relevant campaigns that for whatever reason make us prick up our ears and take interest? How would I view Fred then? How quickly would my opinion change?

So who are these people who get us to “just do it” and make us question, “where’s the beef”?  What goes on behind the scenes at any given ad agency and how do some of these people sleep at night? Thankfully Doug Pray (Surfwise, Scratch, Hype) and his latest documentary Art & Copy has come to answer those very questions. With interviews ranging from modern heavy-weight figures like Lee Chow (Apple) and Wieden+Kennedy to 1960s mavericks Mary Wells and Phyllis K. Robinson, Art & Copy introduces us to the very people who’ve affected our view on the possibilities of advertising — for better or worse.

he first advertising book I’d ever read was Ogilvy on Advertising, and Mr. Ogilvy asserted in his overture that he most certainly hated rules even though he was sometimes attacked for imposing them. Whatever the case may be, it was in the book I learned that “if you set the copy in black type on a white background, more people will read it than if you set it in white type on a black background.” Since then, I’ve thought about how that rule (or hint as Mr. Ogilvy would prefer to say) applies to the general display of art. What we generally know or have been taught to echo: in portfolio books, art is mounted on black sheets, and in galleries, art is set against stark, white walls. To me, good artistic sensibility should be a mixture of keeping with the rules, and breaking them. I’m always pleased to discover progressive examples of the latter.

In Gallery White is Dead, it was exciting to see various New York galleries with exhibitions mounted on darkly colored walls. Last fall, Andres Serrano had an exhibit on Shit at Yvon Lambert which was mounted on black walls. For a controversial photographer like Serrano who is known to assault the senses, this antithetic context just made sense.

There’s also The Black Wall at the Subway Gallery situated in London’s underground subway path. Curated by R.G. McHarg who is also the founder of the Subway Gallery, The Black Wall is utilized as a public exhibition space to initiate the “transformation of a neglected and unloved space into a dynamic urban art experience, engaging with the public on their journey elsewhere.”

Aside from the actual Black Wall, the Subway Gallery in itself is beautiful, and housed in a small kiosk with walls made of glass resulting in a unique display of art. I’m thinking to myself that this would also make a pretty amazing office with some good people watching to boot, although the lack of natural sunlight might get to me after a while.

ike many influential creatives of the past and present,  I find Takenobu Igarashi’s use of three-dimensional type & geometry to be a serious influence in my growth as a designer. Recognized for his three-dimensional letter forms, posters, calendars, industrial design and sculptures, Takenobu Igarashi has definitely earned himself a place in the international creative industry as an influential & prolific designer. Among his many recognized pieces, I’d say his Habitat De Demain print (among his many other three-dimensional letter form prints) is probably one of my personal favorites [see above], designed for the Japanese Habitat Expo in 85.