Ten Stories We Have Enjoyed This Week

28th July 2018

‘How will the stories we tell ourselves about who we are change when there’s a lifetime of photographic evidence? From Outline, My Job Is To Remember’. 

What Makes A Good Idea? From D&AD. Arif Haq is a Partner of Freud Communications and in his talk at D&AD Festival 2018, he reveals his unique creative process and shares his journey from business and brand development to being part of the creative team. (registration may be necessary).

New from the Royal Society of Arts. RSA Animate’s little sister – RSA Minimates is a new series of information-packed mini animations, all under 2 mins in length – perfect for the time-poor, ideas-hungry viewer. In this first ever RSA Minimate, bestselling author and sleep scientist Matthew Walker argues that we are sleepwalking into the greatest public health crisis of our time.

Rory Sutherland’s view is that targeted messaging is only one piece of the communications puzzle. ‘Tech companies have tricked advertisers into thinking that message delivery is the be-all and end-all, but we must not forget about creativity and human interaction.’

Tim Harford, on the secret to happiness, after the robot takeover. 

A Chinese music-video app is making We Chat sweat. This bar chart showing app downloads across Q1 2018, makes for surprising reading. 

‘The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.’ It is omnipresent, in every private room and public space, right up until the end of the book, when it is ‘still pouring forth its tale of prisoners and booty and slaughter even after Smith has resigned himself to its rule. Orwell knew: we willingly buy the screens that are used against us.’

Some of you may be enjoying the wonderful BBC Proms season, in the Royal Albert Hall, and other venues. It’s hot in there at the moment and even hotter for the conductors waving their arms around. But what are they doing exactly, and why? 

Missing the wonderful Peaky Blinders? Can’t wait till the next series? This from Creative Review, will be right up your street – ‘Music is often used to heighten a sense of drama on TV but in Peaky Blinders, it has a slightly different function. The soundtrack is a window into the mind of Tommy – a tortured ex-soldier with a sensitive side who appears to be suffering from PTSD after fighting in the trenches during World War One.’

A woman tries to waterski barefoot, gets launched Into the stratosphere.