I make a cameo appearance in the January edition of Creative Review. The magazine features the web designers WeFail, who have been working together for 4 years and only met 3 times, partly because one of them is in the States and the other in the UK, but mostly because they prefer collaborating online. And they don’t meet their clients, who include Eminem, Dixie Chicks, Christian Aid and BBDO.
Creative Review asked me what I thought of WeFail’s working practice – well, I’d better not steal their thunder by repeating it here so I’ll just say I was intrigued by their approach and after several months blogging it makes a lot more sense than it would have beforehand. A bit like Russell’s idea of the Global small business.
Come to think of it, I did the Creative Review piece without meeting or even talking to Mark Sinclair who commissioned it. We did it all by e-mail and I didn’t give the process a second thought. It seemed normal.
Technorati Tags: Creative Review, WeFail
Hi Mark.
Is this the CR that just told me that my mother is a whore ?
Was that really necessary ?
Hi Tom,
I assume you’re talking about the wrapper for the February ‘Sell your Soul’ issue edited by Mother. I agree it’s provocative. As to whether it’s ‘necessary’ – well it wouldn’t be my style. I do think the issue as whole raises some good questions about ethics and the commercial side of creativity.
Edit: I see you’ve seen Beeker’s seen it too.
I tried to gently make the point that they got it wrong. I’m doing the zen blogging thing where you’re not angry or rude at people. Not sure why. Probably because I love CR normally. So my main beef is that it’s a bit stupid.
Whichever way I look at it it’s just not logically clear to me that an advertising agency sponsoring a magazine makes my mum a whore.
oh and i just looked up your bit Mark (hadn’t read the WeFail article) and it’s great. you get a whole black box to yourself. richly deserved.
Thanks Beeker, glad you liked the black box.
Re CR, I think the magazine cover itself is much stronger than the wrapper – ‘Mother Paid £15,000 to edit this edition’. As soon as you read that, it sets off all kinds of questions in your mind – Why did they do that? Should they have done it? Was it ethical/clever/stupid? Did they get ripped off? The same questions apply to Mother and Creative Review. Like a ‘Question Mobile’ that hangs there in your mind…