gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

Forgive my lack of marketing vocabulary, but...

What is "in-house collateral?"

Well done on getting a gig out of your hobby and all that, but looking at their site, something feels wrong.

I've seen lots of your cartoons, and their general feel seems to be highlighting faults in the advertising and media industries, or character flaws of the people involved in them.

Having seen Cravens' front page, my first thought was "who is this cartoon poking fun at?". Apparently nobody, which is disconcerting in itself. It's like Chris Evans being on Radio 2.

I don't know much about advertising, so I can't say how different Cravens are to the dinosaurs you usually mock. They seem to offer solutions rather than opening up conversations, and they don't appear to mention blogs, other than that they read yours. Maybe it's just easier to appear to be progressive by having your cartoons on their site.

Looking at the "people who pay their wages" section, I read: "every piece of Aqua Sphere's communication to the market - including product ads - has to be a brand building ad too."

Remembering that you maintain that branding is dead, I wondered why you agreed to work for Cravens.

I searched your site for blog posts about branding being dead, and found: "Besides, nobody is currently offering to pay me the big bucks to help keep the ever-drearier Brand Metaphor alive on their behalf".

So, did you work for them because you're proud to be associated with them, or because they offered you the big bucks?

Nice :) It must be a great feeling seeing your doodles spreading.

"So, did you work for them because you're proud to be associated with them, or because they offered you the big bucks?"

Heh. You assume my motivations were limited to just pride and/or greed. Interesting.

"in-house collateral"... brochures, business cards, compliment slips, stationery for themselves, that kind of thing.

The site looks absolutely great. Very cool stuff.

this is brilliant... and very very "i will also get back into using my black pointer phase"inspirational thing. way to go!!!!:)

"You assume my motivations were limited to just pride and/or greed. Interesting."

Yes, I suppose I did assume something like that, which I shouldn't have - sorry.

So if it was neither of those, does that mean they're ok, and not the sort of agency that you would usually draw cartoons about? If so, then fine, I'll remember their name, and I'll get in touch with them if I need an agency. If not, I'd be interested to know why you'd want to be involved with them.

Simon, Jamie Warde-Aldham is a capital fellow, and I was delighted to have the opportunity to work with him. I also happen to think highly of his colleagues.

Nice company, great people, plus the have a huge aversion to the normal agency bullshit I despise.

The other thing: because they're based in the North, it saves them massive overheads, compared to London. A man without fear is less likely to lie to you.

Cool. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

That's hilarious. When I left college many years ago, I had my first and only ever ad company interview with Cravens in Leamington Spa. It didn't appeal at that time. But - interesting that it's a company you rate, in a sphere you don't. Maybe our paths would've crossed.

BTW - you still you looking to rejoin the dating game? I know someone who may be interested and is very interesting. Email me if you're game.