Displaying 1 - 36 of 316 results
Ashley Gray has a dream. That we start respecting the creative industries as much as they respect and include all of us, nurturing our ambitions and making us grow as human beings. Ashley is an excellent 3D artist with his own, cryptic and somewhat...
Posted by: Creativepool Editorial
My topic this week was going to be “how to write an ebook”, for no other good reason than I’ve been asked to write two in the space of a few weeks. Although I know what I’m doing, I thought it might be interesting to pop onto...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Richard McCormack - aka @Paperboyo on Instagram - is a man on a mission; a mission to interpret famous landmarks in an original and ingenious way. Like a non-permanent graffiti artist, he is the cardboard cut-out equivalent of Banksy. Certainly his...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
In what has been a rather unsettling start to 2016 in terms of celebrity “news” – with David Bowie and Alan Rickman creating a torrent of outpouring across social media – we couldn’t let the week go by without a nod to Terry Wogan. Upheld...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I’ve often thought one of the hardest things to do is to come up with a genuinely engaging infomercial. To turn something rather dull that people “really should” watch and listen to into something interesting and/or entertaining...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Avid readers of my Creativepool blog - of which there must be literally…some - will know that I upped sticks and moved from the Big Smoke (London) to the Big Nice And Airy (Saffron Walden) a couple of years ago. During this time, I’ve...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I don’t know about you but my inbox seems to be full to bursting with messages from every Tom, Dick and Hubert offering me advice about how to kick-start my super-productive 2016. It’s only 4th January and I’m bored of it all...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Contrary to what you might think, based on my frequently acerbic blog posts, I am not a complete misery. Oh, things annoy me, sure. And truth be told, probably more so than the average person. As my dad used to say, “I don’t suffer fools...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Does anyone actually enjoy writing Christmas cards? I mean, really enjoy it? I’m going to stick my neck out here and say that most people feel it’s bit of a faff they can do without. By card number ten - assuming you’re trying to...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
On Saturday night, I was at a party. (Yes, I do get out sometimes; it’s not all tracksuit bottoms in front of Grand Designs, you know.) Anyway, at said party, I was speaking to a guy about the Davis Cup finals - yay, Team GB! - and he said that...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Today one of my clients told me that they were winding down for Christmas. Lucky them, I thought. Five weeks to go and they’re already winding down. I mean, we haven’t even had Black Friday yet. (I for one can’t wait to watch the...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Last week, I blogged about the new John Lewis Christmas ad, #ManOnTheMoon. To say that it split opinion is certainly no understatement. Whereas I liked the rather sweet fairy tale where a small girl sends the man on the moon a telescope so that he...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Last year, Sainsbury’s came under a lot of criticism for their World War II-inspired Christmas ad. Some agreed that it was a tear jerker, while others - in spite of the great attention to detail in terms of period costume accuracy and so on -...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
You may have seen this picture below doing the rounds on Facebook last week. And if you did and you’re a creative, you may well have chortled knowingly. Because the sad fact is, most creatives I know have experienced this at some point in their...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Contrary to what Google thinks, I am not interested in dating Christians. No offence to Christians, of course - just that I’m married. So I’m getting a little annoyed that when I log on to various websites, I get more or less harangued...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
For about five or six years, I have blogged for Creativepool. During that time, I’ve written 254 blogs, most of which I hope have been either interesting or amusing, informative or insightful. Some will have been more of one than the other, of...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
North Yorkshire-based design studio and web management agency Phunky Moo has worked across a range of sectors with brands ranging from BMW to CE Electric. This week, we put Adam Hill, Creative Director, under the spotlight to find out more... Phunky...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
..In short, you’re either very lucky or you’re not being very wise. Because I’ve now heard from at least three different sources that in order to keep the money rolling in, us freelancers need to spend 20% of our waking hours (or...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Allow me to let you into a little secret: I’m not very thick skinned. And yet people often assume I am, partly because some of my blogs range from being moderately tongue in cheek to bordering on acerbic. One thing they never are, however, is...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
So apparently, we won the rugby against Fiji on Saturday. 35-11, I believe. But there, I’m afraid, my knowledge of rugby stops. And so does my interest, if I’m honest, unless pizza and beer and a room full of friends is included. Sorry,...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I know a lot of freelancers and, by contrast with their permanently employed counterparts, I would say almost all of them are happy. I’m a freelancer too, and it would take a lot for me to go back to permanent employment now. And I don’t...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
It felt weird and I couldn’t quite work out why. Something was different. And I don’t just mean it was a warm, sunny day in September rather than brass monkeys “shall we turn on the heating?” weather as we’ve been used...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Well, that’s the aim, anyway. Japanese-born Shota Kotake is on a mission. Not quite a holy mission, but one that nonetheless involves him painting the portrait of a priest every day for three years. That priest, though, is Father Ted, the...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
It’s now 40 years since weather forecast symbols were introduced on BBC television. You’d think there would only be so many ways one could represent sun and rain, but there have been a huge number of changes since 1975. It was actually...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I feel sorry for traffic wardens. Apart from the fact that they’re out and about, I can see little satisfaction in doing a job where pretty much everyone loathes you. But there’s arguably a worse job even than that - and you don’t...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Here’s a little fact for you: contrary to urban myth, newsreaders aren’t just wearing underwear when they’re sitting behind their desks, reading off the autocue. Sorry to burst your bubble. I know this because I know somebody who...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I’ve got to say that these days, I’m feeling very creative. Well, quite creative. Make that moderately creative. Better adjust that to a smidgeon creative. Tell you what, put it this way: I’d be feeling exceptionally creative were...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
When I was employed, rather than self-employed, there’s no doubt that I liked various things. Sure, the job itself was ok to start with, but the main thing I liked was the paid holidays. There wasn’t very much in the way of benefits. Paid...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Every morning, my inbox is littered with job ads. The Guardian, Brand Republic, Monster... Not that I’m especially looking for a new job - freelancing from the comfort of my own office at home makes me very happy - but it’s always worth...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Last week, I posted one of my most successful blogs this year. "Top 10 worst corporate phrases" was for all you folk out there who hate ugly jargon such as “reach out”, “touch base” and “push the envelope”. You...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
The other day, I was told to reach out to someone. Reach out. Reach out as if I’m dangling Hollywood-style by my fingertips from a cliff, with Stallone looking all Botoxy-slumpy-faced in front of me, telling me to HANG ON! What I was actually...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
In April of this year, I quit my part-time job of 15 years (almost to the day). Until then, two days a week, I was one of a number of pairs of hands… (ugh! What an ugly way of putting it! But I’m leaving it in because there’s...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Four years ago, I wrote an article about a small Belgrade-based technology company called Strawberry Energy and their ingenious innovation, the Strawberry Tree - a public solar-powered mobile device charging station that popped up for the first time...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
Nobody likes a show-off. Unless they’re on X Factor and have zero talent, of course; THEN we like a show-off because it makes the dismissive “you’ve got four noes” that bit sweeter. But seriously, if you’re going to brag...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
I’m a grumpy git, I know. I never watch Comic Relief and I find Pudsey the giant eye-patched teddy bear more sinister than endearing. For me, there’s nothing more nauseating than being lectured by multi-millionaire...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison
It’s been a heck of a few weeks. Actually, make that a heck of a few months. Why? Because I’ve been revamping my home and it’s taking up every waking hour of my time. It all started off more Kevin McCloud - a la Grand Designs. We...
Posted by: Ashley Morrison