When you start out in your advertising career, Pentel in one hand, Macbook in  the other, you seem to be surrounded by good work.
Awards books are choc-a-bloc with it.
As you go on, year by year, you seem to see less and less.
For example, the first D&AD Annual looked at probably had an 80/20 ratio of good to bad.
10 years later those percentages are likely to have flipped.
As you move on you become less swayed by awards, famous names or cool agencies, you now have 10 years of data to compare any new idea to - Is it as fresh as A? As funny as B or, actually, isn’t it just a reworking of C?
It’s hard not to.
You’re no longer that naïve, impressionable young thing you once were.
In the music business they believe that our musical taste can be tracked back to our 16th summer; that's when we were most impressionable and hungry for experiences.
As you get older it gets harder to find that tingle of excitement you feel when you experience things for the first time.
In advertising, not being easily excited can be seen as being jaded.
In fashion, architecture and many other creative they have different name for it; knowledge.
I say this for two reasons;
a) I’ve seen A LOT of stuff.
b) David's stuff always causes a tingle, (not a minty-fresh, mouth tingle, but a work-fresh, excitement tingle).
Somehow, he manages to produce work that feels like it's avoided committees, cliches and compromises.
Whereas most work can be quickly categorised as good or bad, with David’s I often have to think about first.
The Orange spot with the couple dancing; Is that good?
The Guardian ‘3 Little Piggies’; Is that good?
The Coal Drops Yard Branding with the seemingly random bunch of shapes, pictures and colours; Is that good?
None are what you’d expect.
Each take balls to go with.
All are hard to ignore or forget.
Much of the work he’s created and overseen at Drog5 London feels as though the team enjoyed thinking it up, then just couldn’t wait to make it and show the world.
Good work tends to have that vibe.
Unfortunately, we recorded this a while back, and David being David, he came up with a cunning way to make this podcast not only unusual, but complicated to make.
Eventually, for reasons that would take too long to go into, it's coming out in a non-unusual, uncomplicated, familiar format. (Soz David.)
It means that we don’t cover the great work Droga5 have been knocking out over the last year or so, like their exceptionally tingley Super Bowl ad for Amazon.
Enjoy.