I am taking a creative break at the moment. I'm supposed to be working on some presentation boards for my Dad, but wasn't feeling terribly inspired. I hate it when that happens. Usually I can run through a magazine or two and things start to click. So I started thinking about some cool things I've been entertained by recently . . .

I watched Casino Royale the other day and I really liked the opening credits sequence. And, in case you haven't seen it, it didn't involve nekkid women. The graphics were kind of retro and, I thought, clever. They used playing card motifs throughout and had some fun with it. Personally, after I see the creative work that some people generate, I would love just to be a fly on the wall in their studio for a while. If you haven't seen the movie, I'd recommend it for that sequence alone (but I get excited about little design things like that) -and the gritty black and white opening scenes. I enjoyed the rest of the movie too. However, I find that sometimes I tune into the wrong things. Justine can testify to that! -I am easily distracted by furniture. "M" has some nice Barcelona chairs in her flat, and there is one tender scene in which the female lead (I suppose properly I should call her a "Bond girl") has a bit of a breakdown in the bathroom and I caught myself thinking "Ooooo. That is one nice toilet. I wonder if it's Duravit?" and then had to steer myself back to the drama at hand. One thing I did notice though, was prevalent product placement. It begins to bother me when I know I'm being beaten over the head with a particular brand. For example, I don't like it when I actually notice that "Bond . . . James Bond" is driving a Ford? And then realize I was supposed to notice, when the next car that drives by is, surely not, a Ford again? Undoubtably by design. It happened a few more times with different things, and later found a complete list of "partners" when I was trying to find more information on the designers of the title sequence. I'm glad that at least I didn't notice all the namedropping I was supposed to.

But as for some good advertising I've seen lately, Adrian showed me the Sony Bravia comercials. In order to sell the idea of "colour. like no other" they've enlisted bouncy balls on the streets of San Francisco and paint exploding over buildings. Lovely.

That, and the Target commercials this past Christmas didn't use the usual bells jingling in the background for their music; instead they used music from Goldfrapp's Supernature.

It's the little things that make the difference. Really, it doesn't take much to make me happy.