SCAD: Sleep Comes After Death

So, obviously when you are exhausted the best idea is to go out dancing until the wee hours of the morning!

Where were we when (alliteration) I abandoned you? After the design museum, we headed back towards our hotel. There was an exhibit that opened earlier this week at the V&A museum (which is still right across the street from us). This exhibit was a digital media exhibit, exploring art in new technology. It was pretty interesting. When you walk in, you walk past these cat-tail shaped things, which have sensors on them so as you walk by they light up. Simple stuff. The cooled part of this exhibit will be hard to explain, but I will try. There were all sorts of cylinders strung up together, in a grid I guess. They were painted from tan to black. When you stepped in front of it, the cylinders rolled, making a mirror image of you. Now, it was not detailed enough to get your eye sockets or anything, but it was detailed enough so that you could see your outline, and some 3-d details. Very very cool piece of technology. There were about 30 pieces in this exhibit, and it cost 4 pounds. I think it was worth it though. Stuff I need to know about, and keep on top of!

After I finished in there, I headed back to my room - exhausted. I sat down for about 10 minutes, then the guys came knocking on my door. The three of us went to see the Festival of Choirs at St Martins of the Fields, by Trafalgar Square. It was like all Festivals of the Choirs, but it was a good change of pace. Very pretty music, and who doesn't love the birth of Jesus!

Phillip is from Texas, and on the first night we were here we stumbled across a restaurant/bar called the Texas Embassy of London. So, of course we went for him! I had some Corona and Quesadillas! It was a delicious meal. I love Mexican food, and have been missing it greatly for the past few weeks. There was a girl working there from Colorado. From there we wondered until we found the plaque that said "Something something something, the Republic of Texas." Phillip was very excited and happy about that! Got back around midnight, and slept.

This morning we met around 10 again. Nice. First stop was Pentagram. Obviously everyone except for me and one other got on the wrong train. People just don't know how to travel. I cannot imagine being in a non-english speaking country with this group. They are a mess. I miss my car a lot, and my freedom, and my independence.

Anyways, back to Pentagram. This studio is more Graphic Design than Advertising Design. It was good to stop by there, and learn about them. (Especially since I thought about GRDS as a minor, and haven't gotten around to dropping it yet - oops) Also, they gave us each a $60 book. Something to look at on the plane! The lady that met with us does package design for luxury brands (fine wines, etc) and the guy focus more on department store stuff. A nice mix, and they complimented each other very well.

Next we had a meeting at Wolff Olins, which was a branding agency. We met with an American transplant, and a British guy. The American lady worked on Targets "Up & Up" brand, in New York. Since I am taking BRANDING THEORY next quarter -wahoo?- it was a good introduction into their process. Of course, we won't have a process in our class, and it will probably be a shit show - welcome to SCAD group projects! Anyways. They also design the shit logo for the Olympics in 2012, which are here in London. I feel like last time I was here they had just found out they had the 2012 games, and had started construction. Interesting - I hadn't thought about that until now. There is a lot less construction going on here than last time, but the city skyline is still interrupted with a lot of cranes. Besides the point.

We were done with all of that around 3, and it took until after 4 to get back to the hotel. Gotta love a city that has train rush hour all day. Hung out with Ashley in the room, blogged a wee bit, and got ready for our $10,000 dinner. Yes, SCAD paid for this - and by that I mean, it was included in our trip costs.

We went to an Italian place within walking distance from the hotel. It was delicious. Since the professors said that the bill would include everything except alcohol, I think my meal alone came to about $100. We had like 3 baskets of pizza bread (between 4 of us); I had a calamari appetizer; gorgonzola, mushroom, and pink sauce pasta; chocolate truffle yumminess; a cappaccino; and about four diet cokes. I would count that a success. Also, the professors were taking shots of Lemoncello. Silly old people. Gotta love em! Dinner took about two and a half hours. Which was about an hour and a half longer than anyone wanted to be there.

At 9:45 most of the group (about 25 of us) met in the lobby to go out! We started at a few pubs close to the hotel. Eventually we ended up splitting up, and 9 of us went to a place called "Motion." Obviously this is a dance club. A dance club full of AMERICANS. It was bullocks. Haha, actually it was a lot of fun and we knew most of the music, but I would have preferred be with the natives. My feet are killing me and I am sleepy.

I have to be downstairs by 9:30 tomorrow morning, oye. Its almost 4 here now. Should enjoy a few hours of sleep before we go to the Abbey. Love you all! Be home soon!

i am a sleepy girl, so you only get lower case letters. at least i'm letting you have punctuation, and this is not total stream of consciousness.

yesterday was a busy day. started at 10, which was nice. i will consider that a late start. we headed to fallon, which is yet another well know agency. they did the sony advertisements with the balls. fun fact, they actually taped that it was not digitally produced as most people assume. pretty fantastic. another ad they did they built a car out of cake, for real. it took over a week. i like the way this agency works. there are no limits to what they do. their most recent success was this one. love it? good.

after that we headed to the design museum. the focus was on industrial design, and architecture. it was very cool. it was only two levels. the first was packed with architecture. there were models every and pictures of insane buildings (ironically most of them were museums). it was crazy, and very cool. there was even a concept that was made for atlanta! but it was never built. the second floor was all about braun, and their products. it was interesting to see how things have changed over the years, and how much has stayed the same. they focus on simple design, not decorating things to make people want them. a pretty solid mentality.



just realized i have to be downstairs in half an hour for dinner, and i am currently wearing shorts and a tee shirt- not quite proper for going out. ah! more later, sorry to bomb outta here mommy dear.

Yesterday, briefly.

Mother - Fantastic. Very different from every other agency we've been to. I would take a job there tomorrow if they handed it to me - but of course they do not do that. Silly American Dream.
(Pictures of all of the employee's mothers in the lobby)

Museum of Brands - Geeked out. Interesting stuff. Packed from wall to wall. Decided to skip the entire section on Guinness, since I've been to the Guinness factory. Overall though there was not very much information, and the museum was designed poorly. It was still great to see all of the different things.

Lunch- Excellent. Had a goat cheese salad (been eating those everywhere), and a basket of sweet potato chips (fries). Mmmm it was good.

Shopping - Got back at about 2 from the museum and such. Ashley, my roommie here, was heading out to Oxford Circus to shop, so I tagged along. Broke down and bought a pair of pants. All of the pants that I brought with me have a brownish tint to them, but they smell nice because I am a champion packer and brought a bottle of Febreze. They were cheap enough that I figure if I wear them twice it will have been worth it. I'm wearing them now, so halfway there!

Monk - I met a monk yesterday. He was cute and nice. The first thing he said to us (me and Ash) was, "I'm a monk. This means I can't marry. Sorry to let you down." Haha silly man. Gave us each a book on meditation and Eastern Religion. I probably won't read it.

End - Got back from shopping at about 7. People were either going to the Ice Bar, or to see Wicked. I chose neither. Both would have been fun, but both were incredibly expensive. One day, when I'm rich.

(From "An Absurd Reasoning" which I have not read, but I bet it's like "The Stranger" [which I have read] - better in French.)

That is all for now! Off to Fallon, and the Design Museum. Apparently the gift shop in the Design Museum is better than the museum itself (the Graphic Design class has already gone). Cheers!

A quick update. I just ate another delicious breakfast, I have to be downstairs in by 9 for our trip to Mother.

Yesterday our trip to Grey Advertising fell through, which turned out to be fine. We started the morning wondering around Harrods. If I had a million dollars... It was pretty sweet to walk around. There is a lot of stuff there! After about 2 hours, maybe 3, of that insanity (most of which we spent on the kid's floors), Alex and I headed to the Science Museum.

This place was like every science museum I've ever been to put together, and shot up with steroids! It was so cool. I could have spent about 5 more hours in there, and I don't even like science! There was a nifty exhibit on plasticity. Barbie was all over that part, very interesting. There were lots of little kids on field trip there, haha. Made me think of my Club J kiddies back home! Kids here are way cuter, but only because of the accents. When they say "Mummy" it cracks me up. ANYWAYS... In the Science Museum there was also a lot of stuff about the body, but not gross stuff like I think is in the Bodies Exhibit back home. A lot about genetics, and cloning etc. Interesting business.

Lalalalala...

We had tea time with Mark at 4. But without the tea. Quite disappointing, it was like regular old class. Ugh. Except no one has done much work. I mean, there is still a month until our campaign are due. (Love you mom- don't kill me!)

After that, we were still in a kid kinda mood so Phillip, Alex, and I headed to Hamley's. This is a 6 or 7 story tall toy store! Ha! It was so fun. I want to be a kid again. We spent a few hours in there, playing and walking around, "oooooing" and "ahhhhing." It was life changing. After that we went to Wagamama's for dinner. I am in love with that place. It's a chain here, and it closely compares to Tin Drum back home. Scrumdidilyumptious. Then, we walked some more, and back to the hotel. Early night. I took a bath, and climbed in bed! (And watched Ocean's Eleven)

I think that is all for now. Sorry there are no pictures, I didn't have my camera with me most of yesterday. Cheers! Love!

Brighton Beach

I will spoil you with pictures assuming you made it through that last post. Today we went to Brighton Beach.



Rocks make it hard to build a sandcastle


They're a little backwards here sometimes... i'm pretty sure it works better if you put the boat in water, not the water in the boat.


This was a cool piece of art. it's just a big black piece of metal with holes, but when the sun shines through you can see the images. (notice the boys kissing - so far ahead of us on that one)

After seeing this hilarious sign, we had to stop and get some doughnuts... they were very tasty. (basically small round funnel cakes)


There were a lot of over priced roller coasters (3 plus pounds each ride). Apparently we (the States) aren't the only ones good at that.

Volleyball must continue in winter - but only if you are wearing a Santa hat!

Cuties. They're dating.

Saw more of these flags than British ones... pathetic.


Bobo? Hobo? Sweet font choice.



Took about an hour to get to on the over ground train. So we got to see lots of pretty scenery (which I didn't take pictures of) It was a very cool place to visit, and we were lucky not to get rained on! Cheers! Goodnight! and Love!

Oye, now I'm behind... but I am still alive! I will sip my English tea, and try to catch you up.

Thursday night something happened, but I don't remember what. The days are beginning to run together. I think I just went to dinner... maybe. Oh right! We went and got Crepes. Mmmmmm delicious. There is a fantastic place near the hotel. (I've eaten there a couple of times.) I had the Mona Lisa, it was fresh spinach, feta and a fried egg. Quite excellent. After that we just chilled in the hotel. Late in the night I explored some. There are some fantastic (and expensive) townhouses on the road behind our hotel. It is a very quiet, nice area.

Friday I got to sleep in a little. Sadly this meant that I missed hotel breakfast, so I went and got another Crepe. This time I got a sweet one, chocolate and banana. It also was excellent. Mmmmmmm. Met the Ad class at the hotel, and we headed towards the Tate Modern. Last time I was here this museum had the biggest impact on me. It was great to revisit. We had a museum tour, which of course sucked. The girl leading us was cute and I assume knowledgeable, but she whispered so I'm not totally sure. She had a wooden arm.

After she dropped us off in a black box, we had the rest of the afternoon free. A black box you wonder? It was an interactive installation. It was a huge box, and I mean huge. Like 40 feet tall, i don't know how deep, pretty wide. What you do is you walk into it. You just continue walking, not knowing where the end of this huge black box is. Eventually you walk into a wall, literally. Thankfully the wall is velvet. The point of this is to create the existentialist feeling. It was silly. I wish I could get paid for doing that shit.

Anyways, like I said, we had the rest of the afternoon free. I walked around the free stuff a little more, lost the whole group, then decided to pay the like 20 pounds to go to the 4th floor to see two more exhibits. Well worth the money. The first was called "Pop Life: Art in a Material World" As you can guess from the title there was a lot of Andy Warhol. It was interesting to read about how Warhol is considered a sellout because he played into the celebrity culture, and produced art to please famous people. It was great. There was some Jeff Koons there (basically porn), as well as other artists. There was an interesting room of Black Culture. A few interesting pictures of MLK, and other various influential characters. There was also rap music playing, hmmmmm. Peculiar. Quite mixed messages.

Next exhibit was....... John Baldessari, "Pure Beauty." This was a bomb exhibit. I knew nothing about John before going in, but it was crazy cool! He was born in Los Angeles, wuddup America! I enjoyed this more than Pop Life, surprisingly.

After I got my fix of Modern art for the day, I walked outside. I decided that instead of going back the way we came, to the Tube station I knew, that I would wonder the other direction. Always a good choice. I crossed the bridge and walked towards St. Paul's Cathedral. Last time I was here in London, we went through the tour and took pictures from the top. It was very strange though... I walked up on the south side, and was like "Yeah, I remember this." But, when I reached the west side I was hit with this very strong like "YEAH, I'VE BEEN HERE." The feeling was crazy. It hit me so hard. It's interesting. All through this trip things have been familiar, and I've recognized things, but this was the first slap in the face feeling of such. It was crazy cool.


Once my hands went numb (about 2 hours of aimlessly wondering after I left the museum), I started looking for a bus stop. Hopped on the bus, found a tube station, and headed to the hotel. End of another successful day. (Apparently there was a mouse in our room... it didn't bug me, I just rolled over and went back to sleep after my roommate told me.)

Saturday was an early morning. Had to be in the lobby by 8:30AM! We went to Portobello Road. I walked around with Mark a lot, had some interesting conversations about religion and life. Then walked with Phillip and Alex. The market was insane! All of the food looked delicious, and there were tons of super cute clothes, and really interesting antiques. Fun fact : there are very few dressing rooms in the shops around there, so women just try on clothes in the middle of the street or the stores, on top of their sweaters and jeans. How the hell do people shop like that?! I ate a delicious Greek Salad Sandwich. Mmmmmmmm. When we were leaving there were even more people than when we got there. Also, we were heading in the wrong direction from the masses. Which means we all got split up from each other. Seeing that I was alone, and it was early in the day (about 12:30), I seized the opportunity to go to the Dali exhibit!

When I got there, they let me in for 7 pounds. Haha, it pays to be a lone American, and once again adorable! I wasn't even dressed poor, or asking for handouts! Hahaha. This place was incredible. There was a lot happening in there. It was very interesting, and not exactly what I expected. Granted, I didn't know what to expect. In the basement there was an interactive wall, where you were given cans and as you pointed them at the wall, it was like you were spray painting. The little kid in me hung out with the artist in me, and they had a grand time - thankfully I was the only one in the room! Also in the exhibit there were like 12 Picasso pieces. Those are always splendid. Most of them were from his blue period, which is not his coolest stuff.

After that I was exhausted so I slept from about 4-6. Grabbed some Fish and Chips at a local pub with Alex. It was not the best I've had though. I am however getting fat off of that meal.

The group was planning on meeting at about 8:30 to go out, since it was Saturday night! About 15 maybe 20 of us gathered. We went to a place called O'Neils. Yeah, it was Irish. There were 4 floors. Floor 1 was just a bar, floor two there was a live band for a while, floor 3 was a straight up dance floor, and floor 4 was the outdoor patio. I danced a lot. Do you know how much I love dancing - even if I'm terrible. There was an Irish lad who tried to teach me an Irish dance. It was silly. There was a lot of turning and twisting. At about 1 I gathered up a batch of drunk Americans, played mom, gave them a lot of water, and led them safely back to the hotel. This was more challenging than one would expect. The tube quits running at 12:30. Thankfully I have mad skills, was sober, and figured out the bus system (I only admit to being awesome, because I have rambled on so long that I figure Mommy dear is the only one still reading - and she accepts my skills!) Got back about 2, and slept!

Gotta take a deep breath.

Yesterday we started the day late. First, and only, thing on our schedule was to go to Magma Books. It sounds dumb to come all the way to London to visit a book store, but it was pretty sweet. It is a store fully of design books, and very little else. This ranges from architecture to graphic design to type book to advertising to the ends of the earth. If I lived here I would probably spend all of my money in there. It was very cool.

After that Alex and I headed out. We had the whole afternoon free. (Took a slight detour to a magic shop - he's a geek for that type of stuff). But then we were on a mission. A mission to find W+K, and some Banksy. This search is what led us to the east side, and end of my complimentary map from the hotel (yeah, I have a map now!). Took us a good few hours to find the agency, and it rained on us a lot. The agency was pretty hard to find, and no one around knew any of the street names, but alas, SUCCESS!

While on our journey we found a real Banksy! This graffiti artist is pretty well known. His work is hard to find though because usually it is in back alleys, and sketch places. Also, it gets taken down rapidly, or defaced. I had found a few locations and a blog that was updated regularly with sightings/ updates about freshness. The one I stumbled upon was not on any of these location sites, so we're thinking it might be relatively new. It was an awesome find.

Back to the agency.... We walked in the front door as a man was walking out. He said, "You know this is an agency." We laughed, and said yes (we must've looked pretty roughed up from the rain!!!), then made it to the reception desk (further than we ever expected). Told them we were from the States and wanted to talk to someone. They didn't know what to do with us, haha. We got an e-mail address on a post-it note. And left.

Blah blah blah. Rest of the day: grabbed lunch at Wagamamas (delicious), walked through a little dinky shop (turned out the lady working there, Emma-Jane, knows someone that works at W+K Portland! Small world. She gave us his contact information as well!), then sort of headed back to the hotel. Took a wee nap. GOT AN E-MAIL BACK FROM W+K SCHEDULING A MEETING WITH US!!!! Then 15 of us went to dinner. We went to an Indian place. Not very good Indian food, but a good enough dinner. After dinner three of us decided to head back to do research on the team we were meeting, and the agency in general.

Blah blah blah.

Today, Alex, Phillip (we let him tag along), and I skipped the museum tour scheduled (at the National Gallery), because we had a meeting at W+K! We met with Pat McKay, and Feh Tarty. Google them. They're a fantastic team!!! They worked at Goodby Silverstein in San Francisco before (another great agency). It was great to talk to American transplants, and get their views on the actual differences between here and there. They were very knowledgeable and full of great advice! It was an incredible opportunity. I would love to go into more depth and talk more about the meeting, but it is tea time with Homeslice Mark. Just know, it was worth it! (Also, mom you will like to know that we think that they took the meeting with us because both of them looked at SCAD when applying for schools... your millions of dollars in tuition for the name SCAD is worth it!)

Love to you all, Cheers!