Blog. What we're doing. What we're thinking. What we like. What we love. And not a single mention of what we had for lunch.
16/01/12
A priceless Christmas present for Yorkshire’s homeless community
Our 2011 Christmas campaign has raised over £1,400 for men and women sleeping rough in Yorkshire. Watch our short film now to find out more about the campaign and our work with Simon on the Streets.
Instead of sending Christmas cards this year, Propaganda worked with Yorkshire-based charity Simon on the Streets to develop a new way of helping the homeless. Our ambient campaign has raised over £1,400 so far and we hope to raise even more:
Watch our short film to find out more about our Christmas campaign:
In one year, a Simon on the Streets support worker will:
Spend over 900 hours on the streets engaging with those in need.
Have supportive contact with over 50 people each month.
Support people to better understand themselves and the challenges that they face and build an achievable plan to overcome them.
The charity organises a weekly soup-run in Leeds and Huddersfield, where they provide food, drink and regular support, including referral to emergency accommodation. They also run a Breakfast Club, where homeless people who need more intensive support can come and discuss their plans and enjoy a nourishing meal.
The campaign has featured in the regional press, including an article in the Yorkshire Post, and on industry blogs and websites – including Ads of the World and Design Week. We were also interviewed by BBC Radio Leeds, who discussed with project with Propaganda’s Art Director Ben Bateson.
With your help and support, we’ve been able to raise over £1,400 for this fantastic charity. This is a superb amount, however we’d love to raise more. If you’ve ever wanted to give some cash to a homeless person but felt concerned that your money might fund a wider drug or alcohol-related problem, this is a great way to make a difference. Simply visit www.justgiving.com/PropagandaSimonontheStreets
Look out for more of our work with Simon on the Streets in 2012 and in the meantime, please explore the charity’s website.
12/01/12
Interesting Thursday
After a well earned break Interesting Thursday is back.
Marilyn Monroe's new year's resolutions from 1955:
Transcript
Must make effort to do
Must have the dicipline to do the following –
z – go to class – my own always – without fail
x – go as often as possible to observe Strassberg's other private classes
g – never miss actor's studio sessions
v – work whenever possible – on class assignments – and always keep working on the acting exercises
u – start attending Clurman lectures – also Lee Strassberg's directors lectures at theater wing – enquire about both
l – keep looking around me – only much more so – observing – but not only myself but others and everything – take things (it) for what they (it's) are worth
y – must make strong effort to work on current problems and phobias that out of my past has arisen – making much much much more more more more more effort in my analisis. And be there always on time – no excuses for being ever late.
w – if possible – take at least one class at university – in literature –
o – follow RCA thing through.
p – try to find someone to take dancing from – body work (creative)
t – take care of my instrument – personally & bodily (exercise)
try to enjoy myself when I can – I'll be miserable enough as it is.
Where They Create - a visual document of creative environments from Paul Barbera. See more here:
More New Year's Resolutions - designed by some ace artists/designers/typographers. See more at the Resolve Project:
And finally, the awesome Human Curling:
03/01/12
Propaganda Interesting Night 4: Idea Generation
Thursday the 22nd December saw us undertake the fourth of our monthly 'Interesting talks', in which under the lure of free pizza, beer and wine, a member of the team gives a small presentation about something that they find interesting!
It was my turn to give the talk this time, and here's a little summary of how it went:
This presentation turned out to be quite a tricky one due to it's timing; immediately before our Christmas party and the break up for Christmas, meaning most of the Propaganda team we're on wind-down, and some we're already under the influence of a few festive beers and therefore a little bit rowdy (not mentioning any names 'ahem' Mr Horberry).
I'd kind of anticipated that this would be the case, and decided to make this presentation a little bit interactive, and not too serious. So it took the form of 3 simple challenges, followed by a group brainstorm session. And in the party spirit it would be fueled by alcohol, so anyone under performing in the challenges would be forced to down a drink.
The theme for the talk was ideas, exploring how we can encourage them, and how we may unknowingly, be hindering them.
Robert McKim
I briefly talked about 1960's creativity researcher Bob McKim, who's theories on brainstorming and idea generation influenced the forthcoming challenges. McKim theorised that as adults we have a habit of what he called 'self-editing', apparently many adults put up mental barriers that prevent us from exploring every possibility when generating ideas.
Quite humorously, in 1966 McKim experimented with giving a group of designers drugs (Mescaline, a form of LSD to be exact), and then asking them to generate some ideas. The session turned out to be quite successful, with the designers generating some quite good solutions. McKim theorised that the success was not due to the hallucinogenic properties of the LSD, but due to the drugs allowing them to let their barriers down, and let go of the self-editing restraints that they would have had normally.
He expressed that it's essential creative people work in an environment where they feel comfortable and relaxed about sharing creative ideas, and I referenced some teams of people that are really good at nurturing this environment to great success: The Family Guy creators, Google, Innocent and Facebook. I also highlighted mantras from Pixar and Picasso that describe how 'good sense' can some times get in the way of creativity.
3 Challenges
The challenges consisted of getting the team to draw pictures of each other in 30 seconds, The 30 Circles Test (where the team what asked to fill a sheet of 30 circles with as many drawings as they could in 30 seconds). And finally, The Purdue Creativity Test (where you have to think of as many uses as you can for a single simple object), but for a bit of fun and to highlight the point that there should be no bad ideas when brainstorming, I added the twist of asking the team to generate only bad ideas.
The Brainstorm
We then followed this by having a brainstorm for a live project where each person had to come up with an idea in 15 seconds, and the idea had to be based on a random image, some of which were very random.
And I'm happy to say that it seemed to be a success, everyone came up with an idea, some were good, the others just made us laugh.
Posted by Lee Bennett.
22/12/11
Simon on the Streets
Freezing last night, wasn’t it? Would you want to sleep outside? If you can, take a moment to think about the hundreds of men and women in Yorkshire who had to. These people are the reason why we’ve decided not to give Christmas presents to our clients this year, but instead work with Yorkshire-based charity Simon on the Streets to develop a new way of helping the homeless…
The ambient campaign we’ve created uses QR codes printed onto cardboard and then situated amongst blankets and belongings, to look like a homeless person has been sleeping there. These installations are situated around Leeds city centre.
Once scanned by a QR code reader, these QR codes link to a JustGiving page where the public can donate directly to Simon on the Streets: a homeless charity that supports men and women who are sleeping rough in Yorkshire.
This new way of giving is instant and above all safe: ensuring anyone sleeping on the streets gets the food, shelter and support they need. This is preferable to donating directly to a homeless person because, as Propaganda discovered from working with Simon on the Streets, these cash gifts often contribute to a much wider drug or alcohol-related problem.
Simon on the Streets offer emotional and practical support to Yorkshire’s homeless and rootless community. They spend over 900 hours every year engaging with those in need and this festive season they’ll spend hundreds more – providing everything from counseling to much-needed hot meals.
The installations are now live around Leeds city centre at Leeds City Bus Station, The Elbow Room, Distrikt, Leeds Parish Church and the Victoria Quarter.
You can also donate at www.justgiving.com/PropagandaSimonontheStreets.
As it’s a cause that’s close to our hearts, Propaganda will be donating £1,000 to the charity.
