Attended the Portfolios show in London last night. Discovered some great illustrating talent but unfortunately due to traffic getting down there I didn’t get to explore the main hall as much as I’d liked.
Whilst there I was lucky enough to get a ticket to get into the seminar on the legend that is Paul Arden. Paul made a name for himself at Saatchi and Saatchi working on now famous campaigns for British Airways, Silk Cut, Anchor Butter, InterCity and Fuji and came up with household slogans which include ‘The Car in front is a Toyota’ and ‘The Independent - It Is - Are You?’. In 1993 he set up the London-based production company Arden Sutherland-Dodd where he was a commercials director for clients such as BT, BMW, Ford, Nestle and Levis.
Unfortunately he passed away in 2008 and will forever be sorely missed, check out the fitting tribute at Creative Review the day after his death.
Regarded as a god in the advertising world, a true creative genius by anyone elses standards.
I’ve been a Paul Arden fan since fan since reading his first book “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be” back in 2003, it truely is an inspirational read and highly recommend it. A real get up a go feeling is left with you when you reluctantly turn the last page as you want it to go on forever. Thankfully since then he wrote two more “Whatever you think, think the opposite” and “God explained in a taxi ride” both up there with the first. All 3 are useful additions to anyones library to give you a kick up the backside when you think things aren’t going your way, check them out!
