The Jotter - issue 29
“A daft laugh with a mate is worth two in a book or on the TV.”
Bob Mortimer
Hello,
Given the testing times we live in, a jolly quotation celebrating friendship seems like a good way to start this month’s Jotter.
It appears in the last couple of pages And Away… by Bob Mortimer. Given to me on a whim by a friend, Phil, who roasts very nice coffee beans.
On the same day I finished And Away, I read an article in The Guardian about artist, David Shrigley. This sentence shone out:
“Just being alone in this room makes me really happy, with my paper, and my paints and my pens.”
It made me smile. The acknowledgement that sometimes what you have around you can be enough.
Onwards
Andrew
01, Advertising
A weekly inbox highlight is ‘Brands & Humour’ by Paddy Gilmore in which he writes about how brands relate to, and use, humour.
Here he writes about the classic Economist ads which were “arch, playful, sophisticated” and most importantly effective (circulation grew 68% between 1988 - 2001).
02, Know what to ignore
The Farnham Street blog thinks we consume too much information without understanding what’s relevant and what’s not.
“Einstein’s greatest skill was the ability to sift the essential from the inessential — to grasp simplicity when everyone else was lost in the clutter.”
03, Photography
Chris Killip was one of our finest photographers. He documented the de-industrialisation of north eastern England in the 1970’s and 1980’s with a warm and unflinching eye.
“These people will never appear in history books, because ordinary people don’t. History is done to them.”
He has a retrospective exhibition at the Photographers Gallery until 19th February 2023.
04, Insults to make you smile
Danny Dutch has compiled a choice selection of insults which made me smile. For example:
“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one.” George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one.”
Winston Churchill, in response
05, Gift rather than donate
Richard Shotton, author of The Choice Factory, shared this interesting experiment for charities. It demonstrates the importance of choosing the right words on your ‘call to action’ buttons.
“Writing in simple clear language gives poor thinking nowhere to hide.”
Shane Parrish
06, Design
I could spend hours browsing influential graphic designer, Romek Marber’s website. His early break came from designing covers for The Economist before going onto becoming an art editor at The Observer and designing numerous Penguin book covers.
07, Cookies
I’m not a big fan of cookies (the things that track you, not the biscuits. I love the biscuits). I’ve disabled cookies on this website.
But if you need them, then this is the way to share your policy.
(Thank you All Things Anlogue for pointing me there).
08, Work.
It’s been a long time coming, but this month I am beavering away with Angelfish Software to launch ten new websites for the Original Collection. In amongst that mammoth task, I am also fine tuning the search and filter functionality for The Perfect Bottle e-commerce website and I launched a website for Shay Parsons and her flourishing photography business.
Thank you for reading the October Jotter. The next one will bound into life on Friday 25th November at 11am. The same day as Bradford on Avon switches on its Christmas Lights. Where has the year gone?
Onwards
Andrew
“When burdened by the feeling that there are too many photographs in the world, I ask myself if there are too many flowers.”