May the 4th be with you....

So it is officially Star Wars day.... and well i dont really know what to say, I've never understood the fascination with it, and I suppose I've never really tried, but to all you dedicated fans i suppose it would be rude not to say, 'May the 4th be with you'

Just Scouse...

So we were originally known as a touch of Scouse and a sprinkle of Southern however we have decided to go it alone, Joy is now officially known as the Online Intern ... http://www.theonlineintern.org/
she is also going off to Hyper Island UK to play. You can keep a sneaky eye on her at http://www.joyayles.com or twitter.com/joyayles
After three long years and uni I am down to the penultimate two weeks, this means lots of dates with the library and lots of coffee. This means that the cap and gown are looming and I will realistically have to get a real person job!! No more using the excuse 'I'm a student' for everything.

Our new boyfriends!!

Introducing Harry the HTC and Gary the Galaxy. Who needs men, when we have just invested in the very best next thing!!

So this week I went to go and get the blackberry fixed and bet the sales man that he wouldn't be able to stop it vibrating! Nobody can!! After forty-five minutes of about 5 different men convinced they would be able to, they started with all the high tech, jazzy phone jargon that I just couldn't resist! It was literally like being in an episode of the new e4 programme 'Phone shop.'
There was a an extremely height challenged phone geek, who played the line, 'good things come in small packages' only spoken by a true small person!! A horny salesman that played the trick, "put your number in my phone so i can test it works!?!" (yes...i did nearly fall for it.) A younger salesman that tried to play the cute card and reckoned he looked like Justin Bieber, however in my opinion he looked like a McFly reject! A cheeky Irishman that was different to the rest, quieter with a moody streak, stubborn and sultry and then the finale, the Manager that thought he was the next best thing since sliced bread. Flirted to the max, thinking he was God's gift! Bossing the other salesman round, thinking that power made him sexy, a cheeky wink and scouse impression here and there, until... his girlfriend walked in with his packed lunch!!!

I was enticed by the shiny new HTC phone. So needing some support I rang Joy, (and if I'm being honest I needed a large dose of a reality check.) She didn't help, infact she too was sucked in by all the charm of the salesmen, (in particular a cheeky Irishman) and she to ended up with a new phone, the Samsung galaxy S! What started out as a simple trip to the phone shop, ended with us leaving THREE hours later, with two new phones (blackberry's still in tow), £500 cash between us, two new dongles, and a HTC phone case, and we are app-ed up to our eyeballs!!! Oh and how can i forget a certain Irish sales mans phone number!!!

All in 7 Days work.

After a hard earned summer from the both of us, we are now reunited and stronger than ever. Over the past week we have moved into a new flat in central Manchester, thrown out our clothes and shoes, yes that's right, thrown out clothes and shoes, ok some of them. Moved furniture left, right and left again. This might be easier .....

In the past 7 days we have:

Slept in an empty flat with only sleeping bags.
Worked at the Labour party conference.
Moved furniture drunk.
Robbed a wine glass.
Laughed.
Made a trip to and from Liverpool with 3 car loads.
Ordered the male members of the Ayles family around.
Started the GI diet.
Cooked some amazing dinners - homemade falafal and chilli dip being one.
Welcomed a new member to the team - Raphael the Terrapin.
Welcomed another member to our flat - the sexy whistling kettle.
Worked 6 jobs.
Started our dissertations.
Signed up to a Web Design course.
Budgeted - OH GOD!
Shopped.
Danced around.
Spent a whole day in our pjs.
Stood on the balcony.
Stopped for Sushi.
Got drunk at a wedding - ok I was sick.
Been stood up.
Laughed even more.
Reunited with friends - Shah Alom and Matthew Brown (another budding creative)
Annoyed and amuzed JPHubbard.
Spooned.
Tried the bath out.
Not together.
Written a million To do lists.
Been to the gym - nearly died.
Planned parties.
Skyped.
Laughed a bit more.
Watched X factor.
Made our first humous, Tehiniless - disaster.
Got some valuable contacts.
Facebooked.
Twittered.
Blogged.
Brought some clothes to replace the old ones.
Laughed again.

And all whilst working on 6 briefs, 2 projects and flying from the walls with inspiration.

Time for a cuppa I think.

A little bit of Bieber

Day 7 in the Latvian hotel and we are injecting some of our creative juices to the Norwegian and Latvian students. We are both in the depths of group work, business plans and video making. Amanda has been galavanting to Latvian advertising agencies, including McCanns and my group is on its way to create an innovate 'Art&Ads' agency! We thought we would leave you with our group motivation time.......

The Split Up

Word up! Uni work has been handed in.... summer has started....and we have been split up.

It's not that serious, we are in Latvia on a Creative Future Enterprises Boot Camp. We've been split into groups with local Latvian and Norwegian students, amanda is being bullied by a strange Latvian monster and I have fallen in love with the next Clark Kent!! We are covered in bites the size of breast warts and have learnt the most crucial Norwegian words....anything to do with genitalia or swearing. We have also learnt that Mac Donald's breakfast is not international (not so good on Latvian vodka hangover) and have found the next best thing, Mc Toast.

Apart from this, we feel very inspired by the Latvian culture and are on the 5th day of our regeneration projects. The challenge is to choose an area ideal for urban regeneration in a creative way.

We'll keep you updated on the state of our room and how we contribute to the business plans and presentations.

"DAAAMMNN"

The reason why we havent blogged for so long is because we've been working hard on our latest campaign for Lynx Bullet. Take a look at our new page.....http://amandaandjoy.blogspot.com/p/daaammnn.html ( click at the daaammnn link at the top of the page)

"Celebrate Originality"

After hard work and no blogging, here you go!!
See how many celebrities you can spot...

Get your BICs out!

We are loving the work by Juan Francisco Casas, a Spanish artist who uses a biro and only a biro to create some amazing works. Next time you pic up your bic, get inspired!

So after taking a trip to the cinema on friday night to see Alice in Wonderland, we were not impressed!!
It was hyped up to be something it totally wasn't....it didn't follow all the true meanings of what we felt Alice in Wonderland meant to us when we were growing up!!
Although it didn't really follow the true story...Johnny Depp once again played an amazing part as the mad hatter...to be honest he made the film for us!! There were other funny characters, the white queen played by Anna Hathaway played the part amazingly, and we just couldn't get enough of her 'floating around, infact we floated home through Manchester.'Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum played by Matt Lucas were amazing, "I love my fat boys!!"

If only.....

These ads for Windows Vista by Y&R, Auckland speak for themselves. If only, our house was made out of a bouncy castle and we travelled around in a bumper car.

When apples just don't cut it

After a day of portfolio starting, scamp drawing, photo taking and amongst this the attempt to 'eat healthily' (does the sneaky wedges of birthday cake count?!) we took a well earned student break and caught up on the latest fashions. Although we're a bit behind on London Fashion Week, we felt the need to praise Mark Fast's decision to use size 14's on the catwalk.

"Logic & over-analysis can immobilize & sterilize an idea. It's like love- the more you anaylze it, the faster it disappears." Bill Bernbach

So I was thinking as I love typography, can this relate to the male species??? Do you prefer a strong UPPER CASE serif type, or a lower case sans serif type??
Do you prefer a bold in your face type, or a less obvious weight variation, that can just say it all about themselves, without having to get all italic on you. Is large letterspacing, trying to over compensate for the fact that they have problems with their line length?
Are we all looking for that 6ft tall, dark hair, dark eyes man, or just a good size 12 font, serif, bold with a good ascender stroke and a nice lengthy descender?

Some love for Philip Castle

On searching for inspiration for Lynx we came across some works by Philip Castle. We're loving his Hi, (1973) purely for its sexy and lickable nature!

Lovejoy

Seeing as it's my birthday week, I thought it only fair to have todays blog be all about me.... well at least my name. Integrity Spirits packaging, for their LOVEJOY VODKA is beautiful. The Lovejoy Vodka comes with a range of different designs to fit your mood, it's the 'same vodka, just different labels'. We better get the vodka out then Amanda!

Bom Chicka Wah Wah

On researching one of our latest briefs for Lynx Bullet, we came across this previous campaign 'Bom Chicka Wah Wah' by Bartle Bogle Hegarty - we thought you might have a giggle.

Let's get high...

We thought it was time to get high off design... and show you what we're interested in! Follow us, two Advertising Design students on our journey of inspiration, creativity and normally sheer stupidity, while we try and take on the world!