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If your at uni, male, white, 6ft and lanky you are in a band or are the band thanks to the developments in home recording technology.

I am happy to say I am an all singing, all song writing, bedroom acoustic guitar crooning cliche :)

I have a new addition to the family called the snowball microphone and its beautiful and records my beautiful voice and guitar playing. Finally a piece of hardware that can actually do my CF MARTIN acoustic guitar justice. you can hear every indian rosewood tainted note in all its glory.

www.myspace.com/somethingheartfelt check it out, I don't think I'm that bad.

Make sure when interviewing a graduate that they play a musical instrument, and putting together loops in garageband doesn't fucking count!!! that way you can be sure your employing someone who believes in the creation of something original and not into just being creative with what is effectively someone else's music.

Playing an instrument is just something you have to do, I don't get how a boy can get through puberty without it. do you?

The most rewarding bit of print I will ever do.

Here it is my 4 weeks notice to be handed in today to my boss.

Goodbye! part time job that I have always hated and despised, Hello! probable new crap full time job doing the same thing whilst looking for a job that I really want.

Not long before I can reclaim my weekend!!! it has been lost for nearly 3 years!!!

My little red book.

You do not have to say anything. But it may harm my chances if you do not mention when questioned something which I may later rely on in meeting you. Anything you do say will be used as evidence in an interview situation.

Instead of having the little black book with attractive women's phone numbers, I have the little red book with creative professionals email addresses and numbers in. (it's OK I'm engaged).

Who ever I phone, everything I learn e.g. email address, good times to call etc, will be put into this book a long with my actions towards you, such as whether I have sent you anything. I can also set a reminder for when to follow up an email or a time when I know its good to call them.

A handy aspect of this is I can also record my mistakes so that I know not to do them again. A howlingly massive mistake was replying to an email requesting a covering letter and CV and forgetting to attach it. I should have been beaten brutally for that one :s

B-E-A-UTIFUL.

Incase you couldn't tell I was being very sarcastic. Well kind of, it is beautiful but only in that it is a beautiful view from my window as I work on my CV and portfolio.

Ah well... back to work... Come on Lawrie you gotta want it!!!

The "List"

Here it is. The book all soon to be graduates should have. If you don't, go get one. I can't say where because my uncle gave it to me.

It is essentially a big fat A to Z list of agencies. It has a lovely big section for advertising and design.

I have a top 5, a back up 10 and 30 extras. What is great is that even if I get no where with all these, there is about another 100 for me to try.

My portfolio is nearly finished and so interview season is very close. It also means my phone is gonna be buggered sideways not to mention my bank account :s

Livin' on a prayer.

I have to admit I am not a religious person but a lot of my family is and my nan and granddad who come from Ireland pray for me a lot.

I go to my grandparents house every easter and on this particular occasion my nan told me about St Joseph ^ for those who haven't a clue what I'm talking about he is the part in the nativity play when you were younger that all the boys wanted to play but then played one of the sheep.

Joseph (a carpenter) along with being Mary's husband and Jesus's guardian, is the patron Saint of employment and that there is a prayer you can say every day to help you find a job, I have to admit I was skeptical but considering all the stories I have heard of peoples methods of trying to get a job e.g. hunger strikes, breaking and entering. This wasn't the most far fetched method I have heard of.

I believe we all turn to a 'higher power' when in need, not necessarily God or Allah but the powers that be that could help you. The Audi God that could help you avoid the traffic jam or the God of Marketing who will magically change your essay mark for you.

I am not making fun of peoples belief systems, quite the opposite as I think it is in this belief and what you do to reassure your beliefs that makes things possible. Any book you read on the creative industry is essentially some one laughing at you going "you want a job in advertising... you! jog on!" We are battle hardened to the hard knocks to our self esteem this life sends us.

I may not be religious but I can't help but look at the prayer every now and again in the hope that it might do something. Usually I avoid luck because I have something more to prove but I would never say no to a bit of help. If there is something that makes you feel good about yourself or a situation no matter how silly it might be or how others see it. You should all ways do it.

What a difference a Dave makes...

What can I say I like this T-shirt, never a truer word spoken by a top quality garment. Finally my ability to bring my skill and personality to a project is being recognized world wide. Well not quite because as this t-shirt demonstrates...

Yes it is a world wide phenomenon that everyone knows a Dave, not to say the quality of some Dave's have been ruined by cheap copies and imports no no no, Dave's in short are amazing which is why In every creative agency there is a Dave, I challenge anyone to prove me wrong and if you can... well! what are you waiting for there is a Dave about to graduate right here!!!

If you could, buy one of these T-shirts @ www.balconyshirts.co.uk your guaranteed to get laid. Unfortunately not with the models as they don't come with the T-shirt.

New Look

Same Blog, new look. It just occurred to me that if I don't tell anyone that I have changed the look then the people who do read my blog wouldn't know to look unless I did a post so 2 birds with a big rock and all that :) Let me know what you think about this style of illustration, I have had some really nice feed back from a creative director.

i before e except after c

it has been brought to my attention that my grammar and spelling in my posts are 'shit' i felt i should address this personally as i had no idea it could offend people. 

When writing these posts i don't really write up to Eton standard, its not like i can't write properly its that i don't have time, i'm a busy man :) if you can read it and understand it thats good enough for me, ok i wont be proof reading any books any time soon but i think i'll get over it.

As for my un-capitlised i's it is actually because i prefer the shape of the small i to the big I. To me it looks better so there you go mystery solved.

The cat sat on the mat.      see!

An updave for your computer.

Hello, yes i'm back which feels like months since my last post but never mind its been for a good reason or i should say reasons.

i have been a  machine these last few days, i think the promise of finally finishing has given me a boost and i feel as if i'm possessed by a doing work spirit.

i finished my brand sector analysis which was a lot harder to do than i just said. 3 days no sleep, phoning in every favour i possessed for help, to make sure it was as good as it could possibly be. F***ING BRAND MAPS are bastards. But it was handed in leaving the Final Major project to go. Which is great because it's branding my own guitar store which is my all time dream :)

So what else have I been doing, well... I have been working in a design agency (nick cannons studio) where i have been honing my skills in graphic design and also strategy and working on my client handling. This however opened all sorts of doors. I have taken on a few branding projects one of which could see me spending some of my last summer in the Carribean (pause for effect) and various others including a website and re-brand of a special event. Lots and Lots of practical experience all doing me good except it has left me completely afraid of answering my phone :s.

Over the last few weeks nearly every phone call that i have received has been a client. what's so scary about that dave? well imagine having a director of a company talking to you like an equal respecting your opinion and liking your ideas! my only critic these days seems to be my mother.

Ok dave now your mental... Well for me personally its a very odd experience, many of the creatives I meet have final thumb print syndrome where they will say anything about your work to make it so that it is theirs or was saved by their creativity. There is nothing more on this planet i hate more than someone suggesting a completely bollocks improvement to my work, i just nod and smile but secretly there being choked on their own pen inside my head :)

So yeah what's meant to be an ego or even self esteem boosting experience just makes me feel awkward, i'm a complicated chap. I'm under no delusions of my own brilliance, i guess i have just been very lucky with the clients i have at the moment :) long may it last.

The major thing on my plate other than my major project is my degree show, I spent a lot of time and effort developing an idea with a friend of mine and we came up with a concept for the pre-determined title DIALOGUE, the idea was to have our work looked at through the context of our personalities by giving yourself a line that describes your self and your role.

A lot of people liked it, mostly because of how cost effective it was and how easy it would be to do, in fact i think they only took it because of the font i chose, i have mad font picking skills!

Anyway so yeah a mixed reaction but a major portfolio piece for me as its some of the best design i have done and so i'm waiting to get my teeth into that.

Other than that i haven't done much...