British Invasion: Blog #7: A Bittersweet Symphony

The title for this blog comes for 2 reasons: 1. The guy at the desk in front of mine today had the song playing quite loud and 2. It was my final full day in London. IN fact, it was my last day for all intents and purposes. Tomorrow, I'll get up and head to the airport and then home!

As you can tell from these blogs, it's been a really fun and extremely knowledgeable trip. Not that I think any of them will be reading this, but I really want to thank everyone who I met at the Ogilvy offices here. They made a pseudo-Southern boy feel quite nice and right at home.

I spent my last night going back to Forbidden Planet (I couldn't resist) as well as another comic shop, Comicana, which I found was right around the corner. The two stores could not be more dissimilar. Where FP was huge, clean and well kept, Comicana was small and dingy.

Afterwards, I walked on down to Piccadilly Circus and went through some of the Souvenir shops, not buying a damn thing, and ended up eating dinner at a nice little Chinese restaurant in London's Chinatown.

A stroll up Regents Street then took me past the Apple store and a Quicksilver shop, which I regret to say, was closed for the evening, but that was ok. It was all made better when I found Hamly's, a SEVEN STORY TOY STORE!!!

That place was incredible. It had a boy's floor with nothing but action figures on it. A Hobby floor with models and movie prop replicas (ton of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings items).

So that was it, I walked back up Oxford Street to Paddington and here I am. It's been a blast, but I'm ready to be home with Erin. Hopefully I'll be able to come back soon and she can come with me.

Blogging daily has actually been fun. I'd like to say that I'll keep it up, but I know me too well. I will say, that I'll try to do it more often from now on.

That's it from London. Next stop, the second star to the right.

British Invasion: Blog #6: Drizinking

Not much to post today. It was another busy day at work. The "chaps" took me to their local pub, The Union, for a very, very long lunch (and 3 pints to boot), which was very fun, and very nice of them. as it worked out, I was also taken to dinner with a couple of the creative directors, Christine and an IHG client tonight at a very cool "Interacive" restaurant tonight where you interacted with the table to order your meal, drinks, etc. You could even change what the ambiance of the table was which was pretty cool.


After dinner me and Gregg and Hugh (the London CDs) went to the Toucan, which was the first place Guiness was poured in London.

I must say, it was definetly the best Guiness I've ever had.


Must apologize, not a lot of picts today, but there are a few new ones to see on FB from the dinner tonight. Hope to get some last minute sight seeing in tomorrow night.

Cheers!

(yeah I said it!!)

British Invasion: Blog #5: Canary Wharf and the TARDIS

Welcome to the 5th edition of the British Invasion Blog! Today started with a trip to the Ogilvy "East" office to visit their Digital Lab. It was very, very cool and impressive to say the least. Here is a link to their current sizzle reel of technologies they've been testing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylm-2_1TaM4

Did you watch? Pretty cool shyte. Especially in person. By the way, not to be overshadowed by yesterdays post of the Ogilvy "West" office, here's a shot of the "East" office, which is very, very swank.

I got to work on some Motorola work today with the team here, which was pretty cool. Doing some photoshoots and animations. After leaving work, I had to go to take a picture of the coolest, yet nerdiest thing I've seen during my whole adventure:

The last standing Police Box in London! For those of you in the know, Dr. Who's time machine is a Police Box just like this called the TARDIS. It was very cool. I'm sure Erin will be super jealous ;)

So that was my day. Aside from doing some cool stuff and talking comics with my new friend Tarrick at work, it was a very lonely, sad day. I'm ready to come home. I'm missing Erin and everyone a whole lot.

I'll leave you with a video I HAD to take while eating at a pub near Earls Court this evening.

Til tomorrow, when I'm having lunch with the creatives at work and then dinner at an "Interactive" restaurant. Enjoy this very British, very drunk old chap:

British Invasion: Blog #4: Off to Work I Go

Hello Chums and welcome to Day 4 of the British Invasion. So today was my first day at the Ogilvy London West office and tomorrow I'm heading out to Canary Warf to visit the Digital Lab at Oglivy London East. It was pretty cool seeing how different the London office is compared to ours in Atlanta. It was very wide open and EVERYTHING is white which is pretty cool, I guess. Here's a couple picts of the office:

No just kidding, that's Buckingham Palace, here's the office:
After work, I took a walk down Oxford and Bond Streets before picking up a sandwich to eat back in the room. Can't wait to see Canary Warf tomorrow, I've seen it in many Dr. Who episodes (I KNOW).

Anyway, as I said last post I went to Buckingham palace last night which was pretty cool. Last time I was here I was just able to see it from a distance. After that I went to the original Hard Rock Cafe where I had the picture I'll leave you with. Til Tomorrow. BTW, I'm adding some more pictures over on Facebook so if you haven't seen any of them yet, head back to:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/fans-of-studiograss/308930455802?ref=ts

and click on the British Invasion 2010 album

And here's the pict from HRC:

British Invasion: Blog #3: The Tower Bridge and Peter Pan

Have I mentioned that the days seem reaaaaally long here? Like take for instance this picture of the Tower Bridge that I took at around Noon today seems like an eternity ago.

Anyway, today's Bank Holiday has been a pretty nice day weather wise, it started with a tube ride to the Tower of London and then on to Hammersmith to meet my co-worker Christine at her flat for lunch (we walked to a nearby Indian Restaurant that was very yummy) after lunch, I took the tube back to Central London to go to Harrod's to buy some gifts for Erin and my mom (Mother's Days less than a week away...)


After that, it was a beautiful walk through Hyde Park as I searched for the statue of Peter Pan that I remembered from my last trip to London some 17 years ago. Luckily there are signs, because obviously things have changed a lot in that time. I walked past where the hotel we stayed at the time used to be (and is now a vacant lot) and through the Kensington Gardens and to my joy, there he was: the Pan
After seeing where Led Zeppelin recorded their albums near where I ate lunch, I'm kinda in the mood for a trip to the original Hard Rock for dinner, where I've been before, but still...

Besides, it's near Buckingham Palace whcih I'd like to get a shot of or two.

Til tomorrow, when I'll be at the Ogilvy office for the first time.

British Invasion: Blog #2: From Van Gough to Harry Potter

So after getting close to being really irritated that this brand new laptop I brought with me wasn't working, it finally sensed my frustration and decided to start up. Whewww. With that said, welcome to the second British Invasion blog.

It was a rainy day filled with riding the tube and walking, walking, walking. Seriously, the 5 miles I walked yesterday seem like an easy little stroll compared to what I walked today. First I took the tube to Trafalgar Square and went into the National Gallery where I saw some great works of art from Van Gough, Monet and more. This was probably my favorite:

Boilley's "A Girl at a Window" I liked it because the grayscale paints made it really stand out against a see of full color paintings.

After spending a couple hours at the Nat. Gallery, I walked down to Parliament Square and Westminster Abbey, where I grabbed a quick bite at Tesco (a small market which is part of a larger Wal-Mart like chain)

After lunch I continued my walk down the South Bank of the River Thames and across to see the "Eye" a huge ferris wheel. I may try to go back tomorrow to actually ride it if the weather is a bit better. From there I walked on to the Tate Modern Art Musuem where I say one of my favorite all time paintings by Roy Lichtenstein:


And it was from here that I walked back across the Millenium Bridge (as seen being destroyed at the beginning of either Harry Potter 4 or 5) and to St. Paul's Cathedral and then back to the tube.

After a quick stop at Picadilly Circus, I headed back to the hotel to rest up before heading out to dinner. It's been a long day of sightseeing and adventure. One more day before I head into the office Tuesday morning (it's a bank holiday here tomorrow and the office is closed).

Until tomorrow

British Invasion: Blog #1

Greetings from London! So my plane landed around 12:30 GMT (7:30 EST) this afternoon and I quickly made my way to the Hotel Indigo near Paddington Station. So after a quick refreshing, I went out an grabbed a bite to eat and then, me being me, took a 2.5 mile walk (one way) to Forbidden Planet – the largest frakin comic book store I've ever seen. 2 floors of comics, toys and books. To say it was awesome would be an understatement.


I also saw some double decker buses with Iron Man 2 posters on them, the first thing I noticed: the movie started yesterday here NOT next week like it does at home.

Anyway, that's it for now. Gonna rest a little before heading to the pub across the street for dinner. Hope to hit the National Gallery and some touristy locations tomorrow.

J

BSA Save the Date

The final version of the Save the Date invitation that we've been working on for the Boy Scouts of America Centennial Gala. Incorporates the logo we developed as well as a classic BSA painting done by Norman Rockwell.

Find out more about the Atlanta Area BSA Council at http://atlantabsa.org/openrosters/view_homepage.asp?orgkey=1474

BSA logo

Here's the final logo for the BSA project we're currently working on

New Web site is up

The newly remodeled and spectacular studiograss.com is up and running!!

http://www.studiograss.com/

join "team hope" with studiograss for Cards4Cancer Day

On April 10th, 2010 Spirit Jump is having their First Annual Cards 4 Cancer Day. Battling cancer can be one of the most difficult and loneliest experiences a person can go through. With cancer touching so many lives around the world it's time to let those fighters know they are not alone.

studiograss is helping Spirit Jump to collectively deliver over 100,000 uplifting cards. To accomplish this we need your help. Please check out their website to read more about the initiative:

http://cards4cancer.wordpress.com/

Here is where we need your help! Please join (or feel free to send me) your cards by April 8th. They can be handmade or store bought. I have chosen Children's Healthcare of Atlanta - Egleston to be my host cancer center. I work closely with their staff through my volunteer work with Make-a-Wish Foundation and they are nothing short of amazing and the kids - these kids are so brave and inspiring, I can't even begin to explain their courage.

Our goal is to bring them 300 cards on April 10th. Please help us to this by joining our team, enlisting your friends and sending us cards to pass on to the kids at CHOA who would love to have another reason to smile.

Feel free to contact erin@studiograss.com with any questions. You can send the cards directly to me (591 Moreland Ave SE, Atlanta, GA 30316) or through Jason at Ogilvy. Please no "Get Well" cards - please think more along the lines of inspiration, humor and thoughtfulness.

boy scouts of america

we're excited about our upcoming project with the boy scouts of america's website & promotional campaign as well as branding and a website for a local artisan glass blower out of maine! more details to follow...

stay warm,

e, j & s