A piece of my mind: James Chiu » my projects

Show Your Love For Japan

James Chiu — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:23:31 +0000

Just want to shout out a personal project of mine, “Show Your Love For Japan” by donating your facebook photo bar. All you have to do is tag yourselves in a facebook album from right to left (photos 5 to 1)

Due to the overwhelming support, I’d suggest you to download the photos and create your own album to keep spreading the love.

Download the album photos here

Get tagging happy!

A21 campaign brief – we need you!

James Chiu — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:01:53 +0000

The Globals, a team which I am working with is supporting the A21 campaign to fight against human trafficking, we are now at a stage to develop a marketing campaign to raise awareness about the cause and the problem. We’re putting out the challenge to all creative types to take part in the task.

Please download the brief here, all the info with regards to the campaign is inside.

It has been designed to empower and include YOU into our campaign by allowing you to create and execute our message of “human freedom is priceless” in any form of creative way you choose to.

Our deadline is next Monday; March 8th which I understand is very tight, but if you can please help out and get creating!

Dig Deep Moments

James Chiu — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:46:57 +0000

Last Friday marked the launch of Dig Deep Moments, the first of our many campaigns for Dig Deep. If you don’t already know, they are a new men’s streetwear brand inspired from sports launching in April 2010 with a stunning collection of tee-shirts, sweatshirts, jeans, jackets and accessories.

The idea of Dig Deep Moments came from our early pitches to them, it gives Dig Deep the opportunity to explain the philosophy behind their brand before the eComm launch, get a following through great content, data capture through an exciting competition, and of course be the platform for fans to have heated discussions on the greatest sporting moments in history.

Check it out Dig Deep Moments – View, rate, share & have your say!

To celebrate the launch, Dig Deep invited a some of the team to the Six Nations Rugby match at Twickenham, with the England vs. Wales game marking the centenary match at the glorious stadium. Blessed with a beautiful (cold but sunny) day we enjoyed some freezing pints, tasty stadium food and watched a great game filled with many Dig Deep moments.

P.s. Thanks for the great photos Hannah.

Net-a-porter.com Cruise campaign

James Chiu — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:11:33 +0000

Net-a-porter extends our Wonderland concept into their latest Cruise campaign. This time though, we were tasked to create banners beyond the traditional formats such as the push down unit on sites like Elle UK and Style. With a combination of supporting media formats and branded graphics we’ve completely taken over Elle UK today!

Net-a-porter Cruise Campaign. Elle UK Take Over from Pod1 on Vimeo.

Pod1 launches Amanda Wakeley

James Chiu — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:18:31 +0000

Last week marked the launch of Amanda Wakeley’s new website, perfectly aligned in time with London Fashion Week’s 25th anniversary. James lead the creative team at Pod1 to deliver a website utilising the wordpress platform, rebuilding the brand experience that imprints Amanda Wakeley’s brand presence online. We identified the iconic diagonal cut of Amanda Wakeley’s logo as the key brand asset which formed the basis of our art direction.

Check out the site, let us know what you think and stay tuned for Magento eCommerce launch coming soon!

Net-a-porter.com • Wonderland Campaign

James Chiu — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:01:38 +0000

We recently created and launched the new Wonderland campaign for net-a-porter.com

I creative and art directed the project with with my in-house team and with the client themselves, and the results were beautiful as you can see below. Enjoy!

Running a creative team

James Chiu — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:59:22 +0000

Key points we should consider when we lead and manage a creative team

Roles
Structure and define roles and responsibilities, empower people and make them fully accountable for their specific roles.

Trust
With ultimate trust, projects run smoothly, effectively and successfully. Building this trust is key to a successful team.

Embrace differences
Dont fight the differences, embrace them, love what the person brings to the team and forget the bullshit.

Chance
Give people the chance and let them surprise and surpass your expectations.

Distribution
Each project is given to those best suited in terms of skills and experience, however you must also rely on available resources and have the flexibility to shuffle things around.

Plan
Plan with project managers, never pass a project around the whole team as everyone works in different styles

Apathy
Stray minds lead to the suffering of work quality and demotivates the team. Stop it.

Communicate
Drink beers, have lunch, talk openly and listen attentively and allow everyone to have an equally loud voice. Get up and walk around, ask “hey, what you working on?”. Get involved

Team meetings
Monday prep talk, or Thursday night beer and review. Assemble the team to talk about current and upcoming projects, specs, ideas, bring paper, pencils, let people think out loud and write everything down.

Lead
Leaders should be established and they’ll naturally rise to the top. Follow those who are passionate, those who really believe.

Direction
Creative Director sets the overall tone of the project’s creative and planning phase, make sure everything is tight and on brand and can be executed from a technological standpoint.

Art Director dictates the design specifics and execution, working closely with Designers and Developers on the look and feel and motion.

Think
Ask questions that get people to think. Groups become very stale if they don’t engage in strategic thinking. Pose imaginary problems and let the group solve them. “If we were to get such and such project, how would we attack it?”

Question
If there is a project that is particularly impressive done by another company, get together and ask how we would have done it. This will not only provide ammunition for the next pitch but also grow the team as a single thinking unit.

Expectations
Bonuses are for production over a year and should go to people who went above and beyond the call of duty as well as those who have performed on a consistently high level all year. You hired them to perform and a good performance should be expected.

Standards
Care about shit, just care, give it more than a second or two in thought, be honest with yourself and others and make sure that you never ever compromise your standards, your ethics and your beliefs.

Love and Passion
Love what you do and do it hard! The team is in this together!