Stop reading this blog; read Dave dye’s instead

Art Director extraordinaire Dave Dye has just started imparting his colossal advertising wisdom on a blog.

He used to be my sort-of boss at AMV, so I have had plenty of first-hand experience of how useful his advice can be.

I remember when he first arrived. My knowledge of his physical appearance was gleaned entirely from his picture in D&AD’s The Art Directors Book. Funnily enough he didn’t look quite the same as that shot (not black and white, none of his face in moody shadow), so I didn’t recognise him. Beyond that I’m pretty sure he was dressed quite smartly, so when I first saw him in the studio at AMV and he smiled in a friendly, hello-ish manner at me I thought, ‘Who is that account bloke and what’s he doing in the studio?’.

Then I found out it was Dave and proceeded to fail to impress him to a quite stunning degree. We’ve had many a cup of tea since and he’s reminded me a couple of times of an occasion where he took me to task for something (almost certain laziness) and I resolved to work harder. Dave then popped down to my office at around 4:30 to find that Paul and I had gone home. I don’t recall that specific afternoon, but that’s probably because it describes so many similar situations and I just can’t narrow it down to the one he’s talking about.

Anyway, Dave was a top CD. You always slightly feared taking your work to him because 1) he has very high standards and 2) He and Sean would take the piss out of your work if it was takethepissoutof-able. But then your work always ended up better, so it was worth the extra work (by this stage I was working harder. Nearly losing your job can do that to you).

Then he popped off to start CDD, which produced a lot of truly great work before collapsing due to reasons it took 4 hours and several pints of beer for Dave to explain.

merrydown-cider-illustration-2992

On then to DHM and more great work before that changed this year to become Hello People, and so another phase of presumably great advertising begins.

Oh, and just in case he pops into your studio in a suit, this is what he looks and sounds like: