Pantomime

Cross-dressers are in force here as the visual puns of disguise and boy/girl dating action are reinvented in the Unicorn Theatre's production of Twelfth Night this Christmas in the UK. Only the Brits could be so weird and get away with it. Remember Morecambe and Wise in bed together? We never batted an eyelid. Think of the League of Gentlemen in the long, grand tradition. Perfectly normal in England I can assure you.

See my stuff in the October issue of Desktop Mag

I'm one of the featured artists in next month's issue of DESKTOPMAG. Check out my animation, illustration and 3D paper models at www.alipellatt.com.

Lieance Fiction

If I knew what it meant I would tell you.

EUROPE

I am currently in Dusseldorf staying with my best
mate but soon to return to England for one more visit
to Top Shop and a final weekend of wall-to-wall football.
I can't wait to hit the ocean pools of Sydney when I return
on the 5th September. I have nearly forgotten how to write, it's been so long.

HELLO AUSTRALIA

POPETASTIC NEWS

I'm sorry but owing to legal restrictions ADnews is unable to bring you the Kimberley Cass interview with George Pell. Luckily for all involved the weather turned out nice owing to a sudden and unexpected papal break in the ongoing global warming crisis.

ADnation is out tomorrow

Kimberley Cass interviews Cardinal George Pell and more!

The Pope-Pourri

Just as everyone has a Doctor Who so with Popes. Mine are respectively Tom Baker and John Paul II. So I can't get used to seeing this hollow-eyed munchkin steppin' out. Such is life. Not to be put off though I have endeavoured to celebrate the Papal visit with a classic DM desk ornament - the Pope-Pourri. Fifty have been posted and I will be hand-deliverin' some more tomorrow as His Holiness sails into the harbour. Check out those shoes. This guy knows about style. I am not a Catholic but I did once achieve an accidental audience with JP II in a minor Rome airport whilst awaiting a flight back to the UK. Sitting atop a suitcase, chomping on a Marlborough Light (me, not the Pope)a seamless entourage of men in black bristled along a laid red carpet 3 metres ahead of me. A sudden parting of the human cloak revealed the Pope who waved and smiled and then he was gone. Amazing!

The Pope-Pourri comes in two parts and you fill the conical head with the sweet-smelling wooden chips and place neatly in the Papal body. Oooh, he smells gorgeous!If you'd like one text me on 0405 593123 and I'll put one in the post. CHECK OUT www.alipellatt.com for more photos and while yer at it commission me to come up with some ideas for you!

Hello UK

Thanks for checking out the blog. I have been busy establishing myself in Sydney, Australia. It's great here and the new media market is going crazy as Oz catches up with the US and Europe. I update this 'ere diary a couple of times a week and will send out a Blog Alert once a month. The above image is one of eight dps I did for 'Do Not Open' for Dorling Kindersley. It reached #7 in the New York book sellers list and is now in a massive reprint. That's good news as I am on yummy royalties. Keep yer eyes on the AliPellatt site as there's loads of new work on there too.

ADnation. Interview with RANDY LYNCH

It's a newsletter in development. Trouble is I am not a designer. Should I just continue with the blog or should I send an HTML newsletter to one and all? Is the 'Imagined Interview' column too risquee? Will I alienate my potential clients? Am I too much for Australia? Am I not enough? It doesn't 'arf raise a lot of wankey self-referential questions.

Canon PIXMA. 'It should have been me' campaign

I want to make a theatre 3D scenario for Canon to follow up their current print campaign which uses three dimensional objects printed out on their PIXMA printer so I am telephoning their Brand Manager to make a suggestion this week. With a bit of luck Gary Clarke at Leo Burnett's will let me back through the door with my folios.

CANNES KIT DOUBLES HITS

In the week preceeding the Cannes Advertising Festival I began a trickle send-out of a cardboard Awards night scenario called the Cannes Creative Kit to 50 Top Creatives in Australia and their CEOs. The list included all the judges heading over to France such as Ashley Ringrose and Dylan Taylor and a raft of Mega-stars such as Nobby, Peter Bidenko and Matt Eastwood. On my list were all the Creatives who I thought might win a Lion (and the Agencies current creative incumbents - let's face it the original brains of the winning campaigns might have moved on). Also included were some people I just like and respect and who have been good to me since I arrived in the Land of Rain and Very Little Quality Soccer. People like Dave Whittle and Gavin McLeod at Mark and Marco Eychenne at Tequila. All in all the names, to me, read like a Hollywood A-List of people I'd really like to work with.
Anyway, I followed up with an email to most people (some are still in Europe)and achieved the following classifiable results: a 12% direct response from recipients by return email, a doubling of hits to my site with an average of 50 daily unique users from Australia and some very encouraging conversations from brilliant people enabling me to believe I am pursuing a creative path that may well meet some excellent advertising Campaigns along the way. Best of all was an email follow-up and chat with Nigel Marsh (despite the fact he's starting a new job as CEO of GPYR this week), emails from Damian Royce, Jamie Scott and Parris Mesidis, Scot Waterhouse and Peter Bidenko. I also got a very strange phone call from someone at Naked (who shall remain nameless) who never followed up his original query. Also Nick Cummins at Sputnik has requested a kit and one will go out today.
And now onto my next 3D project which involves the Pope and will go out on the week of 15th-20th July. So.....50 will be delivered, this time only to Sydney Sufferers of the impending visit from the Worshippers of Suffering. God bless 'em!

It's Cannnes!

I bloody love it. I went three years ago,
courtesy of Adobe and Boutique Editions
who produce the Cannes daily newspaper.
At the time I was part of an illustation collective
called 741 Illustration and we were testing the
beta version of C2. We all gave it large and I
shamelessly gave little handmade books away to
Creatives exiting the talks. I seem to remember
something about Saatchi's dropping eyeballs from
the ceiling.

This week I have sent out a limited edition
handmade 'Cannes Creative kit' to Ideas People, CEOs and Head Creatives at some companies I would really like to work for in Australia. Let's hope
they like them as they were made and sent with love and
affection for our industry and some of the best campaigns in
recent times. See above for visuals.

I've got so much to say at the moment but too much to do.
The third image is from a play wot i wrote for a cardboard
theatre ensemble. Here we see the French heroine of good
tatse, Sabine, shooting the bad taste villain, Kay Wanafella,
for wearing diamante g-string knickers. Well, someone had to do it!

IDEAS DOCTOR

If you'd like to commission me to come with an idea for a campaign, a gift idea for clients or just to brainstorm with my laterally tuned mind then ask me in for a chat!

New animation backgrounds

This is what I'll be doing this weekend once
I've got pesky illustrations out the way - my
new animation. These are some of the backgrounds.
I'm learning FLASH at the moment and there's no
better way to learn than through an active project.
Watch this space.

'I find that scientifically fascinating'

I've been wondering how I can make a living
from my ideas. I think it's called realising the potential
of intellectual property but I prefer to think of myself as
being suspended in a global steamcloud of consciousness. I am bursting
with words and pictures! The way forward is to tap in to the zeitgeist or, in other words, to contribute ideas that matter at a specific time in a specific space to the people who have influence. Anyway, in my small way, I am going to set out on a journey through time and space to find those people. I know you're out there!

LAST WEEK

A selection of work commissioned and printed last week.

EDITORIAL RULES

My long-running weekly for the Times Educational is showcased this week as I meet with Art Directors in editorial publishing in Oz. I'm also about to do a Huuuuuuj mailout to the USA and Europe - So watch out world! As ever in the tiny world of illustration it's a case of think global, act local.

Lavender long lunch

I was delighted to be commissioned by Robyn Matthews at Lavender to make their online Christmas lunch invitation to clients. I photographed the tableware and chairs from the restaurant itself and set about laying a very long table in photoshop with individual settings for about 200 people. Each guest was asked to scroll along the online table until they found their name card and then click on it to RSVP. I added a whole bunch of oddball details such as a unicyclist traversing the bridge and a rockstar hamburger and all was complete. A brilliant idea which we turned around in three days.

Welcome to my world

There's more personal work under 'new'
on the http://www.alipellatt.com site.

Back from the UK

Here are some of my ongoing pieces for the Times Educational Supplement.
They are written by new teachers who can be anything from a nervous science
nerd to a fifty-five year old Grandmother who retrained late in life.