OddBallMall

I almost forgot. A couple of months ago I did a quick job with Newhaven (advertising agency in Edinburgh for those of you who don't know 'em), for a shop in Edinburgh called OddBallMall. Based at 28 Lochrin Buildings near the King's Theatre, OddBallMall specialises in skatewear; jeans, t-shirts, hoodies - for boys n girls. Newhaven were asked to produce a campaign to increase the 'Mall's profile.

They came up with a character called OddBall and his perky female sidekick NoBall. Coming up with the strapline 'Clothes are important', the lads at Newhaven (Rufus Wedderburn and Chris Watson - hi guys) wanted the characters to be butt naked; I shall spare you the protracted email exchange we had debating the suitable size of OddBall's wee fella. Methinks the boys were a bit threatened by my early renderings. Bless.

As if that wasn't enough; true to his name, OddBall is one scotch egg short of a picnic, and NoBall... well NoBall is just nekkid. Copy was along the lines of 'I wonder if they'll have something to cover my fu-fu?' and 'I must buy some trousers from OddBallMall, I just followed through at the bus stop'. The guys artdirected (I was doodler for hire on this one) and while I wasn't jumping up and down about my work, I was still pretty satisfied with the outcome.

The upshot of the whole affair is that the OddBallMall campaign has been nominated in five categories (including Best use of Illustration) at the Scottish Advertising Awards 2007. I so did NOT see that one coming. Have a look at the other nominees and see all the finished ads here.