NORTHERN PLANNER

Not long until I'm leaving. Funny situation a notice period. Can't start anything, letting go of other stuff bit bit. It's like sloughing off skin.

There's a lovely symmetry to my time here. It started with women's hair, loosely linked to fashion, very funny in the light of my lack of hair and even bigger absence of dress sense.

 

 

And that's what I'm finishing with (different brand). Hopefully in style (the project, not my clothes of course).

There's a few things I won't miss about TBWA, but there's lots I will. By things, I really mean the people, especially, but not limited to the planning department. Might introduce you to one or two in the next few days.

Here are the planners…

This is Dawn (or her film lookalike)

Dawn sits opposite me. If you pass our desk you'll either find her completely zoned out, tapping at her keyboard furiously, or exchanging cooking tips with me. She's a digital guru and one of the most hard working people I've met. She's also an ex suit and despite the best efforts of the planning department, still organised to the nearest nanosecond. Dawn did the best ever all agency meeting, with the possible exception of…….

Martin, but since he's a part time comedian, he had a slight advantage.

This also gives him  a slight advantage as a planner, since he able to make natural observations about how people behave. Curiously, he hasn't told me one joke that has made me laugh, ah well. Martin doesn't just do comedy and planning, he's also a regular at kayaking and good enough to teach it too. Loves coffee, but knows how to make great tea in  a warmed pot.

Helen's the quintessential planning archetype. Brighter than a brain pie, while so absent minded she's lost everything except herself. Car keys, purse, train ticket…she hold the record for number of agency mobile phones (probably)

She's also very kind and thoughtful and a brilliant planner.

She's also lent me her entire Haruki Murukami collection, which will take a while to wade through since my baby boy's just started teething. 

We were in competition last year with our IPA papers (both got bronze) and ended up berating a taxi driver at 2am for failing to find us a bar still open. "Call this a 24 hour city, rubbish!" etc etc.

  Stephen's very dry, arid. Is he joking? Does he really mean it? Who knows. When you know he's joking he's very funny, but don't ever start a conversation about the God Delusion. By his own admission, has developed a pretty good beatnik look – you sometimes expect him to spout post modern french poetry at you. Then it all changes, he crops the hair, trims the beard and looks quite scary. Ridiculous metabolism, eats for England, always stick thin.

Collectively, these are the people that sit in my corner and manage to make sure every day has some fun in it.