Richard Edgley

The Scottish artist David Shrigley has been collaborating with the luxury knitwear manufacturer Pringle of Scotland for a few years now. It started in 2009 with a series of slogan designs for T-shirts and twin sets. It then continued with promotional billboards on the London Underground.

Back in 2010 David Shrigley produced a short promotional film about Pringle. I stumbled across it again the other day. It made me smile. It is interesting because it is a good example of simple and engaging storytelling. It delivers the message about Pringle without it felling like an advert. Without feeling as if you are being sold to. That is a very good thing.

Here it is:

Alan Watts (1915 to 1973) was a British philosopher. He was best known for his interpretations of Easten philosophy such as Zen and communicating them to Western audiences.

I must confess I had not heard of him until recently. I came across him when someone at work showed me an animation done by Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park fame. They had taken a recording of him talking about two personality types - prickles and goo.

Prickles being believers in certainty. Goo being more vague. He was saying that in reality neither type holds sway exclusivley. You have prickly goo and gooey prickles. We are always playing with both or having to deal with them together.

And to me it often holds true.

The animation is rather lovely. Short and simple and fun. His voice is rich and humorous. 

Here is a link to view it: http://www.neticons.net/prickles/

You can find out more about Alan Watts here: http://www.alanwatts.com