video - riswold amalgamated

Jim Riswold has written some of the best ads ever made. And he's one of the smartest and nicest people around (though he goes out of his way to hide both). He recently quit full time advertising to concentrate on his art.

You can see lots of his art here. But this is my favourite - Le retraite de Napoléon

He let me bumble through my normal inept questions and gormless giggling and we talked about loads of things. But I think the most interesting stuff is here, Jim talking about the satisfactions he gets from his art, the similarities between his art and his advertising. And the disappointing lack of stupidity in both art and advertising.

Here's the Quicktime (14MB.) I didn't do a videopod version this time because it's a huge file. But here's an mp3 (22MB) for anyone subscribing via itunes or something.

You can read his Esquire article, Hitler Saved My Life, here (but you have to register).

And click here for his jingle. Other artists don't have jingles. Only Jim.

Comments

[Julie]

What a sincere and touching interview. Thanks Russell and Jim.

[Anne]

I want a jingle. Can we get a family jingle?

[Rusty-Chubb]

I enjoyed that. Nothing quite like seeing (or hearing) one's point-of-view individually expressed.

I hope you continue to capture your thoughts and others via videopod.

Thank you.

[lsdlsd]

I'm e n r a p t u r e d.

[Josh Parks]

Does anybody have the Feb. 13 copy of AdWeek with the Riswold interview in it? He has a funny line about what he's going to put on his tombstone and I'm trying to track it down.