Aaron Duffy is co-founder of SpecialGuest and specialises in communication and visual experimentation. I love learning about anything that deals with communication so I was very excited to see how he combines visual experimentation with communication in an effective way. I was not disappointed. In Duffy’s presentation at OFFSET Dublin in 2019, he talked through several really cool and effective campaigns that he worked on.

Duffy also incorporated ten confessions on what he struggled with during the projects and what he felt he could improve upon. I thought this was a really brave approach as it was so honest. I think that it is great to hear the success stories but little reminders of struggles and disappointments as included by Duffy are very important to reflect on, particularly in our current culture which is prone to presenting a ‘glossy’ version of life with plenty of Instagram and Facebook posts to back it up.

My favourite campaigns that Duffy spoke about during his presentation were for the Audi Q5 and Google. These advertisements are probably some of his less experimental work however, I love their simplicity. For me finding a clever, engaging and simple way to communicate a message visually is genius and probably what I strive for most in my own work. I feel this was achieved in both advertisements.

In the Audi advertisement shown above, the majority of the ad consists of an illustrated man moving around a box canvas shaping and folding the box into the shape of a car, to the soft, child-friendly folk song, ‘Riding in My Car’ by Woody Guthrie. Finally, the Audi Q5 is revealed and the text that follows playfully reads “We’ve unboxed the box”. Duffy attributes the success of the advert to its contrast to other cool and mechanical Audi advertisements at that time. He describes the above outcome as warm and playful. I also feel this approach is well paired with the Q5, one of Audi's models suited for families.

The Google search advertisement, ‘Parisian Love’ is really simple and maybe a bit cheesy but I love it. I love its minimalist approach and I believe that Duffy underplays what was achieved with this ad in his presentation. Regardless of the advertisements cheesy undertones, it still achieves a heartfelt outcome which in my opinion is no small feat for a tech company advertisement.

Duffy describes ‘Parisian Love’ as not one of his favourites and a “little soppy”. However he concedes that due to the advertisement's massive success being used as Google’s first TV advertisement and even being played at the Super Bowl, he “may not know what is good”. I think out of all the confessions that Duffy makes, this is the one that really jumps out to me. It can be difficult to distinguish between good work and what we as designers perceive to be good. I believe it’s really important to create work you are proud of and that you love. However, if no one appreciates your work, it doesn't get watched or it doesn’t get the following it should, this then raises the question of whether the work is meeting its purpose. Duffy admits to this problem in his ‘Why can’t we get along?’ advertisement, for Rag & Bone. Creating work you love and work that sells can be a hard balance to achieve. However, I believe this can be achieved in multiple ways, even by simply finding out what makes other people's work so successful and applying the relevant techniques to your own work.