On My Radar: Barney Richard

Barney Richard recently made the move from Friend London, where he was co-founder and partner, to take up a post as partner/sales EP at RIFF RAFF Films.

Below, he tells us what makes him tick - including trainer 'tech', cool, creative websites and Annie Lennox at the bottom of the sea - as well as adding his thoughts on how the industry could impove.

What’s the best ad campaign you’ve seen recently?

The last few IKEA films – Beds, The Joy of Storage – have been magnificent. Good ideas fed by surrealism, whimsy and stunning cinematography – wonderfully-crafted stuff.

For completely contrasting reasons I’m also very drawn to the recent Cancer research work The lump – a strong, simple idea that is relatable.

What website(s) do you use most regularly and why?

I use all the obvious sites that relate to work for research and scouting but because I have the attention span of a hummingbird with ADHD I tend to gravitate toward sites that spit out nuggets of fun, odd little things people have seemingly created for no real reason.

Pointer Pointer

Falling Falling

Zoom Quilt

Sanger

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought and why?

Ha. Me, tech? I bought some trainers recently and they have laces. Amazing things. You kind of have to loop these weird stringy bits around one another so your feet don’t slip out of them when you’re walking. I sit on the end of my bed every morning and get all sweaty and anxious for 20 minutes before attempting this twisted game of futility.

Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?

All of the above. Hummingbird, remember?

What’s your favourite app on your phone and why?

Find My iPhone. You have no idea how often I have to use this app. The joy for me is where I actually find it. It feels like the phone is actually escaping me purposely. I don’t blame it mind you, I’m an idiot - I keep dropping it down the toilet, smashing it and saving pictures of my face on it.

I once tracked it down thousands of leagues under the Caspian Sea inside a jewel-encrusted spider crab that was hiding in a tepee playing a marshmallow drum kit with Annie Lennox who was sleeping on my previous iPhone cuddling a small version of herself.

What’s your favourite TV show and why?

I’m glad you didn’t say “recent”. I’m immediately attracted to anything Chris Morris has his dark filthy mitts on. Aside from his later stuff and the freakish audio bullets he spat out, The Day Today remains one of my favourite series. It’s imaginative, surreal, funny, subversive and socially observational – most of his work remains as challenging and relevant now as it was then – I love creativity that transcends time.

What film do you think everyone should have seen?

Fantastic Planet. A psychedelic masterpiece. The artwork, characters and animation, all incredible - it’s peculiar, weird and spiritual (I see a pattern merging here) – the storytelling is absurd, beautiful, and jarring all at the same time. Here’s a quote I’ve stolen from someone much cleverer than me that sums it up really well:

“The film veers close to being a dream, at times, threatening to lose coherence and dissolve into mere sequences of phantasmagoria. Fantastic Planet does, however, speak some message, be it theological, political, internal, or even ecological. That it does so in such an alien tongue is only fitting in a tale about being lost in such a strange world.”

Where were you when inspiration last struck?

I can’t tell you that otherwise everyone will want to go there.

What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed in the industry since you started working in it?

Cultural change. I think the industry has a vast amount of diversity compared to 10 years ago. It still needs more, everything does - but it has influenced the writing and the visual output of the now, directly and indirectly.

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

Communication. From the top, all the way down to the bottom. Openness is the key to trust and trust is the key to healthy, inspired relationships. If we’re all getting on better and we know where we all stand in the process, what’s expected of us and where we need to get to, then the end product and the journey that takes us there is infinitely more fun, collaborative and impactful. It’s a huge irony that an industry based on communication can let itself down so often in this way.

What or who has most influenced your career and why?

Human beings. I much prefer to learn from people, interactions, experiences and environments – the influence and knowledge becomes much more a part of you. It’s a kind of reciprocal enlightenment – we all influence each other and take the best bits. I’m lucky enough to know a host of very bright, sparkly and giving individuals that I’m indebted to; and I’m wildly fond of them all.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know…

I’m inside out and nobody seems to have noticed.