Curated for Ad's Sake #14

🇧🇷 Brazilian architecture 🤖 QWERTY 📣 Ask for Ad's Sake

Jonathan Heath

Jan 28, 2025

It’s been awhile (Staind voice).

But new year and all that. Here’s some things I’ve collected.

Or, you can skip to the end for another Ask for Ad’s Sake with Leah Morris.

Let’s go…

Learn synth in the Ableton Playground.

What does QWERTY actually mean?

A bar logo in Japan.

If you love God, burn a church.

Damon.

Japanese-Brazilian artist Tomie Ohtake’s residence in São Paulo, designed by her son Ruy Ohtake.

The Horrors return.

An Org Chart.

An old favourite.

Group B. Let it rip!

Polaroid by Andrei Tarkovsky.

RIP Chuck E. Cheese animatronics.

More Lynch next time. But here’s a classic:

Ask for Ad’s Sake

Same questions, new creative vision. This time I reached out to the legendary Leah Morris – Lead Copywriter at R/GA and Founder of Mavens, an independent, digital publication to champion women working in Australian advertising and media.

1. What’s the first piece of art you saw that really stayed with you?

Can I say the kids’ book ‘Animalia’ by Graeme Base? As a small, I loved connecting the chaotic imagery with the words, which was an A-Z of animal alliterations.

Like if the copy said ‘Horrible hairy hogs hurrying homeward on heavily harnessed horses’, I couldn’t turn the page until I’d spotted everything that was described on the page.

2. What is your Mount Rushmore of artists (four, all-time, unranked)?

Tracy Moffat, Annie Leibowitz, Barbara Kruger and Yayoi Kusama.

Tracey Moffatt, Something More #1, 1989, cibrachrome print, framed, Museum of Contemporary Art, purchased 1992, image courtesy and © the artist

Tracey Moffatt, First Jobs, Pineapple Cannery 1978, 2008

3. What’s one piece of art you’d love to have in your home?

I’m a bit of a minimalist and I don’t do well with too much visual clutter. So I think a Rothko would suit me nicely. Plus, it would be quite the flex!

Inside Mark Rothko's Former New York City Studio | Architectural Digest

4. What’s the best museum/exhibition/gallery experience you’ve ever had?

I’ve been to some amazing galleries in Australia, Europe and Asia but nothing beats memories at Benalla Art Gallery with my dad. Having grown up in Wangaratta, he’d tell me local bush-ranger legends as we observed the Sidney Nolan tapestry.

5. What’s an ad that should be in a museum?

There’s a 2005 Greenpeace press ad from Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore, written by Jagdish Ramakrishnan. It shows a dark ocean and the copy reads ‘It was a bit like a submarine. A fat, blue submarine. It must have weighed over a hundred tonnes…’ and as you continue to read, you realise it’s describing a whale, as though it were already extinct. Everyone should see that ad.