Angus and Alana’s Creative LIAisons Diary #1: Serene Deserts, Bold Ideas and Casino Carpets

BMF creatives Angus Whalan and Alana Koutoulas are representing Australia at the 2024 LIA Creative LIAisons program in Las Vegas, featuring some of the world’s most respected creative directors as speakers. Here, Angus and Alana report exclusively for CB.

Hiiiii! It’s Angus and Alana.

We’re at day two of the LIAs and we’ve spotted precisely zero Leah’s so far. Devastating.

On the bright side (literally), we spent our morning at Seven Magic Mountains in the Mojave Desert having some no-phone time and taking in the installation. It was peaceful, serene, noice, different, unusual.

But what did we learn out there in the desert and in the comfort of the conference room?

Here’s our five takeaways:

1. Making people ‘feel’ is more important than making them ‘think’.
2. “Great names do half the selling for you.” – Bianca Guimaraes from Mischief @ No Fixed Address
3. Killing your own ideas isn’t a bad thing if the thing that makes it great is under threat.
4. Sometimes the idea lies in removing barriers to the product, rather than promoting the product itself.
5. The kids are playing Roblox. Get on it.

Now your reward for scrolling this far – our casino carpet of the day.

Congratulations to the MGM Grand. This art-deco deconstruction of a pride flag is extremely hard on the eyes and perfectly hides 31 years of who knows what. No notes. 10/10.

Back to Dimo for day three 🙂