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To every traveler, being on land, sea and sky is a love and hate relationship. Occasionally it is a bumpy, rocky and dusty journey. And at times, it is a long, sweet and smooth trail like a porcelain skin. But whichever a traveler choose, it’s inevitable not to experience both side of the relationship.
I can’t recall much of my previous travels and dispatches a road that is so sweet from the moment we drive off from our starting point ‘til the time I alighted. Though two years ago, there’s one particular dispatch that is still fresh in my mind, and that was on our way to Ugong Rock, northwest of Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Almost 60km of paved road. No traffic or any road obstructions. I was lulled to sleep by the smooth swinging of left and right turns of our Ford Everest, our service vehicle then — while the rest of the crew discussing the further development of Puerto Princesa's eco tourism — not until we reached the environs of Barangay Tagabenit where we’ve had experienced the mild bumpy trail on our way to the village.
Watchout: A Love and Hate Relationship, Part II: Entirely Hate
On a normal working routine, once the sultry, alluring and persuasive advertising account executive brings a new client in, she then meets with the CD about her client’s creative requirement. After a couple of hours of flirtatious meeting with the CD, the CD then drafts a creative brief. This creative brief will then pass to the AD and The Copywriter to brainstorm for the “big ideas”. As soon as these “big ideas” were conceived and perfected based on the creative brief, it goes now to the Visualizer. With notes and directions from the AD, The Visualizer comes up with rough thumbnail sketches of the concepts. From specific description of models — gender, age, type of hair, actions, moods, etc. — to a specific description of a scene as well — time of day, exact location, etc. These rough thumbnail sketches will then go to The Artist. The Artist will work his sorry ass ‘til the wee hours to produce these rough thumbnail sketches to composite images complete with copy from The Copywriter for presentation to The Visualizer then to the AD and The Copywriter, and finally to the CD for the “go” signal for client presentation. These composite images are simply called pegs.
The advent of internet has cut the advertising agencies’ creative hierarchy short. An agency, still with solid financial backing from their mother company, will enjoy a creative team composed of a CD, an AD (who doubles as Visualizer, Artist and Final Artist) and a Copywriter. The internet has been plague with abundant online stock photography houses, spreading rapidly like wild fire, to choose from and still counting as of this moment. Even the high-and-mighty, photo agency Image Bank yielded for online presence.
Pegs are not anymore composite images produced by The Visualizers and The Artists like they used to be. Pegs are now an ensemble of different photographic images for each and every concept available and conceivable. It is now being produced by, none other than, the advertising photographers themselves (well, most of them), Hired by the ad agencies to execute the approved peg by the client. As of this result, no need for the hapless Visualizers and Artists anymore. I’m so sorry for the guys.
Now, the question is, to peg or not to peg?
Hello?!
It’s a waste of time.
Save it. As for the others.
But for me, actually yes. Some of us won’t grasp an idea by simply describing by words. As Elmore Leonard’s had pointed out on his 9th rule:
Unless you’re Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison.
In my years of working in the publication industry and visual communication by the side, coming up with a peg have had helped me a lot in communicating my ideas to my editors and collaborators — photographers, illustrators and fellow designers. Sometimes a peg can be a model’s poses or just a specific attire, hair style or how a model was been made up. Most of the times, it’s the type of photography or lighting, and so on. All you need is just a solid concept to help you in producing the right peg that would best convey your concept. And at the end of the day, by using these pegs as inspirations, it will give you better perspectives and big results visually.
Producing pegs is as simple as ordering at McDonalds and even simpler — without falling in line — just by dialing a less-than-10-minute-delivery number.
But wait, there’s more
What if I can’t find a peg for my great concept? That I’ll leave it up with your imagination…
“Starting at the trailhead, about 20km from the Town Hall, the trek is a leisurely 3km hike that follows the Wahig River through canyons, and agricultural areas. Trekkers get picked up at the mouth of the canyon.”
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“Makati City has seen the opening of trendy boutique hotels the past few years, providing great variety for all types of travelers. Shopping and entertainment centers have also expanded to embrace both international designer brands and exciting, new local designer products.”
“Café La Carmela on Jupiter Street offers chicken and pork barbeque dishes, made more special by its dipping sauce of sinamak or traditional vinegar originating from Cebu.”
“Papertrail at Lao Center, Makati, sells journals, note pads, organizers, quirky tote bags and “smencils” or scented pencils, all imported from abroad.”
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“ For Chef Stephanie Zubiri its ostrich, duck’s embryo, frogs, and goat at restaurants Moomba and Bistro Remedios.”
“At Moomba, Zubiri likes the tian of ostrich (P450), marinated ostrich strips with vegetables, mashed potatoes and whole baked garlic cloves. “It looked juicy, was thinly sliced but softer because it was cooked with a sauce. The flavors were strong yet you can taste the ostrich more.””
“Bistro Remedios is known for frogs, goat and balut. It was a few weeks too early for the Pampanga specialty kamaru or rice field crickets, spiced and fried to a crisp, so the order of the day were adobong balut (P120), two unfertilized duck eggs stewed in soy sauce, vinegar, and garlic, and betute or farm frogs.”
To read the full story and other travel features, call: +632 840.2802 to subscribe a copy.
