I heard the extremely sad news this morning that Andy Cameron had passed away. He died of a heart attack on Tuesday. Creative Review and Design Week have both written better versions of what I'm about to say.
So, written as notes, a tribute.
Andy started Anti-Rom, was Executive Director at Fabrica and Interactive Creative Director at w+k London. Most people would be happy to have done one of those things. To have done all three is amazing.
I remember when we got the Anti-Rom CD at college. It was the first well designed interactive thing we'd ever seen. It blew our minds. We spent the rest of the year making wobbly interfaces over Underworld songs. (Except me, I used the Spice Girls.)
I worked with Andy at w+k, and as many others have said he was kind, honest, supportive, encouraging and optimistic. Nic Owen said Andy was "always naive (in a brilliant way)" which is something I wanted to mention. I think he found an ad agency a culture shock and I think he was more valuable at the agency because of that.
Among many things he worked on the Kaiser Chief album thing that recently won a D&AD pencil.
At w+k Andy attracted a type of talent that ad agencies can't normally atract. Young developers and creative techs who agencies need but wouldn't have considered working at an ad agency unless someone like Andy was there. Those young developers and coders will miss Andy terribly.
Supporting young digital talent seems like a theme as you read the tributes to Andy. The list of people he taught and where they now work is staggering. Nik and Tom Roope, Andy Polaine and Sophie Pendrell, Andy Huntington, BERG, Google Creative Labs, w+k, Poke, One dot zero, Tomato and so on.
Of course we live in an age where this kind of news appears in unsual places. Earlier today Andy Cameron was trending on Twitter. As one of those young creative techs said, "I think he would have liked that."
But that's all work – Andy was a family man and his Instagram was full of their adventures in London and Italy. My thoughts go out to them.
Rest In Peace.
Lovely lovely words Ben xx
Posted by: Kirsten Rutherford | May 29, 2012 at 23:30
I'm also thrilled to see this feature again.
Friend Link: http://www.buy-sneaker-online.com
Posted by: Account Deleted | Jul 04, 2012 at 02:21