Creative Generals

Creative Generals We specialise in branding & strategy, creative solutions, advertising campaigns, graphic design, web

We're excited to be kicking things off with Eternal Group Services. 👀 Can't share everything yet, but the hive's buzzing...
18/09/2026

We're excited to be kicking things off with Eternal Group Services. 👀 Can't share everything yet, but the hive's buzzing. Stay tuned… 🙌

By now you've heard me bang on about this poster all week.Here it is up close. Twenty years old, made from an actual lum...
10/09/2026

By now you've heard me bang on about this poster all week.

Here it is up close. Twenty years old, made from an actual lump of dog s**t and painted with gold scratchy paint, with Tibor Kalman's words underneath.

Swipe right to see 👉

I still run his test on everything I make. Does it look better because it got better, or because I got good at gold paint?

That's the only question that matters now - for my work, and for yours.

A few days ago I asked whether being able to gold-plate anything is a problem. Here’s where that question comes from.Twe...
07/09/2026

A few days ago I asked whether being able to gold-plate anything is a problem. Here’s where that question comes from.

Twenty-odd years ago, for my final-year exhibition at Monash, I made a poster about a lump of s**t.

There’s a designer I’ve always admired called Tibor Kalman. In an interview once, he described what a rival studio was really selling when they promised corporations they could turn s**t into gold:

“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘦’𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦’𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦’𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘢𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴, 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴.”

His point wasn’t inspiring. It was an accusation. So I made a poster of it. I photographed an actual piece of dog s**t, painted over it in gold scratchy paint, and mounted it to a wall. Then I handed people a 20-cent coin and made them scratch the gold away to see what was underneath. I wanted them to do the work - to scratch off the shine and see the thing for what it was.

Here’s why it’s on my mind now.

We’re living through the largest gold-paint operation in history. AI can wrap anything in shine. A brand, a post, a voice, all fabulous on the surface and hollow underneath. The same old s**t, better packaging, at a scale Kalman never could have imagined.

And here’s the part I love. People have started genuinely scratching.
Last month LinkedIn added a button to flag a post as “AI slop.” The crowd now has a 20-cent coin and everyone can scratch the gold away and see what’s really there.

Some people in my industry are terrified of that - I’m not! It’s the best thing that’s happened to real work in years. Because when everyone can spot the gold paint, the only thing left ‘worth’ anything is the thing that was never painted. I still run the test from that poster on everything I make. Does this look better because the thing itself got better, or because I got good at gold paint?

Yes, this post was written with AI, with me behind every word of it. If it reads like slop to you - scratch it, flag it! If it holds up, you’ll know why.

A designer said this back in the nineties, and it has never been more true than it is today.Tibor Kalman, a true inspira...
03/09/2026

A designer said this back in the nineties, and it has never been more true than it is today.

Tibor Kalman, a true inspiration, was talking about a rival firm running ads promising corporations they could turn s**t into gold. His response was to call it exactly what it was. Same product, gold wrapper, sold as reinvention.

Nearly thirty years on, we can all do it at the push of a button. Wrap anything in shine and call it valuable.

👇 The full interview is worth your time. Check it out below.

https://www.seekandspeak.com/2026/01/24/tibor-kalman-on-design-ethics/

Do you take the good with the bad, or the bad with the good?Look closely, because they’re the same shape. The same lette...
03/09/2026

Do you take the good with the bad, or the bad with the good?

Look closely, because they’re the same shape. The same letters, the same raw materials, built from the exact same stuff. Good and bad were never opposites sitting at either end of the room, they were always cut from one cloth.

Give two people the same brief, the same budget and the same tools, one of them will make something people remember, while the other makes something people scroll straight past - the materials never changed, only the judgement did.

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗼.

So look at your own brand and be honest with yourself.

Which one did you end up with?

Honestly, this is terrifying.I’ll be straight with you, because that’s the whole point of this post.Right now is a stran...
06/08/2026

Honestly, this is terrifying.

I’ll be straight with you, because that’s the whole point of this post.

Right now is a strange and frightening time to run a creative business. AI is everywhere, and some days it makes the craft I’ve spent my whole career building feel replaceable. Good agencies are closing. And every business owner I talk to, in every industry, is quietly asking the same question. Do people still need what I do?

I ask it too. Anyone telling you they don’t is lying.

Then something snapped it into focus, from the strangest place.

Years ago at uni I studied René Magritte. In 1929 he painted a pipe and wrote underneath it, “This is not a pipe.” I filed it away as art theory. Then a few weeks ago it turned up on a t-shirt in a film, and this time it landed.

His point was simple. You can’t stuff it. You can’t smoke it. It’s a picture of a pipe. If he’d written “this is a pipe,” he’d have been lying.

The painting everyone called a trick was the most honest painting ever made.

Nearly a hundred years later, Magritte would have a field day with our feeds. Generated content that looks like connection. Automated words that look like a voice. Polished brands that look like trust. Imitations everywhere, all insisting they’re the original.

And here’s what I know after twenty-plus years of doing this. The original only ever happens between people.

It happens in the room. Standing in a paddock at dawn with a farmer finally telling the story he’s carried for thirty years. The moment a client forgets the camera is there and says the thing they actually mean. No machine has ever produced that, because it doesn’t come from a machine. It comes from being there.

And before you think I’m hiding from the technology, I use AI every day. That image? AI helped me make it. The idea, the style, the reason it exists, that was me. The tool didn’t have the thought. It can render anything, but mean nothing.

So here’s the deal. It’s not your job to keep up with AI. That’s mine. You look after your business – I’ll hold this line.

I saw a spelling mistake in a conference video today.Surely, it would have gone through a whole production process with ...
04/08/2026

I saw a spelling mistake in a conference video today.

Surely, it would have gone through a whole production process with multiple people, and nobody caught it.

𝙃𝙖𝙨 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝, 𝙧̲𝙚̲𝙖̲𝙡̲𝙡̲𝙮̲ 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝?

𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘺𝘦𝘴!

Graphics that look like they were made in five minutes. Content that could belong to anyone. How far have we lowered the bar?

👇 Post your thoughts in the comments below…

What perfect timing! I had a funny moment yesterday, got a text that looked exactly like it was from my bank. You know t...
01/07/2026

What perfect timing! I had a funny moment yesterday, got a text that looked exactly like it was from my bank. You know the one, "verify your account," dodgy link, the works.

Except my bank has spent years telling me they'll never send a text like that.

📢 𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘊𝘔𝘈'𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘚𝘔𝘚 𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘐𝘋 𝘙𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙚𝙭𝙩𝙨 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙, 𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙪𝙥 𝙖𝙨 "𝙐𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙚𝙙" 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙥𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙢 𝙩𝙚𝙭𝙩𝙨.

Took us a while to get here, but here we are - where a brand now needs government permission just to prove it's telling the truth.

If your business sends bookings, reminders, or marketing texts under your name, I’d check today whether your provider has registered you. Otherwise, tomorrow your legitimate texts might look exactly like the scam you've spent years warning people about.

Good thing I don’t text… (too much)! 🤣

My niece turned four last weekend. Magic unicorn party. Full theme, every detail covered - awesome fun!!!I wore the hat....
29/06/2026

My niece turned four last weekend. Magic unicorn party. Full theme, every detail covered - awesome fun!!!

I wore the hat. No regrets.

Here's the thing about parties like this. Some people throw a "themed" party and it's a few balloons and a cake. Some people try hard and it still looks like a school fundraiser. And then some people commit completely, every corner of the room says unicorn, and it just works. Full credit to my brother's partner, Elyse, who pulled this one off ‘like a boss’).

Branding is exactly the same.

Some businesses think a logo and a colour palette is "branding." Some try, but it never quite lands. And some go all in, every touchpoint tells the same story, and customers feel it before they can explain why.
The businesses that get it right usually have one thing in common. They know when to hand it to someone who actually knows how to make it land.

(Also, yes, I'm aware of how I look in this hat… Worth it!)

I bet you’ve heard of the brand YETI, but did you know that YETI built a billion-dollar brand selling $300 coolers.Not b...
17/06/2026

I bet you’ve heard of the brand YETI, but did you know that YETI built a billion-dollar brand selling $300 coolers.

Not because the cooler was magicand it had a cosmic material that kept things cold forever – but because the story was real. Real people. Real places. Real conditions. Guides, farmers, fishermen who actually used the thing, captured honestly, with no gloss on top.

People didn't buy a cooler. They bought a membership into something they believed in.

That's the thing nobody tells you about ‘𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁’. You can't manufacture it. You can't buy it with a bigger ad spend or a shinier logo. 𝗜𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱. And the only way to earn it is to tell your story so honestly, so consistently, that the right people start to feel something when they come across your brand.

Most businesses never get there. Not because they don't have a good story – they do – they've usually got a great one. They just haven't found the right way to tell it yet.

We drove out to Cowra at dawn to film a family grain business with 30 years of history and almost nothing on the outside that reflected who they actually were. Multiple days on location. Paddocks, silos, conversations that had never been captured on camera. The
result was a brand and a film that finally sounded like them.

𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 👉 https://vimeo.com/971070243

That's the work we do at Creative Generals. Not branding for branding's sake. Story that builds trust, opens doors, and
makes a business worth more than it was before we started.

If your business has outgrown the way it's currently being presented,
I'd love to talk. Or if someone you know is at that point, send this their way.

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Level 1, 6 Riddell Parade
Elsternwick, VIC
3185

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