Brian Tonner

a smattering of work bits here

Hello I'm Brian I try to fit big giant ideas into tiny sentences.

I trained at Watford with the late, great, Tony Cullingham.

I still use Tony’s techniques on every brief. He was a hero.

I try to sum up my ideas in 7 words or less.

Sometimes more but never more than 12.

I’ve led pitches, rebranded a bank, and picked up a few awards including D&AD, Campaign Big, Cresta, Drums.

I’m from Glasgow.

It’s given me a lot, including an accent only a privileged few can understand.

I did my first placement at McCann, then moved to Leith where I wrote for every major client and fluked my first awards.

Freelancing taught me to be extra speedy on briefs at Ogilvy, M+C Saatchi and Above+ Beyond to name a few.

I worked at the only agency in Manchester that’s got a frontman.

Like in a band. Bez from Happy Mondays.

Technically he was more of a dancer than a singer, but still.

I headed back to London one more time before taking the plunge down to Dubai.

That’s us all caught up now.

I’ve worked on IRN-BRU, Emirates, Sainsbury’s, Honda, the Scottish Government, Royal Bank of Scotland, Famous Grouse, DHL, Travel Supermarket and VISA. The list keeps going.

A good ad should make you laugh, think, or quietly cry on the inside.

Bad ads make me cry out loud.

I’ve always been into anything that gets the brain going. I used to write songs, now I write stories. I used to make techno, now I buy old synths. Films, games, and music still take up a fair chunk of my time and no doubt always will.