Synopsis: Jawbone.tv spotlights ambiguous creative collective 'The Glue Society', including insights about their approach to the 'Misfit' video project from writer, director and Glue Society co-founder Jonathan Kneebone.

'The Glue Society' is one of those creative entities that eludes definition, and the harder you try, the more confusing it gets. They're like a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, behind a water buffalo, on top of a purple taco. See what we mean? Gibberish.

They've loaded up on the world's top advertising awards, but they aren't an agency. They push the limits in industries they neither control nor fully embrace. And, they have no standing client list, and no business unit. Surface Magazine calls them the "Romper room of pop culture and digital technology." That might be as close as the definition gets.

"It's a not that I don't like trying to define it, it's just very hard to do," explains writer, director and Glue Society co-founder Jonathan Kneebone. "When we started, which was in 1998, myself and Gary Freedman, we knew that we wanted to create an opportunity to do all sorts of creative projects, and just basically be the people to come up with ideas and make things as a collective."

Those 'things' they make now include commercials, print advertising, graphic design, books, art exhibitions, live events, installations, sculptures, music videos and more. The group is based in Sydney and New York, with just a small handful of writers, designers, and art and film directors contributing.

"Clients are very keen to do things that are new and different," Kneebone asserts. "But what's happening is that it's going to be impossible for creative people inside an agency to execute these ideas because of the overhead. What's interesting about being independent of the system, is suddenly you can be given a budget, and you can then make that budget work, depending on your resources and your time, to come up with the idea as well as execute it."  

The most recent project to emerge from behind Glue Society walls and garner international attention is aptly called "Misfit". It was commissioned by Australian energy drink 'V' (like Red Bull, down under) to promote an initiative called V-Raw, which gives young people the opportunity to find a 'fit' in the most creative companies in Australia, through internships in fashion, graphic design, music, television, advertising and gaming.

"We tried to think of something that could combine all of those skill sets and pull it into one creative endeavor," says Kneebone. "We got in touch with Chris Colonna who's half of the Bumblebeez. And they wrote some music for us, a piece called 'Misfits' because the whole idea we felt should be about that sensation you have when you're not really sure if you should risk everything and let your income depend on your artistic ability."

"So he [Colonna] wrote the track, and we wrote the story about this person who makes costumes out of things from his mind and his environment ... and people think he's a bit of a wanker and an asshole because he dresses in this weird way. Ultimately, he finds himself in the big city, and someone who's a window dresser sees him and realizes he's got creative potential. Next thing he knows he's in the window of the shop, and suddenly all these people are admiring him."

"It allowed us to show something for people interested in film, and in fashion in particular. We created all those designs with a bunch of great performance artists and fashion designers that we already knew about. It became a collaboration. We're thrilled with it. It genuinely feels like an original thing, and quite experimental."

In commenting about the guiding principles behind their work, and what will continue to push things forward, Kneebone states something painfully obvious but almost universally ignored, especially in advertising: Honesty.

"I've always thought the best communication principle is that when something communicates in a way that's just true to how people are in reality, then the relationship works because people are honest and open," attests Kneebone. "I mean, it's not really hard to understand that if you're going to be successful in artistic communication then you should probably think about the same principles."

The Glue Society is currently developing an original series for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. For more information on the group, visit the Glue Society website or the V-Raw project.