The phrase "They don't make them like they used to" gets bandied about to the point of cliché, but in the case of Paul Arden, it's more than apt. The renowned former ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi, London, passed away April 2 from a heart attack after a long illness, and the tributes pouring in from London's creative community are almost uniform in hailing the eccentric, influential 67-year-old as truly one of a kind.

"Working with him was never boring, having meetings with him were never boring, even having lunch with him was never boring," says friend and colleague Roger Kennedy, regional creative director for Saatchi & Saatchi, Europe/Middle East/Asia (EMEA), and head of Saatchi London's typography department upon Arden's arrival as art director in 1979. "He led the creative department based on that premise - he was very quick to criticize people for doing anything that he considered normal, or that wasn't fresh and original."

A number of the campaigns he worked on, such as Silk Cut's elegant campaign featuring sliced silk and little else, and the British Airways spot "Face", depicting an aerial view of a face formed from hundreds of people, can only be described as iconic. After leaving Saatchi in 1992, he started his own production company, Arden Sutherland-Dodd with partner Nick Sutherland-Dodd, which grabbed the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Lions in 1998. He also authored several books, including the best-selling It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be in 2003.

That dogged pursuit of originality, merged with his eccentric nature, led some to think of Arden as difficult. One of the maxims in his first book stated, "If you can't solve a problem it's because you're playing by the rules."

"He was capable of outrageous behavior, but at the same time you ultimately grew to love him," says Kennedy. "We were in awe of him at the agency."

"Paul taught me so much; mostly by ripping up my work and making me start again," recalls M&C Saatchi ECD Graham Fink, who began working with Arden upon joining Saatchi's London office in 1986. "I always remember how he liked things to look slightly wrong, even to the extent of ordering his hand-made suits to have one sleeve slightly longer than the other. He was an absolute perfectionist. I will miss him very much."

Arden is survived by his wife Toni and his son and daughter.

Paul Arden memorial site http://www.paularden.com