Last week Mick Greer, a freelance copywriter, came to my college to give a lecture about life in the design industry. Guy Lawrence, one of our tutors, introduced Mick to the group as they had known each other for a number of years. After 20 years not being in touch they met 5 years ago and have been friends since.
Mick studied Graphic Design for 4 years but then decided to get into Advertising as he felt he wasn't that good at design. He leaned heavily towards copywriting and works now with an art director.
His CV includes working for The Chase, LOVE, Amaze and Mccann Erickson.
He started with some maths equations that basically showed that there are too many people and not enough jobs. This proved you have to be pretty special to get yourself a job. This led onto the subject of placements being of huge importance in getting a job. It is all about what you do and how motivated you are.
He told us that once we get a contact, to keep in touch at least once a week and build up relationships within the industry which is the best way of getting a job. When on placement do the jobs other people don't want to do and make yourselves invaluable. Mick also said not to just talk to one person. Talk to a dozen agencies to give yourselves the best chance of being hired in the future.
People often find they are without work for a year after qualifying. This means you need to act before you graduate to assure you are not without work. Agencies do not expect the finished article when you arrive and ther is still a lot of learning to be done after you graduate.
His advice overall was to be tenacious and you will get your reward.
Tuesday 27 April 2010
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Untouched Logo
I am in the process of setting up another web/print agency in Manchester. We have come up with the name Untouched. This is because we want to show that the value for money and quality of service we provide is untouched. We also like to create clean design that hasn't been tarnished with unnecessary clutter which ties in with the philosophy of the company. The logo I have designed leaves the word Untouched 'untouched' and surrounded by the 3 barriers which protects the word from anything else being able to touch it. The circles show unity and the colours can be interchanged accross the website when this is produced.
Thursday 15 April 2010
Contact Report - Questionnaire - Caroline @ The Clinton Partnership
Questionnaire:
1.) Recently, myself and James entered 10 awards between us for D&AD and YCN. This has possibly had a slightly negative impact on our Final Major Project's as we have not spent as much time on them as other people on our course who entered one or none. We felt that it is our last chance to win student awards so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance. Tutors have told us a number of times to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin on each entry by doing so many. We were advised to focus on one or two and make them entries better. However we feel all of the entries had a chance of winning so we worked them all up and sent them off.
Do you think we approached this in the right way or would you agree with my tutors? What are your thoughts on the subject of student awards?
In all honesty, I think your final projects are incredibly important to a certain extent in that they dictate your final marks/degree. However they are not the be all and end all – gaining experience and entering awards ( & winning them in your case) will be invaluable to your credentials and ultimately land you better jobs than your colleagues in the future! It is a balancing act between everything. I can see your tutors concerns as you must focus time and effort on your important projects but if you have time to enter and feel strongly about your work, then go for it – you’ve got nothing to lose, providing you don’t lose sight of your uni work alltogether!
2.) I am of the opinion that good ideas should be put ahead of the design of anything. I did my dissertation on this subject and found out a lot about products and advertising doing their job well rather than just looking nice.
How much emphasis do you think should be put into an idea with relation to the design and why?
A common industry saying is ‘Ideas Everything, Media Anything’ – think this is really important and design follows this philosophy to a certain extent. Basically, the ‘big idea’ drives everything and is the hook for all communication to hang off. The idea should drive the design although sometimes you see pieces of creative work that has a great idea but the design is totally shoddy. Like you say in your question, sometimes the design can be amazing and look nice but the idea just doesn’t cut it and deliver the single minded proposition, which is ultimately the most important thing. So, in answer to your question – I think the idea is the most important thing but the execution of that idea is important too, not just to sell that idea into the client but to the consumer too.
3.) I have now done a number of work placements at various design/ad agencies which I feel has helped me adapt to the industry. It is a much faster pace and more of a challenge to be in an actual workplace.
What do you think about the importance of placements and what are the benefits/disadvantages of having placements in your agency?
- Placements in my opinion are incredibly important. Not only are they important to the student, but to the agency too.
Benefits to agency: students breathe fresh ideas/new insights into an agency. A lot of the time, both account handlers and creatives have been working on their accounts/brands for long periods of time and can almost become too close to it, which can sometimes restrict thinking/fresh ideas. It’s always nice to have a new view/opinions, etc. They tend to work hard, get jobs done and be really eager to learn – a lot of senior people no longer have this!
Disadvatanges to agency: None in my opinion!!}
Advantages to students: Real experience of the agency world (the rat race), meet new people/contacts/networking, opportunities to get a job afterwards, earn money, etc etc
Disadvantages to student: sometimes placement students are not given the TLC they need (i.e not enough time given to them/teaching/learning/briefing, etc) purely because the buddy/mentor doesn’t have enough time themselves. Therefore some placements cannot be worthwhile to the student because they just end up making tea, etc.
4.) Pitching is obviously a big part of an agencies work these days. I have been involved in a few pitches and it's a good feeling when you win but I think it would feel like a lot of wasted time and money if you were to lose.
Do you agree with this system or do you take part in the pitching process out of necessity?
-I agree, it is a LOT of wasted time and money when you lose and very disheartening for the team. But you live and learn and believe it or not, you get a huge amount of experience and you can learn a lot from pitches and the pitch process. Sometimes pitches are just for fun (some agencies pitch for work just to get the brand/event in their portfolio – the kudos is often important for some agencies – e.g think Mccanns getting the Olympics but at a huge loss! Sometimes it is necessary, e.g because they need extra revenue & new business or sometimes you have to re pitch for existing clients which is more frustrating! I guess some people think the pitch process is part of the game – in my opinion & if I were the client, chemistry and credentials is more important than answering a pitch brief.
5.) I have been working as a freelancer recently and have run a small business the past couple of years which has helped me learn to deal with clients and sourcing web coders and signwriters etc.
Apart from being a source of income, do you feel that it is worthwhile during studying to get involved in real work and start to interact with other businesses. Do you think these skills can be important in helping you get a job?
100% - I think it is really important to have some business acumen before you enter the fast paced world we are in– you will be dealing with senior people, account handlers, other creatives, plus tonnes of other interesting people in your line of work so learning key skills early on how to handle situations/etc will prove invaluable. I think you’ll benefit from it all massively – it will also show potential employers that you are keen, entrepreneurial, driven, and can work with different types of people and characters, which will only work with you – not against you!.
1.) Recently, myself and James entered 10 awards between us for D&AD and YCN. This has possibly had a slightly negative impact on our Final Major Project's as we have not spent as much time on them as other people on our course who entered one or none. We felt that it is our last chance to win student awards so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance. Tutors have told us a number of times to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin on each entry by doing so many. We were advised to focus on one or two and make them entries better. However we feel all of the entries had a chance of winning so we worked them all up and sent them off.
Do you think we approached this in the right way or would you agree with my tutors? What are your thoughts on the subject of student awards?
In all honesty, I think your final projects are incredibly important to a certain extent in that they dictate your final marks/degree. However they are not the be all and end all – gaining experience and entering awards ( & winning them in your case) will be invaluable to your credentials and ultimately land you better jobs than your colleagues in the future! It is a balancing act between everything. I can see your tutors concerns as you must focus time and effort on your important projects but if you have time to enter and feel strongly about your work, then go for it – you’ve got nothing to lose, providing you don’t lose sight of your uni work alltogether!
2.) I am of the opinion that good ideas should be put ahead of the design of anything. I did my dissertation on this subject and found out a lot about products and advertising doing their job well rather than just looking nice.
How much emphasis do you think should be put into an idea with relation to the design and why?
A common industry saying is ‘Ideas Everything, Media Anything’ – think this is really important and design follows this philosophy to a certain extent. Basically, the ‘big idea’ drives everything and is the hook for all communication to hang off. The idea should drive the design although sometimes you see pieces of creative work that has a great idea but the design is totally shoddy. Like you say in your question, sometimes the design can be amazing and look nice but the idea just doesn’t cut it and deliver the single minded proposition, which is ultimately the most important thing. So, in answer to your question – I think the idea is the most important thing but the execution of that idea is important too, not just to sell that idea into the client but to the consumer too.
3.) I have now done a number of work placements at various design/ad agencies which I feel has helped me adapt to the industry. It is a much faster pace and more of a challenge to be in an actual workplace.
What do you think about the importance of placements and what are the benefits/disadvantages of having placements in your agency?
- Placements in my opinion are incredibly important. Not only are they important to the student, but to the agency too.
Benefits to agency: students breathe fresh ideas/new insights into an agency. A lot of the time, both account handlers and creatives have been working on their accounts/brands for long periods of time and can almost become too close to it, which can sometimes restrict thinking/fresh ideas. It’s always nice to have a new view/opinions, etc. They tend to work hard, get jobs done and be really eager to learn – a lot of senior people no longer have this!
Disadvatanges to agency: None in my opinion!!}
Advantages to students: Real experience of the agency world (the rat race), meet new people/contacts/networking, opportunities to get a job afterwards, earn money, etc etc
Disadvantages to student: sometimes placement students are not given the TLC they need (i.e not enough time given to them/teaching/learning/briefing, etc) purely because the buddy/mentor doesn’t have enough time themselves. Therefore some placements cannot be worthwhile to the student because they just end up making tea, etc.
4.) Pitching is obviously a big part of an agencies work these days. I have been involved in a few pitches and it's a good feeling when you win but I think it would feel like a lot of wasted time and money if you were to lose.
Do you agree with this system or do you take part in the pitching process out of necessity?
-I agree, it is a LOT of wasted time and money when you lose and very disheartening for the team. But you live and learn and believe it or not, you get a huge amount of experience and you can learn a lot from pitches and the pitch process. Sometimes pitches are just for fun (some agencies pitch for work just to get the brand/event in their portfolio – the kudos is often important for some agencies – e.g think Mccanns getting the Olympics but at a huge loss! Sometimes it is necessary, e.g because they need extra revenue & new business or sometimes you have to re pitch for existing clients which is more frustrating! I guess some people think the pitch process is part of the game – in my opinion & if I were the client, chemistry and credentials is more important than answering a pitch brief.
5.) I have been working as a freelancer recently and have run a small business the past couple of years which has helped me learn to deal with clients and sourcing web coders and signwriters etc.
Apart from being a source of income, do you feel that it is worthwhile during studying to get involved in real work and start to interact with other businesses. Do you think these skills can be important in helping you get a job?
100% - I think it is really important to have some business acumen before you enter the fast paced world we are in– you will be dealing with senior people, account handlers, other creatives, plus tonnes of other interesting people in your line of work so learning key skills early on how to handle situations/etc will prove invaluable. I think you’ll benefit from it all massively – it will also show potential employers that you are keen, entrepreneurial, driven, and can work with different types of people and characters, which will only work with you – not against you!.
Contact Report - Questionnaire - Gary @ BJL
Questionnaire:
1.) Recently, myself and James entered 10 awards between us for D&AD and YCN. This has possibly had a slightly negative impact on our Final Major Project's as we have not spent as much time on them as other people on our course who entered one or none. We felt that it is our last chance to win student awards so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance. Tutors have told us a number of times to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin on each entry by doing so many. We were advised to focus on one or two and make them entries better. However we feel all of the entries had a chance of winning so we worked them all up and sent them off.
Do you think we approached this in the right way or would you agree with my tutors? What are your thoughts on the subject of student awards?
When you’re working in an agency things are very frantic so it’s normal for a team to be working on several projects at once. It depends on the team and how productive they are. I would always say go for as much as possible but your tutors do have a point. Make sure that by entering a lot you’re not compromising the time needed to craft each job. There’s no point entering 10 awards schemes for the sake of it. Make sure you focus on which are the best awards to enter.
2.) I am of the opinion that good ideas should be put ahead of the design of anything. I did my dissertation on this subject and found out a lot about products and advertising doing their job well rather than just looking nice.
How much emphasis do you think should be put into an idea with relation to the design and why?
The idea is king in everything we do. It’s the part that engages people and leaves a lasting impression which is so important to brands. We spend our time looking for these ideas and then we find the best way to deliver them. How any piece of communication should look is lead by the idea. It should have a great idea and a great look.
3.) I have now done a number of work placements at various design/ad agencies which I feel has helped me adapt to the industry. It is a much faster pace and more of a challenge to be in an actual workplace.
What do you think about the importance of placements and what are the benefits/disadvantages of having placements in your agency?
Advertising and design can be a difficult industry to break into and placements for student teams are really important. It’s the perfect chance for a team to really show a Creative Director what they can do and also it’s great for the team’s development. After leaving college, this is the only way for a team to really get up to speed with what’s needed in a busy agency. Most teams should come away from placements with work to put in their book that’s much more relevant to potential employers too. Placements in agencies are also good for contacts. It’s a small industry and people working in it generally know a lot of other people at different places.
4.) Pitching is obviously a big part of an agencies work these days. I have been involved in a few pitches and it's a good feeling when you win but I think it would feel like a lot of wasted time and money if you were to lose.
Do you agree with this system or do you take part in the pitching process out of necessity?
It’s great to win a pitch and losing them is a big disappointment. It can be a massive waste of time and money. I personally don’t like the system but unfortunately it’s the way it is.
5.) I have been working as a freelancer recently and have run a small business the past couple of years which has helped me learn to deal with clients and sourcing web coders and signwriters etc.
Apart from being a source of income, do you feel that it is worthwhile during studying to get involved in real work and start to interact with other businesses. Do you think these skills can be important in helping you get a job?
I think a degree course is important to broaden your thinking but it’s good to mix it with some real work if you can. Even if this is just getting feedback and building a dialogue with people in the industry early on rather than at the end of your course. However this shouldn’t be at the expense of your degree course. It’s also important to get the qualification you want.
1.) Recently, myself and James entered 10 awards between us for D&AD and YCN. This has possibly had a slightly negative impact on our Final Major Project's as we have not spent as much time on them as other people on our course who entered one or none. We felt that it is our last chance to win student awards so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance. Tutors have told us a number of times to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin on each entry by doing so many. We were advised to focus on one or two and make them entries better. However we feel all of the entries had a chance of winning so we worked them all up and sent them off.
Do you think we approached this in the right way or would you agree with my tutors? What are your thoughts on the subject of student awards?
When you’re working in an agency things are very frantic so it’s normal for a team to be working on several projects at once. It depends on the team and how productive they are. I would always say go for as much as possible but your tutors do have a point. Make sure that by entering a lot you’re not compromising the time needed to craft each job. There’s no point entering 10 awards schemes for the sake of it. Make sure you focus on which are the best awards to enter.
2.) I am of the opinion that good ideas should be put ahead of the design of anything. I did my dissertation on this subject and found out a lot about products and advertising doing their job well rather than just looking nice.
How much emphasis do you think should be put into an idea with relation to the design and why?
The idea is king in everything we do. It’s the part that engages people and leaves a lasting impression which is so important to brands. We spend our time looking for these ideas and then we find the best way to deliver them. How any piece of communication should look is lead by the idea. It should have a great idea and a great look.
3.) I have now done a number of work placements at various design/ad agencies which I feel has helped me adapt to the industry. It is a much faster pace and more of a challenge to be in an actual workplace.
What do you think about the importance of placements and what are the benefits/disadvantages of having placements in your agency?
Advertising and design can be a difficult industry to break into and placements for student teams are really important. It’s the perfect chance for a team to really show a Creative Director what they can do and also it’s great for the team’s development. After leaving college, this is the only way for a team to really get up to speed with what’s needed in a busy agency. Most teams should come away from placements with work to put in their book that’s much more relevant to potential employers too. Placements in agencies are also good for contacts. It’s a small industry and people working in it generally know a lot of other people at different places.
4.) Pitching is obviously a big part of an agencies work these days. I have been involved in a few pitches and it's a good feeling when you win but I think it would feel like a lot of wasted time and money if you were to lose.
Do you agree with this system or do you take part in the pitching process out of necessity?
It’s great to win a pitch and losing them is a big disappointment. It can be a massive waste of time and money. I personally don’t like the system but unfortunately it’s the way it is.
5.) I have been working as a freelancer recently and have run a small business the past couple of years which has helped me learn to deal with clients and sourcing web coders and signwriters etc.
Apart from being a source of income, do you feel that it is worthwhile during studying to get involved in real work and start to interact with other businesses. Do you think these skills can be important in helping you get a job?
I think a degree course is important to broaden your thinking but it’s good to mix it with some real work if you can. Even if this is just getting feedback and building a dialogue with people in the industry early on rather than at the end of your course. However this shouldn’t be at the expense of your degree course. It’s also important to get the qualification you want.
Contact Report-Questionnaire-Chris @ Driven
Questionnaire:
1.) Recently, myself and James entered 10 awards between us for D&AD and YCN. This has possibly had a slightly negative impact on our Final Major Project's as we have not spent as much time on them as other people on our course who entered one or none. We felt that it is our last chance to win student awards so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance. Tutors have told us a number of times to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin on each entry by doing so many. We were advised to focus on one or two and make them entries better. However we feel all of the entries had a chance of winning so we worked them all up and sent them off.
Do you think we approached this in the right way or would you agree with my tutors? What are your thoughts on the subject of student awards?
It's really down to how much work you can successfully cope with. Entering (and hopefully winning) student awards can be as useful if not more useful than your final project.
You guys seem to have a prolific work rate and demonstrating that is attractive to employers. I was impressed.
2.) I am of the opinion that good ideas should be put ahead of the design of anything. I did my dissertation on this subject and found out a lot about products and advertising doing their job well rather than just looking nice.
How much emphasis do you think should be put into an idea with relation to the design and why?
The two need to work together. There's no point in something looking great and failing to communicate what it's supposed to. Design can help an idea hugely, but you should always start with the idea.
3.) I have now done a number of work placements at various design/ad agencies which I feel has helped me adapt to the industry. It is a much faster pace and more of a challenge to be in an actual workplace.
What do you think about the importance of placements and what are the benefits/disadvantages of having placements in your agency?
Placements are very important. At the end of the day you need a job and agencies need talent, placements can help both parties.
From my own point of view having placements in the agency can range from being hugely positive to very negative. It's down to the quality of the individuals on the placement.
It takes a fair bit of time and effort to have people in on placement. It can be difficult finding enough time for both parties to benefit.
It's very important for the industry that agencies continue to offer placements.
4.) Pitching is obviously a big part of an agencies work these days. I have been involved in a few pitches and it's a good feeling when you win but I think it would feel like a lot of wasted time and money if you were to lose.
Do you agree with this system or do you take part in the pitching process out of necessity?
I think we're stuck with pitching. It's probably one of the biggest stresses in this industry but it also accounts for a lot of the highs.
I see no point in moaning about the system, just get on with it and make sure your pitch is better than the other guy's.
5.) I have been working as a freelancer recently and have run a small business the past couple of years which has helped me learn to deal with clients and sourcing web coders and signwriters etc.
Apart from being a source of income, do you feel that it is worthwhile during studying to get involved in real work and start to interact with other businesses. Do you think these skills can be important in helping you get a job?
Absolutely. The more real world industry experience you have the better.
1.) Recently, myself and James entered 10 awards between us for D&AD and YCN. This has possibly had a slightly negative impact on our Final Major Project's as we have not spent as much time on them as other people on our course who entered one or none. We felt that it is our last chance to win student awards so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance. Tutors have told us a number of times to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin on each entry by doing so many. We were advised to focus on one or two and make them entries better. However we feel all of the entries had a chance of winning so we worked them all up and sent them off.
Do you think we approached this in the right way or would you agree with my tutors? What are your thoughts on the subject of student awards?
It's really down to how much work you can successfully cope with. Entering (and hopefully winning) student awards can be as useful if not more useful than your final project.
You guys seem to have a prolific work rate and demonstrating that is attractive to employers. I was impressed.
2.) I am of the opinion that good ideas should be put ahead of the design of anything. I did my dissertation on this subject and found out a lot about products and advertising doing their job well rather than just looking nice.
How much emphasis do you think should be put into an idea with relation to the design and why?
The two need to work together. There's no point in something looking great and failing to communicate what it's supposed to. Design can help an idea hugely, but you should always start with the idea.
3.) I have now done a number of work placements at various design/ad agencies which I feel has helped me adapt to the industry. It is a much faster pace and more of a challenge to be in an actual workplace.
What do you think about the importance of placements and what are the benefits/disadvantages of having placements in your agency?
Placements are very important. At the end of the day you need a job and agencies need talent, placements can help both parties.
From my own point of view having placements in the agency can range from being hugely positive to very negative. It's down to the quality of the individuals on the placement.
It takes a fair bit of time and effort to have people in on placement. It can be difficult finding enough time for both parties to benefit.
It's very important for the industry that agencies continue to offer placements.
4.) Pitching is obviously a big part of an agencies work these days. I have been involved in a few pitches and it's a good feeling when you win but I think it would feel like a lot of wasted time and money if you were to lose.
Do you agree with this system or do you take part in the pitching process out of necessity?
I think we're stuck with pitching. It's probably one of the biggest stresses in this industry but it also accounts for a lot of the highs.
I see no point in moaning about the system, just get on with it and make sure your pitch is better than the other guy's.
5.) I have been working as a freelancer recently and have run a small business the past couple of years which has helped me learn to deal with clients and sourcing web coders and signwriters etc.
Apart from being a source of income, do you feel that it is worthwhile during studying to get involved in real work and start to interact with other businesses. Do you think these skills can be important in helping you get a job?
Absolutely. The more real world industry experience you have the better.
Wednesday 14 April 2010
Contact Report: Questionnaire - Carol @ Mccann Erickson
Questionnaire:
1.) Recently, myself and James entered 10 awards between us for D&AD and YCN. This has possibly had a slightly negative impact on our Final Major Project's as we have not spent as much time on them as other people on our course who entered one or none. We felt that it is our last chance to win student awards so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance. Tutors have told us a number of times to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin on each entry by doing so many. We were advised to focus on one or two and make them entries better. However we feel all of the entries had a chance of winning so we worked them all up and sent them off.
Do you think we approached this in the right way or would you agree with my tutors? What are your thoughts on the subject of student awards?
Well...you made the right decision for you at the time based on your future ...one of the things I learnt in the first few years was about not being able to do everything and having to make choices...some right...some were wrong. Some force you to be strict on yourself...like when you have 1 day left before a pitch and you’ve a head full of ideas and which one do you pick to run with because you can’t and shouldn’t make them all...you have to be strict and only do the best one. Equally you shouldn’t go for the easy one.... 1 day left and the best idea is a 12 foot tall giraffe or whatever.... Well go ahead and make it even if it seems like a bit of an impossibility. But 10 awards seems like a tall ask to do a great job on all of them and the thing that suffered was your FMP. Guess you have to work out what the consequences are to your choice. If you are confident you put some great ideas into the awards then I’d say that’s a good choice. Having awards to your name is great when touting your book and not many people will ask what your FMP mark was!!! If you win nothing and get a crap mark then ouch but you learnt something. And anyways...you have a good great book to show at your final show.
2.) I am of the opinion that good ideas should be put ahead of the design of anything. I did my dissertation on this subject and found out a lot about products and advertising doing their job well rather than just looking nice.
How much emphasis do you think should be put into an idea with relation to the design and why?
Both should be brilliant. But then the idea can be the design of it. Depends what it is really...eg product design...the idea is usually an innovation in the design. However... A great idea not so beautifully designed is far more satisfying than just a beautiful looking thing that has no substance. Depends what it is really...if you were designing a toothbrush...yes some new innovation idea would be great...but so would just a really funky looking design. If you’re talking more like an ad...I usually find the beautiful ones without an idea instantly gratifying but soon forgotten. The ones with an idea as well last. It’s an idea that connects us...engages us...finds empathy with us.
3.) I have now done a number of work placements at various design/ad agencies which I feel has helped me adapt to the industry. It is a much faster pace and more of a challenge to be in an actual workplace.
What do you think about the importance of placements and what are the benefits/disadvantages of having placements in your agency?
They are crucial to you. Gives you sense of reality...and hopefully excites you about your future.
For us...occasionally they are a drag if the student doesn’t throw themselves at it 200% and you end up just finding stuff for them to do...but if you find a great student then its fun and it reminds you what got us doing this in the first place ...makes me want to do just ideas and no meetings ha ha.
4.) Pitching is obviously a big part of an agencies work these days. I have been involved in a few pitches and it's a good feeling when you win but I think it would feel like a lot of wasted time and money if you were to lose.
Do you agree with this system or do you take part in the pitching process out of necessity?
It’s necessary to continually proactively hunt new business. But also to service your existing clients as if they are new ones. New customers cost more to get than keeping old ones so never forget to treat them as special as the first day. There are occasionally fixed fee based pitches but these are rare. Sometimes remuneration based pitches with costs covered but only if you win. Most are win or lose out...so you just have to win more than lose...and win the big ones ( and some smaller ones if they look good on your client list so add their own value ). You just have to be careful what you go for and ascertain the cost of success/failure. Pitches can easily cost thousands and thousands if films involved and man hours are high. Its alright thinking you can do all the work in house but you still need to cover salary. Some of this is absorbed but your overall business plan must include a budget towards new business.
Re how it feels – like all things in life –the best ever feeling if your effort pays off and the worst if it doesn’t...but that just proves you put your all into it and that’s the only way to tackle a pitch. They are part of our business. However, more and more we will win business on reputation ( credentials pitches) and menu costing. So a potential new client can see what you have done/won, maybe expect a point of view on their business, and know exactly what its going to cost them.
5.) I have been working as a freelancer recently and have run a small business the past couple of years which has helped me learn to deal with clients and sourcing web coders and signwriters etc.
Apart from being a source of income, do you feel that it is worthwhile during studying to get involved in real work and start to interact with other businesses. Do you think these skills can be important in helping you get a job?
Absolutely...real experience is invaluable. Helps you understand how people’s jobs interlink in the chain from idea to finished production. Helps you negotiate and hit deadlines. But importantly...it can teach you the importance of responsibility...taking that leap of faith with a supplier, with your client’s money but at your risk, and make damn well sure its your responsibility it turns out perfect as you want it.
Re job seeking it definately gives you a head start...its the difference between hiring someone from scratch and training them everything and being able to give them a brief on day one and let them get going.
1.) Recently, myself and James entered 10 awards between us for D&AD and YCN. This has possibly had a slightly negative impact on our Final Major Project's as we have not spent as much time on them as other people on our course who entered one or none. We felt that it is our last chance to win student awards so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance. Tutors have told us a number of times to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin on each entry by doing so many. We were advised to focus on one or two and make them entries better. However we feel all of the entries had a chance of winning so we worked them all up and sent them off.
Do you think we approached this in the right way or would you agree with my tutors? What are your thoughts on the subject of student awards?
Well...you made the right decision for you at the time based on your future ...one of the things I learnt in the first few years was about not being able to do everything and having to make choices...some right...some were wrong. Some force you to be strict on yourself...like when you have 1 day left before a pitch and you’ve a head full of ideas and which one do you pick to run with because you can’t and shouldn’t make them all...you have to be strict and only do the best one. Equally you shouldn’t go for the easy one.... 1 day left and the best idea is a 12 foot tall giraffe or whatever.... Well go ahead and make it even if it seems like a bit of an impossibility. But 10 awards seems like a tall ask to do a great job on all of them and the thing that suffered was your FMP. Guess you have to work out what the consequences are to your choice. If you are confident you put some great ideas into the awards then I’d say that’s a good choice. Having awards to your name is great when touting your book and not many people will ask what your FMP mark was!!! If you win nothing and get a crap mark then ouch but you learnt something. And anyways...you have a good great book to show at your final show.
2.) I am of the opinion that good ideas should be put ahead of the design of anything. I did my dissertation on this subject and found out a lot about products and advertising doing their job well rather than just looking nice.
How much emphasis do you think should be put into an idea with relation to the design and why?
Both should be brilliant. But then the idea can be the design of it. Depends what it is really...eg product design...the idea is usually an innovation in the design. However... A great idea not so beautifully designed is far more satisfying than just a beautiful looking thing that has no substance. Depends what it is really...if you were designing a toothbrush...yes some new innovation idea would be great...but so would just a really funky looking design. If you’re talking more like an ad...I usually find the beautiful ones without an idea instantly gratifying but soon forgotten. The ones with an idea as well last. It’s an idea that connects us...engages us...finds empathy with us.
3.) I have now done a number of work placements at various design/ad agencies which I feel has helped me adapt to the industry. It is a much faster pace and more of a challenge to be in an actual workplace.
What do you think about the importance of placements and what are the benefits/disadvantages of having placements in your agency?
They are crucial to you. Gives you sense of reality...and hopefully excites you about your future.
For us...occasionally they are a drag if the student doesn’t throw themselves at it 200% and you end up just finding stuff for them to do...but if you find a great student then its fun and it reminds you what got us doing this in the first place ...makes me want to do just ideas and no meetings ha ha.
4.) Pitching is obviously a big part of an agencies work these days. I have been involved in a few pitches and it's a good feeling when you win but I think it would feel like a lot of wasted time and money if you were to lose.
Do you agree with this system or do you take part in the pitching process out of necessity?
It’s necessary to continually proactively hunt new business. But also to service your existing clients as if they are new ones. New customers cost more to get than keeping old ones so never forget to treat them as special as the first day. There are occasionally fixed fee based pitches but these are rare. Sometimes remuneration based pitches with costs covered but only if you win. Most are win or lose out...so you just have to win more than lose...and win the big ones ( and some smaller ones if they look good on your client list so add their own value ). You just have to be careful what you go for and ascertain the cost of success/failure. Pitches can easily cost thousands and thousands if films involved and man hours are high. Its alright thinking you can do all the work in house but you still need to cover salary. Some of this is absorbed but your overall business plan must include a budget towards new business.
Re how it feels – like all things in life –the best ever feeling if your effort pays off and the worst if it doesn’t...but that just proves you put your all into it and that’s the only way to tackle a pitch. They are part of our business. However, more and more we will win business on reputation ( credentials pitches) and menu costing. So a potential new client can see what you have done/won, maybe expect a point of view on their business, and know exactly what its going to cost them.
5.) I have been working as a freelancer recently and have run a small business the past couple of years which has helped me learn to deal with clients and sourcing web coders and signwriters etc.
Apart from being a source of income, do you feel that it is worthwhile during studying to get involved in real work and start to interact with other businesses. Do you think these skills can be important in helping you get a job?
Absolutely...real experience is invaluable. Helps you understand how people’s jobs interlink in the chain from idea to finished production. Helps you negotiate and hit deadlines. But importantly...it can teach you the importance of responsibility...taking that leap of faith with a supplier, with your client’s money but at your risk, and make damn well sure its your responsibility it turns out perfect as you want it.
Re job seeking it definately gives you a head start...its the difference between hiring someone from scratch and training them everything and being able to give them a brief on day one and let them get going.
Contact Report: Questionnaire - Parisa @ Mccann Erickson
Questionnaire:
1.) Recently, myself and James entered 10 awards between us for D&AD and YCN. This has possibly had a slightly negative impact on our Final Major Project's as we have not spent as much time on them as other people on our course who entered one or none. We felt that it is our last chance to win student awards so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance. Tutors have told us a number of times to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin on each entry by doing so many. We were advised to focus on one or two and make them entries better. However we feel all of the entries had a chance of winning so we worked them all up and sent them off.
Do you think we approached this in the right way or would you agree with my tutors? What are your thoughts on the subject of student awards?
I think student awards are a great place to start your career. If you win
them it could get your name in front of the right people.
From my experience many people get placements from student awards, which are the best way to get jobs. Sometimes winning awards are more important to agencies rather than your degree grade.
I probably would have entered 5 rather than 10 to make sure the ideas that I entered were as strong as possible and so that my degree work would not suffer. If you thought that all the ideas you entered were good though…why not!
2.) I am of the opinion that good ideas should be put ahead of the design of anything. I did my dissertation on this subject and found out a lot about products and advertising doing their job well rather than just looking nice.
How much emphasis do you think should be put into an idea with relation to the design and why?
In my opinion the idea is the most important element, however the design may have an effect on how the idea is portrayed. It may hide the idea or enhance it. I think you should spend enough time on the design to make sure it almost makes your idea even better so that your idea is not let down by the design.
3.) I have now done a number of work placements at various design/ad agencies which I feel has helped me adapt to the industry. It is a much faster pace and more of a challenge to be in an actual workplace.
What do you think about the importance of placements and what are the benefits/disadvantages of having placements in your agency?
University life is very different to the working world. As much as you hear about the industry it’s best to get first hand experience. I personally learnt a lot from my placements. Students need to get used to feedback which may be much more critical and placements are the best place to start. It’s also important to work along side seniors as they are great teachers. I think agencies only benefit from placements as they get a fresh, more up to date input on work and an extra pair of hands.
4.) Pitching is obviously a big part of an agencies work these days. I have been involved in a few pitches and it's a good feeling when you win but I think it would feel like a lot of wasted time and money if you were to lose.
Do you agree with this system or do you take part in the pitching process out of necessity?
5.) I have been working as a freelancer recently and have run a small business the past couple of years which has helped me learn to deal with clients and sourcing web coders and signwriters etc.
Apart from being a source of income, do you feel that it is worthwhile during studying to get involved in real work and start to interact with other businesses. Do you think these skills can be important in helping you get a job?
Of course it’s worthwhile. Not only do you get client experience but any good piece of work you do can go towards your portfolio.
1.) Recently, myself and James entered 10 awards between us for D&AD and YCN. This has possibly had a slightly negative impact on our Final Major Project's as we have not spent as much time on them as other people on our course who entered one or none. We felt that it is our last chance to win student awards so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance. Tutors have told us a number of times to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin on each entry by doing so many. We were advised to focus on one or two and make them entries better. However we feel all of the entries had a chance of winning so we worked them all up and sent them off.
Do you think we approached this in the right way or would you agree with my tutors? What are your thoughts on the subject of student awards?
I think student awards are a great place to start your career. If you win
them it could get your name in front of the right people.
From my experience many people get placements from student awards, which are the best way to get jobs. Sometimes winning awards are more important to agencies rather than your degree grade.
I probably would have entered 5 rather than 10 to make sure the ideas that I entered were as strong as possible and so that my degree work would not suffer. If you thought that all the ideas you entered were good though…why not!
2.) I am of the opinion that good ideas should be put ahead of the design of anything. I did my dissertation on this subject and found out a lot about products and advertising doing their job well rather than just looking nice.
How much emphasis do you think should be put into an idea with relation to the design and why?
In my opinion the idea is the most important element, however the design may have an effect on how the idea is portrayed. It may hide the idea or enhance it. I think you should spend enough time on the design to make sure it almost makes your idea even better so that your idea is not let down by the design.
3.) I have now done a number of work placements at various design/ad agencies which I feel has helped me adapt to the industry. It is a much faster pace and more of a challenge to be in an actual workplace.
What do you think about the importance of placements and what are the benefits/disadvantages of having placements in your agency?
University life is very different to the working world. As much as you hear about the industry it’s best to get first hand experience. I personally learnt a lot from my placements. Students need to get used to feedback which may be much more critical and placements are the best place to start. It’s also important to work along side seniors as they are great teachers. I think agencies only benefit from placements as they get a fresh, more up to date input on work and an extra pair of hands.
4.) Pitching is obviously a big part of an agencies work these days. I have been involved in a few pitches and it's a good feeling when you win but I think it would feel like a lot of wasted time and money if you were to lose.
Do you agree with this system or do you take part in the pitching process out of necessity?
5.) I have been working as a freelancer recently and have run a small business the past couple of years which has helped me learn to deal with clients and sourcing web coders and signwriters etc.
Apart from being a source of income, do you feel that it is worthwhile during studying to get involved in real work and start to interact with other businesses. Do you think these skills can be important in helping you get a job?
Of course it’s worthwhile. Not only do you get client experience but any good piece of work you do can go towards your portfolio.
The LAB
Just before the Easter holidays we had an initial deadline for our Final Major Projects where we had to exhibit our work in an enclosed room in the studio which was called The LAB.
The reason behind this was to push us to have our projects at a very finished stage a few weeks before our final show. There were also some designers who came in to speak individually to people about where they could take their projects and give some advice. If I'm honest my FMP is nowhere near finished as I spent so much time producing award entries. I wanted to spend a lot of my time on these as we will not get another chance to enter these when we graduate.
My idea that was exhibited is as below:
Playstation Brief –
Create a campaign that gets children to combine virtual sports game playing with getting involved in real sport.
Solution –
Incorporate real sports into the virtual sport playing experience.
Why?
Hardcore virtual sport game players will not wish to give up their console completely. Players of real sport are
occasional virtual sport players also. Rather than alienate either group with a campaign against playing virtual
sports, I have decided to bring these people and both worlds together and create a Playstation community.
Output –
Campaign called ‘PlayNation’ that merges both virtual and real world together.
Benefits for Playstation – Sony
Publicity via various medias. New image as a promoter of health and talent. Help in the fight against obesity.
Create new communities and get people talking.. Create relationships and promote sports playing ahead of the
World Cup and Olympics 2012.. Make Money from product sales. Increased console sales to players of real
sport.
Benefits for Children: Healthier Lifestyle. Ability to talk more. Work in teams.. Achieve a feeling of success.
Chance to better themselves and increase confidence..
*Impossible to cheat: Even if it is done indoors: Bouncing ball. = still physical activity. Anything is better than
nothing.
Brand:
The name ‘ PlayNation’ is a play on words of ‘Playstation.’ The reason for the word nation is that Playstation is an
international brand so this can be used all over the world. It divides nations in the same way sport does but
brings them all together in the form of an online world that mixes virtual reality with reality. The word Play
remains as it works on both levels. Playing real sport aswell as playing virtual sport..
There is a lot more to be said about the idea as it needs its own Manifesto but this will be worked up for the show.
Dan Ingham and Stephen Owen were the people from industry that came to speak with me about my work. They offered good advice liked the idea overall as it had so much potential. They suggested I focus on one area of it and have fun with it to make sure it becomes a hard hitting campaign. At the moment I have the idea sorted but need to communicate with the viewer much more effectively so they get it straight away. A suggestion that came up was to focus on my iphone idea as everyone does posters for their final show and the industry is going much more interactive and digital based. We spoke about some work I had seen of Stephen's for Umbro which has a similar feel and they agreed that the style of it all should look real rather than half digital and half real.
I think the idea of bringing the deadline forward was a good one as people are at more of an advanced stage that they might have been. However, I don't feel anyone is anywhere near a finished standard with their work so it didn't work in that respect. It was good to get people in as ultimately these are the type of people who will be looking at our work in the final show.
The Clinton Partnership - Freelance Work
Upon returning from our trip to London, myself and James were offered a job as a creative team at The Clinton Partnership. We had been recommended by someone from Mccann Erickson which goes to show that hard work, contact and placements can gain you recognition and not necessarily with the agency you do the placement at.
Unfortunately, as we were working at Driven for 2 weeks and also have to do our Final Major Projects, we were unable to move or stay down there to work there. However, we sent our portfolio to them and they liked what they saw. They then said they would still like us to work with them and we arranged a freelance project where we would work from home and send our work over to them and we would then review how well the project worked even though we weren't actually there.
We worked on a 2 day rate on a brief for a Hot Pepper Sauce company and came up with mainly sketched out ideas in that time, as well as some slightly worked up versions to show how they might look.
We had some great feedback and we spoke with a number of them via a conference call which was a new experience but it shows that you don't strictly have to be in a certain place to be able to work for them.
Three core ideas were picked out which they wanted us to push and they gave us the option of working on a new brief for the same client. We said yes and have spent the last 2 days working on our ideas and mocking them up. We then sent them over as boards ready for them to print out and show the client. We are awaiting feedback on these ideas and are hoping the client goes with one of them so we can produce the final product.
At the moment it has been hard to fit the projects around other work and university commitments but it has been a good experience to work as a freelancer as I have never done it before and it can only benefit me for the future. I look forward to working with the Clinton Partnership on future projects if this is possible.
Practitioner Report Dan Ingham/Stephen Owen & Mike Rigby
I have decided to write my practitioner report to compare Mike Rigby, who came to speak to us this year, and Dan Ingham & Stephen Owen who came in last year. I decided this as I also wanted to compare my own thoughts and reflection on what the guest speakers said with the difference of a year’s design experience. Dan and Ste were still starting out on the design ladder but they both won awards at the end of year exhibitions and were entered into the 'New Blood' section of D&AD.
They told how important it was to get into college as much as you can as you could miss important information and being around other people is paramount to improving ideas you couldn't do on your own.
As they both got chances to exhibit their work in London, it gave them the chance to build relationships and contacts with people and show their talents to thousands of people.
Out of 2000 students Dan and Steve won one of the 40 awards given out which is a tremendous achievement.
This led to numerous offers of work which surprisingly they turned down as they want to work at big agencies which is commendable and it seems they are going to follow a similar path to Mike who graduated in 2002 and has been in employment at The Chase, Landor, Moon, Pentagram, Mark Studio and has recently been offered the job as Creative Director at Interbrand in Australia. Therefore, it is good to get opinions from their different perspectives.
Mike's talk was advertised by posters put up around the design department recently featuring the word WOW which since the talk I have realised means Words of Wisdom. The date on these was 26th October which was wrong as it was meant to say November. Then someone designed a poster that said D'oh in place of Wow with the correct date on. These were placed next to the ones with the incorrect date on. I don't understand why you would want to highlight someones mistake and it makes a mockery out of that person. It could quite easily have been reprinted with the correct date on. However maybe this was intentional. The way Dan and Ste promoted their talk was with a screenshot of an email saying that they didn’t have any time to make a poster. I am not sure if this was intentional either or it was a real e-mail but they both got our attention by being different.
Dan and Ste explained they would rather not work on designing kebab house leaflets forever and would rather work on the bigger things. I respect this as it would be easy to take the money and they have decided against this.
Mark seemed to have taken the same attitude and spoke of the positives about being in the design industry. He said it is interesting, challenging, no two jobs are the same, you get to go on photoshoots, you go on free awards nights and that their is a strong design community. Also, people are helpful and it is easy to work from home or abroad. Aswell as this you can work for worthwhile causes and help give people a voice.
The negatives were the long hours of unpaid work, the competitive nature of the industry and the amount of pressure put upon you. The negative impacts are overpackaged items which is negative on the environment and also information overload. He then went onto speak about Studio structure and the hierarchy of staff which I think was more for the first and second years.
Moving onto the subject of placements Mike did a 6 month placement at Imagination and then did a placement at The Chase. Dan and Ste also opted to not take the first job they were offered and they decided to go on some placements with the likes of Thoughtful and The Chase and then moved onto placements with Mark Design and McCann Erickson.
Marks opinion is that placements speed you up and you become ten times faster than before. You get real live projects and you can gain contacts by networking and going on nights out. His advice for getting a placement was to have 6 solid placements in your book, have good ideas well executed, impress tutors and do well at interview. To get the most out of a placement you should socialize, be enthusiastic and positive. He advised us to not let rejection get to us as it does not mean you aren't good enough and will only make you stronger.
With so many people graduating each year from Graphic Design in the North West, Dan and Steve's advice to us was to build up contacts with people, continually improve your portfolio, enter competitions and try your best.
Also starting on a low wage isn't all that bad, Mike started on 13k and left only a couple of years later on 23k. His first project was ironically the project that we worked on at the Liverpool Design Symposium during The Chase's workshop. He achieved what was required and the underlay outsold carpet at the company for the next 2 years which shows what good design can do to sales. With his design he also achieved a 350% store card uptake increase which shows it doesn't have to be a glamorous brief to achieve results.
Aside from design, Mike has travelled the world and advises us to do the same as it is the best thing he has ever done. This is in contrast to Dan and Ste who got stuck into the industry as soon as they graduated. Mike then eventually got a job working at Landor in Australia whilst travelling where he was paid more and had amazing views from the studio. He believes British designers are highly exportable due to superior ideas whereas other countries are more strategic. I have found this when showing my work in New York. He is now working at True North until he leaves to travel again before he takes on his new job with Interbrand.
He says a lot of his time is spent producing brand guidelines which show the look, font, colours and tone of voice of a brand. Although he likes to make time to do self initiated briefs and advises us to do them aswell.
Overall Mikes advice to us as students is to broaden our horizons and look at all types of media. Experiment whilst you can and you are in education. Crit and collaborate with other students. Above all believe in yourself. This is echoed by Ste and Dan who had told us that, due to them always being together and doing the Colleges promotional work, they had received some negative comments and jealousy. This led to some bitchiness because it was always ' Ste and Dan '. This wasn't a problem for them because they were getting slagged of for doing good work. They told us that we should believe in ourselves in the same way and it will take us far.
Overall I think both talks were similar but it was good to get opinions from people at different levels within design as Dan and Ste are attempting to do what Mike is doing right now. The things that Dan and Ste have told us I am certain Mike would say the same as he also seems to be good and determined to do well in the industry. Mike has a more laid back style to myself and Dan and Ste but it seems to work well. They both agree on the subject of placements and being proactive in getting yourself aswell as having strong portfolios. It was also interesting how they all had the opinion that money wasn’t a big deal when starting out. Mike said it soon went up and I am sure that Dan and Ste are now reaping the benefits of their decisions also.
Issues and Practices Analysis
The issue I have decided to write about is something I have learnt a lot about this year and feel very strongly about which helps me with my own work. The issue is that good design doesn't have to look pretty. It is the idea and marketing behind the product that makes it sell. Something can look ugly and still sell a lot compared to something that looks pretty and is marketed badly.
Good design does not rely purely on aesthetics, it needs to provide a call to action, which is something that this years placements and engagement with industry has helped me to understand. I am in the business of designing products and brands, which companies want to be sold to the public. If a product purely exists aesthetically it will still fade into the background. In the case of this brand you almost have to literally put the product into the target audiences' hands, as they will not take notice of a design itself in most cases. Good design does not guarantee good sales. Hence the reason why marketing and implementation of design into an already fiercely competitive market are hugely important, if not more important than the design itself. Bad design however can still achieve good sales as is the case with Red Bull and Pro Plus. During research for projects this year I have noticed that these products have poorly designed packaging. However, they are very cleverly marketed, which more than makes up for the lack of creativity within their design. The product has also got to do what it says it does but these products are marketed by overemphasizing their good points and, of course, not mentioning any side effects that may occur. Accentuating the positive is not lying, it is simply telling the truth in a dramatic way for maximum effect. How I’ve been applying this concept to my work is to. Find out what’s right about your product or service and then dramatize it. For example, you know a horse can jump a ditch, therefore you accept that it can jump the Grand Canyon. Providing there is a basic truth in your idea you can dramatize it to infinity.
To exploit products advertising to its maximum potential by going beyond what has gone before in traditional advertising means.
An example of this exaggeration is in an advert I saw which echoes the idea that you “ can exaggerate a bit in advertising. And since a Touareg is capable of pulling a Boeing 747, we also hitched a caravan in our ad.”
To apply this idea to my work I had to think of how the product can make people feel good, and times that by ten. Going that step further is difficult as it is stretching the truth to it’s extreme but once you break that barrier then you are likely to get results.
This is what the previously mentioned products do perfectly even though there are other products on the market that do the same job and in most cases look better. Promoting the products rather than the brand drives sales and from this you will gain exposure to the brand itself. The brand can then be exploited further, in it’s own right, to familiarise it with the public. I have learnt this from discussions with Mccann Erickson’s Creative Director who told us that whatever you do, “Don’t sell the brand. Sell the product.
I am now in a mindset where I am aware of the fact that sales are the prime target and therefore have changed my outlook on design completely. The opposite of accentuating the positive is eliminating any negative connotations with your brand. Something I have adhered to during this project is to “Avoid knocking the competition. It usually serves to publicize them rather than you. It may win attention, it may win awards but the likelihood is that it won’t win sales."
Arrogance like this can lead to the rival company highlighting your own flaws and result in lower sales so it is better to avoid such tactics and focus on removing any negative areas of your own products within the marketing approach.
Trends and financial restrictions have changed the way advertising is perceived in recent times and this has lead to rise of blogging, which in itself is an effective marketing tool. More and more people are reading blogs due to the fact they are easy to access and readily available. Blogger.com, for example, allows people to have their own account which they can upload content to. This along with the rise of Twitter and Facebook means that everyone knows what everyone is doing all of the time. It is an advertisers dream.
Good design does not rely purely on aesthetics, it needs to provide a call to action, which is something that this years placements and engagement with industry has helped me to understand. I am in the business of designing products and brands, which companies want to be sold to the public. If a product purely exists aesthetically it will still fade into the background. In the case of this brand you almost have to literally put the product into the target audiences' hands, as they will not take notice of a design itself in most cases. Good design does not guarantee good sales. Hence the reason why marketing and implementation of design into an already fiercely competitive market are hugely important, if not more important than the design itself. Bad design however can still achieve good sales as is the case with Red Bull and Pro Plus. During research for projects this year I have noticed that these products have poorly designed packaging. However, they are very cleverly marketed, which more than makes up for the lack of creativity within their design. The product has also got to do what it says it does but these products are marketed by overemphasizing their good points and, of course, not mentioning any side effects that may occur. Accentuating the positive is not lying, it is simply telling the truth in a dramatic way for maximum effect. How I’ve been applying this concept to my work is to. Find out what’s right about your product or service and then dramatize it. For example, you know a horse can jump a ditch, therefore you accept that it can jump the Grand Canyon. Providing there is a basic truth in your idea you can dramatize it to infinity.
To exploit products advertising to its maximum potential by going beyond what has gone before in traditional advertising means.
An example of this exaggeration is in an advert I saw which echoes the idea that you “ can exaggerate a bit in advertising. And since a Touareg is capable of pulling a Boeing 747, we also hitched a caravan in our ad.”
To apply this idea to my work I had to think of how the product can make people feel good, and times that by ten. Going that step further is difficult as it is stretching the truth to it’s extreme but once you break that barrier then you are likely to get results.
This is what the previously mentioned products do perfectly even though there are other products on the market that do the same job and in most cases look better. Promoting the products rather than the brand drives sales and from this you will gain exposure to the brand itself. The brand can then be exploited further, in it’s own right, to familiarise it with the public. I have learnt this from discussions with Mccann Erickson’s Creative Director who told us that whatever you do, “Don’t sell the brand. Sell the product.
I am now in a mindset where I am aware of the fact that sales are the prime target and therefore have changed my outlook on design completely. The opposite of accentuating the positive is eliminating any negative connotations with your brand. Something I have adhered to during this project is to “Avoid knocking the competition. It usually serves to publicize them rather than you. It may win attention, it may win awards but the likelihood is that it won’t win sales."
Arrogance like this can lead to the rival company highlighting your own flaws and result in lower sales so it is better to avoid such tactics and focus on removing any negative areas of your own products within the marketing approach.
Trends and financial restrictions have changed the way advertising is perceived in recent times and this has lead to rise of blogging, which in itself is an effective marketing tool. More and more people are reading blogs due to the fact they are easy to access and readily available. Blogger.com, for example, allows people to have their own account which they can upload content to. This along with the rise of Twitter and Facebook means that everyone knows what everyone is doing all of the time. It is an advertisers dream.
Sunday 11 April 2010
Driven Work Placement
During the Easter holidays myself and James decided to take the opportunity to do a work placement at Driven in Wilmslow. We were offered the placement after a portfolio visit a couple of months ago. It looked like a great place to work with some big clients so we were happy to do it.
The agency is situated in Wilmslow town centre which means it doesn't get too busy like the town centre yet you can still go out with a lot of things to do around. The Aston Martin garage is also directly opposite which is a bonus for me with my love of cars.
We arrived at 10am on the first day which allowed them to get themselves sorted for the day before meeting with us and going through what was required of us.
We were then given a ambient advertising brief for a energy supplement company which was a great initial brief to get into as there was a lot you could do with it and we tried to inject a bit of fun into it. The overarching theme was already in place and we had to come up with ideas around this. We produced a lot of ideas and had a meeting about them. We went over the ideas but there was an issue of quantity over quality with them. Some ideas were good but some were just thrown in and didn't achieve what it should have. We spoke about this and it helped us be more focussed on our next challenge which was for a famous fruit juice company.
The task was to think of ideas for a TV advert which was within a budget so we had to consider the amount of animation, camera work, location, props and extras. Most were kept to a minimum but we were able to keep the fun factor. We drew up lots of storyboards and wrote a lot of scripts which took us a few days. We had a couple of meetings about this in which we found out which ones should be developed further. This allowed us to work on the dialogue and Sound effects and it was good to get involved in different aspects. In the first week we didn't do any designing at all which I was happy with as I prefer coming up with ideas anyway.
The TV brief then changed slightly to viral ads for across the internet. We had to try and design something that people will pass around the internet. This was hard at first as we have never really designed a viral ad before but once we started coming up with ideas, more ideas started to flow. A lot of the ideas were very interactive and used the screen on a computer as the actual platform for what happened in the video and pop ups. This idea lent itself to iphone apps so we designed them too. We then had a meeting about the TV and viral ads and Driven were pleased with what we had come up with and how hard we had worked. We had learnt to focus our ideas more and produced a lot of work so it was good to get the recognition.
We were then given a design brief for something not so glamorous but we still had to come up with some exciting ideas around a number of existing themes. The task was to design a new compost bag. We sketched up a lot of ideas on the first day and then worked these up to presentation standard on the computer. We then applied them to a blank bag which brought the designs to life and made them look real. We then had a final meeting about the designs and they were impressed with the amount we had done aswell as the way they looked. It was nice to have our effort and ideas appreciated.
Just before we were leaving on our final day, we were called into the office for a chat where we were asked to come back when we graduate. We thought this was great as it seems they see potential in us to help their business in the future. The client list is good and Driven get involved in everything from ideas through to design. I would like to get involved in everything and not confined into one area so I am very happy to have been asked back. This is an option I am taking very seriously and it would be good to repay Driven's faith in us in the future.
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