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?
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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!.
