Archive for November, 2010

Another chat with West Kent Graphics students

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

I went over to West Kent College again last week to catch up with the HND Graphic Design students. The last time, we had a portfolio surgery and an open forum to discuss what it takes to get into the design industry. You can read about my previous visit here

This time, I took them through a re-brand case study for Pet Works. We talked about the briefing and pitch stages and the different design routes that had been presented. We discussed the ins-and-outs of what makes a good brand guidelines document and I took them through before and after images of Pet Works print, exhibition and website designs. You should have seen their jaws drop when we got on to the topic of time scales. I don’t think they could quite get their heads around how much we had needed to achieve in such a short period of time! This is the main reason that the college invite me in, to provide the students with a realistic idea of what is waiting for them in the commercial design world.

After a quick Q&A, I spent a couple of hours going through their portfolios with them again to see how things were progressing. The work in itself was fascinating, but the most important thing I took away from the experience was how important presentation techniques are. More than once, a student preceded opening their  portfolio with “It’s not very good, I’m not really happy with any of the work…”

This is quite normal for us sensitive creative-types. At college we are wrapped in a wonderful creative cocoon, often with very little understanding of the business end of things, but sooner or later, we all have to sell ourselves and our work – either to a client or a Creative Director.

That’s why it’s so important they are exposed to the ‘real world’ as soon as possible. When I was studying, a lecturer of mine (Tony Evershed, wherever you are. THANK YOU) actively encouraged me to go to top London agencies a year before I graduated and get as much input as possible.

Back to West Kent College; it was inspiring to find that there were also quite a few students who were buzzing with confidence and enthusiasm for the work they had to show me. In fact there was one guy who could probably have sold me the merits of a blank page, he was such a natural presenter. This level of self-belief made all the difference. As I said to many of them on the day, if they can convey the passion that they have for design, I’m already on their side before I’ve even seen the work.

It was a really productive session and a few days later I received an email from Programme Leader, Sancha de Burca:

“I did target-setting with the first years later and they had many and varied aims following things you said. These ranged from developing design skills to trying to communicate better verbally. Also, the next day in the crits we were again able to pick up on points you made in order to back up our assessments.”

One thing that it is easy to lose sight of when you’re studying design is that you may be impressing the tutors, but unfortunately none of them are going to offer you a job at the end of the course.

So, my advice would be, get out there and show your work and follow these basic principles:

1. Remember, the person you are presenting to, has never seen your design work before. At least give them the chance to decide that they like it.

2. Context is everything, explain the brief succinctly. Saying, ‘I can’t remember why I did this’ just isn’t going to cut it.

3. Be enthusiastic, it’s infectious.

4. If the person you are presenting to says they don’t like it, ask why. You might learn something.

5. Don’t be afraid to defend your design decisions. If you believe in something, stand up for it.

6. If the person you are presenting to has a valid reason for criticising your work, be humble and listen.

7. If 10 people in a row tell you a design piece isn’t working, it probably isn’t.

8. If you are hoping to get a work placement or a job, try to keep the door open. “Would it be OK to come and show you some more of my work in the future?” is rarely going to be met with a “no”.

9. Show the world that you actually care about your design. Good work presented in a tatty portfolio looks like mediocre work, mediocre work presented beautifully can look like good work (almost).

10. Design agencies basically only hire juniors for four reasons – talent, enthusiasm, because they are prepared to roll their sleeves up and because they’re the sort of people they would like in their team.

In the new year I’ll be doing a session with the BA students. I’m going to give them an hour to crack a brief, so that should be interesting (evil chuckle).

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Posted by Jonathan in creativity, remedy | Add a response

Adopt a Word – new look, new tech, new start…

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Adopt a Word

Remedy designed and developed the original Adopt a Word site for I CAN 2 years ago. It was time for a makeover.

Launched this week, the brand new adoptaword.com is a showcase for current technologies. The site has been redesigned with a fresh new look and feel to align with the design of the new I CAN website, which is launching in January.

Rebuilt from the ground-up, we stripped away the Flash content and made it even more accessible. We’ve added new sections and navigation, streamlined the search and thesaurus functions and introduced an SEO friendly blog and twitter feed. We have also substantially upgraded the hosting for the site, which now sits on a powerful cloud server, ensuring higher resilience, faster access and maximum flexibility moving forward.

In the last 2 years the site has been a great fundraising success for I CAN, and as such they were happy to invest in it’s long-term future.

So if you’re looking for an alternative gift idea this Christmas, you could do no better than adopting someone a word. All profits will go directly to help children with communication difficulties.

To find out more please visit adoptaword.com

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Posted by Jason in design, online | Add a response

Creative Heroes – John Webster

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

I never got the chance to meet him, but I grew up with many of his creations.

John Webster was possibly the greatest TV commercials writer and art director in the UK, if not, the world. He was born December 17, 1934 in Paris and after attending Hornsey College of Art, spent most of his career at Boase Massimi Pollitt (now DDB London), having helped set up the agency in 1969.

As Creative Director, he gained a reputation as one of the most talented advertising creatives in London and won more creative awards than anyone else. To put this into perspective, let me quote leading ad man Dave Trott:

“One year I won a Cannes Gold Lion for a commercial that I’d written. I felt pretty good. The same year John won three Gold Lions for commercials he’d written, another three for commercials he’d art-directed, and another three for commercials he’d actually directed himself. Nine times as many as me. Or, to put it another way, three times as many as anyone else in any field in our business. And that was just one year.”

But ironically, winning awards was the last thing on John Webster’s mind. Unlike many of his contemporaries who had been sucked in by the back-patting world of the London ad scene, John knew there was more to life than advertising. He knew that people switched the box on to watch Hollywood blockbusters, sitcoms and soaps. That’s why he pitched his ideas to the ‘normal’ people in the agency; the tea-lady, the odd-job man and the receptionist.
He couldn’t care less what his peers thought about his work. After all, they weren’t who he was selling to.

One of John’s colleagues, James Best, says that one of the things that made John Webster’s work so powerful was that he knew “Nobody’s asked you in… John’s particular magic was to realise that if you’re going to communicate with people, rather than shouting at them, why not amuse them and even charm them? If they like you and enjoy what you’re about, then they might be prepared to listen to what you’ve got to tell them.”

John Webster’s advertising creations read like a Who’s Who of advertising icons:
The Cadbury’s Smash martians, the Honey Monster, George the Hofmeister bear, The Cresta Bear, John Smith’s Arkwright and my all time favourite, the ‘It’s too orangey for crows’ Kia Ora ad.

Now, there are some rather bizarre rumours going around that the characters in this commercial reinforce racial stereotypes. Maybe I just see the world through orange-coloured spectacles, but the idea that this commercial has any racist overtones is beyond me. I would like to take this opportunity to (s)quash any such nonsense!

According to anyone who knew and worked with John, there wasn’t a bad bone in his body.

Advertising luminary, Winston Fletcher says:

“John was the antithesis of the caricature advertising man. Though supremely confident of his own talent, he was never arrogant, did not push himself forward, dressed unexceptionally, threw no tantrums and accepted good ideas from others gracefully, including ideas from clients, something few advertising creative people will countenance… He was immensely popular and a team player, both literally and metaphorically. He played cricket and golf for his agency – though even he would not have claimed to be great shakes at either – and he was generous to a fault in devoting time to the encouragement and training of young people.”

And to quote Dave Trott once more:

“He was a typically eccentric Englishman. He approached multimillion-pound campaigns as if he were tending prize leeks in his allotment… of all the creative greats in the UK, John was the only one not to have his name above the door of an advertising agency. And yet, at BMP, John was the agency.”

Some Webster facts:
– He is responsible for ‘Watch out, there’s a Humphrey about’ and ‘Gertcha’
– He introduced Gary Lineker to the world as the face of Walkers crisps
– In a poll of the UKs top 100 TV commercials, 11 were created by John Webster
– He won two Cannes Grand Prix awards and the D&AD President’s Award
– His Cadbury’s Smash Martians commercial was voted TV ad of the century by Campaign Magazine in 1999, and Best Ad Ever by ITV in 2005
– There is now even an award named after him – The John Webster Award for Best 30 second Commercial (British Television Advertising Awards).

And finally, to quote the man himself:

“I always know a piece of work is really good when I feel angry. It’s a sort of resentment that someone else has done it.”

John Webster, 1934 – 2006. An inspiration for two generations of creatives.

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Posted by Jonathan in advertising, copywriting, creativity | Add a response

The art of the one liner

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Writing a great headline is an art. There aren’t many of us who can take a small handful of words and come up with something so compelling that people want to know more, buy one, write to their MP or repeat it in the pub that night.

I don’t want to get into a rant about the lack of decent copywriters in the advertising and design business presently, I’ll leave that for another post.

Instead, I’d rather celebrate the master of the one-liner, the humble newspaper hack. If you’re in need of some sizzling inspiration, what better place to look than the good old Soar away Sun.

Over the last 40 years, they’ve written some lines that have gone into the English language. Here are some absolute corkers:

1982, British troops sank the General Belgrano and The Sun launched a ballistic one-word, jingoistic war cry: ‘GOTCHA’.

1986, and how could you not read on from this little teaser: ‘FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER’.

Wind the clock forward to the 21st century and they’re still coming out with some real beauties. 2005, Prince Harry is photographed on his way to a fancy dress party: ‘HARRY THE NAZI’.

2009, perhaps a little gratuitous even for The Sun as everyone’s favourite celebrity stoner has a bit of a prang: ‘GEORGE MICHAEL SHUNTS TRUCKER IN REAR’.

But it’s not just the journos at our number one tabloid that can turn out a nifty line or two. Check these out from one of our much loved local weekly newspapers:

We love a bit of hyperbole.                 They spent it on pizza.                        Things were a bit slow that week.

So next time you’re struggling to edit a 15 word headline, you could do worse than buy a copy of your local rag.

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Posted by Jonathan in copywriting | Add a response