We recently took the Level 2 students to visit four high profile and very contrasting advertising agencies in London. We always try to make the level 2 agency trip encompass as wide a range of agencies as possible and we certainly managed to live up to that aim this year.
First up in the morning for group A was a trip to the biggest agency of them all: AMV BBDO. Level two strudent Liam Nicholson explains how the visit went:
'We were greeted in the boardroom by two very polite creatives Milo Campbell and Sonny Adorjan. They spoke to us about their intriguing journey into advertising and inspired us with a screening of an AMV BBDO show-reel and 'The Process'(aka designing the stop sign) which gives a humorous insight into the client/creative relationship. As well as showing us some of their work, Sonny and Milo also spoke about the type of integrated campaigns and digital work, which creative directors like to see in a student portfolio. The highlight of the visit however, was when Paul Brazier, the executive creative director at AMV BBDO and former president of D&AD, enlightened us on the creative process and gave us advice on how to make it in Adland, all in his brilliant Brummie accent.'
Stood outside AMV BBDO, having just met ad legend Paul Brazier
Getting the chance to meet someone as high profile as Paul doesn't come around too often and the advice that he gave to the students was all the more well received because of it. AMV is a large and impressive place to visit and was a great motivation for everyone.
Whilst Group A were visiting AMV, Group B were being hosted by creative giants, Mother. Level 2 student Sophie Macdonald explains how the visit went:
'We had the amazing opportunity to visit Mother London and considering the reputation that Mother London has, it was no surprise to walk into what looked like an art gallery.'
Inside the offices of Mother.
'After seeing Mother's unconventional and fantastic ground floor we were then shown upstairs where we were introduced to the famous 250ft concrete desk. We sat down with Dan, Craig and Ben who gave us lots of advice concerning portfolio's and the hard work that needs to be put in, they also showed us some great work and ran a very insightful Q and A session to round off our visit.'
Get me the number of Mother's interior decorator.
So that was the morning taken care of and it was now time for Group A to visit one of the newer agencies in London - Creature.
Level 2 student Lily Peters explains more:
'On our agency visit trip to London, we were fortunate enough to meet with Stu Outhwaite, previously C.D at Mother and now a partner of fledging agency Creature. Creature is a vibrant, creatively focused agency and Stu shared key information on how to enter the Ad world, driving home the fact that networking and contacts are essential in order to get your foot in the door. Creature had an incredibly friendly vibe and Ruud Kool - a Lincoln graduate - was able to join us and shed a more recent light on life as a post-grad Creative.'
'Having the opportunity to be within an agency environment and meeting Stu was highly motivational for us all. Creature has a very exciting feel to it and it was wonderful to visit such a new agency and meet with a successful creative who had once been in our shoes.'
The group that had previously visited Mother also visited industry heavyweight JWT in the afternoon.
Sophie Macdonald tells us more:
'As we entered the reception at JWT the walls were covered with bicycles which made the agency feel like a very cool place to work.'
'We were greeted by Senior Creative Miles Bingham who provided us with huge amounts of advice and information about the industry and went on to show us some of the adverts that he had worked on. He also gave us advice on what would happen during a work placement at an agency and what to do when dealing with big clients.'
'Miles gave us an idea of how an ad comes to life with the 'hard slog' that goes into it. He was very passionate about the work that he had produced and about working in advertising. He gave us an honest and uplifting talk about the ups and downs in the industry and at the end of his presentation he gave us his email in case we needed future help and advice.'
Phew. Quite an exhausting but very rewarding trip.
A very big THANK YOU to all of the agencies and individuals who took time out of their busy schedules to see us. Visiting an ad agency is always inspirational as well as educational and this trip proved to be no different. Here's to the next one.
Copywriter Roger Horberry paid us a visit recently to run a writing workshop with the Level 2 students. As well as being a full time copywriter Roger also has a great reputation as a teacher of writing skills to both students and the industry. His brilliant book 'Brilliant Copywriting' contains many useful techniques for the aspiring commercial writer and is recommended to any student of the subject.
So it was with great anticipation that the students awaited Roger to cast a critical eye over their work. Level 2 student Ben Williams explains how the day went.
'Today we had the privilege of having the independent copywriter, Roger Horberry (author of several books such as ‘Brilliant Copywriting’) to talk to us about copywriting. Roger discussed topics such as tone of voice, which involved considering the audience, and ‘who’s voice should we hear when we read the words?’ He also used a great example of using consistency in tone of voice with a reply to a complaint about innocent smoothies.'
'He got the class involved with a number of exercises: one was about personality in print, where we had to write in the style of a certain celebrity. Another was about everything we don’t have to say (but probably should) where we deconstructed famous speeches, which highlighted that we need more than just the facts to engage the audience.'
'We finished off with one final exercise that involved us writing six word stories using our favourite words which we chose at the beginning of the lecture. Overall, the workshop was incredible useful and I feel that I have learned a lot more about copywriting.'
It's always good to see Roger working with the students to improve their writing skills and hopefully it won't be long before we see him again soon.
We're all about sharing on this course. But not sharing for the sake of it, no sir.
Last week the first year went out into Lincoln to buy a book from a charity shop, one that they would absolutely love to read, be it novel, recipe book or comic.
Then, when they returned, they wrapped them and turned into CA's version of Santa Claus by handing out random books to their classmates.
Well, I hear you thinking, what's the point?
We know what we like to read. In fact we know it so well we can sometimes buy the same stuff over and over again. From time to time breaking that pattern and reading something we would normally skip can be a good way into another mindset. Fun too.
'Swapping books, try it! You just might learn something new'.
We do a lot of unusual extra little things on the Creative Advertising course.
And here's one of them.
We found an old display case and have created the Creative Advertising Cabinet of Curiosities (or 'CAbinet...' – do you see what we did there?).
And we're going to display interesting things in it.
A rolling exhibition of oddities, if you will.
To start with, Gyles is exhibiting his collection of 1990s phonecards.
The accompanying text says:-
'Phonecards are, in effect, a form of currency. Here is an intriguing collection of changing designs from the 1990s that were used in the then ubiquitous public telephone box.
Displayed here are cards with commercial sponsorships; phonecards reserved for use in prisons; versions from Japan and France; different promotional techniques designed to encourage the use of the public phonebox and various joint ventures with different charities.'
Odd, certainly, but without a doubt, interesting.
Regular readers of this blog will know that'Lincoln Ink' has become an annual Creative Advertising student party, epitomising the key themes of the programme: creativity, commitment and marker pens (often permanent).
This year's party organisers took the opportunity of combining the tattoo theme with raising awareness of the programme's splendid Movember efforts, growing fine moustaches to raise funds and awareness for often overlooked men's health issues. You can visit the CA team's Movember page here.
Early in November we had the honour of a visit from Pete and Ollie (Pollie Wanna Create), 2010 graduates. You'll remember these guys landing their first job via twitter! They currently work at Archibald Ingall Streeton (AIS).
They ran a session with Third Years to give them a taste of their first year in adland as well as setting a really exciting challenge. Here's what current Third Year Maria had to say:
"It’s always nice to see how well Lincoln graduates are getting on, and Pete and Ollie’s visit this week was a perfect chance for us to meet a successful team of Lincoln-bred creatives! They talked us through their work, gave us tips on standing out in interviews, networking, and how to turn a placement into a job. There was even an ‘invention’ exercise that offered 6 placements at AIS for the winners, just to up our game.
It was really helpful to be able to ask them all those questions we had about ‘life as a new creative, looking for a job’, but also to see how enthusiastic and positive they were about the industry and their work. It makes the prospect of being young advertising professionals, a little less scary."
Thanks Maria and, of course, thanks to Pete and Ollie for such an energetic and genuinely useful afternoon!
Great news!
2010 Lincoln Creative Advertising graduate team Jan Pruijser & Rachel Clough have won the Ocean Outdoor Digital Billboard competition with their 'Back to the Hedgerow' augmented reality work for Westfield shopping centre.
Here's Jan to tell you all about it:-
'Since we graduated in 2010 we've had some great placements at Grand Union, Big Ideas Online, Albion and now we're at Grey.'
'A little while ago one of our account handlers for Jordan's Cereals asked if we wanted to have a crack at a competition brief for Ocean Outdoor. They supply advertising space on digital billboards across the UK.
'So a quick background on Jordan’s Cereal: they are all about the wildlife, they even set aside 10% of all their farmland to make homes for them.'
'We approached the brief in a very open-minded manner and tried to create something that would communicate the message whilst focusing on being engaging and rewarding for the user. We could spend ages explaining the idea but it's probably better (and definitely clearer) if you watch the video below...'
'The prize included £150,000 in media spend on Ocean Outdoor digital billboards. But the best part…£1000 of Apple vouchers! So we went straight down to Regent Street and purchased lovely new shiney iPads. Now for the hard part - getting it all made within budget...!'
Well done, Jan & Rachel. That really is fantastic news and another fine win for Lincoln Creative Advertising graduates.
Here's a quick (but pretty cool) thing.
Earlier this month, Creative Advertising 2010 graduate Brooke Cutmore (who works with creative partner Ruud Kool at Creature, London) was announced to be one of four winners of the Howies Microadventures competition with the short film 'From London to Lewes' that she made with Luke Clark.
To quote from the Howies website:-
'Microadventures let anyone plunge into a world of cheap Credit Crunch adventures. Adventures that are close to home, which are fun, affordable, easy to organise and designed to get you doing and experiencing things that would normally pass you by.'
We asked you to get out there and do your own Microavdenture and send us your story. For us, these four stories really captured the spirit of Adventure.'
You can check out the other three winning entries on the Howies Brainfood website.
Here's Brooke and Luke's film.
Well done Brooke (and Luke!). Loving the spirit!
Last week the third year Creative Advertising students attended Mandy Wheeler's Creative Detox workshop. The workshop was held in Lincoln's amazing Tokyo nightclub and the students explored team working dynamics, creative thinking methodologies, energising techniques for idea generation and strategies for maximising creative output.
This is what Level 3 student Jade Sturman wrote about the event:
'After experiencing Mandy’s Creative Detox workshop I feel much more optimistic as a creative and more confident about the way in that I will be working in the future. Mandy highlighted many things about the way a creative person's mind works and how they can often create rules and barriers that can hinder their creative thinking.'
'Mandy helped us all to understand that these self-inflicted rules are unnecessary and counter-productive. Using a range of fun and innovative exercises she taught us how to relax when generating ideas and proved that by having an inquisitive and positive attitude how much more productive idea generation can be.'
'One of the main things I personally took from the experience was that when coming up with ideas not to be overly self critical; that it’s OK to get it wrong or even look a bit silly in the process. It was also reassuring to discover that my peers (and most creatives for that matter!) also carry the same or similar insecurities as me.'
'Overall the Creative Detox workshop has left me feeling much more confident and less tense when generating ideas. It has helped me understand a little bit more what's necessary to be an effective creative practitioner.'
The event was held in the amazing Tokyo nightclub
The intriguing flock wallpaper added the final touches to a special environment
This workshop has become a regular feature on the Lincoln Creative Advertising course and it's always a pleasure and a privilege to welcome Mandy to teach on the programme.
Thank you VERY much Mandy for such a wonderful workshop and we look forward to seeing you back in Lincoln soon.
Everyone knows that students love to have a party.
And its pretty common knowledge that Creative Advertising students love the brilliant TV series Mad Men.
So, it's obvious, isn't it?
Here are some photos from last week's Creative Advertising students' Mad Men party.
Last week the Creative Advertising third years had one-day workshops with legendary advertising educator, Dave Morris.
This is what third year student Greg Harvey said about the day:-
'Dave Morris returned to the course to deliver another handful of wisdom and brilliance. We started the morning with prepared presentations, eagerly looking forward to Dave's feedback on the work we'd all done, with everyone of us keen to impress. But as always, success is never easy, but the lessons learnt from failure are far more valuable.'
'The day continued to look into a wide range of different topics and subjects, injecting a fresh burst of life into the subject we thought we were just beginning to understand. Lessons were learnt, laughs were had and above all else, another brilliant workshop from Dave Morris. We were truly graced with his presence, hoping that the next time we see him we can blow him away with our work, just as much as he blows us away with his words.'
It's always a great pleasure to welcome Dave to Lincoln and benefit from his professionalism, expertise and energy. Thanks Dave.
We are very pleased to announce that 2008 Creative Advertising graduate Mike Cuthell has won one of the University of Lincoln's inaugural Alumni Awards.
The University of Lincoln has recognised ten of its outstanding graduates of the past decade in a new set of awards. The Alumni Awards 2011 seeks to recognise, acknowledge, and celebrate the achievements of former students of the University of Lincoln. The winners were chosen by an independent panel of senior academics following nominations sent by lecturers.
The Creative Advertising course team nominated Mike (who you may remember produced a Nike commercial featuring Wayne Rooney & Fernando Torres) for his work in helping develop the Young Creative Council to promote creative excellence and bridge the gap between students, graduates and the creative industries.
The YCC’s motto is ‘People who do, change the world. Everyone else is just living here.’ Mike is somebody who does. He is not just interested in his own creative potential, but in the creative potential of all those around him. He sees the value in networks, in contacts and the danger of allowing young talent to slip through the net because they simply didn’t know who to call. He doesn’t just make great advertising work, he is helping to build a better future for the advertising industry.
The University's Alumni Officer Clare Cotton said: 'We wanted to acknowledge the success of our alumni who have gone on to do great things since graduating from the University of Lincoln. We had some excellent nominations which made choosing the 10 award winners very difficult. We are very proud to see so many of our graduates go on to such fantastic careers.'
Mike Cuthell, Alumni Award winner 2011
Aaron's shop was wrecked by the rioters
Photo by Dan Kitwood, courtesy of Getty Images
Following last summer's D&AD New Blood Creative Advertising graduate team Björn Conradi and Sophie Browness managed to land a placement at world famous ad agency BBH as part of the BBH Barn programme. Here's Sophie reporting back:-
"As part of our placement at BBH we were given the brief 'Do something good, famously.' After a long think about what good we could do, the London riots started and we knew this was our opportunity. Working with fellow 'BBH Barner' Omid Fard we set up a blog to help 89 year old barber Aaron Biber rebuild his shop that was destroyed by looters. After a long night of tweeting and getting the word out there, it spread."
The Keep Aaron Cutting blog site
"In a couple of days the campaign reached over 2.5 million twitter impressions, and raised £35,000 to get Aaron back in business. 'Keep Aaron Cutting' was featured in just about every national newspaper, the shop was swarming with TV news crews and even got a spot in Campaign. "
"Boris Johnson popped by to be told his parting will make him go bald and footballer Peter Crouch (an ex BBH intern) visited for a trim. We wanted to show that amongst all the bad press that social media was receiving, that it can be used for good. And luckily enough we did it rather famously too."
London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, visits Aaron in his shop
Incredibly well done Björn and Sophie. This is nothing short of brilliant.
Each year group is sent a project to throw themselves into over the Summer with the knowledge that during the first teaching week that work will be critiqued. This critique sets the tone for the whole year.
This years second year had been working hard on the brief 'Remember My Name', in which they have to make sure the tutors who have not taught them previously can match their name to their face... and remember it for weeks to come!
They can surprise us, involve us, use whatever medium they wish but it is not enough to just answer the brief, the work must also stand out.
We had students dressed as tigers, cakes with the student's faces on, competitions, music videos and one bold chap even shaved his name into his own chest.
These were all solid efforts and whilst they worked, there were a couple of pieces which really stood out and were not only memorable but something we wanted to see again, take a copy of and show to other people.
If you want to see how this brief went last year, take a look at this video from last year
Sam Brown Abreu struts across the CA Studio.
Every year we welcome a new bunch of hopefuls into the Creative Advertising studio. Each of these young apprentices arrives with dreams of greatness and all are ready to be moulded into future creative warriors.
So, how do we test them out on day one?
Well, we make them prance up and down in T-Shirts they have designed themselves so the second and third years can film them, of course. But not any old T-shirts, no, these were T-shirts they had designed to communicate something about them, their values, hometown or background.
Ryan Delaney and Suzi Paddison show off their work
...as do Kieran Clayton and Sarah Draycott
Let's call it an initiation and a valuable one to boot.
By abandoning their fear of looking silly and throwing themselves into the action they quickly dropped barriers and, unbeknownst to them, have now started the journey to becoming creatively open.
There is a method to this madness.
Congratulations to Kieran Clayton and Masha Shukkore who designed the winning T-shirts.
And if you are interested in how the first years did with this last year, take a look at the 'Eager Young Minds' post from 2010 here.
Jenna and Emma meet Ronnie.
Jenna Thomas and Emma Brown who graduated from the Lincoln Creative Advertising course in June 2010 have been keeping themselves very busy in adland recently. The girls have done a series of placements at various ad agencies and have just completed a big campaign with comedy legend Ronnie Corbett that airs for the first time today. The finished campaign was the culmination of a lot of hard work and has been a fantastic experience for them.
Emma looking the part on set
This is what Jenna has to say about their recent project:-
"Emma and I started placement at an agency called DCH (part of Doner), in March this year. Being quite a small agency, this worked to our advantage as we were able to get stuck in on most briefs that came through. Examples: Fuller’s Beer (London Pride, ESB, Red Fox), Saint Agur, Nikon and Alfa Romeo. We were asked to work on a brief back in March for Wiltshire Farm Foods, an account the agency was pitching for."
Ronnie hits his mark.
"Wiltshire Farm Foods is a company that deliver frozen meals to elderly people across the UK. TV executions, press ads, online and direct mail concepts were required. Advertising to an older age group was quite challenging – executions have to be quick with simple straightforward explanations otherwise old people just won’t understand. Having worked on the brief for a few weeks and being in many tissue meetings, our route was chosen to go to pitch. After a lot of research and reworking the client eventually chose DCH as their agency with the route that we had worked on."
A film crew marches on its stomach.
"It has been such a wonderful experience. We’ve been involved throughout the whole process from casting to editing. Working on the idea, going out with the Wiltshire Farm Foods' driver, meeting the director, casting, going on shoot and now the editing stage. After months of working up scripts it has been quite surreal seeing the idea we put on paper and visualised in our heads, actually coming to life. And with the added extra of Ronnie Corbett being in the ads makes it that little bit more special."
It's a wrap.
"We chose Ronnie as he brings a lot of warmth and humour. Advertising aimed at elderly people is often quite depressing and we wanted to steer clear of that. Air date is 1st October for the TV ads – 2x 30s and 2x 40s. We’re absolutely loving it!"
The whole process of getting a TV campaign through to final production is very complex and the odds are stacked against a script making it this far, so it's great that the girls have had the chance to put their skills into action.
So, well done Jenna & Emma, we're really looking forward to seeing the ads when they air for the first time today. Bravo!
Congratulations to level three creative team Stephanie Gane & Josh Crossley on coming third in this year's Shelf Awards.
A particularly rousing round of applause also goes out to Mike Kennedy & James Boomsma who were also amongst the six shortlisted teams in the competition.
Steph, Josh, Mike and James at this year's D&AD New Blood event.
This is a great achievement by Lincoln's Creative Advertising students who were up against some very keen competition from the top advertising students in the country. As you may remember, Lincoln graduate team Charley & James won the competition last year.
The Shelf Awards (as featured in Campaign magazine) are unique in that there is no set brief. Instead the students' portfolios are judged as a whole by an assembled audience of 120 people from across the advertising industry, consisting of creative directors, copywriters, art directors, recruiters and other industry experts. Everyone who attends then votes on the best team.
Well done to all of the winners and participants in this year's awards. Another great result for the Lincoln Creative Advertising programme and its graduates.
Creative team Brooke Cutmore & Ruud Kool graduated last year and moved to London. In her own words, this is Brooke's end of year report:-
'After finishing at Lincoln Uni, we basically worked every day, making, thinking, doing, critting, making, thinking, doing and critting some more, until we got our first placement at Inferno. We were there from the beginning of November until just before Christmas (which meant we got to go to the Christmas party - WOW!) and we worked on Nokia, Kiss FM and came up with the Father Kissmas Facebook app.
After Christmas we went out again and on our very next crit with Matt Keon (former Creative Director at Fallon) we had our next placement. We were at 18 Feet & Rising (a start-up that Matt, Jonathan Trimble and Tim Miller set up after leaving Fallon) for just under 3 months, working on Selfridges and Lovefilm.
After finishing at 18 Feet & Rising, we then went back to see the first team we saw back when we were in second year at Lincoln. It turned out that Ben & Stu (creative directors at Mother) had set up their own agency called Creature (a London branch of the Seattle agency). After a chat and a flick through our book we started on 2nd May and have been here ever since.'
It sounds like it's going really well for this very talented team, doesn't it? Clearly they are working very hard but also working at some fantastic places. Keep up the good work guys...!
It is with great regret and tears in our eyes that we wave goodbye to the University of Lincoln's Creative Advertising programme External Examiner, Chris Waite.
Chris, who has been the programme's External Examiner for the past four years has been a trusted friend to the course and has been instrumental in the success that we have achieved over this time.
Chris is the Course Leader of the highly acclaimed MA Creative Advertising course at University College Falmouth and his wise counsel has helped steer the Lincoln BA (Hons) Creative Advertising course into the prominent position it now occupies.
Chris Waite our ex external examiner.
Chris has enjoyed a very successful career in advertising and amongst his many achievements were ten years copywriting at Saatchi & Saatchi, Group Head at Publicis and Creative Director at Grey London. So he certainly knows what he's talking about when it comes to advertising!
Although it's sad to see the end of Chris' tenure, we already have his replacement lined up who is equally well qualified to ensure the health of the course. So we're in safe hands.
Hopefully this won't be the last time that we'll see Chris but, for now, on behalf of all of the staff and students, a very big THANK YOU, CHRIS - you've been absolutely brilliant.
Pieter Konickx & Amy Westbrook, who graduated in 2010, have been busily building their portfolio whilst freelancing for Saint London. They must be doing something right because they've just had their freelance contract extended by another six months.
The pair of them have been working on some really interesting briefs and recently got the chance to advertise the agency in Campaign magazine. They produced a great ad and got the chance to work with some great models. Amy explains in more detail...
"Piet and I were asked to work on an ad that would represent Saint in Campaign magazine. It is featured next to an article which talks about the playful and innovative attitude that Saint have as a company.
Working with a very well trained model.
This was a great opportunity for us to have some fun and come up with some crazy thoughts. The final idea showed a cat playfully teasing a mouse in a unique and inventive way, which perfectly reflected the culture here at Saint.
No animals were harmed in the making of this advert.
It was decided that it would look best photographed with a real cat and mouse. Alex Howe was the photographer and captured great detail and expression in the animals. The photo shoot was great and we are really pleased with the outcome. It reflects Saint as the fun and innovative agency that it is."
The finished advert as it appeared in Campaign.
To continue our 'Where are they now'? feature updating everyone on the progress of our graduates, here's what creative team Jan Pruijser & Rachel Clough have been up to recently.
Jan & Rachel graduated in 2010 and are nearing the end of a great placement at Albionwhere they've worked on some great clients including Air New Zealand, Seatwave, Coca Cola Enterprise, Giff Gaff and Getty Images!
Previous to Albion they've worked at BIO (Big Ideas Online) where they came up with an amazing technically ground-breaking website for mobile communications. And before that they were at Grand Union for three and a half months.
They're starting at Grey on the 1st of August, clearly demonstrating that all all the hard work's been worth it.
Well done team. Keep going...!
As a finale to the Level 3 students' time on the programme, exhibiting at D&AD New Blood is a fitting way to showcase the great work that the best teams have developed whilst studying on the University of Lincoln's BA (Hons) Creative Advertising programme.
Another busy day on the Lincoln Creative Advertising stand.
Held at the Old Truman Brewery, just off Brick Lane in London's trendy East End, the event kicked off on Thursday 30th June with a Private View night which saw many well known Creative Directors visiting the show.
Over the course of the next five days the students had the chance to attend various classes and workshops organised by D&AD. This helped them to network with agencies and their staff as well as giving them the chance to meet other advertising and design students.
Portfolio surgeries enabled graduates to get valuable industry feedback on their folios.
Chris & Harriett have a 'Skype Book Crit' with San Francisco via the Young Creative Council tent.
There was a very steady stream of industry creatives visiting the event and all of the people that we met were very complimentary about the Lincoln stand and the quality of students' work.
All of the leading Advertising, Design and Illustration courses in the UK were on show and the variety and quality of work on display showed how strong art and design education remains in this country. It was all the more satisfying when some of the work on the Lincoln Creative Advertising stand won one of the 'Best New Blood' awards.
D&AD Best New Blood Award 2011
It's very hard work preparing to exhibit at the D&AD New Blood event but the recognition of the students' work by the industry and the chance to meet so many top industry people make all of the effort worthwhile.