A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was employed as a junior copywriter. Salary 4.5K. 1-month holiday a year. 1½ hours for lunch. I was not the only junior in the creative dept mind. There were three others and one guy in particular had some very peculiar tendencies.
Posts Tagged ‘Creative’
The four things you need to be a successful freelancer
Monday, February 6th, 2012
At some stage in your creative career you will reach a point when you pass beyond the world of corporate employment. For some people, the desire to ‘do your own thing’ happens early on, while others need longer before they feel they can cut it in self-employment.
Roar deal. Why the Brits failed at the Lions.
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
The results are in and the news is not good, I’m afraid. UK advertising agencies have failed to win a single gold at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. It’s the second year this has happened and now there’s talk of an industry that isn’t trying, losing its lustre and throwing up work that is simply not good enough.
What to wear when addressing a client.
Friday, May 27th, 2011
Yesterday we had a few sniggers in the studio. The reason being our favourite Flash designer Pabs had to attend a client meeting. Now Pabs is from Cuba so he doesn’t have a firm grasp of the correct dress code for client meetings. In truth he doesn’t really get clothes much at all. In default mode his typical wardrobe would be a smiley face t-shirt, low rider jeans and trainer laces running around the floor like roots from a tree. So yesterday morning, to our surprise, he walks in with a striped white shirt, eye-wateringly tight slacks and on the waist a ‘statement’ belt covered in gunmetal pyramid studs. He wasn’t at all happy about wearing this particular attire. Pabs is his own man and as he grimly walked past my desk, under his breath he muttered something about “selling out to The Man.”
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Swings and roundabouts – the best and worst TV ads of 2010.
Thursday, December 9th, 2010
My blogging colleague John Fountain emailed me last week to point out the year was coming to a juddering halt and suggest this was a good time to reflect on the months gone by. A fine idea and one that could lead to an examination of general elections, snow and celebrities with tropical diseases. But this is a creative industry website for creative industry types and everyone knows we only see the world in terms of advertising (or is that just me?). So without further ado, strike up the Pick of the Pops music and let’s name the best and worst TV ads of the last twelve months.
The gong remains the same. Is it worth winning awards?
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010
Awards are like oxygen. You don’t really pay them much attention unless you don’t have any. But these glittering prizes aren’t about inflated lungs, they are about inflated egos. If they do serve a purpose, it isn’t really to recognise talent, more to lubricate the commercial cut and thrust of the industry and shore up the fragile self esteem of its pawns and kings.
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Join the banned. YouTube’s top ten prohibited advertisements.
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
To be honest, no creative has ever been completely devastated to find their work outlawed. True, it isn’t going to find the mass market for which it was designed, but you can bet your life a proportion of a formerly uninterested audience are now going to crave the opportunity to see what all the fuss is about.
Creativity: career or calling?
Thursday, September 16th, 2010
When I was 26, I had no career. Overwhelmingly obsessed with popular music, I made a living playing records (remember them?) in clubs and on local radio. The question is: do I have one now? And does it matter?
This all stems from a conversation I overheard in a digital agency recently. Two designers were sharing a coffee break and discussing employment options. Eavesdropping, I was rather surprised to find their exchange mostly concerned salary, benefits, hours, and job titles. Now, ambition is no bad thing – but to me, it was their omission of design in the equation that took me aback. Their priorities were prospects, promotions and pensions. Career stuff. Creative possibilities weren’t even on the agenda. (more…)
Are you special?
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
I was very pleased to receive a big response to my recent piece on becoming a copywriter but one question really caught my attention. The correspondent asked me to suggest a ‘type’ of copywriting in which to specialise. This rather threw me, but it set me thinking – there’s something odd going on.
What a pair.
Thursday, October 20th, 2011A great philosopher once said (or perhaps it was Kylie, now I think about it), “Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t”. Whoever, to my mind, it was the winning principle behind the classic, advertising agency creative team.
Take one copywriter, find an art director of a similar standard and level of experience, and introduce them to each other. Ensure they stand a reasonable chance of exchanging the odd civil word, bung them a couple of briefs and if the resulting work is on target – or at least, shows some promise – bingo! You have yourself a creative team.
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