Seriously. Time for you (and I) to leave. And sorry (really to myself. I know no one is in pain over the lack of posts recently) taking so much time off. But I have been busy filling out papers, applications and just kinda trying to figure out my future. No big deal. So with this last post from my $750 Hermin Miller chair, I will compose a nice list of 20 things I will miss from my time here. And some things that I will not be missing.
1. Being spoiled rotten by aunt. I should also mention my uncle as well, but his is more indirect as he does what he is told and has no real say in the matter. Thanks anyway buddy. But I will miss so much about them. The great food, the great conversations, the kid who cries like a dolphin, being told that "When someone tries to give you some loving," I need to be more careful about protruding plastic from my bed. This is becoming a list within a list I apologize. Just know that I appreciate all you guys have done for me!
2. The goofiest dog in the world, Diesel. A 7 year-old Labradoodle that is beyond words. The dog that continues to bark through wearing a bark collar (and so subsequently, he barks, it zaps him, he cries in pain, but immediately goes right back to barking. Process goes on indefinately.) He also joins my 3 year-old cousin in song as she cries.
3. The nicest gym I have ever been in. Lifetime Fitness. Look it up. It's just ridiculous.
4. Manipulating friends for domination in monopoly.
5. Partaking in life, albeit briefly, on a "real" college campus, UNC. However, if I never lay eyes on "Carolina Blue" it will be too soon.
6. And I am slightly torn on this, but trashy TV. This is the height of my TV prowness and I never again will be up-to-date on American Idol, Lost, Friday Night Lights, and The Office.
7. Exploiting my uncle's inability to not eat food put in front of him by constantly putting junk food in front of him.
8. Free liquor. Kinda part of #1. But worth it's own spot on the list.
9. Pub Thursday. More free drinks, but provided by work!
10. Bottomless bags of Cape Cod chips. Again, part of #1.
11. Not being in Rock Hill
12. Being reminded of the theme parks every time I come to work. They have all of this flowing water outside, and an old restored train car. So the smell of chlroine mixed with the visuals is very reminiscent of how theme parks have those things in place as you wait in line for an hour.
13. Misleading people by telling them I work for an Ad Agency. I mean I do, but for free. So not sure that really counts.
14. The friends I made up here. Whether through my time here at McKinney, or through other friends. I'll miss you guys!
15. Carrburittos. Seriously the best burritos I have ever had in my life.
16. All the insightfull work emails. Surrounded by so many smart people. Going to miss all the cutting-edge stuff I was able to learn about.
17. Having the Internet.
18. Being away from my element. It has been really nice to just leave all I knew and start over. Really puts into perspective the things that really matter.
19. "Bonding"
20. Waking up without an alarm clock.
20.1 Not being in Rock Hill
20.2 Free lunch screenings
And now for some things that I will not miss so much:
1. The guy who thinks it is OK to blast music in his office, with the door open, when he could very easily just put on some headphones, shut his door, turn it down, etc etc. NO ONE CARES THAT YOU LIKE NADA SURF. And now The National as I write. Hey, 2k7 called and wants the best album of the year back.
2. People on speaker phone for no reason.
3. People not responding to important emails.
4. Driving 35 minutes every morning.
5. Buying a tank of gas every week.
6. Having the Internet.
7. Vegging in front of the TV.
I guess that is about it. Glad to see my "not" list is so short. Learning not to get bothered by as many things I suppose. But that about does it I suppose...don't really have much else to say. For now I will prep my school applications and get ready to whatever the Lord has me doing next with my life.
Cheers
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Vanilla Extract and Brown Sugar
I arrived to my cubicle today and all I can smell is vanilla extract and brown sugar...I suspect that either someone used my corner desk to prepare cookie dough or that an office in my immediate vicinity held a recent workshop on the art of cookie preparation. Will look for flour trails later...
A couple of big events have happened recently. For one, I got to participate firsthand in a pitch to new business (when agencies compete for new clients or to fight for current ones.) It is, as you may imagine, a very busy time. Because on top of your normal workload, one must find time to invest resources in new business, which in some cases can be even bigger than your current workload. Now of course being an intern means I don't quite have as much stress and work to worry about, but it was still intense and fun to be apart of. I can't really divulge (or I feel that way) about any specifics but I was working on some fun copy that I ended up being utilized so that is always exciting.
The real kicker to this experience was how the office was when the client came in for the pitch. You could just feel the tension/excitement in the air. Gotta admit, McKinney pulled out some mad rabbits out of the hat for the pitch and for sure it left a strong impression on the client. It has been interesting to see how everything that has been done for this was able to carry a consistent message. For that to function we had constant contact with the Account Planners to ensure that our ideas were on target. Last thing needed here is a visual that stands out for being an anomaly.
Once the client had left, the place turned into a school campus on the last day of class. People were loud, relieved, etc. I even saw some people skipping down the halls. But perhaps that was because the bar taps were opened a couple of hours earlier for the staff to relieve some stress. I talked to a couple of people who had worked some crazy days leading up to the pitch so I am sure they were getting some much needed bar nourishment to wet their palates.
The other notable event of recent was an opportunity to have a sit down with a few other interns with our CEO. I had seen him around the office on a few occasions, but never took the opportunity to introduce myself formally. He started by going around asking our names and going through all those common little icebreakers everyone has experienced. What stood out to me, was that he knew who I was — more specifically, that I was the guy from Rock Hill, SC. I was impressed to learn that someone as important as him still takes the time to be in the know about his staff — even the unpaid ones.
A couple of big events have happened recently. For one, I got to participate firsthand in a pitch to new business (when agencies compete for new clients or to fight for current ones.) It is, as you may imagine, a very busy time. Because on top of your normal workload, one must find time to invest resources in new business, which in some cases can be even bigger than your current workload. Now of course being an intern means I don't quite have as much stress and work to worry about, but it was still intense and fun to be apart of. I can't really divulge (or I feel that way) about any specifics but I was working on some fun copy that I ended up being utilized so that is always exciting.
The real kicker to this experience was how the office was when the client came in for the pitch. You could just feel the tension/excitement in the air. Gotta admit, McKinney pulled out some mad rabbits out of the hat for the pitch and for sure it left a strong impression on the client. It has been interesting to see how everything that has been done for this was able to carry a consistent message. For that to function we had constant contact with the Account Planners to ensure that our ideas were on target. Last thing needed here is a visual that stands out for being an anomaly.
Once the client had left, the place turned into a school campus on the last day of class. People were loud, relieved, etc. I even saw some people skipping down the halls. But perhaps that was because the bar taps were opened a couple of hours earlier for the staff to relieve some stress. I talked to a couple of people who had worked some crazy days leading up to the pitch so I am sure they were getting some much needed bar nourishment to wet their palates.
The other notable event of recent was an opportunity to have a sit down with a few other interns with our CEO. I had seen him around the office on a few occasions, but never took the opportunity to introduce myself formally. He started by going around asking our names and going through all those common little icebreakers everyone has experienced. What stood out to me, was that he knew who I was — more specifically, that I was the guy from Rock Hill, SC. I was impressed to learn that someone as important as him still takes the time to be in the know about his staff — even the unpaid ones.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Things are just chugging along
Really nothing exciting to note in the past week or so but there are a couple of points of interest worth noting.
Last Friday, I had the opportunity to sit in on client pitch for some web banners we had done. These were in no way glamorous at all — just your standard web banners, but it was exciting and new to sit in and see how it all works. I had been under the impression that you go into these meetings with a few options to give the client and you talk about them and how they meet the objectives of the brief followed by your recommendation. While that is how it goes down, what I found interesting (and I am sure this varies based on project and based on client) but the pitch was more or less done via ad-lib. In other words, most of the dialogue coming from our end of the phone was based on reading how the client reacted to certain pieces — the ones they react favorably to more or less became our "recommend."
I would imagine that for higher profile pieces that you are willing to fight very hard to have your recommend the final choice, but when dealing with this kind of work, it is best to just let the client make the call. Just tryin' to pay the bills in this case.
A couple of days ago, about a third of the interns got together to discuss feelings towards the internship program with a HR representative. I gathered some interesting tidbits from my peers regarding the program but really, it is hard to objectively make comparisons as only two of the six people there are in the same line of work I am. But I have been, overall, very happy with my experience here. I have learned a lot about myself as well as some intimate knowledge into how agencies run which has been encouraging as it has helped solidify my belief that this is in fact what I want to be doing.
I only have a couple of gripes concerning my time here...things I think could improve things for interns as well as the agency (granted they really have no expectations of their interns which they told us all up front.) For one, only a select few even noticed that there were created interns to assist with projects. I keep meeting employees and almost every time I get "Oh wow I didn't even realize we had interns right now." I don't expect the agency to shut down so that we can be introduced to those who may have contact with us, but some way of notifying people would be beneficial I would think.
Secondly, I would like to be "integrated" better with other creative teams. I posted early on how great it was on my second day to tag along with a creative and help concept...to see that dynamic firsthand was great. Then to go to all appropriate meetings regarding what we had done was also nice, but since day one, that interaction has been all but nonexistent. Now I don't blame anyone for this...for the most part everyone I have come in contact with has been very eager to help us and lend a hand, but at some point it gets to be too much to always be nagging other to involve us. Perhaps if they would just dedicate creative interns to a specific team or two that issue would not come up (and this is how interns in other disciplines have been integrated here.)
Like I said though, overall this has been a great experience so far. I think it really is up to me to seek out what I want to get out of this (like with a lot of things, of course "Outliers" puts some interesting perspective on what effect outside variables have on what happens to us) internship and if I try to involve myself more I now I can milk this place for all its worth.
Last Friday, I had the opportunity to sit in on client pitch for some web banners we had done. These were in no way glamorous at all — just your standard web banners, but it was exciting and new to sit in and see how it all works. I had been under the impression that you go into these meetings with a few options to give the client and you talk about them and how they meet the objectives of the brief followed by your recommendation. While that is how it goes down, what I found interesting (and I am sure this varies based on project and based on client) but the pitch was more or less done via ad-lib. In other words, most of the dialogue coming from our end of the phone was based on reading how the client reacted to certain pieces — the ones they react favorably to more or less became our "recommend."
I would imagine that for higher profile pieces that you are willing to fight very hard to have your recommend the final choice, but when dealing with this kind of work, it is best to just let the client make the call. Just tryin' to pay the bills in this case.
A couple of days ago, about a third of the interns got together to discuss feelings towards the internship program with a HR representative. I gathered some interesting tidbits from my peers regarding the program but really, it is hard to objectively make comparisons as only two of the six people there are in the same line of work I am. But I have been, overall, very happy with my experience here. I have learned a lot about myself as well as some intimate knowledge into how agencies run which has been encouraging as it has helped solidify my belief that this is in fact what I want to be doing.
I only have a couple of gripes concerning my time here...things I think could improve things for interns as well as the agency (granted they really have no expectations of their interns which they told us all up front.) For one, only a select few even noticed that there were created interns to assist with projects. I keep meeting employees and almost every time I get "Oh wow I didn't even realize we had interns right now." I don't expect the agency to shut down so that we can be introduced to those who may have contact with us, but some way of notifying people would be beneficial I would think.
Secondly, I would like to be "integrated" better with other creative teams. I posted early on how great it was on my second day to tag along with a creative and help concept...to see that dynamic firsthand was great. Then to go to all appropriate meetings regarding what we had done was also nice, but since day one, that interaction has been all but nonexistent. Now I don't blame anyone for this...for the most part everyone I have come in contact with has been very eager to help us and lend a hand, but at some point it gets to be too much to always be nagging other to involve us. Perhaps if they would just dedicate creative interns to a specific team or two that issue would not come up (and this is how interns in other disciplines have been integrated here.)
Like I said though, overall this has been a great experience so far. I think it really is up to me to seek out what I want to get out of this (like with a lot of things, of course "Outliers" puts some interesting perspective on what effect outside variables have on what happens to us) internship and if I try to involve myself more I now I can milk this place for all its worth.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Super Creepy Doll Invading Private Space
Look at this thing. The creepiest doll I have ever laid eyes on. Please note that the head is two-sided so that you have an "awake" side PLUS the "sleeping" side. But I think what catapults this bad boy into the stratosphere of elite creeper status is the body. Not only is it improperly proportioned, but the whole thing is completely limp — the head is the only solid part on the thing. So you have this over three feet frame of foam with a head of plastic.
So how did it get here? Well, as some of you may know, I currently am residing at my aunt/uncle's place as I do my internship in Durham. So yesterday, an elderly neighbor named "Sybil" brings over unannounced a pot full of the dankest egg salad + this doll that she bragged about finding in her attic to give so graciously to my three-year old cousin. Why this thing was not locked away in a remote location/attached to cinder blocks and dropped into a river is still a mystery to me. Now, I admit that I can be a judgmental individual so I did my best not to think that this doll was out of the ordinary when it was brought over. Initially I was more concerned with the smell that was violating my nasal cavities (this was, no doubt done on purpose by Sybil I speculate.) Furthermore, my aunt emerged for the stairs and delivered her thank you's to Sybil who was then on her way. At this point I thought it best to just let it go and pretend that I was imagining that a) this doll was a prop in a Steven King novel and b) the house smelling like a rotten corpse was nothing more than my mind playing tricks on me.
However, as soon as Sybil departed my aunt immediately accused ME of violating public air space fully thinking that the smell was not the food that was just brought over. Soon this subject was overshadowed by the doll. She also confirmed the +10 creepster meter that this guy had surpassed.
All afternoon this thing was hot conversation at home. Even that evening when we were all sitting around watching "Lost" — which, don't even get me started on home stupid this show is — my aunt thought it would be funny to prop this thing between the uncle and myself. It was there for all of two minutes when my uncle evicted it from its location. It soon left my mind as I became preoccupied trying to understand how a show with no direction has such a following until late that evening when the doll was placed, unbeknown to me, on my toilet for me to find at one in the morning. Scared the living egg salad out of me.
In retaliation I placed it in Adam's (my uncle) car for him to find at 5 am when he heads off for the gym, buckled up in his driver seat. In retrospect I think a rear passenger seat of his Passat would of been a better location as then every time he would turn around/look in his rear-view mirror, he would be subjected to this thing. The stage of the story ends on a funny note (I say thing because the pranks are in no way over with the doll) as apparently he woke up in the middle of the night to relocate it to my car but could not find the doll as I already had other plans for him.
So now I must scheme up some new locations for it to be relocated to. Any ideas on how to maximize the creepy factor of this guy?
Some Thoughts on Augmented Reality
A little bit ago I posted links to an exciting, emerging technology called 'Augmented Reality.' For those unfamiliar with it, essentially you have a product with some sort of code on it that your webcam reads, and then creates a 3D rendering on top of the product that has a varying degree of interactivity attached to it.
Here is an example I played around with
Here is an example I played around withWhile there have been lots of examples of this (such as chess games where you literally can move nonexistent pieces,) the most successful example of this to date was pointed out to me recently at work — interactive 3D baseball cards. Unfortunately I can't embed the video but it can be found here:
http://www.t-immersion.com/
For those too lazy to watch the first minute or so of that video, he is essentially what goes down:
Click to Enlarge
I think that Topps is doing a great thing here in an industry that has stagnated in recent years as it seems to have lost touch with its demographic as technology continues to dominate new trends for younger kids/teens. I have no idea how well this will fare as I really have no grasp on where card collecting stands with kids these days. I mean, think about utilizing this technology with something like "Pokemon" and "Magic: The Gathering." You could literally see your character carry out spells and kill sequences on screen.
Another example with great potential are these augmented cards:
http://www.t-immersion.com/
For those too lazy to watch the first minute or so of that video, he is essentially what goes down:
Click to EnlargeI think that Topps is doing a great thing here in an industry that has stagnated in recent years as it seems to have lost touch with its demographic as technology continues to dominate new trends for younger kids/teens. I have no idea how well this will fare as I really have no grasp on where card collecting stands with kids these days. I mean, think about utilizing this technology with something like "Pokemon" and "Magic: The Gathering." You could literally see your character carry out spells and kill sequences on screen.
Another example with great potential are these augmented cards:
Augmented Cards in Action
Think about the ability to create custom content for a greeting card. Maybe you could go online (or like an automated machine in a store that you can do this from,) fill out the text, select animations (maybe you animate the text, or perhaps there is some other theme you would like to see come to life — based on what you think the receiver would like. The options really are limitless,) and then have the card sent directly to your friend. You may not even need to have anything written on the card as it could all be viewed through your webcam. The one major drawback to this technology being that not everyone has access to a webcam. But over the next few years most everyone with a computer will have one as the majority of new computer purchases come with them built in.
So we'll see. This technology is still in its infancy, but the move towards interactive digital media is in full swing and it will be interesting to see it unfold over the next few years.
So we'll see. This technology is still in its infancy, but the move towards interactive digital media is in full swing and it will be interesting to see it unfold over the next few years.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Nearly Halfway Done Here
So as you may recall, more or less the subject of my last post involved detailing how a projects gets completed as I went through the motions (tedious at times) of getting a piece ready for print. Here is the completed ad:
The full ad
The body copy that I spent my time working on
As that is probably hard to read here it is in full:
"How do you turn an ogre into a household name? By creating cutting-edge computer-generated animated films like Shrek and bringing SHREK THE MUSICAL to Broadway. Add in the likes of Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, and you see why Dreamworks Animation is a leading innovator in the entertainment industry. No wonder they switched to the market known for its imaginative approach to listed-company visibility and visionary thinking —giving them access to the most advanced trading platform and unmatched suite of corporate services. NASDAQ. The global market for companies that move life forward."
The are, naturally, lots of things that must be kept in mind when developing copy for clients. I think in earlier posts I (hopefully) addressed those issues, however I wanted to shed light to the fact that there are lots of tiny little stipulations that must be noted. Certain words must be avoided as their meaning may lead to a lawsuit. So when you say something like "industry-leading" or something like that, it must be first approved by legal as it may cause a lawsuit.
Moving on to what I consider to be the more interesting detail is the fact that the client may request you include very specific words or direction for the copy to take. This ensures that the intended message is being conveyed as well as providing the copywriters guidelines to follow. This to me is both a good and bad thing. On the one hand, you can disagree immensly with what they want you to say for whatever reasons...wether you think that the message they are going for is off mark, etc. However, I think it helps provided needed limitations to help start the brainstorming process as you now have a starting point.
And therein lies the challenge. How to effectively and creatively convey the message they want you to? How can you take the clients cues and craft a beautifully flowing paragraph that is compelling but yet concise, highlighting the key points so that readers will walk away remembering what it was you wanted them to?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't have much to say about this past week or so...I have gotten more work that will likely get published. It has occured to me that they have us doing lots of "grunt work." By that I mean stuff that is mundane and requires very little creativity. Don't missread that as a complaint however. I am extrememly greatful to be in the position I am in and relish every opportunity to further my skills. So while I may be executing stuff that noone else wants to do, it's all new to me and I would never take it for granted.
My only real complaint about the format of things here is our (interns) lack of connection to the other creatives. Everyone typically works in a small team of 2-3 and collectively brainstorm ideas/concepts. As I noted in my first post, my first real day on the job had me tagging along w/ a team and I got to see firsthand how this process takes shape, but that would be an isolated incident as to date that was the only time I got to participate with the creatives. I am going to try and inject myself into a team as there is so much to gain from being "in the trenches" with them. Years of knowledge, insight, advice, etc — these are all things that can be gained.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the past week or so their have been some big meetings. They were very large scale and involved all the employees coming together to discuss recent work for clients. The atmoshpere for this was very positive and upbeat and I suspect the aim of these meetings was to boost morale, remind everyone just how great a place McKinney is and most importantly, to show everyone the fruits of their labor. So while only a small pertentage of people were actually involved in the exectution of the displayed work, I think it was good for everyone to be reminded that in the grand scheme of things they helped accomplish what got done. Essentially what had gone down was a giant pep ralley now that I think about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With the realization that this week already marks the halfway point of my internship, looking forward my aim really does not exceed to continue to hone my craft and develop a stronger portfolio. Along the way, I hope to engage my coworkers more in an attempt to strengthen not only work relate skills, but to also build stronger bonds with the actual people here themselves.
The full ad
The body copy that I spent my time working onAs that is probably hard to read here it is in full:
"How do you turn an ogre into a household name? By creating cutting-edge computer-generated animated films like Shrek and bringing SHREK THE MUSICAL to Broadway. Add in the likes of Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, and you see why Dreamworks Animation is a leading innovator in the entertainment industry. No wonder they switched to the market known for its imaginative approach to listed-company visibility and visionary thinking —giving them access to the most advanced trading platform and unmatched suite of corporate services. NASDAQ. The global market for companies that move life forward."
The are, naturally, lots of things that must be kept in mind when developing copy for clients. I think in earlier posts I (hopefully) addressed those issues, however I wanted to shed light to the fact that there are lots of tiny little stipulations that must be noted. Certain words must be avoided as their meaning may lead to a lawsuit. So when you say something like "industry-leading" or something like that, it must be first approved by legal as it may cause a lawsuit.
Moving on to what I consider to be the more interesting detail is the fact that the client may request you include very specific words or direction for the copy to take. This ensures that the intended message is being conveyed as well as providing the copywriters guidelines to follow. This to me is both a good and bad thing. On the one hand, you can disagree immensly with what they want you to say for whatever reasons...wether you think that the message they are going for is off mark, etc. However, I think it helps provided needed limitations to help start the brainstorming process as you now have a starting point.
And therein lies the challenge. How to effectively and creatively convey the message they want you to? How can you take the clients cues and craft a beautifully flowing paragraph that is compelling but yet concise, highlighting the key points so that readers will walk away remembering what it was you wanted them to?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't have much to say about this past week or so...I have gotten more work that will likely get published. It has occured to me that they have us doing lots of "grunt work." By that I mean stuff that is mundane and requires very little creativity. Don't missread that as a complaint however. I am extrememly greatful to be in the position I am in and relish every opportunity to further my skills. So while I may be executing stuff that noone else wants to do, it's all new to me and I would never take it for granted.
My only real complaint about the format of things here is our (interns) lack of connection to the other creatives. Everyone typically works in a small team of 2-3 and collectively brainstorm ideas/concepts. As I noted in my first post, my first real day on the job had me tagging along w/ a team and I got to see firsthand how this process takes shape, but that would be an isolated incident as to date that was the only time I got to participate with the creatives. I am going to try and inject myself into a team as there is so much to gain from being "in the trenches" with them. Years of knowledge, insight, advice, etc — these are all things that can be gained.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the past week or so their have been some big meetings. They were very large scale and involved all the employees coming together to discuss recent work for clients. The atmoshpere for this was very positive and upbeat and I suspect the aim of these meetings was to boost morale, remind everyone just how great a place McKinney is and most importantly, to show everyone the fruits of their labor. So while only a small pertentage of people were actually involved in the exectution of the displayed work, I think it was good for everyone to be reminded that in the grand scheme of things they helped accomplish what got done. Essentially what had gone down was a giant pep ralley now that I think about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With the realization that this week already marks the halfway point of my internship, looking forward my aim really does not exceed to continue to hone my craft and develop a stronger portfolio. Along the way, I hope to engage my coworkers more in an attempt to strengthen not only work relate skills, but to also build stronger bonds with the actual people here themselves.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Pens Make Me So Anxious
At approximately 4:30 last Friday I feel like I officially became a full-fledged member of McKinney and this past week has been exciting, stressful, encouraging, etc. You get the point—it has been a roller coaster of a ride. Allow me to explain:
Up until Friday, our assignments — which were real — had a very slim likelihood of seeing the light of day. There are a lot of factors and steps that go into having your work chosen for use, but really the biggest obstacle for me is my inexperience. I am essentially competing against a handful of co-workers who not only know the clients better, they have years of background doing this sort of thing. I have only decided to pursue copy writing in the past month.
Anywho. So in this meeting, myself and one other intern were briefed on our assignment. This means we are told what we are doing, when the deadlines are, shown examples of similar pieces we could use for reference and overall just given guidelines to follow. Perhaps a better definition is that of Pat Fallon in "Juicing the Orange": "The tightly written situation analysis that provides direction to creative and media teams." There are silly rules in place that prevent me from giving out full details of who the client is and what specifically the piece will be, but I can go ahead and tell you this is a print piece that will run in a major national newspaper. What makes this really compelling is the fact that we are the only people working on this ad. In other words — I stand a 90% chance of having my work published (I will definitely be getting a copy and posting images for those interested)! Yaaaaay!
So why were we chosen to handle this? I think it was a culmination of a couple of things:
1) This item is considered "hot" — meaning it was brought to McKinney without prior knowledge and has to be completed in a very narrow window of time. More than likely the rest of the staff here was slammed as usual and no one could really invest the time/effort to completing the assignment.
2) And this may be a long shot — but I like to think that I/we have a proven track record so far. I have visibly shown those I have come in contact with my desire and enthusiasm to have an impact here and to be as resourceful as possible. To date I feel like we have turned in some good ideas and have proven to the teams I work with that I am capable with the tasks I am given. This is further legitimized by the fact that I am devoting all my time this semester to interning there. I want to get as much as possible out of this internship and I think that shows to them. So maybe they have some confidence in giving me work for those reasons — but really it is probably reason #1.
Anyway, as stated prior, this has been a crazy busy week. One of the many great things about this assignment was that it really had us going through all the motions along the steps of the way. While insightful, it also provided the most headaches as I have learned just how tedious this process is. I will do my best to enlighten you on how all of this works:
1) We are briefed. I already touched on this.
2) You begin work on your assignment. In this case, with it being "hot," the deadlines were pretty much all on Monday. So when we got in on Monday, we immediately began the initial bit of brainstorming. This particular assignment has us developing a headline and some body copy newspaper advertisement. At every step along the way, ideas must be approved by the Group Creative Director (GCD.) This is to ensure that the ideas are good enough for the client so that they aren't like "Hey, this agency we picked has really bad ideas." If something is wrong with the campaign, it is his/her neck on the line. So Molly (the other intern I am collaborating with on this) and I developed a list of potential (head)lines. Typically this list is pretty broad so that initially a tone and direction can be decided on. These meetings with the GCD's are where the name of this post come from. You have all of these ideas collectively written/typed on paper, and he/she sits there with a pen that paces up and down the paper...I sit there, anxiously hoping that my ideas get the desired asterisk inscribed to their left indicating approval. This is what I work for, a 14-point asterisk.
3) That brings me to step three, which is rather difficult as you have to brainstorm solutions to the line issues. Is this clever? Does it garner attention? Is it meeting the goals of the campaign, AKA, is it what the client is looking for? These are just a few of the many issues one must consider in hopes of having work selected for use. This usually goes through multiple rounds of revisions to iron out all the wrinkles concerning said issues. The hope is to present the client with options they have a hard time deciding on because they all clearly and effectively communicate the desired message to the audience. Another thing I noticed is different GCDs have different tastes. I haven't quite decided if their visions necessarily reflect that of the client, or if the client just assumes that the ideas presented are the only potential option. I just haven't had enough exposure to this step to really form an opinion on the matter but I would imagine it is a combination of both. I will get very frustrated if my approved lines are constantly being turned down by the client for not being in line with what they are looking for, but thinking about it now I imagine the GDC would not have a job for very long if that constantly happened
This is just wishful thinking most of the time. The clients always have suggestions to help ensure that it is what they are looking for. This is normally both good and bad. One the one hand their insight really helps the creatives narrow the focus of the message — at least for me. I love constraints. This is where you really have a chance to shine. How can I creatively create a memorable and successful piece, given the restraints that are in place? I love that challenge. Without direction I would have problems deciding on a place to start.
4) To date, this is where the process usually ended for us. Our ideas rarely were given to the client and even if they were chosen, I assume that someone else cleaned them up and got them to where they needed to be. But we were it. We were the creative team responsible for the ad. Furthermore, as the creative team, we were responsible for not just the copy, but for the layout as well. This comes off a bit deceiving as while we did the layout for the ad, we really had a template that had been used before since this was an ongoing campaign. In other words, copy goes here, image there, etc. Regardless we still chose the images we thought would work, what sizes they should be and then they are presented to the art director (The art director is the one with the eye for design. We hammer out the majority of the grunt work and he just fine tunes the little details or lets us know if something is not working.)
Now — what is maddening about this whole thing is that if at any point something needs to be fine-tuned — the process starts all over. We work, present, revise, repeat. Over and over until it is ready to be shown to client to judge. The "final" first round (this is all ironic to me as I swear we must of had like 8 final pdfs that I thought were "ready," but every time there was some little detail that needed to be fixed) was not ready to be shown to client until 7:30 Monday evening. I had been at McKinney from 8:45 and stayed until 7:30. Minus the havoc this is reaping on my diet, I could spend every waking moment of my life working on these things. I absolutely love it.
Now for something completely different for a moment to break up this exhaustive account. I stumbled across the source material for the cover of the new U2 album. I really haven't like anything they have put out in 20 years, but I still find them quite fascinating and at the very least — engaging. The image was taken by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto and is a beautiful example of minimalism. I have always been a fan of geometric compositions and strong contrast and this is a nice example of both.
5) Where was I...um...so the first round is given to the client to review over night. The whole time, the account managers are handling all of this. They are the ones who represent McKinney and operate all the business ends of things. Without their services, the creatives would miss all deadlines, and probably not get anything done. So because of them we show up in the morning with all the information (hopefully) telling us what we need to do to fix things. Ideally they like what is present, but just want a few things touched up. I cannot emphasize enough how much detail is spent on every word. Every little adjective matters as it can alter the message being communicated.
This was a unique situation as the client we represent is communicating not just for themselves, but for one of their clients as well. So we do revisions to give to our client so they can turn around and present their client. Confusing right? Again, this is very tedious as even if our client likes what we have done, if their client doesn't like it, we have to revise yet again. And this is really where you can tell who is good at their job. If our account manager and GCD know their clients, they can tell us early on if we should pursue a certain angle. And if the representative our client represents knows their client, we can hopefully hit the nail on the head in the sense that our message is what they are looking for.
6) So again, as this was a "hot" assignment, all of the above happened on Tuesday. Our job was to ensure that everything was what our client was expecting so that it could be presented to his client that afternoon. And just like every step along the way, I thought this was where the road ended — I neglected to mention that this is not the only thing that we were working on. I had other deadlines for another account but every time a new bit of revisions were needed, I had to literally cancel meetings to focus on addressing their concerns. This stressed me out only because I was scared that by moving meetings I would be angering the people I was answering to for those other assignments that were also somewhat time sensitive. This was somewhat short-sighted logic as of course they would have had experienced the exact things that I had as well. So it really was no big deal — it is just important to inform them of changes as soon as I found them out.
These latter steps usually just involve minor adjustments but I really was looking forward to having this assignment under my belt. It was one of those cases of we could see the light at the end of the tunnel...but something always kept getting in the way. At this point everything has more or less completed. The representatives for the clients will now present the finalized pieces to their bosses who have the ultimate say in what is selected. Everything we do is micromanaged so that their choices are as clear as possible. I can only speculate at this point but I imagine that once a selection is made it goes to print.
Again, this has all been very exciting for me. I must admit that when I first found out that the stuff we were going to work on was going to be published, I selfishly became concerned with ensuring that I came up with ideas that would go to print. I honestly didn't care how much of it was mine, just as long as I could say "I did that." Or at least part of it. What I have learned is that everyone ends up having their fingerprints all over the work. This happens a number of ways; an example being that maybe a team member has a great idea, but just needs just a little help articulating that idea into something substantial. So really, I have learned not to worry over the glory of being published because anyone who says they were solely responsible for an advertisement in this business is most likely lying. This is a team based enterprise where ideas germinate best with the help of others — and that is where the glory lies to me.
Up until Friday, our assignments — which were real — had a very slim likelihood of seeing the light of day. There are a lot of factors and steps that go into having your work chosen for use, but really the biggest obstacle for me is my inexperience. I am essentially competing against a handful of co-workers who not only know the clients better, they have years of background doing this sort of thing. I have only decided to pursue copy writing in the past month.
Anywho. So in this meeting, myself and one other intern were briefed on our assignment. This means we are told what we are doing, when the deadlines are, shown examples of similar pieces we could use for reference and overall just given guidelines to follow. Perhaps a better definition is that of Pat Fallon in "Juicing the Orange": "The tightly written situation analysis that provides direction to creative and media teams." There are silly rules in place that prevent me from giving out full details of who the client is and what specifically the piece will be, but I can go ahead and tell you this is a print piece that will run in a major national newspaper. What makes this really compelling is the fact that we are the only people working on this ad. In other words — I stand a 90% chance of having my work published (I will definitely be getting a copy and posting images for those interested)! Yaaaaay!
So why were we chosen to handle this? I think it was a culmination of a couple of things:
1) This item is considered "hot" — meaning it was brought to McKinney without prior knowledge and has to be completed in a very narrow window of time. More than likely the rest of the staff here was slammed as usual and no one could really invest the time/effort to completing the assignment.
2) And this may be a long shot — but I like to think that I/we have a proven track record so far. I have visibly shown those I have come in contact with my desire and enthusiasm to have an impact here and to be as resourceful as possible. To date I feel like we have turned in some good ideas and have proven to the teams I work with that I am capable with the tasks I am given. This is further legitimized by the fact that I am devoting all my time this semester to interning there. I want to get as much as possible out of this internship and I think that shows to them. So maybe they have some confidence in giving me work for those reasons — but really it is probably reason #1.
Anyway, as stated prior, this has been a crazy busy week. One of the many great things about this assignment was that it really had us going through all the motions along the steps of the way. While insightful, it also provided the most headaches as I have learned just how tedious this process is. I will do my best to enlighten you on how all of this works:
1) We are briefed. I already touched on this.
2) You begin work on your assignment. In this case, with it being "hot," the deadlines were pretty much all on Monday. So when we got in on Monday, we immediately began the initial bit of brainstorming. This particular assignment has us developing a headline and some body copy newspaper advertisement. At every step along the way, ideas must be approved by the Group Creative Director (GCD.) This is to ensure that the ideas are good enough for the client so that they aren't like "Hey, this agency we picked has really bad ideas." If something is wrong with the campaign, it is his/her neck on the line. So Molly (the other intern I am collaborating with on this) and I developed a list of potential (head)lines. Typically this list is pretty broad so that initially a tone and direction can be decided on. These meetings with the GCD's are where the name of this post come from. You have all of these ideas collectively written/typed on paper, and he/she sits there with a pen that paces up and down the paper...I sit there, anxiously hoping that my ideas get the desired asterisk inscribed to their left indicating approval. This is what I work for, a 14-point asterisk.
3) That brings me to step three, which is rather difficult as you have to brainstorm solutions to the line issues. Is this clever? Does it garner attention? Is it meeting the goals of the campaign, AKA, is it what the client is looking for? These are just a few of the many issues one must consider in hopes of having work selected for use. This usually goes through multiple rounds of revisions to iron out all the wrinkles concerning said issues. The hope is to present the client with options they have a hard time deciding on because they all clearly and effectively communicate the desired message to the audience. Another thing I noticed is different GCDs have different tastes. I haven't quite decided if their visions necessarily reflect that of the client, or if the client just assumes that the ideas presented are the only potential option. I just haven't had enough exposure to this step to really form an opinion on the matter but I would imagine it is a combination of both. I will get very frustrated if my approved lines are constantly being turned down by the client for not being in line with what they are looking for, but thinking about it now I imagine the GDC would not have a job for very long if that constantly happened
This is just wishful thinking most of the time. The clients always have suggestions to help ensure that it is what they are looking for. This is normally both good and bad. One the one hand their insight really helps the creatives narrow the focus of the message — at least for me. I love constraints. This is where you really have a chance to shine. How can I creatively create a memorable and successful piece, given the restraints that are in place? I love that challenge. Without direction I would have problems deciding on a place to start.
4) To date, this is where the process usually ended for us. Our ideas rarely were given to the client and even if they were chosen, I assume that someone else cleaned them up and got them to where they needed to be. But we were it. We were the creative team responsible for the ad. Furthermore, as the creative team, we were responsible for not just the copy, but for the layout as well. This comes off a bit deceiving as while we did the layout for the ad, we really had a template that had been used before since this was an ongoing campaign. In other words, copy goes here, image there, etc. Regardless we still chose the images we thought would work, what sizes they should be and then they are presented to the art director (The art director is the one with the eye for design. We hammer out the majority of the grunt work and he just fine tunes the little details or lets us know if something is not working.)
Now — what is maddening about this whole thing is that if at any point something needs to be fine-tuned — the process starts all over. We work, present, revise, repeat. Over and over until it is ready to be shown to client to judge. The "final" first round (this is all ironic to me as I swear we must of had like 8 final pdfs that I thought were "ready," but every time there was some little detail that needed to be fixed) was not ready to be shown to client until 7:30 Monday evening. I had been at McKinney from 8:45 and stayed until 7:30. Minus the havoc this is reaping on my diet, I could spend every waking moment of my life working on these things. I absolutely love it.
Now for something completely different for a moment to break up this exhaustive account. I stumbled across the source material for the cover of the new U2 album. I really haven't like anything they have put out in 20 years, but I still find them quite fascinating and at the very least — engaging. The image was taken by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto and is a beautiful example of minimalism. I have always been a fan of geometric compositions and strong contrast and this is a nice example of both.
5) Where was I...um...so the first round is given to the client to review over night. The whole time, the account managers are handling all of this. They are the ones who represent McKinney and operate all the business ends of things. Without their services, the creatives would miss all deadlines, and probably not get anything done. So because of them we show up in the morning with all the information (hopefully) telling us what we need to do to fix things. Ideally they like what is present, but just want a few things touched up. I cannot emphasize enough how much detail is spent on every word. Every little adjective matters as it can alter the message being communicated.
This was a unique situation as the client we represent is communicating not just for themselves, but for one of their clients as well. So we do revisions to give to our client so they can turn around and present their client. Confusing right? Again, this is very tedious as even if our client likes what we have done, if their client doesn't like it, we have to revise yet again. And this is really where you can tell who is good at their job. If our account manager and GCD know their clients, they can tell us early on if we should pursue a certain angle. And if the representative our client represents knows their client, we can hopefully hit the nail on the head in the sense that our message is what they are looking for.
6) So again, as this was a "hot" assignment, all of the above happened on Tuesday. Our job was to ensure that everything was what our client was expecting so that it could be presented to his client that afternoon. And just like every step along the way, I thought this was where the road ended — I neglected to mention that this is not the only thing that we were working on. I had other deadlines for another account but every time a new bit of revisions were needed, I had to literally cancel meetings to focus on addressing their concerns. This stressed me out only because I was scared that by moving meetings I would be angering the people I was answering to for those other assignments that were also somewhat time sensitive. This was somewhat short-sighted logic as of course they would have had experienced the exact things that I had as well. So it really was no big deal — it is just important to inform them of changes as soon as I found them out.
These latter steps usually just involve minor adjustments but I really was looking forward to having this assignment under my belt. It was one of those cases of we could see the light at the end of the tunnel...but something always kept getting in the way. At this point everything has more or less completed. The representatives for the clients will now present the finalized pieces to their bosses who have the ultimate say in what is selected. Everything we do is micromanaged so that their choices are as clear as possible. I can only speculate at this point but I imagine that once a selection is made it goes to print.
Again, this has all been very exciting for me. I must admit that when I first found out that the stuff we were going to work on was going to be published, I selfishly became concerned with ensuring that I came up with ideas that would go to print. I honestly didn't care how much of it was mine, just as long as I could say "I did that." Or at least part of it. What I have learned is that everyone ends up having their fingerprints all over the work. This happens a number of ways; an example being that maybe a team member has a great idea, but just needs just a little help articulating that idea into something substantial. So really, I have learned not to worry over the glory of being published because anyone who says they were solely responsible for an advertisement in this business is most likely lying. This is a team based enterprise where ideas germinate best with the help of others — and that is where the glory lies to me.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Grad School May Be in the Forecast...
Well, I was given quite a wake up call the other day at work. During a lengthy discussion with a fellow copy writer, he informed me that unless my portfolio is short of breathtaking, the odds of getting a job at an ad agency out of college is more or less nil. So...in what may end up being a constantly evolving post, I will attempt to flesh out the pros and cons of such a decision as well as document where I am in the process. But let's back up a little bit to set the stage.
My college career has been anything but set in stone. Department complications, time spent abroad, "fine-tuning" of degree tracks, the list could go on. Basically, I never envisioned myself attending graduate school so soon after graduation. Which brings me to the list of cons I associate with attending it now:
-It is expensive. This is unambitious point #1. I will be more than doubling my student loans by attending grad school.
-It is 'resource' consuming. I use this word as it better represents what I have to sacrifice to attend school. For one, I won't be able to hold a part time job. Estimated work load outside of class is approximately 70-80 hours I have been informed. Which acts as a double sword as I must not only work harder, trying to support myself is all but inconceivable. For more on what this means, please refer to previous dash.
-This is more of a segue from the last dash in that I have already been in school for five and a half years, do I really want to subject myself to another two years? Do I have the drive to succeed at such a level of intensity?(Not to neglect the level of competition.) Regardless, 80 hours is no walk in the park.
Our conversation continued as we discussed the importance that ad school plays in more than one ways—which seems like a good place to create my pros list:
-This business is all about your portfolio. Sure,I got some decent work under my belt at uni, but in reality, with the advent of affordable high quality equipment and software that was once reserved for large companies and those with equally deep pockets, agencies nowadays have come to expect students to have portfolios that compete on a professional level. I know I have the abilities inside of me to produce work that meets that criteria, I just may need a hand to help grasp it. All my contact thus far had indicated that grad school will really help me hone in on those abilities I have inside of me. For the small fee of $40,000. But you can't put a price tag on something like that right?
-This business is all about who you know. And what better way to know people than to be taught by working professionals in the industry? These places offer internships at some of the biggest agencies and the schools boast very high job rates upon graduating.
-I will be surrounded by driven people. We all (at least I hope) have experience the joy of being around/involved with people who are enthusiastic about what they do. At Winthrop, this was a mixed bag in my opinion as being assigned groups were always hit or miss. Sometimes you would be working with people who want produce the best work in the class, and sometimes you get stuck working with people who...well, you get the idea. Undoubtedly, if you were to think objectively about your personal involvement within the group, you would most likely acknowledge that you worked better/harder when you felt inclined to do so. Which for me is definitely propelled when my teammates are driven. Since the investment for Ad school is so steep, I imagine that everyone would share that mentality and help push the whole class to produce top notch work.
I will most likely update this list of +/-'s as new ones come to me. To date, I have sent off information to two schools: The Creative Circus, located in Atlanta, Ga as well as Miami Ad School. Now, I have heard good things about both schools so it is too early in the game to form a decision—not to mention I still have to send off applications and find out if I get accepted before deciding. I like the fact that second year students at Miami have the option to do their internships abroad at prominent agencies, however Creative Circus seems to incubate my learning style and may thus provide the opportunity to "make the most of education." I plan to schedule a trip down there to tour the school and sit in on a class or two and see for myself if in fact that is the case. If confirmed, I may have a winner.
I will indubitably be updating this post in the coming weeks/months to document where I am in the process as well as add new pros and cons to the list as they come to me.
To date I have received packets in the mail from both schools. The Creative Circus packet provides more of an overview of the program as well as some sample materials. Provided was the typical "hey this is what makes us stand out amongst the pack," student work examples, a Q and A pamphlet, stickers (the clear standout saying "How's My Kerning? (A play off off of the "How's My Driving" that is ubiquitous with 18-wheelers,) a CD with a virtual tour of the school and most notably—a brochure entitled "33 Interesting Facts about The Creative Circus & Harry S Truman."
Here is what I got.
Some subtle things I should mention about The Creative Circus that I have liked. For one, I got a phone call from an employee just two days after requesting for information. Secondly, that yellow sheet of paper in the top-right has "real" signatures from four staff members. I know, they probably all sat down one day and just toiled off some squiggly lines all at once—but it was a small touch that they didn't have to do that says to me they really are invested in their students. The tone of the materials included really connected with me in their quirky, offbeat delivery. All signs to date have impressed me and I look forward to finding out in person if the fit seems right. For a brief idea of how the place operates, check out this blog post about The Creative Circus. Could just be bogus propaganda but who knows...
Miami Ad School's materials were a lot more straightforward. The big difference being that they have included the application for admission into the school.
Rather bland—although the redhead is a looker huh.
Since I will most likely be pursuing a career of copywriting, there are four assignments I get to choose from to send in:
1) Develop a 200-word article with headline for "The Onion."
2) Write a 500-word anecdote about some "memory-making moment. Something you could use to break the ice at the First Quarter Student Mixer."
3) Develop ten "deep thoughts" that would be on par with something Jack Handey would have used on SNL.
4) Develop a campaign for RC Cola that identifies a target audience and then how to reach them.
I think that all of these provide some really interesting subject matter to choose from. Although diverse in nature, 2.5 of the choices (depending how you handle #2) involve humor. Regardless, I haven't decided which route to take...I love "The Onion," I am not a very good journalist writer. I have a feeling I do both #2 and #3 as one hits my sense of humor on the nail and the other I have plenty of material to draw from with all of the trips I have been on in my short life.
My college career has been anything but set in stone. Department complications, time spent abroad, "fine-tuning" of degree tracks, the list could go on. Basically, I never envisioned myself attending graduate school so soon after graduation. Which brings me to the list of cons I associate with attending it now:
-It is expensive. This is unambitious point #1. I will be more than doubling my student loans by attending grad school.
-It is 'resource' consuming. I use this word as it better represents what I have to sacrifice to attend school. For one, I won't be able to hold a part time job. Estimated work load outside of class is approximately 70-80 hours I have been informed. Which acts as a double sword as I must not only work harder, trying to support myself is all but inconceivable. For more on what this means, please refer to previous dash.
-This is more of a segue from the last dash in that I have already been in school for five and a half years, do I really want to subject myself to another two years? Do I have the drive to succeed at such a level of intensity?(Not to neglect the level of competition.) Regardless, 80 hours is no walk in the park.
Our conversation continued as we discussed the importance that ad school plays in more than one ways—which seems like a good place to create my pros list:
-This business is all about your portfolio. Sure,I got some decent work under my belt at uni, but in reality, with the advent of affordable high quality equipment and software that was once reserved for large companies and those with equally deep pockets, agencies nowadays have come to expect students to have portfolios that compete on a professional level. I know I have the abilities inside of me to produce work that meets that criteria, I just may need a hand to help grasp it. All my contact thus far had indicated that grad school will really help me hone in on those abilities I have inside of me. For the small fee of $40,000. But you can't put a price tag on something like that right?
-This business is all about who you know. And what better way to know people than to be taught by working professionals in the industry? These places offer internships at some of the biggest agencies and the schools boast very high job rates upon graduating.
-I will be surrounded by driven people. We all (at least I hope) have experience the joy of being around/involved with people who are enthusiastic about what they do. At Winthrop, this was a mixed bag in my opinion as being assigned groups were always hit or miss. Sometimes you would be working with people who want produce the best work in the class, and sometimes you get stuck working with people who...well, you get the idea. Undoubtedly, if you were to think objectively about your personal involvement within the group, you would most likely acknowledge that you worked better/harder when you felt inclined to do so. Which for me is definitely propelled when my teammates are driven. Since the investment for Ad school is so steep, I imagine that everyone would share that mentality and help push the whole class to produce top notch work.
I will most likely update this list of +/-'s as new ones come to me. To date, I have sent off information to two schools: The Creative Circus, located in Atlanta, Ga as well as Miami Ad School. Now, I have heard good things about both schools so it is too early in the game to form a decision—not to mention I still have to send off applications and find out if I get accepted before deciding. I like the fact that second year students at Miami have the option to do their internships abroad at prominent agencies, however Creative Circus seems to incubate my learning style and may thus provide the opportunity to "make the most of education." I plan to schedule a trip down there to tour the school and sit in on a class or two and see for myself if in fact that is the case. If confirmed, I may have a winner.
I will indubitably be updating this post in the coming weeks/months to document where I am in the process as well as add new pros and cons to the list as they come to me.
To date I have received packets in the mail from both schools. The Creative Circus packet provides more of an overview of the program as well as some sample materials. Provided was the typical "hey this is what makes us stand out amongst the pack," student work examples, a Q and A pamphlet, stickers (the clear standout saying "How's My Kerning? (A play off off of the "How's My Driving" that is ubiquitous with 18-wheelers,) a CD with a virtual tour of the school and most notably—a brochure entitled "33 Interesting Facts about The Creative Circus & Harry S Truman."
Here is what I got.Some subtle things I should mention about The Creative Circus that I have liked. For one, I got a phone call from an employee just two days after requesting for information. Secondly, that yellow sheet of paper in the top-right has "real" signatures from four staff members. I know, they probably all sat down one day and just toiled off some squiggly lines all at once—but it was a small touch that they didn't have to do that says to me they really are invested in their students. The tone of the materials included really connected with me in their quirky, offbeat delivery. All signs to date have impressed me and I look forward to finding out in person if the fit seems right. For a brief idea of how the place operates, check out this blog post about The Creative Circus. Could just be bogus propaganda but who knows...
Miami Ad School's materials were a lot more straightforward. The big difference being that they have included the application for admission into the school.
Rather bland—although the redhead is a looker huh.Since I will most likely be pursuing a career of copywriting, there are four assignments I get to choose from to send in:
1) Develop a 200-word article with headline for "The Onion."
2) Write a 500-word anecdote about some "memory-making moment. Something you could use to break the ice at the First Quarter Student Mixer."
3) Develop ten "deep thoughts" that would be on par with something Jack Handey would have used on SNL.
4) Develop a campaign for RC Cola that identifies a target audience and then how to reach them.
I think that all of these provide some really interesting subject matter to choose from. Although diverse in nature, 2.5 of the choices (depending how you handle #2) involve humor. Regardless, I haven't decided which route to take...I love "The Onion," I am not a very good journalist writer. I have a feeling I do both #2 and #3 as one hits my sense of humor on the nail and the other I have plenty of material to draw from with all of the trips I have been on in my short life.
Friday, February 13, 2009
20 Albums that Changed My Life
A little bit of a lighter entry here. But I figured it would be a little bit more fun. I should also note that I intend this list to—at least the first 10 albums or so—be listed in loose chronological order of when I listened to them. This way I feel it gives you as readers a better idea of where my taste has evolved from. So without further ado...
20. Amy Grant-Heart in Motion. I am shameless—I'll go ahead and admit to owning this album. However this album makes its way on the list for being my first CD. So while the material is not exactly the best, it did more or less get me going on music.
19. NOFX-Punk in Drublic. Aside from all the clamoring over how "drublic" is pronounced, this album really opened up the realm of punk rock to me. Up until this point the majority of music i listened radio friendly and this was a big "awakening" to a lot of music that would influence me over the next few years.
18. Blink 182-Dude Ranch. Definitely not their best work by any means, however the content was essentially my bible throughout middle school and the first bit of high school.
17. The Get Up Kids-Four Minute Mile. Of all the "emo" albums I acquired over the years— this was the first and the best. Like "Dude Ranch", this album resonated a lot with what I dealt with growing up, but musically was much richer than the punk music that had been at the forefront of my life for the past couple of years.
16. Alkaline Trio-Maybe I'll Catch Fire. Not their best album again, but one that set the precedent and was something that touched a lot on what being a teenager is all about—just from the dark recesses of the mind.
15. Black Star-S/T. This was my first real introduction into hip hop and I loved it. Up until this point, my view of hip hop was that it was rap— and by rap I mean what I heard on the radio. This album taught me that hip hop could be lyrically deep, and yet maintain some of the smoothest beats ever to grace my ears.
14. The Fiery Furnaces-Blueberry Boat. A concept album by all means, this album gives new meaning to term "grower" for me. I can recall my first reaction to hearing this album (thanks Drew) as "This sounds like carnival music." I learned from this album to approach music with an open mind—and to enjoy benefits that that brings.
13. Interpol-Turn on the Bright Lights. A massive, epic album in all senses. This album again served as an important step in expanding my musical horizons. Probably a top ten album of all time for me (2002 was a great year for music.)
12. XTC-Oranges and Lemons. This album was important to me for a couple of reasons. For one, it told me that there were actually albums from this era that weren't completely dated. It also reminded me that pop music was not all trash as Partridge is a great song writer.
11. Jimmy Eat World-Clarity. I do listen to "Bleed American" more, however, "Clarity" was with out a doubt a standout album from my high school days. Tight musicianship, good song writing, and a great live performance has sealed this band into my vault of "No matter how bad you get now, I will always love you."
10. The Blood Brothers-...Burn, Piano Island, Burn. This album is the perfect example of post-hardcore in my opinion. Well-written, taught, explosive — when I need something to get my blood pumping, I pop this little gem in and get ready to take on the world. This album was so tough, it would literally force the band to take a slightly softer route on their next album as this one was too much for the band to play live. That's what I am talking about.
9. Bloc Party-Silent Alarm. I was lucky enough to get into this band on the forefront of their success by landing an advanced copy of their first EP. I waited for quite some time for the stateside release of this album and was not disappointed. Nothing spectacular can be found here but that really is what made this album so special to me—there is not a weakness. The slow songs offer up something good as well as all the faster tracks. This is a tight record.
8. Four Tet-Rounds. At a time where I was beginning to dabble in electronica, I stumbled on this album and was blown away. So much well-placed subtle details have resulted in an album that that continues to provide new layers for me. Jazz, electronica, and elevator music fans can all find something they will like on this album.
7. Radiohead-OK Computer. This album needs no introduction. If you like music you like this.
6. The Beatles-Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Growing up, we all listened to The Beatles. For me, I let them sit dormant in my memory for years before returning to this album a few years ago. What a great record, innovative guys who we all know shaped so much of what came after them.
5. Third Eye Blind-S/T. Yeah, I know what you are thinking. How did this get into the top five. Well, as mentioned earlier—I am shameless—and I cannot think of a better pop album in my memory. Sure we all got sick of hearing "Semi-charmed life", but c'mon, "Jumper" is a great track. And I have to mention the beautiful poignant work of "Motorcycle Drive-by". Stop hating and embrace the freedom that can be found in admitting that well-constructed pop songs are great fun.
4. Ben Folds Five-Whatever and Ever Amen. I got this album for free from some kid who only got it because they had a few hits on the radio. This album is BFF at the top of their game where the fusion of goofy material (highlighted by "Kate" and "Battle of who could care less") is blended perfectly with truly stirring material (personal favorites are "Selfless, Cold, and Composed" and "Missing the War".) Oh Ben, where have you gone?
3. Radiohead-In Rainbows. This was a tough call for me. While OK Computer really is the quintessential Radiohead album, "In Rainbows", I believe, is Radiohead at the top of their game. Heartfelt, cathy, and most importantly innovative. What Radiohead has done with their music over the past 20 years I think we should all strive to accomplish in our chosen fields. A beautiful album.
2. Wilco-A Ghost is Born. Wilco is really important to me as they helped open my eyes to the realm of alt-county rock. Initially, I was not very impressed with this album. My love for "Yankee Foxtrot Hotel" was very strong and to switch gears on me was on par with a slap on the face. Like "Blueberry Boat" this album has taken some getting used to but really defines what can be accomplished when a band sets out to redefine themselves—as Wilco seemingly does on every album. My only discourse with this album is "Spiders". Or the noise on the end. Ruined what otherwise is a perfect album.
1. Broken Social Scene-S/T and You Forget it in the People. The true definition of the word "supergroup." Everyone who likes to listen to music can get something from these releases as the large array of contributors all have something to provide here. Words really cannot do this band enough justice. Please, do yourself a favor and check out some of these videos to experience the rich diverseness that I speak of. No other band has quite struck home on so many levels as Broken Social Scene has.
So I guess that sums it about. Questions/Comments? Let me hear you sound off on what I have here or go ahead and list your own (Thanks George for the idea!)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Left-Handers Unite!
Midway through week two now and I am beginning to get a better feel for the work flow. Things started on a rather slow note as the start of this week proved to stay motivated and to stay on task even as some big deadlines loomed overhead. Try as I may, I just could not get into what I was doing and Monday proved for the least productive day thus far here at McKinney. Even collective brainstorming with my fellow creative interns had proven futile as nothing was getting done. I think this lack of productivity can be blamed on a couple of factors:
These are the "brand towers." This is where above story took place.
1) I get HORRIBLY distracted all of the time. Sitting here at the computer—I can focus for maybe five minutes on something 75% of the time before I hit refresh on various blogs/message boards that I KNOW are going to either provide me with no new information or even more likely—new information that in no way, shape or form is pertinent to anything at all. I am making a conscience effort for the coming days/weeks/months to really not allow myself to get distracted with trivial offerings (digital or not) and will really focus on not browsing the internet or things of that nature. I mean—I enjoy what I do so it is not like it bores me at all—I just think that the problem lies more with a deep-rooted habit of continually bouncing from one thing to the next which is a complete hamper on productivity. I managed to type off that last post in under an hour which for me set all kinds of work-efficiency precedents.
2) We are young and inexperienced and just getting started. In other words, there is this inclination when we get together to shoot the breeze and get to know one another better as this is all new to all of us. I am hoping that a) soon we will run out of the "new" material to discuss with each other as well as b) we will get our act together and know when we need to get down to business and focus on the task at hand.
Moving forward with Monday, in the afternoon we had a "work flow" meeting with our supervisor that was a 101 crash course on the flow (for lack of a better word) of how ideas materialize into final products for clients. As said, it was very brief and later this week there will be a more in-depth look at this process. Even still I believe that to fully grasp this I will just have to see it in motion/experience it for myself—not sit through a meeting regarding the subject.
Tuesday would prove to be a very long and busy day for myself and our team. As indicated earlier, we had a deadline to meet today. It involved coming up with a name for a spring sale that a particular client would be having in the coming months. A meeting had been scheduled that afternoon for the team working on this project and we were surprised to find firsthand that we—the interns—were the only ones assigned to tackle this assignment. Exciting but at the same time rather nerve-wrecking.
Now, we had been briefed on the subject and felt pretty comfortable with the progress we made on the name, however when we handed our list of suggestions over to a head copywriter for opinions, he literally only saw one particular idea he liked and suggested we start over from there and come back tomorrow to go over these new results with him as well as the Group Creative Director (GCD. AKA, the guy who approves every decision for client concerning all things creative.) This was devastating to me personally as I had been over the brief multiple times—really picking it apart and immersing myself in who the target audience was and what they were looking for. Nothing I had developed dealt at all with what this copywriter had envisioned.
So it was back to the drawing board then. We labored the rest of the afternoon on ideas that were related to said theme and eventually had to go home with not much more than a list of ideas for each of us to figure out on our own at home. Apparently homework still seeks me out 150 miles from home.
The next morning us interns arrived a bit earlier to consolidate our ideas to present to the copywriter as well as the GCD. To my relief, he not only liked a few of our ideas, but also suggested we approach the subject from a different angle—essentially the angle we took the first time around but got shot down by the copywriter. It was a small confidence boost knowing that I had not taken the brief the wrong way. A couple hours of revisions later, we had a list of sale names that were to presented this afternoon to the client! The work did not stop there however as we had to immediately switch gears and make some progress developing headlines for another client. I relish the fact that they treat us like actual employees here. We get constructive criticism from very seasoned employees and are treated as adults. But we have this assurance too as whenever we have a question or concern, it is treated with respect as while we are adults, we are still learning the ropes and understandably we can't be expected to know how everything works.
Now, time to tie this entry back into the title. I have noticed in meetings that a high percentage of people working in the creative department here is left-handed (in a room of 4 people, 3 were left handed. This is not just a one time occurrence either.) A few other things worth noting:
-Nine to five does not exist in the slightest sense here. Most people don't come in until 10ish, and don't leave sometimes till well after six (I can only comment until that time since I have not stayed later than six myself but I can speculate on the subject.)
-People run on coffee. Thanks to my mother, I have done my absolute best not to a dependancy on coffee. When she comes to visit me, the first thing she does is check the cabinets for coffee and when none can be found, goes to the grocery store and makes the purchase. This addiction she has scares me and I have thus sworn the beverage off. Here, I fully grasp the fact that I must be in the minority. That stuff is brewed around the clock, and people almost always have a cup in hand. Perhaps sleep is not an option for these people I suppose...
-Stares officially end meetings. Yesterday as we waited to end a conference room for a meeting, we approached the door and found the room still occupied. Being new here, we just waited patiently outside the door assuming people would clear out when their meeting was finished. Well, apparently they were just not doing much of anything because a "real" employee who was attending our meeting just walked up to the door (everything is glass here) and stared at people through the glass. Literally not one minute later the room was vacated for us.
These are the "brand towers." This is where above story took place.
-The best way to motivate people still seems to be food. At least for the creatives—allow me to elaborate: While McKinney is a full-service agency, for a variety of reasons (everyone here is busy, technological limitations, etc) there are times that another agency is called on to aid with a project. These agencies from what I have observed tend to be very specific to one task (web design, sound design, programming, etc) and very much want to be your "Go to guy" when you need assistance. So there are all of these presentations throughout the week where a spokesperson will come and present their case as to why you should choose them. As a full service agency, the business is split into departments (creatives, analytics, management, the list goes on) and only relevant departments are invited to these presentations as they are the ones who decide if their services can be utilized. And what better way to woo people than with good food. This roughly translates to me tagging along as I fall under the creative hood to all of these demo's where food is catered to us. So two to three times a week I get free food in addition to learning/seeing something new!
Thursday proved to be a shining example of how unique my position is over my fellow interns in the form of my ability to devote all my time/resources to McKinney. The workload was a bit lighter today and as such that allows me to work at my own pace to meet my deadlines as well as immerse myself within McKinney and continue to gain valuable insight into agency dynamics.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Week One Synopsis
With the completion of my first week at McKinney, I am beginning to get a feel for what my tasks will be here. However, the pacing over the duration of this week has been very sporadic. Monday was just initiation for the interns really and nothing more. A meet and greet of sorts into not only some of the staff we would see around, but the office etiquette, where things are located, etc. I realized and at this point believe I stand to get the most out of my internship as I can invest more than any other intern into my work here. Naturally it will be up to me to get the most out of it but I feel confident that will happen
Tuesday I hit the ground running with a couple of creatives to help develop new, interactive media for a client. I really enjoy the casual environment that is created at McKinney as I feel it fits perfectly into how I best conceptualize ideas. We got together in one of many conference rooms and really just threw around ideas that we thought would a) provide an inviting and engaging experience for consumers and b) be in line with the current positioning of the campaign. More importantly for myself, my ideas were really well received out of the gates and that led to a rather large confidence boost knowing that “hey I can actually do this (on some level.)” In fact, they liked one of my ideas so much that it made its way all the way to the client pitch.
Things took an entirely different turn on Wednesday as the people I was involved with got busy working on things that were a little bit out of my league in the sense that they were comping up designs and presentations that would be used to pitch our ideas to the client. I did my best to stay eager about finding work as I know it will be a great tool in helping me learn the in’s and out’s of the industry as well as stimulate my brain and fine-tune my craft. But for the most part it was to no avail with my contacts as they were all swamped. Things picked up towards the end of the day (I have noticed that everything here happens on a delayed schedule. In-house meetings, the start of the day, etc.) as I was told I could sit-in on a group meeting where the creatives collaborate with the account managers to get a feel for whether or not certain ideas make sense, are executable (in terms of the programming of say…an online interactive game in a web banner), in line with what the client is looking for, and financially viable.
Thursday I arrived a little later than I had been (11:30) all week since, as previously mentioned, things get started a bit later in the day—especially when haven't quite been synchronized with the office workload. That would all change upon arrival as my “manager” (One of the Creative Directors) put me in touch with some new creatives working on new headlines and body copy for a new client. My role in this project is just the same as the other employees working on this campaign currently: to develop new headlines and corresponding body copy for seasonal promotions for the client. Furthermore, another intern will also be working with on the same material as me so perhaps we will collaborate together to develop material.
Later that same day things took a more casual turn, as at 3 there was a staff-wide invited “I think that’s cool” meeting. This was an open forum where employees are encouraged to show up and discuss things going on in the world that they think are cool. The topics ranged all over the place from “computational art” (see Erik Natzke,) to “augmented reality” (I recommend checking out http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/?c_id=googaugreal#/augmented_reality to how this is being incorporated by companies,) or to things like Guinness Beer and sports rivalries. This session, something that McKinney does frequently are just a great way for people to think of new ways to engage consumers, to spark imagination, or really just to serve as conversation starters and was just another thing that I found really “fun” about the environment here. Shortly following this was “Thursday Open Bar.” You see, McKinney has a bar in-house and on every Thursday between the hours of 4-6 all employees are encouraged to make an appearance and mingle amongst each other.
Friday we would prove to be the busiest day of the week for me (I never thought after what had already happened that that would be feasible.) Early morning staff meeting to more or less brief the creative team (especially us (3) creative interns) into what direction our headlines and copy should be taking. We then dispersed and initially the three of us set out to tackle the task alone. But after working so well on Tuesday within the constraints of a team, I took the initiative to engage my co-interns collectively and I feel that served us better as together we are able to ask advice, brainstorm collectively, and just get a better synergy than could be achievable solo. Additionally, we (the interns) were briefed on another client and given a timeline into what needed to be done for them and by when.
So by the end of week one, I have already started work on three separate accounts. Not too much of a stretch as back at school I was accustom to juggling multiple projects at one time—only these seem way more important. I was as mentioned earlier very enthusiastic to have my work selected for a client presentation and am hopeful to repeat in the future. Upon reflection, I am a bit nervous and pessimistic about the fact that all my hard work over this semester may go in vain in the sense that it may never actually see the light of day. If you think about the fact that the likelihood of an intern producing work that is ultimately produced—that sort of thing is very uncommon here. However, the opportunity itself for me should more than suffice as just getting such positive responses from my peers is more than enough to drive me to try even harder in the future.
Seeing how things operate here at this point is still a bit overwhelming. I have realized just how much goes into running this advertising machine and I still have a lot to learn before my understanding matures beyond its current level of infancy. But to date, I have really been encouraged by how the business is run. The people are friendly and upbeat (while staying extremely busy,) the culture is engaging and insightful, and really I just enjoy being here (as I write this at 6 pm on a Friday afternoon.) I look forward to my time here and hope to come out of this a stronger, confident and more affluent pupil in this industry.
Tuesday I hit the ground running with a couple of creatives to help develop new, interactive media for a client. I really enjoy the casual environment that is created at McKinney as I feel it fits perfectly into how I best conceptualize ideas. We got together in one of many conference rooms and really just threw around ideas that we thought would a) provide an inviting and engaging experience for consumers and b) be in line with the current positioning of the campaign. More importantly for myself, my ideas were really well received out of the gates and that led to a rather large confidence boost knowing that “hey I can actually do this (on some level.)” In fact, they liked one of my ideas so much that it made its way all the way to the client pitch.
Things took an entirely different turn on Wednesday as the people I was involved with got busy working on things that were a little bit out of my league in the sense that they were comping up designs and presentations that would be used to pitch our ideas to the client. I did my best to stay eager about finding work as I know it will be a great tool in helping me learn the in’s and out’s of the industry as well as stimulate my brain and fine-tune my craft. But for the most part it was to no avail with my contacts as they were all swamped. Things picked up towards the end of the day (I have noticed that everything here happens on a delayed schedule. In-house meetings, the start of the day, etc.) as I was told I could sit-in on a group meeting where the creatives collaborate with the account managers to get a feel for whether or not certain ideas make sense, are executable (in terms of the programming of say…an online interactive game in a web banner), in line with what the client is looking for, and financially viable.
Thursday I arrived a little later than I had been (11:30) all week since, as previously mentioned, things get started a bit later in the day—especially when haven't quite been synchronized with the office workload. That would all change upon arrival as my “manager” (One of the Creative Directors) put me in touch with some new creatives working on new headlines and body copy for a new client. My role in this project is just the same as the other employees working on this campaign currently: to develop new headlines and corresponding body copy for seasonal promotions for the client. Furthermore, another intern will also be working with on the same material as me so perhaps we will collaborate together to develop material.
Later that same day things took a more casual turn, as at 3 there was a staff-wide invited “I think that’s cool” meeting. This was an open forum where employees are encouraged to show up and discuss things going on in the world that they think are cool. The topics ranged all over the place from “computational art” (see Erik Natzke,) to “augmented reality” (I recommend checking out http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/?c_id=googaugreal#/augmented_reality to how this is being incorporated by companies,) or to things like Guinness Beer and sports rivalries. This session, something that McKinney does frequently are just a great way for people to think of new ways to engage consumers, to spark imagination, or really just to serve as conversation starters and was just another thing that I found really “fun” about the environment here. Shortly following this was “Thursday Open Bar.” You see, McKinney has a bar in-house and on every Thursday between the hours of 4-6 all employees are encouraged to make an appearance and mingle amongst each other.
Friday we would prove to be the busiest day of the week for me (I never thought after what had already happened that that would be feasible.) Early morning staff meeting to more or less brief the creative team (especially us (3) creative interns) into what direction our headlines and copy should be taking. We then dispersed and initially the three of us set out to tackle the task alone. But after working so well on Tuesday within the constraints of a team, I took the initiative to engage my co-interns collectively and I feel that served us better as together we are able to ask advice, brainstorm collectively, and just get a better synergy than could be achievable solo. Additionally, we (the interns) were briefed on another client and given a timeline into what needed to be done for them and by when.
So by the end of week one, I have already started work on three separate accounts. Not too much of a stretch as back at school I was accustom to juggling multiple projects at one time—only these seem way more important. I was as mentioned earlier very enthusiastic to have my work selected for a client presentation and am hopeful to repeat in the future. Upon reflection, I am a bit nervous and pessimistic about the fact that all my hard work over this semester may go in vain in the sense that it may never actually see the light of day. If you think about the fact that the likelihood of an intern producing work that is ultimately produced—that sort of thing is very uncommon here. However, the opportunity itself for me should more than suffice as just getting such positive responses from my peers is more than enough to drive me to try even harder in the future.
Seeing how things operate here at this point is still a bit overwhelming. I have realized just how much goes into running this advertising machine and I still have a lot to learn before my understanding matures beyond its current level of infancy. But to date, I have really been encouraged by how the business is run. The people are friendly and upbeat (while staying extremely busy,) the culture is engaging and insightful, and really I just enjoy being here (as I write this at 6 pm on a Friday afternoon.) I look forward to my time here and hope to come out of this a stronger, confident and more affluent pupil in this industry.
Hold me accountable
Well—after much deliberation—I have decided to start a blog to chronicle my time here in Raleigh. More specifically, my time at McKinney as an intern. Now, certain "restraints" will prevent me from divulging specific details but I will do my best to provide as much information as possible.
In addition to work related items, I will try to also post random bits and ends that I feel you as a reader might find compelling and interesting.
Again, please get on my case if this becomes dormant for more that 1.5 weeks.
So without further ado...
In addition to work related items, I will try to also post random bits and ends that I feel you as a reader might find compelling and interesting.
Again, please get on my case if this becomes dormant for more that 1.5 weeks.
So without further ado...
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