Breaking In

Check out some great work from Nicolas Roope, Founder & Executive Creative Director of Poke London and Hulger.

Hulger

Hulger lets you attach an old-school handset to a mobile phone or computer.

Plumen – “The designer energy saving lightbulb.”

Barnardo’s

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In case you missed it, check out some great work from Eric Silver.

WS: What do you look for in a student book? And what impresses you?

ES: Something that displays a unique way of thinking. Creative directors at “creative agencies”—and there are not that many—see tons of books every day and, unfortunately, many of them start to look alike. Perhaps because ad schools are teaching with the same methodology or perhaps because ad annuals and award shows tend to all look similar. The truth is even just one brilliant campaign can lead to a hire.

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WS: What do you think about including “non-ads” in a book?

ES: Again, it’s subjective. For me personally, “non ads” will go further than any advertising that’s in a portfolio. Again, the job of the applicant is to set themselves apart from the competition by any means necessary. When I was hired at Wieden in Portland, I had a decent book but Dan Wieden hired me based on a comic strip I worked on called “Smear.”

WS: How did you get into the business?

ES: I went to one year of law school and then did a clerkship in Los Angeles. During that job I was reading a statute and just couldn’t digest it. It dawned on me that I had zero aptitude or interest in my chosen profession. So I quit that day and started working on a portfolio. I always loved the idea of being able to create mini-movies. It’s a career perfectly suited for my attention deficit.

I took my first advertising job at a day rate of $25 a day. It’s very hard to get that first gig but, like any profession, it’s on the job that you’ll really learn the craft. So it’s critical that you start out at a great agency with smart mentors who will steer you in the right direction. It’s cliché, but don’t worry about money when you first start out.

WS: Do you have any tips for someone who wants to get into advertising?

ES: I would study all of the advertising annuals you can get your hands on. You should at least be familiar with all the work that has been done previously. Once you’ve done that…then forget it all. Go about the business of charting brilliant new avenues.

Check out some great work from Eric Silver, Chief Creative Officer of Silver & Partners, New York.

Ben & Jerry’s

FedEx

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WS: What do you look for in a student book? And what impresses you?

KW: First I look for clarity of thought and simplicity in the presentation of that thought. So for instance, I like to see an idea and sometimes it could be set up with, “This is what the idea is, and this is the execution of it.” I don’t need to see a thousand things in a book. If I see three to five strong ideas, contained, then that gets my attention. And if I want to see more, then I’ll ask for more. But I’d rather have less than more.

The ideas should be clear and expressed clearly. Also identify the media and how it would work, in print, online, TV, or radio because it’s not enough to have an idea, I want to know how it lives. And it should feel real. So it doesn’t matter to me if something is spec or hasn’t run because the idea, once it’s produced, it’s produced. It’s born. And that’s what I like to see.

And I personally like things that do not feel “ad-y.” And you see a lot of that in student books. But that’s also probably a symptom of how they’re taught. And I think the whole approach has to be revisited. And I think that needs to start at the teaching level. The teachers need to be more in tune with what’s happening outside of school, and how agencies are producing work, and the challenges that they’re facing as well. And the new buzzword I suppose is “integrated.” But for me, that’s still just multimedia.

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If you missed it, check out some great work from Vince Engel.

WS: What do you look for in a student book? And what impresses you?

VE: I think probably the first thing is just smart ideas and I think something a little bit different. And usually that tends not to come from a lot of the ad school students because I think they get set into a program of…They all seem to have, in my opinion, a similar look and feel, everything like the type is very, very small and the logo. And there’s very little copywriting today and that’s what I miss. I mean, I want to see examples that someone can actually write. Not that every ad is a long-copy ad by any means, but you seldom see that in writing anymore. There’s a clever headline and that’s as far as the writing goes, and I like to see a lot more than that. I think it’s more just showing off their creative thinking—anything that shows off their creative thinking, whether it’s a story they’ve written or paintings that someone may have done or a cartoon that they’ve…whatever. I just want to see how they think and solve problems…

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Check out some great work from Vince Engel, Partner & Creative Director at Engine Company 1, San Francisco.

Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula

Doc Martens

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In case you missed it, check out some great work from Val Klump.

WS: What do you look for in a student book? And what impresses you?

VK: I look for a book that has a lot of good, realistic ideas. Pretty obvious, right?

“Good” is a given, of course, and fortunately advertising offers a million and one ways to make a good book. You can create clever print ads, shoot funny videos, build mind-bending websites, comp ridiculous outdoor billboards, record your own radio spots, or anything else you can think of—a mix of media is advisable, but good ideas are good ideas, period. So fill ’er up with goodness. And remove anything you’re not into 100 percent. They say your book is only as good as the worst ad in it—it’s a tired truism, but there’s something to it.

Realism is a personal pet peeve of mine. Student books will often be filled with ideas that the client would never buy or that feel totally wrong for the brand. Be smart; go crazy, but be smart. And make extra sure that your digital ideas are realistic. Working at Google makes me especially sensitive to this one. Think about the constraints of the Internet and work inside them. You can’t click a button on “Snickers.com” and have a Snickers bar eject itself out of your optical drive—that would be a great idea if it were possible, but it’s not. This is especially true for any idea relating to Facebook, which is a very locked-down platform. Maybe I’m being crotchety here, so please don’t limit yourself…just be intelligent about it.

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After stints at Wieden+Kennedy and TBWA, Val has helped create a new team within Google that specializes in data visualization. In his own words:

Our work is very non-traditional — a mix of data visualization and interactive pieces that are often closer to software than advertising. Ad agencies might not be too interested in this kind of work right now, but I think that will change as the industry recognizes the potential of these kinds of projects to grab people’s attention.

Most of this work requires explanation so I’ll include Val’s own descriptions.

Search Globe: an interactive visualization of Google’s global search volume (more info in this blog post).

The Data Viz Challenge: A project with two purposes: to visualize how the US federal government spends its citizens’ income taxes, and to encourage interest in data visualization in the United States.

3 Dreams of Black: An interactive film that showcases the graphical power of the Chrome web browser. My role was to help build the behind-the-scenes technology page.

Android Activation Visualization: This video visualizes new Android phones being activated for the first time. It’s 3 minutes long and doesn’t have sound — not a traditional ad, right? But it got a lot of attention among Android fans who were encouraged by the growth of the platform.

Life In A Day “Touchscreen Gallery”: We built this project for the 2011 Sundance premier of Kevin Macdonald’s crowdsourced documentary “Life In A Day”. The gallery showcases the 80,000 video clips that were submitted as part of the project.

ChromeExperiments.com: Chrome Experiments is a curated digital gallery of artwork, games, and graphics demos created for web browsers. We have 250 experiments, and add more each week. Every project is user-submitted.

If you missed it, check out some great work from Dylan Lee.

WS: What do you look for in a student book? And what impresses you? 

DL: I look for big ideas. I don’t have to see digital. I don’t have to see TV. I don’t have to see alternative media. If someone has great ideas, I know he or she can think of something for whatever medium comes up. I also love to see a book where someone has multiple voices. Because sometimes funny works great. And sometimes it doesn’t. I am also always impressed by truths; those ideas resonate with consumers and go beyond gimmicks, word plays, and jokes. 

WS: How important is finish? If ideas are the most important thing, can sketches be enough? Do you look at physical books anymore, or is it all websites? 

DL: I want to say that I’m not affected by pretty books and execution. But it is advertising, and presentation is important. However, a good creative mind should and will see a good idea on a piece of toilet paper. If you have a great idea but not the time to make it look shiny, present it. As for websites, I’m torn. They make portfolios quick to view, omnipresent, and of course, “Everybody’s doing it!” But I fear they do a disservice to the work. TV spots, print ads, and out of home were not meant to be shrunken down and viewed on a tiny computer screen. For a copywriter, it’s sad to have well-crafted copy scrolled through in a way you would never read a real ad. I’m sure I’ll succumb, but I’ll always have a life-sized, tangible, more impressive book to show. We should make our ideas look amazing, captivating, and larger than life. Isn’t that what our jobs are? 

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Take a look at some great work from Dylan Lee of Wieden+Kennedy Portland.

Nike – “Throwdown”

Nike – “Racing Marion”

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