Breaking In

Todd Riddle is Creative Director at Fallon, Minneapolis

Holiday Inn – “The Noses”

Travelers Insurance – “Snowball”

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Check out some great work from Kevin Russell.

Interviewed at AKQA London.

WS:What are common mistakes you see that could be avoided?

KR: …It’s the formulaic, “Here’s the three print posters with picture, headline, logo, or strapline, logo.” Very conventional. But one of the problems we’re working with the D&AD to try and rectify is the fact that things have moved along over the last, 10, 15 years in advertising. It’s not just about filling boxes. It’s not just about communicating to consumers. It’s about engaging them, and getting a two-way dialogue. And keep that going for three months with a limited budget, and get them involved in something. And some of the tutors don’t have an idea of how that works. Some have come from 1970s advertising school. What we like, and what I like to see, is a bit more of a fresh perspective on integrated stuff. The students should be the next generation of creators, and for them to come in with something that looks like [something that’s been done in the past is not good]. In terms of agencies, look at Goodby and Crispin Porter. You’ve got these fully integrated ideas, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be, “Here’s your TV ad, and here’s your this and that.” It’s like the “fast” for the [Volkswagen] Golf. It’s an actual toy that [Crispin Porter + Bogusky] built to create desirability. So fresh ideas that totally buck the trend and just go against the grain. That’s what I look for…

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Kevin Russell is a Digital Marketing Consultant in London. Formerly ACD at AKQA.

Heineken – “Star Player”

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Check out some great work from Paul Belford.

PB: … Advertising students are just bad at execution. And I wouldn’t expect them to be good because they haven’t had much experience in doing it. Especially art directors. And I don’t hold that against them. I mean, I’m happy to see a portfolio full of just scribbles as long as they’re good ideas. The most important thing is good ideas. And then you take a gamble when you hire someone, whether they’re going to become good at execution over a number of years or not. Some people will just have it and some people don’t. I think you’ve just got to have the desire to want to improve how your ideas are executed. And some people honestly really don’t care. They’re happy that they’ve done a great idea and someone else can just kind of plonk it on the page and run it. I think that’s a terrible shame.

So personally, I want people who have great strategies and ideas, and then also have the desire to execute those strategies and ideas to a higher level. So that’s what I look for from advertising graduates. But I don’t necessarily expect to see it in the portfolio. I just want to see scribbles and ideas. And ideas for anything actually, I really don’t care. Just someone who can have ideas—interesting ideas.

WS: So when you’re looking at design skills, how do you want to see that, if not in the book?

PB: I don’t think you can judge it. I don’t think you judge it in a young kid. They can certainly talk about it. I’d interview someone; when I was looking at their work, we’d talk about what kind of work they like, if they’d seen exhibitions, what kind of designers they’d like, if they had any favorite designers, things like that. And someone who can articulate a point of view about design is certainly more interesting than someone who just kind of shrugs and says, “Oh, I don’t know.”

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Paul Belford is Owner & Creative Director at This is Real Art, London.

Home Office — Internet Safety

Waterstone’s

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Check out some great work from Steve McElligott.

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

SM: It’s a tough question. I think I look for—and this sounds cheesy—but I look for passion. It does sound really, really trite. But you can tell the difference between somebody who is just following the routine from their ad school and just doing assignments, and somebody who really, really, really has the hunger, and really has a deeper understanding of what they’re doing and why. And I think that comes through really quickly with anyone who cares, and for the other people who are just sort of filling in the blanks.

WS: How do you think it comes through?

SM: Good question.

WS: Maybe that’s a hard question.

SM: I don’t know. I think it’s one of those things you can’t put your finger on, honestly. Like, you know it when you see it, and you don’t see it very often, which is why you know it. Because I think there’s so few people out there -— it’s really 1 in a 100. I see a lot of books. They always shuffle them to me. And this kid came in about three months ago. And his book was so clearly apart from everybody else’s. And I talked to him for five minutes, and I instantly knew this guy was going to be a smash hit. And it wasn’t because he was just finishing assignments for some teacher somewhere. It was because he really gave a fuck.

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Steve McElligott is a Freelance Creative Director in New York.

Monster.com

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Check out some great work from Greg Hahn.

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

GH: I’ll tell you what doesn’t impress me, which might be easier, is super-finished ads. Because that’s now the price of entry. Before, when you’d see a super-finished ad, it’d be like, “Wow this is really cool.” But then you see so much of that now that it’s like people dress up bad ideas. I’d rather see a really unpolished great idea than something fully blown out that shouldn’t have been. So what do I look for?

WS: Yeah, what do you look for?

GH: I look for a big idea because anyone can do one little joke. Anyone can write a headline, but if there’s a thought that changes the way I feel about something, then, to me, that is bigger. It seems like a lot of ads you see in student books are just one-off little jokey things. And maybe they’re all tied together because they have the same sort of punch-line setup. But if you can do something that really positions the way you think about something completely differently, like, “Wow. I never thought of it that way. But I should have.” That’s what I look for.

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Greg Hahn is Executive Creative Director at BBDO New York.

Lee Jeans – Buddy Lee – “Car”

EDS – “Cat Herding”

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Check out some great work from Nick Strada.

NS: [ … ]

I think advertising agencies are no longer just doing advertising. The job has changed. And we’re thinking of events and we’re thinking of interactive installations and we’re thinking of galleries and we’re thinking of exhibits and sponsorships and uniforms and letterhead. And I think that the more ways you can express your talent and creativity and ability to solve problems, the better.

And, as I’ve said, you want to see someone’s personality in a portfolio. If I see your book before I see you, I want to feel like I know you a little bit, or a little bit about you. And I think other projects are great. In fact, it’s really dry when all you see is a stack of ads. I think it’s not competitive because what people trying to get into business need to remember is, the business is crying out for fresh, new talent but it’s still a buyer’s market. There’s still more demand for places than there are places. For the top 10 agencies in London—take your top 10, whichever 10 those are—they will probably, between them, hire seven to eight junior teams this year. And there’s however many hundred junior teams looking for work this year. And so it’s super, super competitive and anything you can do to give yourself an edge is definitely smart, I think.

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