My SWOT analysis

My strengths - I have developed a great understanding in my digital skills and have been able to apply this to my creative work. I have seen a difference in quality of my work since learning the new skills, this will also help in my portfolio work.
I have better knowledge of agencies and their clients around the North East and London. My knowledge  has improved because of the contact we have be exposed to by our new course leader Neil. He has aloud us to meet people within industry, by having them come in to visit and give us guidance or we would go out to there work place. I feel this has helped me greatly to understand how the business works.

My weaknesses - I Still do not feel prepared to go into industry because I know I still need to find a new creative partner now that my current partner wants to go back home to Wales to work. This may set me back from getting a job for a while as agency's prefer to hire teams. So I am going to have to take some time to build a new portfolio with another creative partner before I am able to start applying for jobs.

Opportunities - Many doors have been opened for me this year, and I now know what kind of direction I would like to take my career. I have been able to visit agency's in both Newcastle and London. The difference in agency's are really big and it has made me realise I would like to work down in London. Without these opportunities I maybe still wouldn't know where I would like to go after my degree.
The facilities I have access to at Newcastle College are a great help too, I have been able to learn all the correct digital skills I will need to have, ready for when I go into industry.

Threats - I know the industry is a very tough place to get into, and I know it is also very competitive. This will be a really big threat to me because I know it is not nice to not be able to get a job. Another big threat will be that there is people around who will be better than me and maybe have more experience than me. I am going to try and not let these problems bother me as I am very passionate about this business and I will work very hard to get into the industry.

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London - Saatchi&Saatchi

Saatchi&Saatchi was the last visit we made in London. Susan Hails was the creative who we were presenting our San Miguel campaign too. The agency was very striking and smart, I was really attracted to it from the out side. Susan took us through the agency and out the back to the company's bar which is were we presented as the room which she originally had planned was out of use. I didn't mind though because the bar was beautiful and had some catching advertisements on the walls.
My idea was based around the strap like Hannah and I came up with, 'Sip. Savour. San Miguel.' I really like it but we did struggle with the art direction. We ended up going with places where you would most like to spend your time enjoying a cold beer like by the beach or in a park with beautiful scenery.
When I presented my idea, she really liked the thought behind it but she admitted it wasn't quite there yet, which Hannah and I knew. She suggested using my thoughts but applying it to a interactive online kind of advertisement. So we are going to take this advice and develop our idea so we are able to use it for our portfolio.

London - Ogilvy

We went on a visit to Ogilvy to visit there digital lab and have a tour around there building. Ogilvy was nothing like I had expected, it was totally different to any other agency I have visited or researched about. It was very corporate, although it was creatively decorated and clean cut. There was an open passage way which was filled with all of the awards Ogilvy have won in the past.

I found the digital lab very interesting. There was all sorts of creations which you could interact with. A lot of the things they were still in the process of completing though but you were still able to see what they would do. My favourite was the interactive table although it does cost £3000!! It was like a giant iPad but on a table. When we first went in it was an image of the bottom of the sea, with sand and stones with the water slightly moving with the fan that was on next to it. When I touched it it made water circles like real water would. It was very impressive, we then started to play on it and opened up lots of different games and apps.

London - Advertising Standards Athority (ASA)

When I first found out that we would be visiting the ASA I wasn't really looking forward to it, thinking that it would be a typical 'boring, sitting in a room while somebody talks' lecture.
How wrong was I!
I really enjoyed the visit, I found it really intresting and could have sat there for a few more hours listening about banned adverts, and the complaints they have recieved.
The ASA deal with all the complaints about any advertisments, whether is its a TV ad, billboard or print ad. They are the ones which set the rules which all advertisers must obide by.

One advert by Bacardi, which we were shown from a few year ago would not be aloud to be shown now because it is suggestive in the way that you are going to have a good time when alcohol is used and good things happen to you. It is a good advert though I really like it.

This Bacardi advert is again funny and I really like it. It gives off the same impression but it isn't breaking any rules which the ASA have.

London - RKCR/Y&R

This was the second visit I have had to Y&R, I loved it just as much as the first time. The difference this time was we got the chance to present our work to the placement team there.
We were set a brief for Interflora and the proposition was 'Get Flowers Delivered'. I struggled to think of an idea which wasn't so obvious. So Hannah and I started to think of strap lines instead. We usually leave those till last because its neither of our strong points but I was quite happy with the one we chose, it was simple but effective. Deliver a smile. We thought that it suited the brand and no matter what reason you receive flowers, whether is a happy or sad situation you always get a warm feeling and smile.
When I presented our idea the creative team liked the line but was a bit unsure about the art direction as we used a characterised smile which went into a lady's office and then dispersed into a big bunch of flowers. So me and Hannah have decided we will look back into the brief and see what other direction we could go down.

London - Mother

Mother was the first agency we visited when we arrived in London. Both the first year and second year's were going to Mother but it was only my year, the second year, who was presenting work we had produced from the brief they had set us.

When I walked up towards the agency it looked really good, it was in some kind of back street and it was painted all black with lovely graffiti down the side. Inside it was like a converted warehouse, it was all concrete and metal poles, but decorated with extravagant red colours and gold frames. The reception area wall had photos of everybody mothers in old fashioned gold frames which I think is a brilliant idea.

This brief was for www.moneysupermarket.com, and if I'm honest, it was very hard. All that was going through my head was 'the meerkats'! As you know that is the biggest competitor for money supermarket. So many ideas went through mine and my creative partners mind, but everything that was coming out seemed 'obvious'.
In the end I suggested doing something with a family where the kids always out smarted the adults, Hannah then asked if I had ever seen the programme 'Outnumbered'. I hadn't, but for most of the afternoon we sat watching clips on YouTube. It was the way I had thought about the advert in my head. This is the idea we went for in the end, we would have it as a TV advert and had different scenarios for the different products you could get on the website.

When it came to actually presenting I was really nervous as my partner Hannah wasn't there and it was my first time presenting without her. Plus it was such a good agency which i would love the opportunity to work in one day. My presentation went well, but they were not over fussed on the idea. They didn't really seem to like anyone's really, well not to a standard which could be used. Everyone needed more development and work.

Today we had a talk with Dave MacDonald from Infinite Design. Dave is a local Geordie, he actually studied at Newcastle College like me. He was a lovely guy, really friendly. I felt comfortable listening to him and didn't grow bored or fidgety, I was really taking in everything he said. He had some good things to say, which actually made me feel better in myself after having a slightly down week.

Here is the tips he thought would be helpful. This is what he looks for in a creative, in this order too:

Personality - Be yourself
Portfolio - As long as the work is good and the ideas are there
Passion - Must have passion in the business


He then went on to go into more detail about each of these points:

Personality - Be relaxed
                     Professional - be on time
                     Be honest - always be yourself, the way you dress/speak etc

Portfolio - Genuine - only show your own work! (he said it is true that people take other work and                
                                                                               pretend it's their own!)
                 Confidence - Everyones different, some people will like your work, other people wont.
                                      Make sure you believe in your work and big it up.
                 Receptive - Take notes of what people say about your work, and make changes where you
                                    see fit.

Passion - Brave - Show your work, even if you are slightly unsure of it. Let them decide if they like it,
                            take advice.
                Committed - If you believe in it then stick with it.
                Positive - Be Confident and be relaxed.

Dave then went on to show us his journey from where he started and how he ended up where he is today. I found it to be an interesting one, it was clear it isn't easy to get into the business. To cut a long story short, he went down to London to work for two big company's, found it wasn't for him so he moved back up North for a job but ended up being on the dole for a year till he managed to get into a few agencies up here, to then end up in his current position at Infinite Design.

Some of his work is very well produced, in particular I really liked his work which he done for Dance City. He used the coloured windows from the building within the brochures, it acted like a branding for the company, I thought it was really successful.

Here is a link to the companys website http://www.infinitedesign.com/recent.asp

London brief's

Our tutor Neil had told us we were going to be set some briefs for our up and coming trip to London. I was looking forwar to this as I would have the chance to show my work to some of the top agencies in London.
The first brief we got was for San Miguel and was given to us by Saatchi&saatchi, the propostion is 'The slow beer'.
The second brief is for Interflora and was given to us by RKCR/Y&R, the proposition is 'Get flowers delivered'.
Finally the last brief we recieved was for www.moneysupermarket.com and that was given to us by Mother. There was no proposition for this, we were just told to have fun with it and make it better than the other comparison websites.

Im really happy with the briefs and the oppotunity to present to such big agencies, but if I am honest, I amd dreading the moneysupermarket.com brief. We are visiting Mother the Monday when we arrive so I know i have to get this one started straight away!

Cat's with thumbs

I walked into class this afternoon to find one of my class mates watching a new advert which was shown on Campaign. I only manage to catch the end but I was hooked and needed to find out the story from the beginning. By this point there was a few of us gathered around the computer screen laughing and taking in every part of the advert, we must have watched it over around 5 times. It is genius, made by
Wieden + Kennedy.
Here it is for you to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6CcxJQq1x8

I have just finished my latest brief. We were asked to choose a competition brief from either, D&AD or YCN Student Awards 2011.
There was a LOT of briefs to choose from. Hannah and I decided we would both read through them and pick out our favourites and compare them with each other. 
When we came back together to decide on a final one, we had a few similar choices. Originally we had decided on 'The Partners', but when we spoke through it with our tutor Neil he thought we should keep it to do for our portfolio and to try and choose a more advertising based brief. 


The Umbro brief was the next one to stand out to us so we all agreed that it would be suitable.
It asked that we show that there new Umbro 'A Frame' trainer range could be worn more than just on the football pitch. We somehow had to include '1350' within the campaign. This stands for how many minutes are left in the day after a 90minute football match. 


Neil had said to us for this brief he was going to set every creative team up with a live client. I was really looking forward to this because I thought it was a great opportunity to have. Hannah and I were partnered with Richard Walters.


Our first task was to write a 1500 word (max) proposal to send to our client. I have to be honest, I had no idea what one of these were.  Once Neil had explained what it was, it didn't seem so daunting. It was basically just explaining the brief and our intentions, along with any visual reference material which would support us.


The second task was to have a short presentation to show our client 2-3 concepts for the brief, so they are able to choose their favourite and for Hannah and I to go away and develop that chosen idea more and to produce our final idea.
Our original idea was to go down the obvious route of showing where abouts you can wear your Umbro's after football. We wanted it to be quite humorous so we showed places you wouldn't usually wear shoes, like the bath. 
Our visual ideas were terrible, but I really did like the strap line which we came up with 'Wear them out' and I thought it suited the brief and rough ideas of the visuals.


The second route we chose was to do a pinnacle/limited edition product to launch the range. This was a bit more of a creative way to do the brief. We both decided to collaborate with Vivienne Westwood as we felt it was a brand a lot of younger people are involved with now and can afford. This suited the age range set for the brief which was 16-24.
Also I'm quite a fan of Vivienne Westwood work so i already had background knowledge of her and her products. Hannah and I picked out one of Vivienne's iconic fabrics, which is called Squiggle. This would be the fabric used to make the limited edition trainers.


The time came to present to our client Richard Walters, Hannah and I were both nervous as it felt like a big step for us. We had practiced our presentation countless times just to make sure we got it right. We went into class before going to see our client as it wasn't until 2 o'clock later that afternoon.
It was good that we had though because when we got into class Neil had told us that Richard had to cancel on us. I must be honest I was a bit upset, but I understood that he was a busy working man, so we took the time to reschedule with him but he once again canceled on the day of the presentation.
By this point Hannah I were pretty angry as we had been looking forward to it so much. We didnt have time to find a new client because that day was the start of the summer holidays and Hannah had arranged to go back home to Wales so we decided we would be ok just presenting to neil. He chose our limited edition idea.


Our initial thought was to use the Vivienne Westwood iconic squiggle fabric on the 'A Frame' trainers. The fabric comes in a range of colours so it would be able to be used on more than one pair of the shoes. I made these up on photoshop and Hannah and I were pleased about how they looked. I used a brown pair of shoes and a white pair. I discovered there was three ways in which the trainers could be decorated with the fabric. We could cover the whole shoe in the fabric, just the 'A Frame' design one the shoe or the whole shoe and leave the 'A Frame' the original colour of the shoe.


We didn't end up using this in our advertisement, but it is still how the limited edition shoe will look.

We came up with a whole new idea which was to blend both the Umbro logo and the Vivienne Westwood orb log together in a hologram like logo. I drew up the logos on a piece of paper which was made into a concertina to show how the logo would look. If you tilt the paper one way you see one logo and if tilt it the opposite way to see the other logo, this will be our main focus point for our teaser adverts. 

Next we needed to think of a strap line, this was the most difficult, we had came up with words we liked and think could work but couldn't think of the right context we could put them in. our final line is 'An Iconic Fusion'. We then went on to decided how the adverts will be shown I wanted to do a window display in Selfridges to show that something iconic is coming soon,  we though we should show the advertisement in tube stations and Metro papers also.