What’s your excuse for not visiting every Creative Director, Senior Creative, Group Publisher, Studio Manager, Design Director and Big Wig With Advice to Give that you can guess the email of? It better be good, because if it’s not, you’ll meet someone like Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) in the real world–and they might not be this helpful.

Once upon a time a kid rang me to ask if I’d take a look at his folio. When I asked him what sort of folio it was he ummed and awed before replying that he wasn’t sure.

When I asked him why, he said that his was just a black plastic one that he’d bought at Officeworks.

As you can imagine, I pissed myself laughing.

I then explained to him that what I actually wanted to know was whether he was a writer, an art director or a photographer.

“I’m a writer,” he said.

So I told him that whenever he rang people up to look at his folio he should always say up front that he was a writer.

“But what if they’re not looking for a writer,” he said.

My answer was the same piece of advice I have given many times over the years;

Don’t show a folio with the expectation of getting a job. Show it with the aim of asking for advice on how to make it better. Because the better your folio gets, the better your chances of getting a job.