March – 2010 – Junior - Celebrating life at the bottom

Monthly Archives: March 2010

The Monday Morning WHIP // 68

Sometimes it’s hard being a junior… But then you realise it’s waaaay easier than paying for a mortgage and trying desperately to keep your job, so you chill out and find a way to make it awesome. Sound like a good philosophy? Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) has an anecdote or two to help spread the good word.

In last week’s Whip I wrote about people failing to turn up for appointments. Why did I do this? Because people who make an appointment to see me and don’t turn up shit me. End of story.

However I should tell you that there is another side to this story. And it dates back several years.

As a young shitkicker I booked an appointment to see a Creative Director with my folio. I had to take time off from my day job to make this appointment, so you can imagine how disappointed I was when I turned up to find that the CD wasn’t even in the building.

His assistant apologised and made me a new time to see him.

Yet again I had to take an afternoon off work to make the appointment. Yet again the CD wasn’t there when I turned up. The third time this happened I decided the CD was obviously a dickhead and gave up trying to see him.

The lesson I learnt from this string of disappointments is one I still follow to this day. It’s a lesson you can learn from too;

Be nice to people as you scale the career ladder because chances are you’ll meet them again when you’re on the way down.

WHIP | Tags: WHIP

JuniorTV // 03

If you live in Sydney, Brisbane, somewhere else, or are just another lazy Melbourne shimshom, you definitely missed out on a great March Junior event. The throngs of good-looking Junior patrons were treated to a particularly interesting speaker in Barrie Barton–one of the talented few behind Right Angle Studio (http://rightanglestudio NULL.com NULL.au/), The Thousands City Guides (http://thethousands NULL.com NULL.au/), and Rooftop Cinema (http://rooftopcinema NULL.com NULL.au/). Lucky for you shimshoms, we recorded it onto a viewable video platform exportable to vimeo, which sits below in five minutes of well-edited glory. Once again, our favourite web-for-video specialist Jonathan Lim (http://www NULL.attheteaparty NULL.com/) was the culprit, and what a great culprit he is.

DRINKS, JUNIORtv | Tags: BARRIE BARTON, JUNIORtv, RIGHT ANGLE STUDIO

The Monday Morning WHIP // 67

When was the last meeting you organised with someone in your industry? Did you go ahead with it or chicken out? You’d be surprised how often the latter happens to Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com/)…

When you make an appointment with someone to show them your work be sure to ask them for a number to contact them just in case something comes up.

The day before your appointment, I’d recommend you give the person a call to confirm your appointment.

After you have done both of the above, my advice is to actually turn up for the appointment. Yes, turn up.

I know it sounds like an obvious thing to say, but in the last month I’ve had a couple of people make appointments to show me their folio and fail to turn up.

Suffice to say if they ring me again I will not be making time in my seriously busy schedule for them.

I’m not telling you how to suck eggs kids, but you need to realise looking at junior folios is pretty low on the priority list for most senior people. So if they offer to make room in their schedule for you, don’t waste the opportunity.

WHIP | Tags: FOLIO, JOB HUNTING, WHIP

Cooking with Junior

If you had been subscribed to our mailing list by last Monday, you would have noticed our competition to win one of two double passes to the Art & Copy screening we’re hosting on April 26. The entry details were simple: send us your best “I can’t afford tickets to film screenings because I need to eat in order to survive” recipes.

Thank-you to everyone who entered — we love you unconditionally. Although you all steal way too much food from flatmates, housemates, parents and others in general, you pack of rotten thieves — we’ll never live with you.

The two winning entries were chosen for their usefulness and detail. Not to mention these guys are funny. Get cookin’ y’all!

Recipe One: STIR FRY, by Janneke.

No matter how broke you are, no matter how empty or mouldy your fridge, or rat-invested your pantry, always keep a few of those 2-minute noodles tucked away somewhere. I’m not talking about Maggi noodles from the pasta section of Woolies, I’m talking about those Asian ones with Chinese writing that you can buy for 49c each at the mini-mart down the road.

Boil up those noodles – maybe 2 packets, cos that’s the bulk of your carb fix. Then comes the fun bit. Finding leftovers for the fry. The end of the broccoli? YES! Is that stinky ham? YES, it won’t kill you if it’s cooked! Half an onion? OK! One stray spring onion? Clove of garlic? Half a capsicum? All good!

Turn the heat up in the fry pan, heat with oil. Throw all ya bits ‘n’ bobs in and cook until everything is soft and steamy so all bacteria is history. Toss in the noodles. And for the finishing touch add some sauce action, mix in Oyster sauce, soy sauce, and some chilli paste for extra pang.

Bon appétit!

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Recipe Two: MACARONI CHEESE, by Josh Gardiner (http://joshgardiner NULL.wordpress NULL.com/).

I’ve been skint many a time. There is no better ‘feelgood’ meal than macaroni cheese.

It’s cheap, it’s easy and it’ll keep you full for two days.

Loose list of ingreds:

- Some plain white flour – weevils optional.

- Some butter, salted. Homebrand costs about $1.29. That’s pretty cheap when you consider a cow’s teat has been pulled for it. Poor thing.

- Some milk. Full cream, you pussy. Again, think about the cow. Would she want you to dilute her mother’s milk?

- A block of mature cheddar. The sharper the better.

- Some macaroni little elbows not those rigatoni, broadband-cable like ones.

- Some of your flatmate’s seeded mustard.

Method:

Do you know how to make a white sauce? I can come around and help if you want. But I’ll try and let you know with words.

1. Get a saucepan, medium size.

2. Melt a large knob of butter in there on a very low heat.

3. Sift in some flour to this, mixing all the while, to make a relatively thick paste. Lots of butter is good to start with so that you can do this.

4. You’ll need to start adding milk slowly while stirring this paste, do it slowly as you want to control the consistency of the sauce. Keep it thick as long as you can and SLOWLY stretch it out.

5. As it thickens keep adding a little more milk until you have a good amount of sauce and at the thickness you want to submerge the pasta in
later. You can add more flour as you go to make more sauce if it’s gotten really thin and it’s still not enough quantity of it. Just be sure to sift
it when you add it and stir constantly so you don’t get lumps. Really, the best thing to do is make sure you’ve got a fair bit of paste at the
beginning. P.S. Add away, but remember, too much flour will taste, well, like flour.

6. When you’re happy with it, grate the shit out of that block of cheese and put it all in the your white sauce. (Actually, save a little bit of that cheese… More on that later.) Melt it down and turn off for now.

7. Boil some water in a pot and cook the macaroni. You shouldn’t need help for that so I won’t say more.

8. Combine the macaroni with the sauce in whatever pot is easiest, adding a hearty dollop of seeded mustard and pepper and a touch of salt if you need.

9. Turn on the oven grill, put your creamy cheesy meal in a baking tray and sprinkle that remaining cheese on top and toast the top up. Shit yeah.

MISCELLANEOUS | Tags: ART & COPY, COMPETITION, COOKING WITH JUNIOR, FOOD

The Monday Morning WHIP // 66

A lot can happen in an instant. You could change someone’s mind, or make them happy, or impressed, charm their pants off, make them smile, or just feel good. But don’t confuse them, because Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) knows what he’s on about, and that won’t get you a job now will it?

For this week’s Whip I must tip my hat to Simon Veksner (http://scampblog NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) of BBH in London, whose headline I stole and whose wisdom inspired this piece.

When you sit down in front of someone to show them your folio you are at the mercy of their finger.

Believe it or not, a finger can flick through folio pages faster than the brain can think.

So you need to ensure your ideas are so simple and so clearly laid out that the person looking at them gets them before their finger goes to turn the page.

If your folio is messy. If your layouts are cluttered. If your headlines are not legible. Then your work is not instantly gettable.

And unless your work can be gotten in an instant, you will never beat the finger.

WHIP | Tags: FOLIO, JOB HUNTING, WHIP

Junior Event // 15

We’re a bit lacking on the event photos this month. Unfortunately for you, Barrie Barton (http://rightanglestudio NULL.com NULL.au/)‘s tips were too engaging for our photographer monkey to take many photos. But we did manage to snap one of this new fandangled stationery moustache-esque accessory — thanks Notemaker & O-Check (http://notemaker NULL.com NULL.au/collections/o-check-store-at-notemaker-australia-new-zealand)! If you accidentally missed Junior this month, no fear! Stay tuned for JuniorTV’s recap of BB’s 10 tips – coming soon.

DRINKS | Tags: BARRIE BARTON, DRINKS

The Monday Morning WHIP // 65

Sometimes, we can’t help but think Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) is talking about us. Actually we’re pretty darn sure he is talking about us. If we were to give you an excuse, it’d be a good one. Something like our dog ate our interviewee. Seriously kids, take heed of Stan’s advice — excuses are lame. And people who do what they say they’ll do, like Stan, have blood worth bottling.

I had a flashback to my brief time teaching at RMIT this week.

Tasked with the opportunity to contribute to something amazing, a young creative came to a review session empty handed.

Their excuse?

Too busy, apparently.

Pay attention kids, for this may be the most important piece of career advice you ever get. And it’s free!

Don’t ever, and I do mean ever, say you were too busy when you have been given something to do.

Make time. I don’t know how. Nor do I care for that matter. But if you want to get a job, or keep your job if you have one, then you need to go out of your way to impress.

And nothing impresses like a decent work ethic.

WHIP |

JuniorTV // 02

Remember our first foray into web videos? (http://vimeo NULL.com/7053650) It was unedited, dark, and for twenty five minutes you had to turn your volume up full blast just to hear a goddamn thing. But we’re trying really hard to get into this video shiz-nit, just incase you feel like watching Junior from your bathroom. Of course, we’re far too lazy to do it ourselves — so Jonathon Lim (http://www NULL.attheteaparty NULL.com/) did his thing for us. Check it out kiddies!

JUNIORtv | Tags: ANDREW ASHTON, JUNIORtv

The Monday Morning WHIP // 64

When you don’t know any better, it’s easy to think your folio should look and feel a certain way. But, as Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) will have you know, conventional wisdom is hardly ever that interesting.

Accepted wisdom is that an advertising folio should consist of loosely drawn black and white concepts. A design folio however is generally finished to quite a high standard.

What the design and advertising folio have in common is that they are generally paper based.

What I want to know is why?

Two young guys who worked for me in London back in 2000 showed me their folio on a laptop. That was ten years ago!

Now I’m not for one minute suggesting you go and scan all your scribbles and put them on a computer. But I am asking you to question the way you are putting together and presenting your ideas.

Those two guys from ten years ago are no longer working together, but they have both gone on to become creative directors. Not because they put their folio on a laptop, but because they dared to be different.

This week I had someone show me a selection of their work on an iPhone. Yes an iPhone! Obviously not the best medium for print and posters, but terrific for TV and video work.

And as you can imagine it took me completely by surprise when the guy whipped his phone out of his pocket!

So how about this month, rather than focussing on making your folio better, you focus on the folio itself. Who knows what you might come up with.

WHIP | Tags: FOLIO

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