February – 2011 – Junior - Celebrating life at the bottom

Monthly Archives: February 2011

The Monday Morning WHIP // 111

It’s time to get your creative on! As Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com) tells us, there’s always more hours in the day to do things for love, not money.

As a side note, this WHIP is #111. It seems fitting that that’s also the emergency telephone number in NZ. Please give (http://www NULL.christchurchearthquakeappeal NULL.govt NULL.nz/) a little (http://www NULL.grabone NULL.co NULL.nz/christchurch) to our Kiwi bros in need.

Last weekend I caught up with an art director friend of mine, who told me about an interior design project he’d been working on.

During the week I met two very interesting copywriters. One is about to have a book published and the other has had several pieces published in magazines.

And on Wednesday I’ll be going to the opening of a photographic exhibition by an art director I worked with many years ago.

That’s four talented creative people, all of whom make a living in the ad business, being creative outside of their day job.

Which, to be frank, left me feeling like a bit of an under achiever.

Until my wife reminded me that I have a very popular blog, write a monthly column for Marketing magazine and also write this Monday morning ramble every week.

So that’s five talented creative people, all of whom make a living in the ad business, being creative outside of their day job.

And I’m sure I could find loads more without too much effort.

So if your pursuit of a full time role as a creative has yet to come to fruition, why not channel some of that creative energy into personal projects?

Of course not everyone can write a book. I certainly couldn’t. But if you use your creativity as often as you can, in as many ways as you can, who knows where it could take you.

You may end up a writer instead of a photographer. You may find yourself arranging flowers rather than art directing. Who knows!?

Regardless of how things turn out, you’ll end up one day with a career where you make a living from being creative rather than simply being a creative.

WHIP |

The Junior Mixtape // 06

And! Another Mixtape by music extraordinaire Patrick Collins (http://anotherpatrickcollins NULL.com/). This one will make you feel like you’re in a time warp and live in a Donnie Darko-esque movie. Potentially. It could be just us. Happy Friday Dancing-time!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here (http://www NULL.adobe NULL.com/shockwave/download/download NULL.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW). You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Or, right click here to download. (http://dl NULL.dropbox NULL.com/u/5619898/Junior%20Mix%20Tape%2006 NULL.mp3)

Every month we’ll be profiling a young artist/designer/writer/etc via the mixtape cover.

Luci Everett (http://lucieverett NULL.com) is a bit of a spruce-moose. We’re not sure what that means, but it rhymes with Luce. Moosey, uh, Luci — as a freelance graphic designer in Melbourne — spends her time coming up with creative words (http://wemakewords NULL.blogspot NULL.com), designing for the music and fashion worlds, and pulling crazy dance moves. She’s a winner!

MIXTAPE | Tags: LUCI EVERETT, MIXTAPE, PATRICK COLLINS

The Interview Series // 43

Brendan McKnight (http://twitter NULL.com/hellobrendan) is the fresh-faced editor of Desktop (http://www NULL.desktopmag NULL.com NULL.au/) magazine. At just 26, the magazine is almost older than him – but that hasn’t stopped him. Since stepping up from Online Editor, he pitched a new vision for the mag, which centred around a celebration of the ‘culture of design’. We’d tell you more of the juicy goss, but Brendan swore us to secrecy when we caught up with him amid the craziness of the unveiling of the first issue. Which, by the way, goes on sale next Wednesday. Fact: Brendan watched Press Gang (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Press_Gang) as a kid — so, for all you Lynda Day (http://www NULL.yoyo NULL.org/pressgang/images/slides/lynda NULL.gif) wannabe’s, Brendan’s gonna show you the way!

Junior: Hey Brendan! What’s your background? Uni degree? Where was the house you grew up in — tell us all that stuff.

Brendan: I grew up in the western suburbs of Melbourne, and once year 12 had finished, I moved to the big smoke (West Footscray) and began a bachelor of Fine Arts/Media Arts at RMIT. There I dabbled with a bit of animation and video art, but mostly focused on installation and ‘non-linear’ work. My graduate project was called ‘Brendan McKnight’s Incredible Moving Image Wishing Machine’, which was this hectic coin-operated machine I built, inspired by those whacky contraptions the dad makes in ‘Honey! I Shrunk the Kids’. This was shown in a group exhibition I curated as part of the 2005 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Jr: Then what?

B: After graduating I packed my bags and headed for Tanzania in East Africa where I helped to develop an arts curriculum in a secondary school, whilst also teaching English to classes of 50 beautifully spirited and eager students. I also managed to do some other fun things like climb Mt Kilimanjaro, white water raft down the Nile and go on a safari. Fast forward six months and I rocked up in London with no job, no contacts and about £500 to my name.

Jr: Being poor sucks. What did you do to survive?

After six months working in a call centre, I landed a gig as the creative assistant to the Chief Creative Officer (Tim Greenhalgh) of international design studio FITCH (http://www NULL.fitch NULL.com/), which at the time was still being headed up by Rodney Fitch (appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990 for his ‘influence on the British Design Industry’). Whilst I wasn’t directly working for Rodney, I did work very closely with him throughout my stay at FITCH.

Jr: We googled Rodders, he sure does have a lot of little letters after his name. What was it like to work closely with such an industry great?

B: It was pretty fantastic, although in hindsight I probably took it a bit for granted and perhaps should have utilised his knowledge more. Hearing Rodney speak, even just around the office was quite inspiring, he was quite old school and traditional, but a very clever thinker. At that time the recession was starting to hit, but it was almost just another day for him as he had been through a few before. Rodney obviously came from a time when there were no computers and thus his mentality was never about technology — and always very concept, consumer and ideas based. The evolution of design education was also something he heavily believed in – he was Governor of the University of the Arts London from 1989 to 2007.

You can read a little more about my initial struggle to find a job here (http://www NULL.desktopmag NULL.com NULL.au/blogs/londons-calling/).

I left FITCH after a year to do a cycle trip across Germany, and when back in London started sourcing and taking on a whole bunch of freelance writing work. I’d always been interested in writing as a kid, but it all kicked off again about then. I put my name out there and tried to get as much work as I could, and ended up writing for a range of blogs and magazines including Dazed, Vanity Fair and also writing on-and-off for thecoolhunter.net (http://thecoolhunter NULL.net) for about three years. Although most of these were unpaid, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today without them, and I scored some incredible travel experiences along the way. I have a pretty mean snow globe collection to prove it.

Jr: It seems writing for publications for free is a bit of a rite of passage for all young writers. But knowing when to draw the line is also important. At what point did you stop doing freebies?

B: Yes I absolutely agree that it is important to draw the line, but it’s always going to be difficult deciding just where that line should be drawn. It sounds easy (it’s not), but I suppose you need to weigh it all up; is what you are getting in return (freebies, exposure, experience etc) worth the amount of time you are putting in – or are you just being taken for a ride? For me, I had a full time job on the side, so the money wasn’t a massive issue, and the writing work I was doing was something I enjoyed. The perks were pretty great, as was the experience and the exposure. I had never studied journalism or writing, so it was all one big learning curve for me.

Jr: You’re 26. You must have grown up watching Press Gang (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=E-uOKWWYl1I). Did you ever watch it and think you’d be an editor of a publication like Lynda Day?

B: Ahh, the good ol’ Junior Gazette. The Press Gang wikipedia page describes Lynda as ‘brittle, very fierce, no empathy and very cruel to the people around her’. I hope my colleagues do not see any comparison! Actually growing up, all during uni and even up until very recently, I wasn’t at all sure about which career path I would take. I had a strong interest and good eye for art and design, but did not want to be a designer. I loved writing and research and was a bit of a culture junkie, but was uncertain as to how my skill set would all fit into place.

Jr: Tell us how you started out at Desktop and about your journey to become editor of the entire mag?

B: After working for a year with the trends and insights team at Nokia Design in Soho, I’d clocked up four years of living overseas — and so decided to call it a day and head back to Melbourne. I arrived a few days before Christmas 2009 and really had no clue about what I wanted to do with my life and which direction I should take things in. I was scared again that even with all my experience in London I would end up working in a café or call centre. Searching through Seek one night, I was applying for any jobs that sounded vaguely interesting and came across a listing to be the online editor for Desktop, a magazine I remembered reading at uni. I applied for the job at 2am on the Monday morning, was called in for an interview on the Wednesday, and by the following Monday I was in the office starting my first day. I spent eight months working as the online editor and features writer, and in September was promoted to editor.

Jr: Was editor always the goal? Why do you think they promoted you?

B: I didn’t have the goal of editor in my immediate sight, as I thought I’d be in the online role for a while longer. However having said that, the editor role was of course the next natural progression. The previous editor (who had been there for 4 years) moved on, and so I applied for the editor position – it wasn’t a given that I would instantly be promoted to the role by default. The publishers were looking for someone who could give the title a revamp, I put together my vision, and they liked it.

Jr: What advice do you have for those of us keen to progress up the foodchain?

B: Work hard and prove yourself. In my online role I was already putting together about a quarter to a third of the magazine each month, so the publishers knew I was a hard worker, well organised and could look after the title. Try to take on some of the work of the role above yours, challenge yourself, be genuinely nice and interested in those above you and ask questions.

Jr: What plans do you have for Desktop now that you’ve taken the reigns?

B: The relaunched Desktop goes on sale next Wednesday, and it is a completely new offering. Over the past five months I’ve met up with countless designers as well as run a focus group and readers’ survey to try and get as much feedback as possible. The response was overwhelming and it was a challenging yet exciting time for me and my team to mould and shape the magazine into the new format that you will see on newsstand next week. From the design point of view, you can expect a much nicer looking magazine, perfect bound, uncoated stock, up to 100 pages (from 84) with a clean structured template. Editorial wise, the content is more sophisticated, inquisitive and rather than only showing finished works, the new Desktop is about ‘the culture of design’. The readers get to find out a bit more about the people behind the work, their backgrounds, ethos, mentors, inspirations and opinions. Plus we have some really great local and international designers and academics that will be writing for us throughout the year. On top of this, each issue has a pull-out poster, designed by a different designer/studio each month.

Jr: For those of our readers who want to write for publications like Desktop, tell them what not to do. What mistakes do people commonly make that could ruin their chances?

B: Instead of just sending your CV through with examples of your past writing, actually write an article suitable for that particular publication and pitch it to the editors, or at least pitch a list of bullet-points of articles/angles you think would suit the publication. Do your research and make sure the topics are ‘on brand’ and have not been covered before. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box a little bit. If the magazine has a strong online presence, then pitch some articles first to the online editor, as normally that is a great starting point. Most editors get hundreds of emails and press releases each day (I know I do), and they all start to blend in after a while. Be creative, stand out and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone.

PUBLISHING, THE INTERVIEW SERIES, WRITING | Tags: BRENDAN MCKNIGHT, DESKTOP MAGAZINE, EDITOR

The Monday Morning WHIP // 110

Juniors, sometimes you have to think about the seniors out there. Not the pensioner, mobility cart wheeling kind, but those who know their shit — who have the ability, and the experience to tell you what’s makes a freakin’ good ad, and what you should do if you ain’t got one in your book. Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) tells us why we need to listen to them.

This morning I am going to share with you some wisdom from Suzanne Pop (http://adteachings NULL.com)e, creative director of highly regarded Canadian agency John St.

“A number of years ago, I had an advertising student whose thirst for success far outstripped the quality of her work.

I think her work would have improved if she had been willing to listen to me or her other instructors, but that never happened.

My explicit message to her never changed:

Unless the quality of your work improves, you will have a very hard time getting hired.

When this woman started taking her portfolio around to interviews she heard none of the effusive praise she had expected.

Instead, creative directors ripped her book to shreds.

I have never seen student work get praised by a creative director after being panned by an instructor.

So if you are holding on to this faint hope, the time has come to unhitch your unicorns, smack them on the hindquarters and dry your tears as they gallop off into the hills. “

Wise words, don’t you think?

As I have said many times in the Monday Morning Whip, don’t show your work to senior people for praise. Do it for criticism.

Because that criticism, although often hard to take, will make you and your work better.

WHIP |

Junior-Jobs

JOBS! You want ‘em, we got ‘em! From now on we’ll be posting jobs we hear about in our new section ‘Junior-Jobs’. There’s a tab at the top, see? We’re kicking it off with these two for copywriters. Click to get the low-down!

JUNIOR-JOBS |

The Monday Morning WHIP // 109

The odds of being a success aren’t as low as being struck by lightning. It can happen, but as Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com) tells us, it’s all about the hard yards.

The class of 2011 has just been announced for AWARD School. And for every kid who got the thumbs up, there are sure to be two or three times as many who didn’t get accepted.

If you are one of these people don’t fret. All you need to do is work harder.

That’s easy for me to say, I’m sure you’re thinking, but it’s true.

Talent is important. But persistence and hunger more so.

So rather than simply resigning yourself to not getting in, put in the effort and prove the naysayers wrong.

And if you did get into AWARD, or perhaps you already have a job, the same applies.

Because the harder you work the better you will get. And the better you get, the more successful you will become.

WHIP |

The Interview Series // 42

In all our 41 interviews we have never, not once, ever, done a junior interview with someone in Planning. Our friends who want to get into planning kept complaining. And complaining. And not getting jobs in planning. We felt like bad friends so we found Mark Pollard (http://www NULL.markpollard NULL.net/), Director of Strategy at McCann Sydney. Mark’s earlier years spent building websites give him bucket-loads of that digital savvy-ness — all the kind stuff you need to get yourself strategising the shit out of digital. He also wrote for Inpress magazine, and published his own zine Stealth (http://www NULL.stealthmag NULL.com). So it’s no surprise when he shed light on what it takes to get into Planning doing different things outside ad-land was at the top of the list. Enjoy y’all.

Junior: Ok, let’s start at the beginning — what’s your background?

Mark Pollard: I was at Uni doing a couple of degrees, and when I was 19 I started making websites. While I was finishing off one of the degrees, I started working at a digital agency. I was about 20 at the time, working on Levi’s first big website in Australia. I was teaching myself how to make my own websites, and I wrote for a lot of street press like Inpress and 3D World for five years, and did a lot of radio. Then I published my own magazine, Stealth (http://www NULL.stealthmag NULL.com). I was always involved with, or working full time with an agency at the same time. Tribal DDB in Sydney gave me 20-30 hours a week, and then allowed me to work on my magazine at nights. I did that throughout my mid twenties, and then moved more into digital production, project management, account management, information architecture – 300 page scoping documents, for e-commerce sites and online training sites – and, finally, planning.

Jr: Wow.

M: Yeah, it’s ok. I think that now, more than ever, you have to have the experience of an all-rounder. But then I decided to specialise. I was always interested in strategy. I played chess from a young age. I went over to Leo Burnett, just freelancing as a producer because I didn’t want to go full time, and ended up working with Todd Sampson – who offered me a full time job to go into strategy. It was a bit of an experiment: give a job to a person whose adult life had grown out of the Internet, add some planning skills and see what happens.

Jr: Was the experiment a success? What did you learn there?

Well, it’s been an interesting journey – one that continues. At Leo Burnett, the things that have stuck with me most are workshop techniques (brainstorming, problem identification) and, then, in my last year, working with Scott Davis from BMF, made me get much tighter with my thinking.

Jr: Do you think many strategy planners around town have the skills you do, with digital as their background?

M: I don’t know of many. I also think that any role with the word ‘digital’ in it will disappear in the next three to five years. You’ll have a more generalist strategy role, and then you’ll have specialists in different fields. Architects, online content creators and project managers who have specialist skills. Producers – in the general sense I’ve seen the word used in Australia – will start disappearing.

Jr: So what you’re saying is digital will become the day-to-day?

M: Well, it has to. But then, what’s digital? We’re really talking screens here, right? And, as screens become ubiquitous, ‘digital’ in advertising will need to be. The problem for me is that people use ‘digital’ to talk channel when it’s actually a cultural difference – inside the agency itself, how the agency interacts with clients and so on.

Jr: Strategy seems like a hard area to break into as a junior. There’s not really an entry-level position…

M: No, there’s not. And most Planning Directors will recruit people who they think have done interesting stuff outside of advertising as the entry level. There are plenty of interesting stories about geographers, magazine publishers, schoolteachers and lawyers moving into that space because there’s a risk that if you grow up in strategy it could be a little bit tricky. You need those real life adult experiences.

Jr: If you had to give advice to young wannabe planners, what would you say?

M: I always try to convince people that planning should be simpler than some people might let on, and it’s about understanding what the real problem is. Really honing in on insights – we’re talking about insights as being an unspoken human truth. A lot of people put into briefs a lot of insights, which aren’t really insightful at all.

And then, trying to focus on lateral thought in two ways – one, in how you express words (it’s always the counter intuitive combination of words that makes things stand out); and, secondly, in non-advertising ideas. I think there will be an emerging pool of people who will focus on non-Award School type ideas, because I think our advertising industry is so based on words and pictures – and that’s a big part of creativity and people who are awesome at it are incredible – but there’s a whole world of thinking out there that you might solve a problem without doing any advertising. I think the planners that excite me are in that space as well.

Jr: How closely do you work with the creative teams through the creative process?

M: My preference is to work as close as possible, but a lot of creatives are great strategic thinkers as well. It always depends on who you are working with, and how much time is involved. Some people like playing by themselves. I try to stay as close as possible throughout but will dip in and out depending on the process and where it is.

Jr: Being a strategist you must have a few thoughts on where our business is heading – so what do you think the future will bring?

M: Our industry is competing with every other industry to get get smart people, and a lot of the other industries do a much better job at mentorship and training and bringing people through the ranks. Ad agencies are survival of the fittest.

For me I think the future creative mind will be a combination of Edward de Bono and Steven Spielberg, meets Facebook and Google. It’ll cover all sorts of areas: understanding content and information and how people access it, how people interact with each other and things online and offline.

Jr: Sounds like change is afoot — what do you think this means for juniors?

M: I wonder for how long the Art Director/Copywriter paradigm will exist. I’m interested in people that are journalists, setting up street press magazines, comedians or those who have just written something. Because everyone is going to need an additional skill. If you can write and film something, bingo!

For me it’s becoming less about advertising and more about content, utilities, communities. The business models need to adapt to allow for more of that – as do people new to the industry.

Advice: stay curious, invest personal time in researching and reading as much as possible and stay nice to deal with.

Mark has also supplied some recommended reading for those interested.
How to do account planning – a simple approach (http://www NULL.markpollard NULL.net/how-to-do-account-planning-a-simple-approach/), Why strategists should make stuff (http://www NULL.markpollard NULL.net/why-strategists-should-make-stuff/) and 10 strategies for a strategist’s career – right now (http://www NULL.markpollard NULL.net/10-strategies-for-a-strategists-career-right-now/)

ADVERTISING, THE INTERVIEW SERIES | Tags: ADVERTISING, MARK POLLARD, MCCANN

Junior Event // 23

Clem (http://twitter NULL.com/clembastow)! She gave us partydog.jpg (http://houndsgood NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/partydog NULL.jpg), and ten smashing tips on how to make it in the freelance world as a writer– even when it is so flippin’ hard you think it might be better to toss burgers. We were too enraptured by the pres to take many snaps, so you’ll have to imagine how rad she was.