Mark & Steven: Creative Advertising MA graduates
When you want to learn all about advertising the best place to go is the furthest possible place you can go, where there is no advertising and people eat a lot of fish 'n' chips. The lifestyle in Falmouth is completely different to what you'll find in advertising - except that most evenings end up in the pub.
We teamed up in the second part of the course. Both of us were Art Directors so we decided that although we would stay as ‘Creatives' one of us had to take responsibility of the copy. As I (Steven) had a background in script-writing I took that role. Mark has a background in Graphic Design and was best suited for the Art Director role. We work well together and have very rounded skills in a number of areas. Interestingly, Mark eats about 30 cereal bars and I drink about 10 pints of milk a week.
The course was really helpful in teaching us what we needed to know in order to work properly in an advertising agency. One of the most valuable things we learnt was that all great campaigns have a really strong idea behind them. Chris and Rob taught us how to construct briefs in order to find that key idea. Also, that craft plays a crucial role in bringing the idea to life. The course stretches over the summer but we didn't have to be in Falmouth and this gave us the chance to move to London. Whilst in London we went to D&AD New Blood and instantly started looking for placements. We entered the Shelf Awards and came 2nd; winning an actual shelf (from Argos, I think).
From Chris' recommendation we were invited to have a book crit at OgilvyOne with Executive Creative Directors Emma and Charlie. It went well, to say the least, and we got a two week placement. In the second week, one of our ideas was bought by the client and our placement was extended. After seven weeks of placement we were offered a job. We can only thank ourselves but also Chris and Rob for this and everything they've taught us. We do work for a number of clients including BT, BA and Drinkaware.
So, basically, we wouldn't be working at OgilvyOne if it wasn't for Chris and Rob. We use things they've taught us every day on every project we work on. Their knowledge, expertise and skill we found invaluable. Again it is import to stress that we couldn't have done what we have without this course (and yes you could've skipped everything and just read this last paragraph).
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