Who's who
Chris Waite
Award Leader, Creative Advertising
Chris Waite arrived at University College Falmouth in September 2005 to lead the postgraduate
Creative Advertising course, after spending 30 years working in several of London’s leading
advertising agencies. During that time he created award-winning campaigns for
clients as diverse as Tetley Bitter, The Health Education Council, Nationwide
Building Society, Fairy Liquid and Wharfedale hi-fi.
He was a copywriter at Saatchi & Saatchi from 1976 to 1987, a period of exponential growth and creative acclaim for the agency, and considers himself fortunate to have been mentored there by some of the creative giants of the industry including Paul Arden, Jeff Stark, Tim Mellors and Jeremy Sinclair, not forgetting of course Charles Saatchi himself.
It was while he was at Saatchis that Chris started to win peer recognition for his work. His first entry in the Designers & Art Directors Association (D&AD) Annual (1982 edition) was a press advertisement for MG, whose objective was to sell the final edition of the classic MGB sports car. The ad was Art Directed by Digby Atkinson, formerly a Lecturer on the Falmouth Creative Advertising course, now retired. This is not such a coincidence as it seems. The world of Creative Advertising is a small one and Chris has contacts and/or ex-colleagues in several other academic institutions, as well as in most of the major London agencies. Following his 11 years at Saatchis he worked at Leagas Delaney, Publicis, and finally as a Creative Group Director at Grey Worldwide.
As a long-standing member of D&AD, an organisation whose role is heavily biased towards the encouragement and inspiration of new blood within the industry, Chris has had informal connections with education for many years. Being a Creative Director and Group Head, first at Publicis (1988-92) and then Grey (1992-2002), a key area of his remit was the evaluation, recruitment, training and management of junior Creative Teams. So there was a steady procession in and out of his office of young creatives bearing portfolios and seeking advice, constructive criticism, but ideally a job, or at least a placement. Placement teams are future stars, and Chris’s experience of being on the receiving end of what graduate and postgraduate training can do, is important both to him and the future of the Falmouth Creative Advertising course. That the course is itself a corporate member of D&AD had a strong influence on Chris’s decision to apply for the post.
A key area of argument within the advertising industry continues to be around the significance of the Digital revolution, especially the effect it has had on the way creative teams approach their work. That debate is at the forefront of Chris’s research activities.
When he’s not working Chris tries to make time to pursue his other interests. He is a member of the British Trust for Ornithology, and also enjoys wine tasting, cooking, driving, and playing Blues piano - after a fashion.E:
T:01326 213837
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