Who's who
Rob Kitchen
Lecturer
Rob
graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1977 with an MA in graphic design. A
disappointingly slow learner, it then took him 18 months working in publishing
before he realised the nuances of graphic design just didn’t do it for him.
Following a friend’s suggestion, he approached London ad agency Leo Burnett and was offered a trial as an art director. By lunchtime on his first day, he realised this was what he’d always wanted to do.
After 3 years of serious ropes-learning and having managed to actually get an ad into the D&AD Annual, he moved on to a boutique agency called FCO. This was followed by very successful stints at Saatchi & Saatchi, Still Price Lintas, Delaney Fletcher Bozell, CDP and Bates UK. He was promoted to creative director at three of these agencies, each one having around 26 sensitive creative egos to manage.
During his 27 years in advertising, Rob created campaigns in pretty much every medium for brands such as Cadbury, 3M, Perrier, BA, Araldite, COI, Bulmer’s, Greene King, British Rail, Honda, Jeep, FT, Canon, Heinz, Sky, Royal Mail etc etc. He was also lucky enough to have won a fair number of awards along the way, including a Gold and two Silvers at D&AD as well as Gold and Silver Lions at Cannes.
Following the sad disappearance of Bates UK, and disliking the world of the freelancer, Rob switched to becoming a consultant at Gabriele Skelton – one of the leading recruitment agencies for the creative industry in London. There, he helps designers, art directors and copywriters to get more fulfilling employment at agencies – particularly those in the digital arena. Apart from being very rewarding, this work has also helped to give him a different perspective on the industry - particularly the impact that digital media is having on advertising communications.
Throughout his career, Rob had been active in helping juniors and students with their work and had kept in close contact with colleges specialising in Creative Advertising. He’d been a visiting lecturer at the School of Communication Arts in London, the BA Advertising course at Buckinghamshire and Chilterns College and at West Herts College (Watford) - where he was also the external assessor on two occasions.
In 2008, and with a home in Falmouth, Rob was invited to join the teaching staff on the MA Creative Advertising course at UCF. Thanks to modern technology, he is also able to carry on working for Gabriele Skelton on a part time and remote basis, going up to London once a month for client meetings, interviews and so on. This helps him keep in touch with agencies - and to keep abreast of new developments in digital advertising, which is no easy thing for anybody.
If there was one piece of good advice he could give to anyone wanting to pursue a career in advertising, it would be … er, really useful.
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