Shortly before the trip to Berlin I managed to get in contact with an old friend who moved over there about 6/7 years ago. Not knowing that he was in the design industry, I asked more about where he was working at the time, turns out it was M&C Saatchi and so I asked if it would be possible to do a small interview with him and/or another creative there and also a tour around the studio space. He said yes, woop!
Advertising is something I'm pretty interested in and so what better what to do it than with a big agency like Saatchi. Seeing the workspace and meeting the people was interesting and enticing. There was a sense of family and connectedness within the space; there was a small team of creatives which is the kind of environment that I think would be nice to be involved in when it comes to working in the industry. I took along with me Matt and Harrison as they themselves were also interested in finding out how an agency works.
The interview/chat with Timothy Cook
Somehow I lost the first 20 minutes or so of the interview (I think maybe it corrupted?) but luckily still got around 40/45 minutes of content which I think I could potentially use for PPP, although I do still intent to get in contact with a couple of other studios to have interviews with.
When we asked about how the individual job roles such as art director, copyrighter etc. and how the whole design process goes, he mentioned that the idea for a project is no one person's idea, it's the teams idea and then ultimately the agency's idea which is interesting to see how it works because I would generally see it as the more hierarchal person would be seen as the face of the idea.
"Good work get's killed all of the time"
I asked about how he copes with creative blocks since this is a common occurrence with all designers..
"Walk around, get outside, do fitness, whatever you gotta do, meditate"
What keeps you motivated to constantly want to push your practice?
"It's the drive for always wanting to produce something, I always want to make something. With solving problems, you're always working towards fixing something."
What happens in the run up to the pitch, during 'pitch week'?
"Well you start losing your mind a bit to start with"
"But ultimately you're refining ideas, the justifications for those ideas and the visuals"
How would you recommend going out seeking out and getting an internship?
"Do you have LinkedIn? If so a shit load of stalking and trying to connect with creative directors through there, sending over your portfolio and a cover letter."
As far a portfolios are concerned how would be the best way to display your work?
"Be yourself, talk the way you would approach someone in real life within your portfolio such as slang words etc. but keep it concise, no more than about 25 pages within a PDF of work because it can get too much."
The interview was actually really helpful especially about how to seek out an internship and how to display my work, coming from someone who's done this lot in his time, which is how he got his job at Saatchi by seeking out the creative director and sending his portfolio over.
No comments:
Post a Comment