First Years get ‘FUNdamental’
Here's a post from BA (Hons) Creative Advertising lecturer Brian Voce:–
Over the first three weeks our new students have been busy examining the essence of visual communication in the ‘FUNdamental Sessions’.
They have been exploring the very basics of visual language and communication, investigating and discussing how line, colour, layout (composition) and type can communicate a message or association to an audience.
Amongst the many ways they explored this were: drawing responses to music using only line; communicating feelings and emotions with only colour and shape; and investigating typography and type styles to visually illustrate the meaning of words.
You can see some of their typographic experiments here (the ‘post its’ denote group favourites which we discussed and debated in greater depth). Thanks here to everyone for contributing to what became lively and informative discussions!
We had interesting work and good ideas well done everyone.
Philippa and Artur at Cream 2012
Creative team Philippa Beaumont and Artur Faria graduated from the programme last year and are currently on placement at some of the best ad agencies in London. They were recently shortlisted to be finalists in CREAM 2012 – the annual competition organised by creative recruitment agency The Talent Business and judged by Creative Directors from some of the World's best advertising agencies.
Philippa writes....
“This year we were one of the lucky 20 to be selected for from over 150 worldwide applicants for CREAM 2012.
“The prize? A night of mingling and networking with some of the judges and other creative decision makers from the industry.
“This year’s host agency was Mother and not only are Mother industry leaders but they also know how to put on a good party. Our current hangovers from the mid week office party last night, are proof of this.
“The prize? A night of mingling and networking with some of the judges and other creative decision makers from the industry.
“This year’s host agency was Mother and not only are Mother industry leaders but they also know how to put on a good party. Our current hangovers from the mid week office party last night, are proof of this.
“The 20 finalists, a mix of teams and individuals, we’re invited to Mother to have lunch with some of the agency. We even got a chance to chat with one of the founding partners, Mark Waites. Then we had the afternoon to prepare for the event. Mother decided to solve the old age problem of creatives using events like these to catch up with old mates over free drinks. Mother sourced 20 unique and individual bars, which were to be manned by the winners, the idea being that you got a book crit and they got a drink.
Phil & Artur behind their bar.
A busy, busy night at Mother.
“The finalists were each given a theme for their bar and we were tasked with making it look as cool as possible. Everyone put a lot of effort in so they all looked brilliant on the night, we even decapitated a teddy bear for ours! The event itself started at 7pm and the entire bottom floor of Mother was turned into a pub called ‘The Mother’s Arms’, it even came with two busty barmaids in the shape of the Mother receptionists:–
The Mother receptionists become barmaids for the night!
“The night was a resounding success and was definitely the best CREAM to date. It was proof that this industry is one of the best for supporting young talent. We are currently lucky enough to be on placement at the host Mother, which is one of the fore runners in nourishing new talent. A fun night to celebrate a lot of hard work.”
The Mother receptionists become barmaids for the night!
“The night was an amazing opportunity! Our portfolio got critiqued by creatives from agencies such as BBH, DKLW LOWE, RKCR Y+R and, of course, Mother. We made several great contacts and even got potential placements, as did all the other teams there. It was great that there was 20 of us that got to share this huge opportunity. CREAM is a great award to have in your book – one that has in the past led to placements and even jobs. Some teams even flew from Sweden and Brazil to be there on the night!
YCN Awards Night
The Young Creative Network recently held their annual awards ceremony in London to honour the winners of this years YCN Student Competition. Amongst the successful entrants were University of Lincoln Creative Advertising's Liam Nicholson and Vicki Thompsom. Liam and Vicki collected a gong for the work they submitted for the Triumph Bra's brief. They were second year students when they entered this national competition and it is very satisfying for the staff team to see them compete and win against students more experienced than themselves. I'll let Vicki explain how the night went in her own words.
"On September 4th, Liam and I ventured down to London to Shoreditch Town Hall for the YCN awards 2012. We were both thrilled that our work for the Industry Trust brief was commended, and even found ourselves sitting with their representatives for the ceremony. Going into the entrance area we were greeted with strange cocktails and steel drummers, and on moving into the main hall found plenty more decoration along a tropical theme. The ceremony itself was exciting and entertaining with guest speakers and clever animation shorts about their work, each speakers presenting a few different briefs' awards. After dinner our group was next up. We were presented on stage with our 'A's, our group being congratulated by guest speaker Toby Triumph. Following on from the ceremony we were directed downstairs for something 'special', which was in fact being showered with bits of jelly as it was blown up in the centre of the room... (yes, really).
Overall an amazing evening to celebrate everyone's success, and a reminder that hard work, taking risks and enjoying your work can pay off. Thank you to everyone that congratulated us and thanks to YCN for putting on such a great evening".
Shoredith Town Hall was the venue for this years YCN awards ceremony.
Exploding Jelly and something to hang on the wall, what more could you want.
The food was an improvement on the usual student meal.
Extraordinary RFL work by Josh & Steve
Past graduates from the University of Lincoln's Creative Advertising programme Josh Dando and Steve Dodd have recently completed a visually impressive campaign for the Rugby League.
Creative team Josh and Steve – who work at ad agency VCCP in London – graduated from the programme in 2010 and have created a campaign called 'The Rugby League of the Extraordinary' to bring the sport to new audiences in a dramatic and compelling way: Sam Tomkins dodges great balls of fire; Eorl Crabtree shoves a skip and James Roby does pull-ups with chains around his waist in a bid to persuade the public to enjoy the feats of strength and power they can expect to see on the field.
The film includes a specially created soundtrack by Adelphoi Music.
The campaign went live last week and already features on the I Believe in Advertising website as well as being Campaign's and The Drum's ad of the day last week.
You can read some of the publicity on the RFL website and view the new 'Extraordinary' website here.
As well as the film, the campaign includes billboard posters that feature some of the 'Super Heroes' of the Rugby League:
And to finish, here are some behind the scenes photos of the film shoot:–
I'm sure you'll agree, this is very dramatic and effective work. Nice job, Josh and Steve, nice job.
New and Improved
This week we received a boatload of new first years, all eager to prove they have what it takes to make it in Adland (the industry, not the advertising related theme park, with such rides as the Barclays Waterslide et al.).
As usual we put them through their paces with a round of form filling and photographs followed by the greatest pub quiz of all time, complete with miming, choirs and a little bit of Pictionary to boot.
From this point on the fun does not stop but the focus is turned dramatically towards rewiring their brains in the way only we know how.
Stay tuned: eager, hungry, energetic young minds have checked in for training.
Winston Fletcher (1937-2012)
At the end of last year we were delighted to welcome a legend in the ad business to the University. He lulled us with tales from the industry and his personal 'Best Ever Ads'. He was a great speaker on the qualities of British advertising and spoke fondly of how, for long periods of the 20th Century, we were envied across the world for our smart strategic thinking and understanding of the people we were speaking to.
Sadly, Winston passed away earlier this month.
This is a great loss to the industry and there is no doubt that he will be missed. He effected the careers of a great deal of household adland names and there is a wonderful article on the Campaign website with testimonials from friends and former colleagues. You can view that here. The Telegraph also produced a thorough obituary which can be read here.
For now though, here is Annie Richardson, Senior Lecturer, reflecting on the day the great Winston Fletcher came to visit.
"On March 15th Professor Winston Fletcher CBE, a leading figure in the advertising industry and author of ‘Powers of Persuasion: the History of British Advertising 1951 – 2000’ (2008) came to give us an inspiring lecture on British Advertising in the second half of the twentieth century. He did that thing which we ‘Brits’ often find difficult: examined the particularities of British cultural identities. He showed how the development of commercial television inBritain Britain overtook the US
Thanks Annie and, of course, Thank You to Winston for giving an inspiring talk and offering so much to an industry our students are working so hard to join.
You will be missed.
Sadly, Winston passed away earlier this month.
This is a great loss to the industry and there is no doubt that he will be missed. He effected the careers of a great deal of household adland names and there is a wonderful article on the Campaign website with testimonials from friends and former colleagues. You can view that here. The Telegraph also produced a thorough obituary which can be read here.
For now though, here is Annie Richardson, Senior Lecturer, reflecting on the day the great Winston Fletcher came to visit.
"On March 15th Professor Winston Fletcher CBE, a leading figure in the advertising industry and author of ‘Powers of Persuasion: the History of British Advertising 1951 – 2000’ (2008) came to give us an inspiring lecture on British Advertising in the second half of the twentieth century. He did that thing which we ‘Brits’ often find difficult: examined the particularities of British cultural identities. He showed how the development of commercial television in
Thanks Annie and, of course, Thank You to Winston for giving an inspiring talk and offering so much to an industry our students are working so hard to join.
You will be missed.
Nick & Matt selected for GRT awards
Some more awards news!
This year's graduates Nicky Perry & Matt Parsons have been announced as finalists for the Graeme Robertson Trust awards. Over to Nicky to tell you all about it:-
'OK, so many of you may never have heard of the Graeme Robertson Trust, but Graeme was one of Direct Marketing’s top pioneers. The trust works with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to act as a launchpad for creative careers, offering young talent the 'chance' they need. The trust runs an annual award competition, that's free to enter and this year it had a very sporting theme. You can read the original brief here.
'Matthew Parsons and myself teamed up to enter the competition and gave ourselves a week to complete the work. Using skills we had developed on the BA (Hons) Creative Advertising programme, we got on with interrogating the brief and finding possible solutions.
'We found the brief quite challenging: it asked for multiple medias; a competition aspect; advertising, online, direct mail and wanted participation from one million families. The brief also seemed to rely upon an advanced interest in the AVIVA UK Athletics Trial Event from the public, something Matt and I were unsure whether one million families actually had.
'On 10th July we found out that we had been shortlisted and were invited to attend a portfolio event held at Publicis in London. We were asked to bring along our portfolio, unfortunately as both Matt and myself had only recently separated with past creative partners we had only old work, so we decided it would be better to create a new portfolio: brand new briefs, brand new products, all of our own. However, we had only two days in which to do it! We knuckled down and got the work done, completing our portfolio with only a couple of hours to spare!
'The morning event was very fast paced – we had book crits with four top advertising minds in a short space of time and got a lot of help with our new book. We were both pleasantly surprised how many campaigns were liked considering how quickly we had turned them around. Then on 20th July, we were informed and congratulated on being finalists of this year's competition and we were invited to the DMA Awards on December 4th where the winner will be announced.
'All in all, we have learnt to keep your ear to the ground for upcoming competitions and opportunities, and enter anything and everything you can! Because you never know...!'
Congratulations Nicky & Matt on getting so far in this highly-regarded and long running national competition (and many thanks Nicky for this write-up). We'll all be keeping our fingers crossed for you at the awards night. Good luck!
This year's graduates Nicky Perry & Matt Parsons have been announced as finalists for the Graeme Robertson Trust awards. Over to Nicky to tell you all about it:-
'OK, so many of you may never have heard of the Graeme Robertson Trust, but Graeme was one of Direct Marketing’s top pioneers. The trust works with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to act as a launchpad for creative careers, offering young talent the 'chance' they need. The trust runs an annual award competition, that's free to enter and this year it had a very sporting theme. You can read the original brief here.
'Matthew Parsons and myself teamed up to enter the competition and gave ourselves a week to complete the work. Using skills we had developed on the BA (Hons) Creative Advertising programme, we got on with interrogating the brief and finding possible solutions.
'We found the brief quite challenging: it asked for multiple medias; a competition aspect; advertising, online, direct mail and wanted participation from one million families. The brief also seemed to rely upon an advanced interest in the AVIVA UK Athletics Trial Event from the public, something Matt and I were unsure whether one million families actually had.
'To cut a long story short we created work based on the insight that when supporting athletes at the Olympics we cheer on our country's athletes, however at this event ALL the athletes are British so you wouldn't know who to support. The idea was to introduce the public to the contenders in the sport, by getting the public to support athletes from their local areas: using the concept of regional rivalry in the UK. In other words, support your local team!
Here's the final work that we produced:-
Here's the final work that we produced:-
'On 10th July we found out that we had been shortlisted and were invited to attend a portfolio event held at Publicis in London. We were asked to bring along our portfolio, unfortunately as both Matt and myself had only recently separated with past creative partners we had only old work, so we decided it would be better to create a new portfolio: brand new briefs, brand new products, all of our own. However, we had only two days in which to do it! We knuckled down and got the work done, completing our portfolio with only a couple of hours to spare!
'The morning event was very fast paced – we had book crits with four top advertising minds in a short space of time and got a lot of help with our new book. We were both pleasantly surprised how many campaigns were liked considering how quickly we had turned them around. Then on 20th July, we were informed and congratulated on being finalists of this year's competition and we were invited to the DMA Awards on December 4th where the winner will be announced.
'All in all, we have learnt to keep your ear to the ground for upcoming competitions and opportunities, and enter anything and everything you can! Because you never know...!'
Congratulations Nicky & Matt on getting so far in this highly-regarded and long running national competition (and many thanks Nicky for this write-up). We'll all be keeping our fingers crossed for you at the awards night. Good luck!
Class of 2012 Graduation
Last Wednesday saw the University of Lincoln Creative Advertising students attend the 2012 Graduation Ceremony in Lincoln's historic Cathedral. The event is always a great display of pomp and ceremony with odd shaped hats and colourful robes in abundance. The proceedings were conducted in time honoured fashion and were a fitting celebration of three years hard work and dedication.
It's always good to catch up with the graduates in September and it was very satisfying to hear how successful they are being in their quest for a career in advertising. Work placements at prestigious ad agencies like AMVBBDO, Grey and VCCP are commonplace whilst other students are based at up and coming new agencies like the corner.
Whilst the graduates may have left Lincoln, the Creative Advertising programme always maintains strong links with our ex-students and it is with great interest that we watch their careers develop, so well done to all of the graduates and here's to the future.
Suddenly it started raining hats.
It's always good to catch up with the graduates in September and it was very satisfying to hear how successful they are being in their quest for a career in advertising. Work placements at prestigious ad agencies like AMVBBDO, Grey and VCCP are commonplace whilst other students are based at up and coming new agencies like the corner.
Whilst the graduates may have left Lincoln, the Creative Advertising programme always maintains strong links with our ex-students and it is with great interest that we watch their careers develop, so well done to all of the graduates and here's to the future.
Graduate TV campaign goes live.
University of Lincoln Creative Advertising graduates Brooke Cutmore and Ruud Kool have been very busy over the last few months creating a TV campaign for Moo.com. The pair, who work at Creature London have collaborated with animators to create a visually arresting campaign which is currently on air across the UK, we'll let Ruud explain more in his own words.
"So far, we've made four ads for Moo.com, as you might have seen two of them are already on air in the UK. The other two are soon to air in the United States.
The idea for the ads was to let influential entrepreneurs tell their story, and encourage others to start something remarkable themselves. All people featured in the ads did actually start their business through Moo.com, as they had their first business cards printed by the company. So the truth is that Moo.com was there in the beginning.
In the process of making the ads, we spent hours and hours in the studio, interviewing a number of interesting entrepreneurs both here in the UK and in the States. We asked them about how they started out, how they came up with their big idea, what the ups and downs where in the process, and most importantly, what advice they'd give other budding entrepreneurs. We ended up with hours of talking, that we reduced to 25 second sound bites. Which we then animated.
We worked with a French director/animator called Steven Briand. He originally created the video below which was a key inspiration for the art direction of the ads.
Keep an eye on moo.com/remarkable to catch the two American ads when they go live!"
"So far, we've made four ads for Moo.com, as you might have seen two of them are already on air in the UK. The other two are soon to air in the United States.
The idea for the ads was to let influential entrepreneurs tell their story, and encourage others to start something remarkable themselves. All people featured in the ads did actually start their business through Moo.com, as they had their first business cards printed by the company. So the truth is that Moo.com was there in the beginning.
Part of Brooke and Ruud's campaign for Moo.com
We worked with a French director/animator called Steven Briand. He originally created the video below which was a key inspiration for the art direction of the ads.
Keep an eye on moo.com/remarkable to catch the two American ads when they go live!"
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