Creative Jam
Tom's personal branding on his Behance Portfolio page
We're delighted to discover that Tuomas Watkins has been invited to take part in Adobe's 'Creative Jam' meet up for New creatives having been discovered through his Behance portfolio (which has had nearly 300,000 views, by the way). It sounds good anyway, but it sounds even better when you realise he was picked out specifically as one of the Top 20 new creatives in the whole UK.
From now on we'll call him Sir and make sure not to look him in the eyes.
A snippet of Tom's D&AD entry for the Body Shop - see the whole campaign HERE
In the meantime, you can follow Tuomas' adventures at Creative Jam by watching the whole event live HERE as it is a live streamed programme.
If you feel like finding out more but only 140 characters at a time, Creative Jam will also be on twitter using the hashtag #CreateNow
The Greatest Debate
Fantastic video of the event by San Ngan, Shaun Maclennan and Olamide Soyemi
The CA Great Debate
All of the First Years and Second Years are put into pairs/threes in their respective year groups. Two weeks before the event they are given five questions, each of which could have a Yes or No response.
Harry tries using his psychic abilities to win his debate
But here's the hook. The Great Debate is a knock-out tournament consisting of five rounds.
Carys gets into the swing of things, whilst Callum listens to the latest sports results
It is judged by Third Years and the students competing will not find out which questions is in which round until just before that round begins.
Elly forgets the question and, instead, describes the world's largest tomato
But more than that, they will not find out which side of the debate they must fight for until seconds before the match begins, giving them a moment or two to look at their notes before battles commences.
Debating on a grand scale
So it's all about understanding not only your argument, but also the perspective of your opponent. You have to, because the only way to win is by having a truly rounded understanding of all sides of each topic.
This year, it was the First Years who claimed glory and whilst we must congratulate Jag from the Creative Advertising Second Year who performed brilliantly to reach the final, our biggest applause is reserved for Carys Thomas, Stefan Renton and Callum Wright who won with a unanimous vote to claim the win.
Thanks to everybody involved for making it the best one yet and particular thanks also go out to San Ngan, Shaun Maclennan and Olamide Soyemi from the CA First Year for putting together the wonderful video that heads this post.
Interviews in Progress
Every year at this time we get a flood of potential new students, eager to earn themselves a place on next years First Year.
This year is no different and we've experience a third consecutive year with a rise in the number of applications. Fantastic!
You see, it's like picking players for your team. You're looking for the right mix of talent, energy, personality and hunger and if you get the right bunch of people together, you can achieve anything.
So, line them up and send them in… We're waiting.
Lily & Amanda, where are they now?
Anyone for a balloon.
'Shedding our uni skins we headed straight down to London, bright eyed and bushy tailed, into our first placement at VCCP, which kicked off in July.
As fate would have it, just after finding out our time there was almost up, we received an email from Indy, associate creative at Kindred. He asked us to pop in for a chat after seeing our portfolio via ‘Ken at BBH’– someone to this day we haven’t actually met, but to whom we are eternally grateful! So pop in for a chat we did, setting up our second placement.
Over the past five months we’ve had a fantastic time with great opportunities from going on several shoots, (including one where our balloon-blowing-up skills were put to the test for Beat Bullying), to working on a series of big pitches and taking the creative reign on a number of campaigns. Three extensions on and one amusingly informal conversation later, we’ve been hired! Our first real life jobs in the mad bad ad world as Junior Creatives – it was like Christmas came early.'
Mother agency visit
Their Mother's would be proud of them.
'It was only 3 hours after leaving Anomaly before we were waiting outside Mother, a building contrasting both in size and style to where we were earlier. The buildings situated 5 minutes away from the train station, but in the time between the two, we passed 1 giant rat, about 45 trainers hanging from a telephone wire and about 100 hipsters, it was awesome. As we walked into the reception area of Mother we were greeted by the slogan “Graffiti is advertising to me” in massive font above the elevators, this pretty much summed up Mother’s creative and youthful style.
An elephant is about to sit on Jonny.
Mother’s policy is about “doing work that makes your mother proud”, and to emphasise this every employee has a picture of their mother up on the wall in the corner of the foyer. As I sat there, admiring the obvious ambition and creative feel of the place, I realised how good it would feel to see my mother up on that wall, and how proud that would make me feel.
However, my daydreaming was soon interrupted as we were shown into their meeting room, the only room in the whole agency with a door. This was not the most interesting aspect of the room though. There was a massive elephants arse coming out of the wall apparently for two reasons, acoustics, and “to kill the elephant in the room” so that people feel more comfortable speaking.
Jonny and Georgie playing with their friend.
We were then lucky enough to be given a presentation by two creative directors Martin and Kyle, as well as Ben Heap. The guys told us all about Mother and its work, all of which I recognized and appreciated. It was not long before I got the sense that this was an amazing place to work. They described how they have events almost every night; they take part in their own projects and they work together around a massive table, like a big family. To me it seemed like a place where everyone is appreciated and you can truly be yourself. It was not long before question time. They answered a variety of questions, some told us about the importance of pairing up with someone that challenges you and also highlighted the necessity of creative pairs in the industry, now, and for the foreseeable future, and one answer in particular disappointed second year Simon, “No, the agency isn’t like Mad Men.”
Unfortunately, it was not long before our time in London was up. But I can tell you, after that day, I wont be gone for long.'
Second years visit Anomaly
The only way is up for Anomaly
Part of the philosophy you will find at Anomaly
No sausages
Upon entering the agencies building we were greeted by a wall of creative quotes, scamped from top to bottom. This was a good start; it already seemed like an interesting place to work. Upon having a few minutes to enjoy the creative wall, we were ushered into tight lifts and taken to the agencies floor.
As the doors of the lift opened, we were greeted by a bright, warming red glow radiating from the hallway, which was painted strikingly, to say the least. We were then led into a boardroom to start the presentation.
The presentation started with Ben Moore telling us all about the company and its strategies. He told us how they really tried to be the “anomaly” of all of the agencies, providing a service completely different and surprising. Through a business like approach, and strong opinions on the direction that the industry is heading, they are a relatively new agency in the UK trying to make big waves, with bigger clients. The presentation carried on, and it was quite interesting, with him showing us the agencies best work, including work for Budweiser and Adidas. But for me, the more interesting part came when we got to speak to the creative pairPaul Mann and CA graduate Mike Cuthell. They are both freelance creative who were very open with us, providing first hand experience of the ups and downs and completely new perspectives on the industry. They reassured us that getting the job is possible, and that it is truly worth it. One particular reoccurring theme of the agency that really made me think was their questioning of the importance of the creative partnership roles. They suggested that the industry would evolve into a place that makes partnerships redundant. However, we soon came to realise that, different agencies have different philosophies when we visited Mother in the afternoon.'
Christmas Crackers
On the lincoln Creative Advertising programme we look at everything as a potential educational opportunity, that's why we thought we'd really test out the students art direction and copywriting skills by getting them to make some Christmas crackers.
The art directors were tasked with creating the most original cracker design whilst the copywriters had to write the best cracker joke. Fun was had by all (partly fuelled by an industrial sized bag of sweets) and the students produced some very creative crackers. As we all know Christmas is all about giving, so Matt Paxton got a giant Toblerone for his Cracker design of Santa delivering D&AD pencils and Alfie Daniell-Waldron also won a Toblerone for a very funny joke which we can't print here.
Ho Ho Ho.
This course is starting to look like an episode of Blue Peter.
Ready, steady, pull.
Christmas at Fallon
Tis the season of goodwill to all creatives and the nice people at Fallon invited the Lincoln Creative Advertising students along to their Christmas bash in order to spread good cheer to all. The night was a great success and the students really enjoyed the opportunity to meet industry professionals in such an inspirational agency. Creative Advertising student, Johnny Fordham explains how the evening went.
'This year, former Lincoln student Diogo and his partner Alice were tasked with finding a solution to Fallon's 2013 Christmas card brief. Instead of the traditional card or email bulletin, the pair decided that they wanted to invite junior Creatives and students to join Creatives from the agency in celebrating the festivities, with free drinks and a great evening. Third years at Lincoln were asked to join them in their celebrations, with around 20 of us attending the event in London. A fun and festive evening coupled with free drinks led to some truly wonderful memories and plenty of contacts being made. Juniors and creative directors all came together, giving us the opportunity to talk about the industry and other interesting topics, with many people being very impressed with the Lincoln turnout, and the almost 300 mile round trip many of us would complete just to attend. Once the evening finished, the Lincoln Creatives left, many of them returning to the mini bus taking them back to Lincoln that night. Draped in tinsel and with some spinning heads, we boarded the bus, tired from the long day but exhilarated by the great evening.
Thank you Fallon for a great day, we hope to see you again next year.'
Leo Burnett welcomes the second years
Outside Leo's and their world-famous sign
Following on from Abi's report about the visit to Ogilvy, here's Emily Walker's report from the recent level 2 visit to Leo Burnett:–
“We were welcomed with open arms to Leo Burnett by Elliot Starr (copywriter and creative partner to Laura Clarke – another successful Lincoln Creative Advertising grad team).
“Elliott had arranged a detailed ‘who’s who’ at the agency and we listened to some great talks by Gus – Account Manager; Lorna – Planning; JJ – Creative Director; and Elliott – Creative.
Excitedly waiting in reception
It's a VERY stylish place
“Elliott had arranged a detailed ‘who’s who’ at the agency and we listened to some great talks by Gus – Account Manager; Lorna – Planning; JJ – Creative Director; and Elliott – Creative.
Listening to the four impressive presentations
(in an equally impressive meeting room!)
“All the talks were witty, informative and all four of the speakers seemed genuinely happy to be working for such a friendly, successful company. The talks were very insightful and inspiring and we were given lots of information into the different roles at an advertising agency. It was very clear how much everyone worked together in order to produce such fantastic work.
“They showed us examples of the great work the agency has created over the past few years. We all walked out of the meeting room with huge smiles on our faces and heads buzzing with excitement. It really was an excellent visit.
Elliott leaves the students with some inspiring words of wisdom
Apples have become a symbol for Leo Burnett ever since Leo Burnett put out a bowl of apples at reception when he opened his doors in the middle of the Great Depression. Opening in the middle of the Great Depression caused a lot of talk and people said it would not be long before Leo Burnett would be selling apples on the street. Apples continue to be a symbol of Leo Burnett’s hospitality and success throughout the years.
Second years visit Ogilvy
Ogilvy's rather swanky offices in Canary Wharf, London
Here's level 2 Creative Advertising student Abigail Wither's report on the recent student visit to Ogilvy in London:–
“On Friday 29th November 2013 level two Creative Advertising students visited Ogilvy & Mather in Canary Wharf, London. We sat in some very cool chairs and met some very cool people.
“The visit was run by Tom and Daz who graduated from the Lincoln's Creative Advertising course five years ago. They reinforced all the advice that Justin, Mike and Gyles keep giving us on the course: observations lead to insight; commitment is critical; always keep it simple and aim high. It felt great actually sitting in an ad agency rather than siting in the studio in Lincoln.
The second years admiring Ogily's creative decor.
“Tom and Daz carefully explained the structure of Ogilvy and talked us through the various stages of creating an advert from the initial briefing to every level the idea goes through before it's actually produced. We learned about traffic, client presentations, TV production, digital executions, being on-set, production and, naturally, finance.
“As part of the visit Tom & Daz arranged people from different areas of the agency to come and speak to us:
– Will Smith, Account Executive, whose role is to bridge the gap between the creatives and the client.
– Kim Parrett, TV Producer, who works with the creatives to make their ideas into a TV ad (who also reminded us that we should never be frightened to say ‘I don’t know’ because she still says it and that’s the only way we are going to learn).
Kim gives the students some great advice.
“We also got to meet Mark Doyle, Project Director at The Blue Hive, responsible for all of Ford's marketing, who reminded us to never be arrogant and always be willing to learn.
“I could write for hours on everything we learnt, but overall it was a very eye opening and incredibly informative visit. Thanks to everyone involved.”
Thanks Abbie. And a huge thanks to Tom and Daz who organised everything and made the visit so worthwhile. Cheers guys!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
