Sir John Hegarty's Keynote are key themes of Behind the glass Mosaic 1913 2013

Sir John Hegarty gave an interesting and inspirational speech yesterday at Leeds Town Hall, for the 2013 graduation ceremony of Leeds College of Art. 


Hegarty eloquently touched on a key theme of the forthcoming exhibition Behind the glass Mosaic 1913  2013; the nature of creativity.

The starting point of the exhibition are the words of artist and art educator Gordon Forsyth (1879-1952), who in 1913 said something similar about the nature of creativity -also to a group of art students in a town hall (in Stoke). Forsyth said 'art was [...] the embodiment of the spiritual aspirations of life' and is cultivated from the inner self.

Both Forsyth and Hegarty have objected to those who try and subjugate art to science; art is immeasurable. A theme of the exhibition is the challenge of making visible the essence of art education that exists in dialogue, actions and happenings that set the stage for creativity to occur. 

Hegarty like Jagodzinski (2013) and Dafiotis (2013) assert that by it's very nature creativity cannot be defined.

Tutors presently working at Leeds College of Art were asked to respond to the question; does your creative practice inform your learning design? The exhibition evidences the responses of nine tutors, which is contextualised in debates surrounding art education in 1913 and 2013.


 You are invited to enjoy a glass of fizz at the preview of Behind the glass Mosaic 1913  2013, at Blenheim Walk - Friday 13th Dec 4pm - 5pm. The exhibition runs till 14th January.

YCN success; work hard and be nice

Kaitlin Piltcher and Danielle Jackson received a well-deserved commendation from YCN at the awards night on tues 2nd Sept. They were among 9 from LCA.

The Awards were presented by various YCN members including Lord Whitney (based in Leeds) who also styled the event - inspired by King Midas  turning everything gold (including  random objects found in  table displays).

The lovely Anna and Felicity from UGG, who were sat at our table were full of compliments for their work, they also kindly gave the course a new UGG brief -  just one of the smashing treats we have up our sleeves for 13/14!

We all enjoyed a lovely posh meal laid on by the Marriot Hotel, in Grovesnor square. After the main course Danielle and Kaitlin were presented with their golden medals and certificates (see quality photo above). Then we had our pud.

 Their outstanding UGG campaign will be published in the forthcoming YCN annual, so look out for that. In the meantime check out Liv and Steph's work in last years annual. 

Danielle and Kaitlin are currently plotting to target agencies in Manchester, we reckon they're in for a golden future - as long as they take heed of the advice given by many of the presenters that evening; work hard and be nice to people.

Summer Exhibitions; 19 Degrees, New Blood, YBN and more

Is it really a month since the 19 Degrees Exhibition; and 20 days since our début at New Blood with Débutantes?

Blimey.

In the end 19 Degrees,went swimmingly with work catching the eye of many, including Epiphany and Ponderosa.

Likewise, thanks to James Rafter and his co-débutantes we were successfully introduced to New Blood society. Our stand got plenty of interest from industry including; Langlands,Ogilvy, JWT, Publicis and Mother.  Listen below to 4 of our débutantes who were interviewed at New Blood and offer advice to those of you exhibiting next year:

James (project manager) & Alex Legret, Jen Crothers & Zoe Harrison

Summer exhibitions are a great way to refresh the mind. Personally I'm going to check out the Young British Naturists at the White Cloth Gallery - displaying photographs by  Laura Pannack, whose work has featured in campaigns for Dove and Oxfam.

Please leave comments and share your experiences about the exhibitions you visit this summer - hope you have a good one.

Our Beautiful Beattie Boost

Trevor Beattie announced Anna Whyte as the winner during a crit he (kindly) headed in our studios yesterday. Congratulations Anna! You’ve bagged yourself a BMB placement - whoop! 

Jenny Crothers and Gina Martin came second, with Cow Factory getting them a (well-deserved) Sabotage Times -placement through their "gravity of thinking, art direction and adaptation of an idea” whoop!

Copywriter Charlie Frank's Secrets Worth Spreading "lovely work" shared third with an idea that caused  a "visceral reaction" - Kids Can't Keep Their Hands Off -by Lachlan Gilchrist and Chris Russell - whoop!

Beattie's visit not only provided everyone with a boost (as students commented on the confidence it has given their creative practice) we all came away wiser. For instance, Trevor made a few comments regarding the size of creative teams', as Cicely, Damien and Bill presented their Perfect Fit, he complimented their 3-person team, stating "We've got a few at BMB". He later said that over the next three years the industry standard will be for creative individuals to work in different-sized teams.

After a public vote on 'creativity' and 'presentation' skills- where everyone was a bit too modest, Trevor gave his critical evaluation (showing critical awareness of the highest order in motion). Firstly, he pointed to a number of underdeveloped ideas; Grace's Pet Cow was "undersold and undercooked" and he could "see the film and that's when you know it's a great idea". Sam's Callier's three; Explore beyond, She has her mother's eyes and Picnicking Clone Troopers - were all potential greats and Alex and Zoe's Most Generous Kid in the World was "a mature piece of thinking".

The images that will stay with him forever include, Geoffrey sucking the cows teat and what the real arms (within Lachlan and Chris's work) were doing - as opposed to the papier-mâché ones - adding "truly disturbing".

Anna's ideas won simply due to their volume and greatness including; When I grow up I want to be Dairylea, The Cracker in Love With Mary Lea, Dairy Lea T Party and Mum Sneaking Dairylea.

Beattie's generosity spilled out from the studio into the pub - treating everyone to drinks. Where, for a brief moment I personally was transported from the Library Pub in Leeds to a bar in Covent Garden, discussing BMB current pitches, with one of the best creative minds in the world. Thanks for the Boost Trevor and see you next year – or maybe at New Blood? X

Janine Sykes

Year Tutor

'Creative Tools' when freelancing.

For some students the 'Creative Tools' might not at first seem relevant or important to the process of 'Creative Thinking'.

I've been using them throughout my career, but not with the names that we've given them or withiut actually realising they exist outside of my mind. Sometimes what may seem like intuition to me, can be ascribed to a 'Creative Tool. So they are useful and are great aids to call upon, particularly when freelancing.

Of all the creative tools we ask our students to explore, There's one I use quite a lot when freelancing - 100mph Thinking. The reason for this is it's the best way to get down as many ideas as possible. This can be quite useful when I only have one day to produce initial ideas for a client presentation. If I'm lucky I might get 2 days to generate ideas, so again it proves very useful.

Research is also very important and I've used this to great effect, again when there's little time to explore many routes. Primary research has led me to many ideas, which I wouldn't have arrived at without first reading about the problem/product etc etc...

So use them, get to know them, and you'll find it becomes second nature when looking for creative solutions.

Advertising Week - a time to be social

Trevor Beattie opened the Advertising Week conference yesterday with an announcement that the 30-second-ad is dead.

You can get involved in the event by joining the advertising week social club; through the blog (check out the student area) and/or facebook and linkedIn.

The blog gives you access to many of the sessions and the AWSC  linkedIn enables you to join in discussions.

Go on, be social and maybe even leave a comment about something interesting you come across...

Where does 'creativity' come from

I don't know if you watched this Horizon programme, but you should.

A fascinating insight into how the brain works and how and where 'creativity' happens.

A few great examples of how we can harness the power of creativity and make it work for us.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mgxf

Advertising is not an Art form

Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs - Marlene Dietrich

Tiffiny Jenkins, asserted last night that advertising is not an art form. Jenkins was part of the panel which eloquently presented the What is good Art? debate at Leeds City Art Gallery.

A truth

Jenkins began the debate outlining that contemporary art critics and commentators are resistant to exclaim their judgements on what is good. Progressing to outline three aspects that judgements entail; a contextual understanding of art, contemporary experience and knowledge  and an understanding that good art speaks a truth. Immediately, I recalled Hegarty during a talk at LCA (2010) stating that creative advertising tells a truth in an interesting way - which is the first point I want to make in support of creative advertising being an art form.

Creative circle

Nigel Walsh unpacked the importance of context to aesthetic judgements, through reflecting back to postwar NY (Tom Wolf, Barnett Newman) and the role of the creative circle. He then pointed at an interesting paradox; our contemporary obsession with celebrity culture (artists) that's resulted in the democratisation of art (diminishing the creative circle) -qualified with the success of Tate Modern, -incidentally a brand judged as 'cool', [good ] by a panel of '39' creative professionals Campaign (2012).  The criteria they used was 'innovation, originality, style, authenticity, desirability and uniqueness' - themes discussed in the debate. 

 Negative Knowledge

Ken Hay, unpicked more complexities regarding criteria and summarised that the interaction between creatives and audiences give meaning to art and that it is this that decides what is good. A view in harmony with this IPA publication. Hay ended with an interesting assertion 'art is the negative knowledge of the world'.  Which again - made me recall Hegarty, who states that Advertising is an Art not a Science -around the time he picked up the Lion of St Mark at the international festival of creativity at Cannes.

Transcending qualities

Antonia Stowe an artist involved in the Trinity Leeds development - (congratulations again Jacob as event manager) asserted the qualities of good art, in transforming Leeds. The transcending qualities of great work such as think small by DDB - springs to mind. Our (Chris, Jane & I) contributions to the debate included are can advertising be good art? and does the creation of good art depend on a particular 'process'? You already know Jenkins' response, adding that advertising cannot transcend time - old adverts are just something to laugh at and are some low form of art -a rather habbitual view I feel. Therefore as a remedy, I recommend a read of Art and Advertising by J. Gibbons who points to creatives such as Tony Kaye who employs methods and themes often associated with high art. I also recommend that we put the panel members on the invitation list to our forthcoming exhibition; 19 degrees from 17th June.

Creative Advertising is an art form

Project manager Alex and partner Zoe (placement RAPP UK) will be pleasantly surprised with the renewed buzz surrounding the final year exhibition, which is to have a presence at New Blood. The proposition for the exhibition 19 degrees; Creative Advertising is an art form is a result of a meeting yesterday. 

Coincidently, on Tuesday, 12th March, 2013 there is a talk at Leeds City Art Gallery which revisits questions that surround aesthetic judgement. Critical awareness is one of those lovely learning objectives on all our briefs and is a skill required of Creative Directors, panels of judges, art educationalists and students - in critical evaluations.

Therefore, the Creative Advertising team intends to attend the talk - run by Leeds Salon and recommends the event to the CA community (alumni and partners). So, time to skim read a bit of Kant and purchase a ticket! That's if your not on the train to the Creative Circle event, which seems to be where most of Level 6 are heading - make sure you don't end up like the Bellarmine (image above).

The talk is connected to the Dawn Chorus exhibition at Leeds City Art Gallery and speakers include cultural commentator Tiffany Jenkins; Curator Nigel Walsh, Deputy Head of the School of Design, Univeristy of Leeds Kenneth Hay and Artist Antonia Stowe.


Image above: Renee So, Drunken Bellarmine, 2012. Wool, acrylic, oak tray frame.
Courtesy Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre London © the artist

Hospitality

Creative Advertising is host to many visitors recently, starting off with Neil Wallace (Art Director, Brass) who kindly came to our studios to give a final crit to Level 5 - Thanks Neil. Then there was Paul from Face, whose talk included some advice about working in creative (online collectives). Then Joel from Link Communications, gave us some interesting insights to experiential marketing. We are also looking forward to a visit from Trevor Beattie, in April who is setting a 24 hr brief to our L5 & L6 creatives.
Hospitality was the theme of Liverpool Biennial 2012 exploring tourism, immigration and being a host. these topics continue through recent visits to York, Liverpool, New York and L'Aquila (well virtually anyway).

Our tourist behaviour includes visiting the NRM to see 'Whatever the weather, selling train travel in winter and  the York Chocolate Story.  More recently during an annual visit (18th Feb), to Liverpool Tate / Albert Dock and  Port Sunlight we came across Thresholds an exhibition that continued the hospitality theme '...throughout all the works ...runs a question of place and identity, name and belonging.

A piece that caused some interest was Royal Ascot (1994) by Mark Wallinger - The video depicted the royal carriage at different years of the races, where the Queen replicated her movements where the BBC seemed to use the same editing formula year-on-year. The repetition explored British identity, class, rituals and history. Interesting stuff for those that need to target audiences with creative ideas...