All in a golden afternoon with Futurerising...

 

 On Friday 5th February, creative advertising at LCA were given a treat; an event designed by Futurerising - where lots of authentic, no nonsense advice was given by Jeremy Garner (CD Weapon7, Michaela Nicchiotti (Creative, Cheil Worldwide) and Eddie Fisher (Creative, W+K) , along with an hour 'hit'.  Read on to reflect on this truly golden afternoon...

 

After a warm-up outlining the structures of the creative advertising industry by Donald (futurerising), Jeremy offered five words 'to keep things easy'; Risk, Trust, Oppose, Story and Absorb. He illustrated each point with reference to a campaign; with Risk he gave us the catch - Trust - smart skate for two , Oppose - a bit of 180 degree thinking for UNICEF , Story - Dynamo vs Coulthard adding  "always storyboard stuff", asserting storytelling as especially important today where media is so fragmented . For Absorb he urges us to break outside the industry in order to keep our creativity interesing, giving examples of his other creative projects paintings (Jelly Buckingham) and writing thrillers (alias, Seth Garner).

 

The break out session gave an exciting buzz to the afternoon, where LCA creatives worked in teams on either 'UP' by Jawbone, the Nike Fuelband or Fitbit. After which teams had a mere 90 seconds to pitch their idea infront of their peers and the three professionals. The winners; Cicely, Bill, George & Harvey (featured) came up with an interesting idea for UP where mums are made redundant with a social media element involving P45s being sent via Mumsnet. Congrats again and we trust you enjoyed the wine!

 

Michela offered us some insightful creative  solutions with new media, from not getting your hands dirty while baking cakes (with motion sensors on the ipad to turn pages on recipes) to setting challengs with  bake brave . There was also a romantic idea with the message involving geo taging notes a place to the one you love and sending the location via google maps for (only) them to find. Michela advises lots of book crits, which gives exposure and like Jeremy, to work on a personal (creative) project.  

 

 Finally, Eddie gave a sizzling presentation on approaching agencies and turning  placements into jobs. Eddie and his creative partner had about 10 placements in 18mths and then were offered a job by VCCP creating things like the galloping Cow; from there they moved to W+K. He then offered six principles which conflate into; getting a job as a creative needs hard graft, get as many placements as possible, keep developing your book, get the timing right, don't get complacent (kills creativity) and keep your creative curiosity going by being a sponge (echoing Fink, Hegarty and Garner) - generally do the opposite of what is 'usual', reading genres you wouldn’t usually choose* etc. - with an aim to become a well-rounded creative.  Other advice which we've heard before was 'be nice' -become a crucial member of a team (this takes time and lots of placement experience), manage time and he ended by reminding students, level 6 (3rd years) they have 17 weeks left and the level 5, 54 weeks to 'smash it'.

 

 Subsequently (6^th Feb) Fisher sent an email (forwarded to you by Fabio titled useful links from Eddie Fisher) – read it and check out these photos of our afternoon. We know each of you took something from this event (for some, red wine) which is perfect timing for the Personal and Professional Practice modules (that is the advice, not the wine).

  

*Following Fisher's advice, why not join our course bookclub to read stuff you may not usually choose? We’re currently reading 'The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult our next meeting is 24th April in the green studio (with windows). Emily Hall (Level 4) had a great idea to launch the club with wet sponges detailing the next book, which lends itself to a bit of user generated content -  we look forward to the videos...

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.

Hopes and dreams cannot be exchanged or refunded exhibition by Paula Chambers

The talk by Paula Chambers earlier today was really interesting. Particulaly in terms of the ideas that influenced the objects such as experiences of motherhood and the study of (1990s) feminism with Griselda Pollock. The subversive details included in the two sculptural pieces Daddy's Little Princess and Daddy's Little Girl were particularly provocative. Made with vintage sewing patterns in the form of two single-bed headboards these pieces depict behaviours by females, not usually found in commercial imagery. One of the panels in the headboard made of 1950s patterns includes a girl holding a copy of The Second Sex by Simone de beauvoir. This reminded me of all the clothes that my mother made for me with the skills she learnt from her mother (pictured left). Likewise the 'fake archive' Mother Knows Best for Beatrice reveals moments where anger is expressed towards children by their mothers. This was shown in the visual language of illustrations by Beatrice Potter, whose stories often include violence. The exhibtion continues until 10th April 2012 enjoy!