Wednesday 2 July 2008

A Creative Director And Me

Ahh, well it feels good to be back behind the keyboard ready to post properly! Have you bloggers missed me? HA!

Right so let me tell you a little about Mondays adventure.

My meeting was arranged for 1pm so I was getting the 10am train up to Manchester. I took my mum along for the day because she was paying and I wanted the company. We go some seats on the train which was PACKED and then at the next stop two teenage girls and their mums got on. They were from Stafford which meant they had the most wierd and annoying accents you would ever hear. And the best bit, they were LOUD! I spent the hour journey listening to the girls sing out of tune to their ipods, argue whether Kate Moss should be dead or alive and if she has had any plastic surgery. It was riverting, one of the girls even had to explain how a train travels!

"I thought trains went like super fast, this one is going proper slow!" Says Girl 01.

"Yeah, but like we are going into the next station arnt we so it is going like slowly so it doesnt crash." Replies Girl 02.

"Oh right okay, so will it go dead fast then after this station." Asks Girl 01.

"I don't know, but Kate Moss has definately had plastic surgery, have you not like seen her face! She should definately be dead." Said Girl 02.

So, as you can imagine it was quite a longggg trip! Half way to Manchester I get a phone call from the PA of the Creative Director asking if we could rearrange the meeting for another day as a urgent meeting had just come up. Typical. I explained that I was already on my way so she kindly arranged for me to meet with the Deputy Creative Director and Head of Art instead.

When we arrived at Manchester Picadilly my mum and myself wandered through the city to find the agency, which we found quite easily. We then made our way to the nearest coffee shop for some lunch and a drink. Cafe Nero was our destination and I had a Vanilla Fescato and a Meat Ball panini! The panini was cold and a bit yuk but the Frescato was top!!!

After sitting around for over an hour waiting for the meeting I made my way back up the road to the agency. I managed to find myself going in the back door to the building and getting lost for a good 5 minutes. Finally I found a sign and made my way to the front door and buzzed the agency. A woman let me in and told me to climb to the first floor, which I did. I found that the agency was not on the first floor at all so made my way up to what ended up being the 4th floor. How stupid can a receptionist really be?!

Entering the agency I acidentally allowed the door to slam shut behind me and as it was an open plan office, found myself being stared at by most of the creatives and account manager working at their desks. A very good start I thought. I was greeted by the receptionist and told to take a seat. My choice of seat consisted of two deck chairs and a swinging bench. I did not realise the bench was swinging until I threw myself onto it and nearly fell off. Causing more embarrassment and my heart to race.

After a minute I was ushered through the office and into one of the meeting rooms, where I proceeded to sit on my own in silence for another 30 minutes waiting for the Deputy Creative Director (DCD). I pondered what the meeting would be like, and calmed down. I observed the office through the window. There were creatives sat at large desks with expensive apple macs and huge monitors. They were all listening to the radio and chatting away, it looked like a great environment to work in.

Finally the DCD came in a sat down and we started chatting. It was first established that they would not beable to take me on for a placement this summer as they were under staffed and as I was a first year I would need my hand holding too much. Dissapointed we carried on. I had spent most of last week and the weekend preparing ideas, storyboards, ad concepts etc to take with me. They were all neatly mounted onto black foam board and I felt quite proud of my achievements. The DCD did not quite agree.

He spent the next twenty minutes trashing my ideas and my art work. The only things he liked were the few slogans I had thrown in here and their. I was going into that meeting as an aspiring art director but left wondering if I was more suited to copy writing. He liked on idea more than the rest but still picked many faults with it, I felt that he was not impressed at all by what I was showing him. I found this strange as my uni tutor, who has 20 years in the industry and was a creative director herself LOVED all my ideas and proclaimed I had the most talent in the group! I felt a little hurt, as you would, and did not really know what to say. The DCD told me to keep in touch, come back for more critiques of my work, and then probably have a placment next summer. I left the meeting with mixed feelings.

It was great to see a working agency, it was great to get a contact in the industry and I suppose it was great to have my work trashed as it tells me I am going to have to work harder. I felt that I had come quite along way for such a short meeting. But this is the way it is I suppose. I am definately going to keep in touch with them and go see them throughout next year for sure. I maybe just wish he had something a little more positive to say at the end of the meeting to make me feel just a little bit better.

The trip back home was relatively uneventful accept for an amusing, big breasted girl snoring like a wild bore on the train and driving an australian family sitting next to her insane. I love to people watch, and Monday gave me a lot of time to do it! Manchester city center was lovely, I have been for a night out there once but don't remember much of it, and hadn't been into the center since I was 11 and a lot has changed.

So there we go, if you managed to read all that I congradulate you and you are obviously a very dedicated person! Please leave me a comment if you like. I am going to write the next installment of Untitled In Progress later on today as I am having withdrawal symptoms and people have been asking for more. I might also scan in some of the stuff I took with me on Monday so you can all see the kind of stuff I have been talking about. So please do come back.

Finally, I am wondering if there is any way I could create an archive of sorts to put all of the Untitled In Progress posts into so people can navigate to them easily?

Catch You Later x

8 comments:

Niesha Miller said...

Hahaha I love people watching too. I remember last week when I was on the train I over heard 3 older men discussing the best way to kill Dracula! hahaha

Laura said...

didnt sound like a great day did it? Don't worry about it though, because obviously it wasn't for you. If your tutor at uni loved your work, then obviously it is good. Some people just appreciate different types of work I guess. I hate teenage girls [though I am one myself?], because they always want to talk about fashion and crap, and I'm just simple and don't get too hung up on the latest fad. It's nice to chill out once in a while too. Not sure about archiving? perhaps search the blog help pages?

SavvyD said...

I should SERIOUSLY never go to Britain. I am way too loud. Some people here in America already think I'm scandalous enough! I wouldn't have been embarrassed in the least by the door slamming.

BTW--You can give your posts labels that we can click on (Like I have for each of the guys I have dated!) and also my archive has the titles of all my posts so you will have to change the format or something.

SavvyD said...

Also--double check on some spellings in your work. I try to keep my blog as error-free as possible just to make it more acceptable. :) Maybe the ad exec saw some problems.

The Reluctant Dreamer said...

People are way to loud when riding public transportation...I learned that years agao and I guess nothing has changed...you'd think they'd be respectful of the folks around them.

As far as the dude who obviously didn't appreciate your talent...forget him. I mean he did see you and maybe you should come back next year as he suggested but only if you feel up to it. One of the things I've learned and lived by is....You have to be your own biggest fan!!!!!

Keep loving what you do and thinking its the best and you'll have true happiness.

decobooth said...

I know this isn't what you asked me over to read, and I promise I will begin reading your latest installment soon, but this for some reason caught my eye first. I enjoyed your account and am only sorry you had to be confronted with the interviewer as you were. You were so proud and he was so indelicate with his response. Not necessary and not good people skills on his part. I would truly love to see your boards, please do scan them in if you can. I know you're very creative just from what I've read so far, and I'm not near finished reading what you have here. But it's been my experience so far that creativity doesn't limit itself. You truly are quite creative and talented in your writing, so I can't imagine you aren't in most other endeavors as well. I'm glad you aren't letting what he said pull you down too much (at least that's the impression I get from this), and you are making the situation positive, good job you! Please keep at it. And I will keep at reading everything else on here and commenting as I can. It's quite fun and a very pleasant change from all I have to do. Thank you for coming back to apartmental and asking me back, I have a tendency to get lost in work and forget! Please don't forget to scan and post the boards, I'm quite looking forward to seeing them!
decobooth
www.apartmental.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Humanity has alot of work to do before they ever reach the state where they actually "care" what goes on in public transportation.

It stinks to see people suffering because someone just couldnt "stop" their actions and think maybe i am annoying someone i feel for you man

But trust me americans are worse and i know from experience being one but not part of the problem anyways

Bitter Chocolate said...

Sorry the appointment didn't go too well... public transportation is a NIGHTMARE. Seriously, they should make horror series about it - I know what I'm talking about, I spend most of my year travelling back and forth between two cities which are pretty far from each other, which means that I have to endure a 7-hour-long train trip 4 times a month. And, having seen all the weirdos, erm, my fellow passangers, I came to the conclusion that normal people cease to exist once they get on the board of the damn vehicle...