Young Team of the Year

Woah, only just realised it has been November since our last post....I blame the copywriter personally. So...

It's that time of year again and as the sunshine began to grace London's shores we headed over to the London Art House for the Young Team of the Year competition run by the Newspaper Society.

Another one-day competition, the idea is to answer a brief in 5 hours and present it, all with the focus on local media. Our brand this year was Mars and the brief was pretty good, focusing around their sports credentials. Once again, our good friend and fellow YCCer Julia Earthrowl came up trumps (the girl with the Midas touch obviously - she came runner up in the UK last year, then only went and won Best YET in Belgium) with her partner and also fellow YCCer, Polo.


There was a pretty impressive judging panel lined up, featuring Shaun McIlrath (ECD of Iris), Phil Kitching (DCD of Iris) Paul Belford (ECD of Thisisrealart), Tiger Savage (ECD of Tiger'sEye), Joe De Souza (CD of Karmarama) & Sam Ball (CD of Lean Mean Fighting Machine). Stef Jones (CD of Big Al's Creative Emporium). As with last year, once the judges arrived, they went around the groups seeing if they could offer bits of advice before the final bell went.

We'd love to show you what work we came up with, unfortunately all our scamps were destroyed in a mini flood at the Art House. It does sound like a bit of a 'dog ate my homework' tale but we can assure you our ideas weren't THAT bad.

There will be a full write up of the day on the YCC website soon so if you'd like to read a bit more, head on over! In the meantime, congratulations again to Julia and Polo and to runners-up Dave Wigglesworth and his partner.

PS cheers to Mike for me pilfering his pics and list of peeps. You know I love ya!

Don't say I never told you Mike was a sexy bitch

The Young Creative Council

The last few months have seen us become involved with the Young Creative Council. We blogged about Unite II, a portfolio night that went down a storm, and have been organising a few bits and bobs around that. One of the things we've been trying to organise is to try and get regular contact with universities around the country and start to work with them. So, Luke and I headed on down to UCA Farnham along with a few other grads in the hope that some of our enthusiasm and stories of our own experiences would rub off and inform the next generation of grads about some of the goings-on in the industry.

A few Mondays ago, Luke and I journeyed down to our old uni, UCA Farnham, to give a little talk on our progress in the industry and for us in particular, to give the YCC a face (albeit a couple of ugly faces) to some of the newest grads.

Some of the lovely Farnham-ites

It was great to see how our old course had grown. When we were there our class had about 30 people. The first year now has 65 students – quite an impressive increase. More impressive still was that most of them turned up again after lunch! We obviously didn’t bore them enough.

Fellow grads who presented with us were Louis Downs, a spirited entrepeneur, Lauren Dyer, now at DDB Health, Helen Trickey and Becky Coyle (UCA Epsom grad) from Rufus Leonard and Will Marsden and his partner Jordan Down from Ogilvy. All of us offered a slightly different perspective; Louis has gone it alone since graduating, having dabbled in publishing, web design and branding; Lauren (who is easily the most motivated person I’ve met) tried to encourage people to avoid fear and ‘do’; Helen and Becky described their respective roles at the agency, from branding to digital design; and Will and Jordan described their experiences or differing cultures at agencies and their way of approaching and delivering work.

As I’ve said, the purpose of our talk was to offer the students a bit of advice from people who have just gone through what they are about to go through. Luke and I found that once we left uni, we weren’t under-prepared but we certainly didn’t expect the situation to be as it was. We don’t in any way profess to know everything or to have it right – but who does? All we can do is offer our perspectives and hope that our mistakes can be built on by others so that they don’t make the same mistakes.

University is the perfect place for groups like us to have contact with – our experiences are still very fresh in our minds, and we know what extra stuff we would have benefitted us whilst there. As well as that, once students graduate their time will be taken up with searching for work and worrying about money (now more than ever), so getting in as early as possible can help to avoid or at least curtail certain of these issues.

Again, as the YCC, we aren’t a bunch of know-it-alls – we’re learning from all this too – we’re just willing to have our brains picked and are more than willing to help out anyone who thinks we can provide it to.

http://youngcreativecouncil.wordpress.com/

YCC Unite

So it has been a long time since our last post, we have been very busy with a number of things - YCC being the one we're going to talk about!

Last Thursday, the YCC held our second Unite event, a night showcasing some of the best graduate portfolios out there. The turnout was really impressive, with over 20 teams in attendance and a host of industry representatives from agencies like Inferno, RGA, AKQA, Glue, M&C Saatchi, Work Club, JWT, Ogilvy, Arnold KLP and Creative Orchestra.


The aim of the night was to try and start a precedent within the industry, grads in particular, where the attitude of self-help and 'doing' is ever present. What the members of the YCC may not necessarily have had when we were looking for jobs is what we are trying to offer, and to create a group of future industry leaders who are united in one goal. We are not here to mentor, but we can offer a perspective that not many others possess as we’ve just gone through the process and know what is lacking.

In the wake of the event we’ve had a few people comment, namely Andy Sadoz from Work Club and Chris Arnold of Creative Orchestra. Chris' article on Brand Republic hit the nail on the head, and after all the work that went into the event, it was great to see that those already established in the industry can see how the YCC was born out of necessity - as Chris says "A group of young creatives who rather than sit on their arse complaining there's no jobs and the pay's crap, are getting out there and changing the game."


We may not be experts in our chosen field, but we are the most recent bunch of grads to get jobs after the recession and seeing as all of us are employed at agencies, we can offer those a year or two behind us some first hand advice that isn't available all of the time. Our main aim at the YCC is a sort of selfish selflessness, if that makes sense - the reputation of British teams is suffering (we have been told by a few people that some agencies would rather not hire British teams as they’re perceived as less forward thinking) and we are not prepared to let that happen. Grads from places like Sweden, Brazil and Holland are extremely impressive, and have a lot of backing behind them. If we want the next generation of British graduates to be competitive and among the best in the world, then it is up to us to affect this change.

As the YCC mantra dictates, "People who do, change the world. Everyone else is just living here." We'd rather not just live here.

Visit the YCC here.

Lissie

Well after a number of weeks of inactivity on this blog we're back and with a piece of our work! We have been busy to the max the last few weeks, having just finished an extended stay at Sony Music under the tutorship of Steve Milbourne and Phil Clandillon, two of the coolest and nicest guys we could have hoped to work for. We originally came into the Sony fold for a few weeks to produce 'something' for Lissie - a girl with one of the most amazing voices we've heard and down to earth nature to go with it. Steve and Phil are known for their low budget, high impact stuff and amongst other accolades, were Best in Book in this year's Creative Review Annual, so to say we were bricking it would be an understatement. To see why, some of their work is here for you to take a peek at.
To cut a long story short, our concept was an interactive music video to be controlled by the weather. By clicking on a weather map under the video, the weather data is pulled and represented by the performances of Lissie and her band. After a few evolutions of the idea, the execution was refined and trimmed down to make it work by the boys and Simon Poon Tip, producer extraordinaire and all round lovely bloke. The website was made by the guys at Half Cyborg who did an awesome job, we think it looks lovely. So, I guess there isn't much else to say from this point other than enjoy, here's the link again.

Awwwww, ain't they cute?

Wishing my partner in crime, Luke and our goody buddy Alfred Malmros the best of luck in Cannes this week. Enjoy the yachts, parties and booze! (Oh and cheers for leaving me with all the work, you monobrowed bastard.)

An unusual update

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, we've finally managed to get a quick post in.

Last week we started working at Sony music and will be for here for several weeks. It's a pretty exciting project to be involved in and we're hoping that it'll be our first piece of work that really becomes big.

We'll try to provide a few updates.

A Grown Up Meeting

Last weekend Luke had the interesting job of documenting Innocent's AGM with the use of an iPhone taped to a big orange helmet.


You can see the photos that were captured here, along with a few tweets to add a bit of context. What you might not see are all the faces of the people he walked past on the journey from his house to Fruit Towers or hear the laughter of the people on the tube. That he will be keeping to himself.

The Consumer Cam as it was named, was dreamt up by the gang at RIG. They were asked to make sure the show the day from the consumers point of view, instead of what Innocent wanted to put across. Something that really shows the nice human side to the company and their attempts to be honest in what they do.

The day itself was really rather good, with tasting sessions for new recipes, Q+A sessions with the founders and fun presentations to understand the goings on behind the scenes.

More of the highlights can be seen on the Innocent blog and a video below of all the pictures sped up.

Well who's a lucky boy then?

He's a man's man, according to Foursquare anyway

As well as having been crowned Cyber king of the Guardian competition, Luke was also deemed most manly man of all by FCUK, who were using Foursquare checkins to judge by. In a busy, busy two weeks, he graced with his presence, Wembley stadium, Charlton's mighty Valley, and the not so mighty Selhurst park, as well as a host of burrito joints and pubs. The cunning stunt also decided to name my house in tribute to someone dear to my heart, for which he will eventually pay dearly. As he deceived FCUK of his true manly actions, he has been instructed to buy me some nice socks to appease me for the time being. The joys of being in a creative team, eh? Here's the article. And here are our stalk co-ordinates Luke, Wilf.

UPDATE: Having worked with Luke for 2 years now, I was shocked and horrified to see this in a phone box up in town one day, I am considering contacting FCUK to have his title removed as this is clearly not manly behaviour and he's been hiding this secret life from all of us...

Shocking, I know, but I guess we all have secrets...

In other news, the 'boy' has also been selected to be the "outsider" at the Innocent AGM, which is happening this coming Saturday. He'll be giving us a bigger report on that after it's all happened. Follow the meeting on Innocent's Twitter accounts here and here.

We've been

Enjoying spending some time in the company of other creative teams, attending industry events, competitions and generally working on our book. It’s been a busy two months, full with highs and lows but it’s been fun that’s for sure. The main highlights are below, some of which may be old news for some readers who follow our twitter.

UK Young Lions winners 2010

Luke entered the Guardian Cannes Young Lions competition with our good friend Alfred who is a very switched on lad (Wilf could not enter as he works freelance and is not based in an agency). They did well, claiming a runners-up spot in the print category. Happily, they won the Cyber category with the idea shown in the film below. It means they are heading to Cannes to compete against teams from across the world and to show the world what the UK has to offer.

Centrepoint - Websites Sleeping Rough from Alfred Malmros on Vimeo

The Newspaper Society

A few weeks ago we also attended the ‘Young team of the year’ competition (Run by the Newspaper Society). We were given a brief to produce a campaign for Strongbow that would run in local media. We had to present our idea to a panel of top judges by the end of the day and the experience of generating ideas in a room full of other teams was pretty rewarding. After speaking to most of the teams, it seems like there was a very similar thought in each teams idea but the teams that won managed to quickly convert it into an original execution. Afterward, some lovely people with cameras asked us all to explain our idea which you can see below (Best to click through to watch it on YouTube).

Err, yeah.....

We didn’t win but the two teams that did were given the chance to go and face the rest of Europe on another brief at ‘BestYet team of the year’. And we can now report that one of the UK teams (Gavin and Julia) won the competition.Below you can watch a little piece of content that the Newspaper Society have produced to generate views of the work and interest in future competitions (Again best to click through to watch it on YouTube).

An inspiring project

This is one of the best ideas we’ve seen in a long time and it’s spurred us into writing a post on here again.

Introducing Robin of Shoreditch, a collective of people that are using their talent to help the people of Haiti, in the best way they can. They've developed the 100 Brands project. An idea that we should all inspire to create once in our careers, an idea that helps people for a good reason. We cannot fully do it justice, so it’s best to watch the video below as to fully understand how important it is as a project.

The 100 Brands Project from Robin of Shoreditch on Vimeo.

You can view each idea they produce on the 100 brands project channel and get a more in-depth look at how the project progresses on their blog.

You can donate money directly to the project here. Let's try and held those in need, rather than bitching about an ash cloud. Spread the message as wide as you can and lets help them get the attention of those brands.

Look what Garth said on twitter

Garth crooks sent this tweet out shortly after the Chelsea game. It's since been deleted but we've got a screen grab that we took last night. He makes a valid point.

Lara Croft changed our lives

Luke wrote an article for our university alumni magazine, here is for those of you lucky enough to have not studied at our campus:





It turns out that we have something that past students have lacked: we are digital natives. We’ve grown up with the exhausting coverage of reality TV and shared our lives online through Instant Messenger, Facebook and MySpace. We have a different understanding of communications. Mine personally changed the moment I explored the globe with Lara croft on my games console. It was this work, along with many others that pushed expectations further; since then I’ve become easily distracted and I’m not the only one.

It’s become second nature for many of us to use laptops or phones while watching television, or to even play online games and talk to strangers around the world. It’s changed the way we interact with others and interpret media and brands are learning this all too well. In the past, the consumer was faced with a barrier of print or television advertising that enforced the brand’s image. Now we use the Internet to find out what really stands behind that wall in an instant.

Technology has forced brands to re-think how they are perceived and act accordingly with smarter, adaptive and considered communications emerging. The best examples of these are Whopper Sacrifice, the Facebook application, Nike+ – the running tool that uses iPods to motivate the user and monitor their performance – or Fiat eco: Drive which allows drivers to use data analysis to understand how they can drive economically and reduce their damage to the environment.

These are compelling, long-term ideas that create publicity through their innovative and useful nature. It’s a reflection of the development in the industry that these ideas blur the lines between product design and advertising. Ideas now run along multiple narratives at once, with consumers interacting in real time across media, gaining an extra understanding of the brand in each medium. And we are skilled in this very understanding through years of gaming, watching television, surfing the internet and reading.

This is what forward-thinking agencies are looking for: an ability to create ideas that work in real and online worlds, but, most importantly, merges them together. It’s a mindset that many of our generation display, yet fail to harness. And the way to do this is best summed up by Samuel Beckett “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better”. Yes, we should experiment with what we know, learn as we go, and adopt techniques as we have new technology. To do this, we need to learn the skills and software required. Learning how to code or to capture film is more important than ever. It’s this DIY attitude that will provide experience, understanding and sharpen our ideas for the current climate. What’s more, through building sites, hacking technology and creating content, you could become essential to agencies looking to identify with modern consumers. Just remember: it started with playing games, watching films or reading, and it’s important to keep that sense of fun every time you experiment.

Chat Roulette

chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

Made up of boys, girls and perverts.

Thing’s we haven’t tried but one day hope to understand

It’s been a while since we’ve written anything of great length on here. Partly due to getting a bit tired of wanting to take our thoughts any further than our heads. Yet we’ve also spent a bit of time trying to do a few ‘actual’ things rather than just noting down thoughts on here.

It’s become clear that you can sometimes suck all the life out of ideas by over-analysing and for any creative’s that cannot be a good. It’s much better when you just understand and enjoy the human aspects of what makes something good, rather than ripping it to shreds, advert or otherwise.

As an aspiring team, we’ve tried to always have an opinion and stay open to viewpoints (Neil Perkin once wrote about how important it can be to employ young people who blog). What we’ve been thinking about recently is how we can put this enthusiasm to good use. Show that we understand what’s expected and then transfer that learning into our work in a less obvious manner. Simply, show what we’ve understood from our experiences outside of the industry.

This desire could well have come from working outside of university for a while, with Wilf working freelance on web and design projects and Luke learning his trade as a copywriter at Tag. It’s proved eye- opening, you become keen to use your skills for outside projects as well (Even if we do spend most of our spare time working on our book).

It’s taught us that there are a lot of ways to express our creativity than what you are taught in university; the most rewarding of these is investing it in something you feel passionate about. To help us sum it up better, here is a nice video by Nick Roope where he says this about an Orange project “Don’t tell them together we can do more. Show them together we can do more”.

In any case, it seems that it can only benefit us if we attempt new personal projects and experiences. As it’s only with experience that you really progress.

Useful

Some rather nice little notes on each of the slides. It can be easy to forget the simple things at junior level so it's well worth spending a minute over to make sure you don't loose track of what's important.

Handy tips for creative thinking

View more presentations from Dave Birss.