Finding Some Pieces to the Puzzle That Fit
When I look at this photo of a half-finished puzzle from the MOMA I immediately thought about what this trip meant to me right now and for my future.
The pieces already in place represent this experience in NYC. We got to learn from so many amazing minds, figure out what works for us and what doesn’t, and develop relationships with not only the people throughout each agency but with each other, the people we will call our peers in the future. The pieces are a foundation for our careers and understanding of what we want to do with the path we’ve chosen. We need those pieces to move forward, but there is so much yet to come.
This unknown future is where the rest of the pieces come in. They haven’t yet found their perfect place and it will take a few tries until they fit just right. Similarly, we as students are beginning a new chapter in our lives and many of us will learn that the first path we choose isn’t the right one. But, like an unfinished puzzle, the possibilities for our future are endless as long as we keep trying to find the perfect fit for us by learning from our mistakes and using them to grow.
This trip has allowed me to find two places where the puzzle pieces fit in my life:
1. I now know I want to pursue advertising.
2. I now know I want to build my career in New York City.
Before going on this journey I had neither of those things figured out and knowing that a little bit more of the puzzle that is my life is complete is so satisfying and comforting. Our life journeys are our own personal puzzles and we are constantly hoping to find what fits, and I am proud knowing that the energy and time I put into making this trip worthwhile taught me things about myself that we uncertain before this past week.
Apart from the excitement of overcoming some uncertainty and completing a little more of my puzzle, here are a few of my favorite takeaways from this week:
1. Be aware of your blindspots - Flock Party
2. Enjoy the process, live with it and the rest will follow - Horizon Media
3. Build growth and need for something they didn’t know they needed - Rokkan
4. Stories are more valuable than souvenirs - Rokkan
5. Every little detail matters - Saatchi & Saatchi
6. It’s better to go big and reel it in than play it safe - Saatchi & Saatchi
7. Simplicity is harder than complexity - Saatchi & Saatchi
8. Be a sponge - Laundry Service
9. Don’t limit yourself to one thing so you can expand your knowledge - Laundry Service
10. Make information easily accessible - Digitas
It’s been real NYC, until next time.
Savannah Nucci 5/13/17
As I️ look ahead to my upcoming week seven, I️ think of the list of things I️ need to complete. On that list would be three shifts at my part-time job in Eugene. The thought of returning to the restaurant seems like such a drag. Just another thing I️ have to do, nothing exciting or adventurous. As horrible as I️’m making it sound, it’s not that bad. If only I️ didn’t have to “request my two weeks notice” it wouldn’t feel so strung out. Oh, how I️ wish I️ could quit in an instant and enjoy my last few weeks here. But after this week, I️ know that burning bridges would be the wrong route to take. Having a strong relationship with all of my managers and coworkers after leaving the business on good terms is all I️ would ever need after being a committed employee of two years. I️ need just suck it up and remember how to professionally go about this.
Lauren Baker 5/13/18
This is an ad I saw on a subway that I think is the perfect unofficial motto of the past week. We’re all makers, creator, and doers who have the opportunity to change the world.
-Tyler Kastan
Five Things
Here are the top five of the many things I learned
1. Just because it’s a big agency doesn’t mean you can make great work. My visit to BBDO really changed the way I viewed big non-independent agencies. I know that sometimes when agencies get big the can lose their personality, but BBDO is good at change. While I was there, the feeling I got wasn’t completely different from the smaller agencies I visited. I can see myself there one day.
2. Account managers are creative thinkers too. To me, it feels that account managers tend to be seen as the non-creative people who always dress business casual, but after the visits, I really got to see what their job is about. One of my goals this trip was to learn more about other areas in advertising. I personally don’t want to become an account manager, but I learned so much about what they do. I learned that no matter how good the creative is, the account manager needs to defend it, and sometimes they need to get creative to defend that work. If I can sum up what they do, it is that they keep both agency and client in check. They’re the ally everyone needs.
3. Collaboration outside your comfort zone is important. After being in Translation, I saw how important it is to collaborate with colleagues that aren’t even on the same project or client. In Translation, they were all so close. It seemed like they were on the same team working on the same client, but they all worked on different things. Though, Translation has created an environment that everybody is on the same team, no matter what they are working. I really appreciate that they let us see that.
4. Get outside the office. This idea of getting outside the office is something I kind of thought would be a theme. Inspiration comes from outside the office, or like Matt McDonald from BBDO said, outside of midtown. By having a hobby, or something we do outside advertising, can help us brig something different to the table. At Translation they called it majors and minors. A major is your job, and a minor is your side hustle/hobby. Everyone who had their own thing outside work told us how it was incorporated into their work in ad. Joel’s knowledge on Hip-Hop helped him in Translation. Nick’s screenwriting and reading helped him write for Clash of Clans at Barton F. Graf. It’s easier to get an idea outside our head when we’re not stuck in it.
5. You won’t know until you try it. In advertising no one can really say how a campaign will perform. We can say what’s good and what’s not, but in the end it really depends on the audience. Though, the process of good work starts off by saying a good idea out loud (with a solid argument to back it up of course). The Grand Central Station GE project BBDO did might have seen impossible to do because something like that was never done before. They did it though. It was an idea that was suggested, even though it could have easily been impossible to do. It goes to show that if you don’t say anything because you’re afraid of a no, then a great idea might not happen.
Luis Sevilla | 5/13/18
Be Humble
Throughout the last ten weeks or so, and especially this week, these two words have radiated like a neon light in my mind and are resounded by professionals across the industry. I’ve already worked with a fair share of people in school and through my jobs: creatives, strategists, account managers, etc. Some people have been kind, generous, and encouraging. They’re “yes and” types of people who take part in and encourage others in the creative process. They were talented but didn’t allow their talent to blur their vision. However, I’ve also worked with some not-so-humble people; people who take and don’t give, who brag, and who shut down any ideas that aren’t their own. A humble human is a breath of fresh air compared to an egotistical one, especially in advertising.
I met so many kind, humble people this week, at large shops and small shops. Out of every location, however, one shop stuck out the most. Pentagram. Yes, Pentagram, as in the largest independently-owned design studio in the world, with offices around the world and partners who are basically celebrities in the design industry. But also, Pentagram, a shop full of talented but humble designers.
To begin with, I reached out to several staff members from Pentagram on a whim, wanting to set up a visit for a small group of Ducks interested in design. I know absolutely no one at Pentagram, and I didn’t know anyone who knew anyone there. So, I found several people on LinkedIn, Googled their email addresses, and reached out to each one of them late on a weekday night. I wasn’t sure who would respond, so I made sure that I contacted a variety of staff members. I even reached out to two of the partners, Paula Scher and Michael Bierut, who have been featured in an endless amount of articles, interviews, and podcasts throughout their careers (they’re part of the designer celebrity group I mentioned). To my complete surprise, every single person that I emailed replied to me within 16 hours or less, including Paula and Michael. They all seemed excited about setting up a visit and two Pentagram professionals welcomed seven of us with open arms on Friday.
Pentagram thrives on collaboration with each other and clients. When we were there, I didn’t hear any bragging about talent or the work (although everyone knows that it’s worthy of a little bragging). Instead, they simply shared projects and the strategy behind them. By the end of the visit, we learned that all eight of the NYC partners work in an open space with the rest of the staff members, and they work closely with the youngest designers to develop the best work. Paula and Michael are great mentors to other designers and take time to hear each one’s perspective. The professionals we met with admitted that they still don’t know everything but that half of the requirements of getting a job at Pentagram (or anywhere, really) is showing that you can learn quickly and work well with others.
I left Pentagram feeling inspired and a re-invigorated sense of humility. I started realizing it a while ago, but this confirmed that, once I’ve “made it” in the industry, I want to spend the majority of my time mentoring generations below me. I never want to become so big that I forget where I started and the people who helped me along the way.
Emily Foster
5.13.18
Generosity
gen·er·os·i·ty
ˌ/jenəˈräsədē/
Noun
- the quality or fact of being plentiful or large
I have experienced generosity in various forms from a collection of inspiring individuals throughout my New York experience and gained valuable insight surrounding the industry that I will bring moving forward in my professional career. Generosity with roughly 32 agencies taking the time to educate 113 bright students, half of which, soon to be in the real world. Our alumni community and connection of networks have been especially generous with us in supporting our future paths in journeys beyond UO. I have gained perspective on each industries individual generosity in the way they worked with numerous eager students hungry for knowledge and vibrate perspectives on life and culture in our evolving industry. The agencies were generous with their insights on culture and the pace of action running through the course of Brooklyn, Manhattan and other culture filed inspirational areas in New York. I overall appreciated the generosity that was spread throughout my fellow ducks during the experience. Everyone acted with large amounts of generosity and shared a common attitude of actively supporting each other, which I have no doubts it will continue past graduation and future networks as we spread roots across the country and world.
-Katherine James
A lot of agencies talked about having a healthy disrespect for AD and having a life outside of the AD bubble. As blossoming AD people, we are taught to immerse ourselves in all things AD. Read trade publications, read AD books, look at portfolios etc. But a lot of agency folks spoke out against that. They stressed how important it is to have a life outside of AD. To have hobbies and interests and not spend all your time reading AD week and combing portfolios. Being your own person and thinker with individual hobbies makes for better work.
Brendon Maier May 13, 2018
Is this blog post a Tide Ad?
This was one of the most interesting visits on the trip I had, and I wanted to share! Meeting the creatives behind the #NotATideAd ad kind of felt like meeting celebrities. On Wednesday, a few students and I were lucky enough to visit Saatchi & Saatchi NY, the agency responsible for the famous “Not a Tide Ad” commercials during the 2018 Super Bowl, featuring David Harbour, the cop from Stranger Things, as well as the Old Spice guy, Mr. Clean, and many others. The creatives behind it were modest about the success of their work, but they were beaming with pride. That day, they were celebrating the rare win of a Black Pencil for this Tide Ad. They talked about how the brief for this year’s Tide Ad was literally “beat last years Tide Super Bowl commercial,” which was going to be a seemingly impossible feat—the previous years’ Tide Ad got tons of recognition and impressions after its debut. They talked about the immense pressure they felt to do something better than last year.
The hardest part for them was coming up with that one great idea to build the campaign off of. In the past Tide commercials had always focused on “that one pesky stain” that only Tide could remove. They needed to break that pattern of focusing on “the stain.” That’s when they came up with the big idea: “every ad is a Tide ad,” an insight that was born from the idea that maybe there are just no stains to begin with. This insight, they said, took over 2 months to reach. How treacherous of a time it must have been to get to that point! Once they reached, they said, the process had never been easier. The campaign and the possibilities within it continued to grow and strengthen, like with the addition of characters from other brands like Mr. Clean and OldSpice. It was a huge success, and #NotaTideAd was number #1 trending on twitter above #2, #SuperBowl.
-Audrey Weatherhead
Majors and minors
Anyone who was lucky enough to be 1 of 20 students that got to visit Translation’s office in Times Square will tell you that it was an immeasurably positive experience. Based on my conversations with other students after the visit, I think we all agreed that what made it so great was how honest, informative, and genuine everyone was. A lot of the speakers were SOJC alum, and that fostered a strong connection, but a few speakers had other amazing stories that didn’t originate in Eugene, and those people were equally as invested. I was particularly enamored by Art Director Paz Molina, who shared a little bit of her story as not only a woman in the industry, but also an immigrant. She didn’t sugar coat things which I really appreciated. Instead she discussed the fierceness with which she takes on the role of being a female immigrant in advertising. It was inspiring.
Another person from Translation whose advice and insight I found incredible was Joel Rodriguez. He had some unique explanations about Translation’s role in advertising and culture, that I’ll be expanding upon even further in my submission for the idea industry book. One thing that he discussed which stood out to me about their agency culture was the idea of “Majors and Minors.” All of us are majoring in advertising, as it’s the profession. But what are the minors? The passion projects and side hustles? If employers want to know that during the hiring process, it makes sense to keep those relevant throughout the job. Maybe your minor is emceeing and music (which really is Joel’s), maybe it’s cooking, maybe it’s birdwatching. The importance of this is of course primarily to get to know each other better, but even more to see how those minors can be applied to the work. If John is the big NBA guy, get him on the NBA account, obviously.
It’s company practices like these that contributed to the strong sense of family we could just feel walking into the conference room at Translation. It was easy to tell that these practices also contribute to the success of the agency.
-Audrey Weatherhead
The Opportunities are Endless
After visiting more than 7 agencies with various different backgrounds, missions, and atmospheres, the biggest thing I discovered is that there is a place for everyone in this business. I can’t think of one agency that felt repetitive or unoriginal, and it was refreshing to see how each agency brought their own flair and passion to the way they worked, their clothes, and everything in between.
We all have one goal in this industry: to create work that makes a difference in the world. However, each human being is different from the next and our paths to success are not linear. In fact, the reason why we as people have the ability to actually change the way people think is because of our differences and how we use them to collaborate and make something worthwhile. I love knowing that my time in this industry has the potential to give me all kinds of contradictory experiences that will eventually lead me to the place where I can do just that. Some might be incredible and some not so incredible, but despite the ups and downs I may run into three things are certain:
1. Each moment will bring me a new opportunity to learn.
2. I will make discoveries about who I am as both a professional and a person.
3. I will eventually land on my feet and end up in a place where the people will allow me to grow with them and use my knowledge and determination to truly make a difference.
Overall, this trip has taught me so much about the diversity within this industry, and gave me piece of mind knowing I will find a home where my skills and passions can shine and I can be the best dang creative thinker I can be.
Savannah Nucci