Road Signs

Before embarking for New York, I said that I would take note of the street signs and apply it to my career. There were signs that I was familiar with from the streets of Eugene. Amongst all the familiarity one sign stood out to me. It read “No Standing Anytime.” I remember standing and absorbing the message. Being in a fast paced environment in New York City, where culture is revolving and evolving around me, I noticed that I needed to do everything but stand blankly. I realized that I needed to take advantage of the environment and continue to learn and improve. I actually want to challenge the sign a little. Standing should be allowed here and there to look back at how far you’ve come and to take a breather. I like that though, “No standing anytime.”

David Choe 05.26.17

Grateful  Executive Producer: Asahd Khaled

As so many strategists in the industry have said before us, the experience is the best way to find understanding. I am eternally grateful the opportunity to be here in New York taking in the space and people around me. I have never traveled further from home than Eugene and there is so much I have not been exposed to. I was too comfortable and in order for me to be better and more effective, I had to be shaken up. I am learning so much from not only my peers but also the interactions I am having with complete strangers offering their help to me.

-T

m

Momentum was a great visit as well and due to the fact that we were such a small group, we got a great opportunity to ask questions and really have an impactful dialogue about our roles and a what exactly Momentum could offer us as we entered the industry. What a place. Momentum works under McCann as a shop that focuses on Experiential events for brands like Oreo and Verizon. Creating brand loyalty and through experiential concepts proves to be a very effective approach.

-T

360eyeopening

I left 360i with a new approach to the creative brief. YAAAASSS! Great moments in a room filled with strategists talking about strategy, naturally. We were taken through a presentation that demonstrated flow and the storytelling when creating a brief. We got a chance to apply the 360i brief by drafting one for Taylor’s Bar and Rennie’s Landing. The insights and reflection that began to happen were especially satisfying. We sat and had conversations about our experiences and perspectives and seeing how that insight manifests itself in a brief was shockingly eye opening.

-T

culture curated correctly.

Translation was everything I hoped it would be plus more. The emphasis on truth, understanding, culture-driven work was abundantly clear. They understand and live by the quotation “you have to hire us to get us,” which speaks to their pride and knowledge of their worth as a diverse and culturally savvy agency.

Having alumni with the understanding of the curriculum and culture at UO and seeing how that that has translated (no pun intended) to their success here has been inspiring and reassuring, to say the least. Special thank you to Jazo and Rex for their willingness to give back to us students.

-T

lessons.

If there is anything one should take away from the JWT visit, it was the importance of making yourself indispensable. Brent Choi, CCO of JWT had some tough losses that helped him understand this, and I do not necessarily want to make those mistakes if I can avoid it. Doing solid work is not enough, go further and show investment. Use your ability to do exceeding and abundantly to make yourself even more valuable. He stressed the importance of getting at-bats. Valuable lessons. What was extremely significant to me was JWT’s work for Black Lives Matter. It was inspiring to see an agency devote their time and effort to a cause that not as widely accepted and as controversial as BLM. Their approaches are calculated and always purposeful which is a lesson in itself.

-T 

“Sell your life as a package”

I had the unique opportunity to meet with Ayaka Terakawa, an Art Director with Analog/Folk in Manhattan. I asked her for advice on my post-grad journey and applying for jobs. She told me that I needed to look at my portfolio and especially my resume and about me page. “Does it say ‘I am ready to be in _____ city, right now?” She explained that it’s hard to say “no” to someone who knows exactly what they want. Hearing this from someone in the field really resonated with me. I said, “I’ll take any job!” and she promptly said, “No, don’t just take ‘any job’, take the job that you intentionally mold yourself to fit.” Ayaka is originally from Portland and went to Portland State University. She said she was able to make the transition to NYC by saying things like “I AM an Art Director, and I WILL move to NYC”…no hesitations. Upon being hired, her agency paid for her move into the city. She said that even though they knew she was new and had a lot to learn, they knew she would try her absolute best to produce the best work that she could. She said she literally said, “I will relocate right now, because I truly love New York.” I realized that I was selling myself short because I hadn’t thought of myself as an entire package beyond the portfolio but also as a person who really WANTS to be where they are. 30 minutes of conversation and advice from another woman of color in the job that I want to be in was the most valuable experience for me by far. I never would have even had this conversation with her if I wasn’t on the NYC trip. So grateful.

-Aven-itza De Primavera  

Being OK with “Big”

When the UO Advertising program is introduced to the agency world, we are taught about the “innovators” and “purveyors”. Innovators are the creatively adventurous, independent shops that continue to push the boundaries of the industry. The purveyors are the big agencies that are owned by parent companies and churn out effective, solid work.

As a creative, I have always pursued the freedom and independence of the innovators. I have held an aversion to using my skills to simply purvey but to truly create and innovate. I am happy to admit that there were some agency visits in New York that shattered my preconceptions of them. I won’t name any in particular, however, the larger shops genuinely surprised me with their capacity to breed creative attitudes and foster adventure while still creating effective and calculated campaigns.

The lesson I’ve learned from this is to be OK with “big”, and that the lines between purveyor and innovator are more blurred than many of us see them from the outside.

- James Vos

Finding the Adgeek balance

As ad students entering the industry it’s smart to know what kind of work belongs to which agency. I’ve met people currently in the industry who geek out and know every spot that belongs to each agency, but I’ve also met people who don’t go to Adweek, Adage, etc. on a daily basis. From this I’ve realized that you need to find a healthy balance of both:

- If you’re a creative, it’s important to know what agency and what work is winning awards. This is the kind of work you want to produce some day and what better place to pull inspiration from than at the top? You should know what’s going on in the industry and if you have an interview at an agency, you need to do your homework up until THAT day. It’d look unprofessional if you talked up a campaign they did for a client if they lost that client that day without you knowing…

- While it’s good to know what is relevant and winning awards, it will become a constant circle of the same work if you don’t pull inspiration from things outside of advertising; I like to use the example of when Tinker Hatfield began integrating animal print in Jordan shoes when no one else in the basketball shoe industry was doing it at the time. And look at him now. 

So look at award winning work, but also don’t be that overly obsessive adgeek who knows every little thing about every commercial but spends little time working on your own craft and producing work that will land you a job you can thrive in. AKA know your shit, but make some shit too. 

-Macaihah