Thoughts for design and ad students

AIGA Student/Mentor Match Up: 11 things design and advertising students should keep in mind about the business of creativity Mark Conachan, VP, Creative Director Saturday Brand Communications #mentormatchup

One Don’t niche yourself. Don’t specialize yet. Your preconceptions about yourself may limit you. Assume you can do anything until you prove yourself otherwise.

Two Bring more than design awareness to the table. Culture, history, politics, etc; remember to communicate about life through design, not design through design.

Three You are a start up in the Job Getting business. Do basics: biz cards, Linked in, elevator pitch, etc. Turn late nites and shoestring budgets into raw creative brilliance. Music and beer are cheap muses.

Four Be a “graphic messenger,” instead of a graphic designer. Color, photos, type, media: everything is a message that inKluences the brand. Think about your visual dialogue with your audience.

Five People are irrational. They aren’t robots. Consumers use emotion over logic. This is why design, branding and kickass headlines are so important. (MBAs, now they might be ’bots.)

Six Creativity needs time and momentum. First ideas are often not worth doing. Revisit, rethink, redraw. Require necessary time. White sheets and screens are beautiful tools.

Seven Critique assumptions in creative briefs about media and tactics. Alternate creative opportunities exist to deliver messages, push a brand. Explore the customer journey for ideas.

Eight It’s you vs. tech. Tools are making us lazy, desensitizing our natural instincts for spacing, alignment, kerning, color, everything. Stop relying on automation so much. Use the force, Luke.

Nine Failure is the bar for creative excellence, not success. Easily approved work doesn’t challenge us or the client to greater heights. For the audience, safe is ignorable.

Ten Beware agencies that poopoo awards: They forgot or never knew the value, power of the creative part of our business, sadly.

Eleven “Everybody’s creative.” There are no bad ideas.” Statements like these diminish our education, skills, process, profession. Collaborate, yes, but always protect your expertise.

Saturday is a consumer‐focused, media‐neutral, fun‐centric, creatively‐ambidextrous brand communications agency. We like to put business and pleasure in the Cuisinart and push 10. We believe in branding through humor, social experiences, valuable information, great design or cool technology. We don’t know what we want to be when we grow up. And we like it that way.

Thank You

Thoughts for design and ad students

by Mark Conachan on Jan 26, 2012

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