Dear Class,
There seems to be some confusion as to the nature of this week's assignment.
Your grocery store ads were to be done off the concept Jeff highlighted on those write-ups you did. (They're your concepts. Not Jeff's. All he did was locate the concept you already established, and point it out to you.)
If you did your ads on another concept, I suppose that's fine. But it seems like it would have been busy work. You have your direction on your write-up. Coming up with a new area when you could be coming up with ads is risky. Sure, it could pay off. Yeah, you could discover a much more fertile, viable area. But to completely ignore your initial direction in this class or in an actual job would be folly.
Ultimately, I'm interested in your ability to make ads that will go into your book and get you great jobs. But here's a quote from Tim Delany:
“The strategy comes first. I can’t think of anything until I know the area in which I’m writing. The premise has got to be right. If the issue seems muddled or plain wrong, then I can’t start. So the first thing I do is sort out what I’m going to say, and check on it, and believe in it, and make sure that it’s what everybody wants me to say.”
Lastly, a few of you who've brought this to my attention have mentioned that you've already done your ads in a certain area. Already done? What does that mean? Please remember this:
There is no finish line. You will never be done. When you've completed an assignment, there will be revisions. When you've laid out your ads, there will be revisions. When your student book is put together and mailed out to 30 different agencies, you will still need to be coming up with ads (it's much better to send new work to a prospective employer than just calling up and asking if any positions have opened up since you last sent your book). When you have a job, you will need to keep coming up with ads because clients and creative directors will want revisions. The best creatives still want to make revisions to their work when it's appeared in the One Show.
You do, however, have deadlines. Yours is this Thursday at 6:00pm. And I would encourage you to keep coming up with ideas until that point.
I repeat: There is no finish line. Turkeys are done. Pot roasts are done. You are never done. That's what's so great about being a creative person. Learn to love the process more than the end result and you will be a great success.
See you all tomorrow.
