Advice To Juniors

"There's always too much to do in advertising. If you're willing to do anything that somebody asks, you're going to wind up getting opportunities. And if you don't mess up, they'll give you more."
- Alex Bogusky

Mark's Principles

I was reading one.a magazine and came across an article on Mullen's CCO, Mark Wenneker. A sidebar to the article featured Mark's Principles. Worth sharing. Maybe even worth pinning up.

Quotes from Stan Richards

This is my boss. His name is Stan Richards. I really like working for him. Read some of his quotes here, and maybe you'll see why. (My favorite quote is his last one.)

A quote from Samuel Johnson

"What is written without effort
is read without pleasure."

Kevin's Words of Wisdom

Doubtful as he is of Pinterest, our friend over at 15 Ideas started an advice board. Our advice is to click the follow button.

Four Quotes from Steve Jobs On Advertising

1. Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. (from Wired)

2. That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. (from BusinessWeek)

3. When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. (from Newsweek)

4. Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea. (from BusinessWeek)

Props to Fuel Lines for compiling the full list.

Are You Part of the Talent Crisis?

I think the interviews coming out of Cannes are just as interesting as the winners. They might be more important, too.

Here's an interview with Ali Ali, the CD at Elephant Cairo. You've probably seen his "Never Say No to Panda" work.



He's got some interesting things to say on talent. Granted, it's an Egyptian view. Not everything he says will translate to job markets in Chicago or New York or LA. Or will it? Here's one of his more interesting quotes:


"Agencies need to downsize...You can't have a creative department of 40 people. I think that immediately means that 30 of them are not good."


What do you think of that?

Mike Cooley on the Creative Team

This quote is from Mike Cooley, guitarist in one of my favorite bands, Drive-By Truckers. It originally appeared in an interview with the Toronto Sun here.

How does the band function? As a democracy or with you and Patterson calling the shots?

There's not a lot of effort to it. We're all on the same page naturally. Most everybody's genuinely happy with what we're doing. And we're all mature enough to just roll with it and not inject our egos into the decision-making process unless it really does matter. I've found the quickest way to screw something up is to be too hands-on. There are people in this business who are complete control freaks, who can't stand for anything to go on without their presence and seal of approval. But I've never seen any evidence that being that way produces better results. Ever. In anything.

Conan O'Brien's Guide to Creativity

Conan O’Brien has some great tips on creativity in this article from Fast Company. Worth reading in its entirety, but here are some of the highlights:

"Rehearsal is really key, because rehearsal is where everything is put up… I can look at some things on paper and say it's going to be great. But you see it on its feet and you just know it's not there. … That's the thing I can't stress enough."

"I'm very open to when things don't work. That becomes the fun."

"One of the qualities people like about what we're doing is that it can feel very loose. That's the biggest comment I get from everybody on this new show: You look like you've having so much fun. And the truth is you can't fake it."

"I do sympathize with how the batting average for writing good material is really tough, so at the very least I’m trying to create an atmosphere where failure is inevitable."

Emerson could have put together a great portfolio

We all gotta learn something

I was just flipping through the Communication Arts first ever Typography Annual and came across this quote from one of the judges:

"We need to teach designers to be better readers. Once they respect the text, they'll want to set it well."

- Stephen Coles

I buy that. Here's my open question to you readers: What do copywriters need to do to better respect design and art direction?

Quote

"The days you work are the best days."

- Georgia O'Keeffe

Man, I love that quote.

Ads as Art?

Years ago, Mark Fenske wrote a piece for the the VCU Adcenter (now Brandcenter) titled "Ads is Art." I wish I had a copy of it. It sparked an interesting conversation in the class I was teaching at the time because, while in spirit advertising and art can be pretty close (especially in ad school), there are some major differences. You only need to watch about two minutes of a commercial break to see that very little real advertising should even be considered in this conversation.


I recently finished the book Adland, by former copywriter and creative director James Othmer. In it, he actually asks Fenske this very question. Is advertising art? He gets a gruff snort from Fenske. Then, after some consideration, Othmer gives what I think is the most insightful answer to the question I've ever heard:

"It doesn't matter whether I think advertising is art. What matters is whether its creator does."

Einstein on Advertising

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
-Albert Einstein

Working As A Team

"In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change."
-Thich Nhat Hanh

Diary of a Creative Director

A big thanks to Heidi Ehlers, who recently pointed us to Diary of a Creative Director.

The site's been around since 2005, and I wish I'd known about it sooner.

But now you know about it.

So start watching.

There are some real gems there. Check out David Droga on "Building the Muscle."

Credits

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”

-Harry S Truman

Creative Direction

"Never tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and their ingenuity will astonish you."
-General George S. Patton

Wisdom from Hugh MacLeod

If you haven't downloaded it yet, Seth Godin has a free e-book called What Matters Now. He asks a bunch of business writers to answer that question.

My favorite - and most applicable to creative work - is Hugh MacLeod's:

I usually ignore lists of aphorisms and platitudes, but this one's got some good stuff in it. Enjoy.

Avoid This Phrase

"It's good. For what it is."

For example, if you've done an okay pharmaceutical ad, you're saying it's good, considering the majority of pharmaceutical ads are awful.

But that's just being a giant in a company of dwarves.

And the scariest thing about this phrase is that, used too frequently, it can easily be applied to your career.

"I haven't won many awards. I haven't really built any brands or even my own company. And I haven't really created anything of value. But my career's good. For what it is."

(Shudder.)