When I was in ad school, people told me that I needed to learn all the programs (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut Pro, Flash, Dreamweaver, Action Script, etc.) So whatever I didn’t learn in class I taught myself with online tutorials and many Youtube videos. I can say I learn something new in a program just about everyday. I can also say that I am very comfortable using InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. I know bits and pieces of Final Cut Pro and Dreamweaver. But as far as coding and Flash, …

Extreme sports has changed at a technology rate. Last years big trick is obsolete the next year.
I guess all sports have evolved. NFL players have gotten stronger and faster, hitting hard enough to make a pancreas dislodge. Baseball pitchers are throwing faster and hitters are sending them farther into the upper decks.

It’s competition that pushes these athletes to keep improving. Although, multi-million dollar contracts don’t hurt either.
But none of the major sports have evolved at the rate extreme sports has.
Maybe because it’s relatively new. I’ve seen Mixed Martial Arts evolve …

Whether you are a copywriter or just a person who works in an advertising agency, you come across a lot of interesting characters (to put it mildly).  The thing about the field of copywriting is that there are so many different stories of how people got into it.  I for one have encountered many people out in the world who actually don’t know that such a position even exists.  Here’s a quick guide for how to identify the type of copywriter you’re working with.  Feel free to reference it when …

Cannes week is on and there’s a lot of different ways to follow what would be happening during this week. From the award ceremonies to interesting seminaries, this week is not only important because of the awards, but because of what the winners represent and why they win. So far the first award ceremony was for PR, Direct and Promo. The big winner of the night was BV McCann Romania, taking home the First Two Grand Prixes for USA-Themed Campaign.
Two interesting things after the first day on AdAge:
What the jury …

It used to be that a copywriter and an art director would partner up together and work on one or two brands at a time, trying to make cool stuff for them. Although we’re still trying to make cool stuff, it seems like an evolution is happening. In the few places I’ve worked as well as in many of the agencies I’ve spoken with in the past few years, the permanent CW/AD team seems to have dissolved. Now, instead of one life-long partner, it is very common that you are …

“The difference between Bach and his forgotten peers isn’t necessarily that he had a better ratio of hits to misses.  The difference is that the mediocre might have a dozen ideas, while Bach, in his lifetime, created more than a thousand full-fledged musical compositions.  A genius is a genius, Simonton maintains, because he can put together such a staggering number of insights, ideas, theories, random observations, and unexpected connections that he almost inevitably ends up with something great.  ‘Quality,’ Simonton writes, is ‘a probabilistic function of quantity.’”
-“Creation Myth” by Malcom …

Some people believe that each of our dreams holds insight into our subconscious mind. That dreams act as keys which can be used to unlock our insecurities, concerns and innermost desires. Although I don’t believe I can find meaning in every dream I have, I do think I can learn from some of them. I mean, sometimes, it’s obviously my brain’s way of sorting things out. Other times, it’s gotta just be a chance for my brain to take a cognitive dump.
Speaking of – here’s a dream I had the …

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
One of Boston’s best creative agencies closed its doors last Friday. Modernista!, a creative and communications agency that combined branding with marketing services, web design and digital community management started more than 10 years ago and at its peak had 150 employees with satellite offices in Amsterdam and Detroit. Their clients included General Motors’ Cadillac and Hummer, MTV and Gap. However the fallout of GM affected them really bad and since 2008 they were restructuring in order to survive, but unfortunately they couldn’t.
“To be honest, the decision [to close] was …

Yesterday, AdAge hosted a night of delicious food, free booze and industry hobnobbing with the ad people of Minneapolis. When I got there, I saw an old friend from ad school and we started chatting about agency openings, new portfolio pieces, ideas about the future of advertising and so forth.
He then pointed out that it felt like there were very few creatives there and he expressed his frustration that this get-together wasn’t as lucrative as it could be, as far as networking opportunities are concerned. I looked around and it …

All copywriters fall into two categories – those who are writers who happen to write for advertising and those who found copywriting as an easy way for them to never have what most would consider a “real job”. Every copywriter I have ever met fits into one of these two distinctions. And while it certainly is nice to not have a “real job”, I am definitely (as are all copywriters I respect) a member of the former category. I am at heart a writer who decided journalism …