“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 …

Believe it or not, despite all the wonderful things that can come from portfolio school, it’s not 100% awesome 100% of the time. At least for me it wasn’t. Perhaps at another school things would’ve been different but I tend to think many of these problems stem from this type of education generally and not from any one establishment. And now – on to some of the bigger negatives of ad school.
1. The partner selection process is a crapshoot. Sure, the same can be said for real life in …

When you want to get into advertising these days, portfolio school may be the only way to get a foot in the door. Sure, there are exceptions to every rule, but with this competitive industry being even more competitive with the poor economy putting many talented people out of work, it’s imperative that you have a kick-ass book to show off your ideas and abilities, even if you’re a newbie with little to no experience. But, it’s not a perfect system. Next week we’ll look at the potential negatives of …

I remember being sixteen years old when I decided I wanted to be a copywriter at an ad agency. I was speaking to my cousin about the difficulties of making a living as an author. He said he was going into advertising as a compromise and I thought that made sense. Bad news – I didn’t realize it at the time, but going to college actually delayed my entry into the ad world. Because my academic advisor didn’t mention anything about needing a portfolio, I graduated with a BA in …

“If you can’t solve a problem, it’s because you’re playing by the rules.” Paul Arden, from his book “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be.”
For our first real assignment in my TV class at portfolio school, my two ADs and I came up with this cool concept for Hasbro toys. The spot required that we shoot in a children’s hospital and, as you can imagine, it’s a little tricky to get permission to hassle a bunch of sick kids and their attending medical professionals. …

It’s surprising how quickly you can go from being a respectable citizen of the creative community to finding yourself out on the street, showing some thigh flesh to passers-by. Next thing you know, you’re a strung out, one-legged hooker trying to hop your way back to civilized life. Ugh. What’s with all this whore talk, you ask?
Even while I was still in portfolio school, I had people asking me to write them some crap for free. Whether it was a last-minute request for thirty pages of content for their network …

I bumped into this great type treatment to Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good”, created for the MFA Design program at School of Visual Arts. Great song plus great type equals an enlightened mind. Enjoy.

- Julissa Ortiz

Yesterday the One Show winners were announced, but one of the best campaigns wasn’t made by professionals it was done by two students from Berghs School of Communication. It’s a great simple idea, brought to life with an amazing execution. (Video Embedded)

- Pablo Jimenez

In ad school you’ll have a professor tell you to present to him every idea you have so that he can decide which ones have to most potential. What he might forget to tell you, is that that’s just when you’re in school. Creative Directors want you to present the ideas you think are good. If you can ever say, “well, we didn’t really like it but we’re showing you anyways,” you can be sure he will think less of you. CDs don’t want to be your professor. They’d rather …

When I first saw this commercial a few days ago, I thought it was a joke. My very first reaction was “Wow, it looks like I’m about to see a really funny Taco Bell commercial that makes fun of diets and infomercials.” I was very wrong.

Back in my Brandcenter days under the wing of crazy Coz Cotzias, he had a checklist of 5 questions to ask yourself to know if your ad is
good:
1 – Is it clear?
2 – Does it say something? (does the ad say something about the brand …