I just don't know what to do with myself....

Well D&AD New Blood is packed up and over...




It was good fun while it lasted. We also managed to squeeze in a workshop at a digital agency called R/GA. They set us a brief to advertise a new bubbly chocolate bar called 'Mars Bubbles' and find an idea that could be used across all media. T'was really informative so we'll probably pop back for a book crit. Was also really interesting to see work from other teams in the same position we are.

We also fitted in book crits with Adam & Eve, Dare and Ogilvy. The consensus seemed to be that there are no placements left in London this summer, but we will keep trying! They all gave us some great feedback and were really encouraging about the future.

Vicky and I have now parted for a few weeks to get some more work done, and hopefully earn a bit of money as I am currently the poorest I have ever been, ever. I would ideally love a bit of work at a local agency to tide me over and get some experience. But for now I am unemployed and in and out of the local job centre, how lovely.

London Continued...

The last day of our London visits began with a trip to VCCP. We met with Tony, who is part of a senior team there. He was a lot more critical than anyone we'd seen before, but as Dave Morris once said, that is probably a good thing.

Our next stop was to Adam & Eve (loving the new John Lewis ad) for our second visit. We seemed to be taken a bit more seriously this time and were told that our book had improved, hooray! The comments were really helpful and we will be going back to pester them a bit more.

After a spot of Pizza Hut Buffet we made our way to Ogilvy.



We saw a different lady this time as our usual team was away on holiday. Kristal was really friendly and seemed to really understand all our work. I don't know whether it's because we've been there so many times or something but we're really starting to feel at home in Ogilvy! They're always so laid back and unpretentious towards us. No doubt we'll be going back again on our next trip.

The last book crit of the week was to Work Club...



We saw their famous 'Bart Simpson Wall' -



Although it was a fairly quick book crit, Greg gave us a lot to think about.

Why can't agencies all have the same opinions? We've never had so many book crits in one lot so it was really interesting to see that some people loved things that other people seemed to hate. I have a feeling we're going to end up with a few different books for different places if we listen to everyone's advice!

We ♥ Ogilvy

Last Thursday Vicky and I made our way to London town to see a couple of agencies. Our first visit was to Adam & Eve in Covent Garden, where we showed our portfolio to a creative team. They were really helpful and went through each campaign telling us what they liked and what they thought we should change. They also gave us the great advice that it is OK to stalk creatives for book crits as they would've had to do it too at some stage. So watch out creatives, we're going to harass you until you give us a restraining order, or a book crit.

Next our journey took us to Canary Wharf to meet a female creative team at Ogilvy. They were both really friendly and positive and probably the most helpful people we will ever meet. Also, they said that we could come back the next day as we were visiting Ogilvy again anyway for our course. So we left extremely happy about the day's events and with plenty of ideas about re-doing some ads.

Friday came and we met up with some people from our course to go to a proper crit at Ogilvy. We met a team called Serge and Steve who seemed to have worked at just about every advertising agency going. They went through all our work and gave us feedback and definately didn't hold back. Its always good to get an honest opinion! They also suggested that the future for us graduates may not be that bleak. Agencies will undoubtedly be looking for cheaper employees - and what comes cheaper than a work placement team at £80 a week?

Once our crit was finished we went back down to the creative department at Ogilvy 1 to see our best mates in the world. We were shocked to discover that they required another look at our portfolio, which we had not brought with us! A journey to my home in St Albans and back (with book) ensued. Finally managed to sort out a photocopied portfolio for them (scary shit), and we should hopefully get some more feedback this week, hurray!

So all in all a very successful trip. We're already planning to visit both agencies again in Easter and hopefully a few more, if we can do enough stalking!