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Tips for creating your !rst portfolio

Edward BochesPortfolio Development

Boston UniversityCollege of Communication

Some thoughts on where the industry is going

What a time to start your !rst advertising portfolio. What do you put in it when the entire industry you are about to enter is changing, evolving from companies that interrupt people with messages they don’t want to hear and ideally into companies that make things -- platforms, experiences, applications, services -- that are genuinely useful?

R/GA just created Nike Fuel. CP&B builds things like Epic Mix.

Burberry streams live its fashion shows to iPads in stores around the word. Yet if you’re in this course, you’re probably thinking of becoming a copywriter or art director.

True those skills remain essential, but today it’s important that you learn to create something more meaningful than messages.

Ironically, your book will still need to convey some traditional creative ideas -- CDs like to see core concepts, and TV and even print-style storytelling will never go away.

But remember that the future creative person in any discipline will know how to invent products, design experiences and help build digital platforms.

Most advertising interrupts a story

with a less interesting story.Daniel Stein, CEO, EVB

Introduction

Nike FuelBand, from the legendary brand and its agency R/GA, won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year. What is it? A utility? A digital platform? Marketing as service? Advertising? Maybe all of the above.

Why create a portfolio: it’s not just to get a job

This course is intended to get you started on a portfolio, both with assignments that invite you to create original, compelling creative, and with a workshop-like environment in which students critique and discuss work, learning from each other and helping each other get better.

Over the course of the semester, you will complete four creative assignments. Each is designed to guide you through thinking strategically, and then solving a problem or challenge with creative ideas that leverage different kinds of media and technology and that (hopefully) will enable you to show your creative thinking without being dependent on executional software.

Keep in mind that even after the class is over, you will want to polish and !ne tune the work you create in this course. You are never done making an idea -- whether a traditional ad or a new digital platform -- great.

Exercise your creative muscles

Replicate the challenges of real world assignments

Develop tactics, tricks and approaches that work for you

Create benchmarks to exceed

Elevate your personal standards

Get feedback from those who critique your work

Master your craft (of art direction, design or copywriting)

Get used to rejection

Learn to overcome failure

Realize that it's OK not be great right away

Introduction

Ad for The Economist, but a reminder that you will need both sides of your brain to create a great portfolio.

1 Learn to generate creative concepts that solve real problems

2 Practice delivering ideas that are on strategy, on time and on budget

3 Understand how to create across multiple platforms and media channels

4 Learn how you think creatively as an individual, trying different ways of creative problem solving (word play, mind mapping, asking what if, thinking visually, etc)

5 Develop and elevate personal standards for creative excellence

6 Hone copywriting and/or art direction skills as appropriate

7 Identify ways to stay up on emerging trends and platforms that create new challenges and opportunities

8 Begin to development personal portfolio of speculative work and ideas to show prospective employers

Course Objectives

Know what great work looks likeBefore you can do good work you have to know good work. Take the time to evaluate all the ads, messages, content -- digital and otherwise -- that you come across. Are they good? Are they great? What makes them so?

More importantly, learn what the taste makers, CDs and critics think is good work. Read old annuals, explore the award show galleries, pore over the sites of the very best agencies -- Droga5, CP&B, TBWA/Chiat, 72 and Sunny, EVB, BBH (London and NY), Wieden and Kennedy, Mullen.

Learn from the new emerging companies: Made by Many in London. Big Spaceship in Brooklyn. EVB in San Francisco.

Develop your taste, judgement, and opinion as to what is great, what is OK, what is an insult to the unfortunate consumers who have to encounter it.

Great work earns your attention, deserves to be sought out and makes you want to pass it on, sharing the goodies with friends and colleagues.

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Apple’s 1984 from Chiat Day. Still considered the best Super Bowl spot ever

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Be honest with yourselfWhen you are starting out, it’s often easy to think that any idea that solves the problem is OK. There’s a tendency to fall in love with all of your ideas. After all, they are your ideas. But the most important thing you can do is stay honest.

Don’t try and talk yourself into thinking something is better than it is. Ask yourself, “Is it compelling?” “Does anybody care?” “Would it get into the books?” “Is it truly original?” “Will it make someone else wish they came up with it?” “Will people want to share it?”

If not, keep at it.From Truth campaign, created by CP&B and Arnold

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Take chancesIt’s easy to play it safe. But safe won’t get you to great. It won’t get your book noticed. It won’t make CD’s jealous. Remember that this is the one time in your career when there is no supervisor, no account guy, no client to tell you, “We can’t do that.” Or, “We’ll never sell that idea.” This is the time to be brave. Conceive ideas that are risky, provocative, attention getting, eye-opening.

That does not mean be weird or wacky for wackiness sake. Or to create an idea that’s not aligned with an audience or community. Or that’s off strategy. It does mean you should try things that would make at least some clients and marketers a little bit nervous.

old Benetton ad, years before the Obama kissing campaign“Playing it safe can be the most dangerous thing in the world, because you’re presenting people with an idea they’ve seen before, and you won’t have impact.” - Bill Bernbach

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Welcome criticismIt’s a chance to learn. To !nd out whether or not your ideas resonate. Are they as good as you think they are? Have you missed an alternative approach that might be better? Are there small changes -- design, language, simplifying -- that might make them exceptional? Or should youthrow it out and start again. You need to know.

So stay open minded. A partner, a teacher, a CD a friend could all offer you useful reactions. And while there are no shortage of jerks in the business, it’s also possible to !nd plenty of talented people willing to look at your work and give you a constructive criticism. Seek it out and welcome it. You’ll be better for the effort.

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Familiarize yourself with the past

There are three reasons. One, you can’t create something truly original if you don’t know what’s been done before. Two, most CD’s will fault you for conceiving an idea that’s already been in the market, even if it was years ago. And three, even as we move into an era when traditional, message-based advertising is less relevant, the great, classic ideas and executions from the past have stood the test of time and offer lessons and inspiration for us all.

Old Volvo ad from Scali, McCabe, Sloves

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Master a craftAdvertising today is created by developers, UX professionals, digital designers, writers, art directors, animators and !lm makers. You don’t need to be in one of those professions to think up great creative ideas. In an age when everyone is familiar with media almost anyone can conceive a clever ad. But eventually you have to execute those ideas. And even before that you need to present them beautifully and !nished in a book. Plus it’s likely the job you apply for some day will have a title -- copywriter, designer, animator, art director.

So while you may need to have some skills in every area -- read Teressa Iezzi’s The Idea Writers -- it would be wise to focus on mastering at least one discipline. Art directors still have to art direct, and writers still have to write.

Jan Vermeer, A Lady Writing

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Embrace collaborationMost great advertising ideas, at least by the time they are !nished, are the work of teams. Good teams, whether the old fashioned art director/copywriter, or the more modern teams that also include developers, experience designers, mobile and social expertise, even creative strategists learn to build off of each other’s ideas, to willingly give credit to others who contribute, realizing that an iterative process can yield the best outcome.

That’s not to say the autocratic control of Steve Jobs won’t work, too. But you better be a genius !rst.

Stephen Johnson, in Where Good Ideas Come From, reminds us that the best ideas result from collisions. Create as many as you can, in your life, in your work, in your creative process.

Open space at Made by Many, London. The new creative environment is one of collaboration, real time interaction, and iterative development.

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Learn to work fastThere is no patience anymore. Clients want to see work in days, creative directors in hours. And while there will be plenty of “hurry up and wait” situations when the team delivers in real time only to wait a week or more for the client to get back to you, it’s imperative that you learn to deliver ideas -- at least rough ones, kernels of something great -- quickly.

So work that muscle. Write down what you want to say or do or build and then start generating ideas -- concepts, headlines, layouts, app ideas. You may need and actually get a reasonable amount of time to make it great, but learn to think and generate volume quickly.

CP&B ad for GT bicycles.

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Be proli!c

Most great creatives and creative directors will tell you that quantity can help you get to quality. You want to get all the obvious and mediocre ideas out of your system. It clears the way for something breakthrough. It doesn’t matter whether you are writing headlines, exploring visual metaphors, thinking about type treatments, or coming up with digital or viral executions, pages of ideas can be your friend.

See what Luke has to say. I remember Tom McEllligott telling me he wrote a hundred headlines for every great one. And today, even when we’re iterating our way to a great digital experience, we often start with dozens of options before we start developing one.

Starting on page 83. See what Luke has to say.

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Collect ideas constantly

This Picasso doodle from the Picasso Museum in Paris inspired an award winning ad campaign for Smartfood many years ago

Creating should be like eating or taking a shower. Part of your daily routine long before you have a job. So get a good sketch book or a Moleskin. Write down ideas, even half assed ones, all the time. See a problem? Sketch a solution. Can’t think of one? Write down the problem. Have a crazy idea that just pops into your head? Put it in your notebook.

Clip stuff from the web, take pictures of things that inspire you, learn to “steal” the essence of art and music and theatre and snippets of conversation heard on the subway. You never know when they’ll come in handy.

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Master the basics

Typography, layouts, headlines, art direction are all skills and knowledge that remain relevant even in the digital age. Nike Fuel is beautiful. Even YouTube videos need shots with good framing. And despite the size of a mobile screen and the limited options available, there are ugly mobile sites and beautiful ones. You see app descriptions written by amateurs, and others that show a respect for language and the user. So master the basics. Learn the elements of good communication. Pay attention to detail. Care about the craft.

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Create pictures with words“People start reading when they’re interested and stop reading when they’re not.” That was a favorite expression of Jim Mullen, one of my mentors. Words are still incredibly powerful. Whether on Twitter or in a poetic tv commercial. Whether from the heart in an It Gets Better video. Or a commencement talk given by Steve Jobs.

If you want someone to read and admire your work, whether a poster, a script, a landing page, a blog post or a brand manifesto, learn to tell stories and paint pictures with your writing. And have at least one or two great examples in your book.

A decades old ad for Britain’s Health Education Council still works today. With our without the picture.

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Learn to think visually

In a global, digital, connected world, visuals are the universal language. Get good at communicating with images.

14Imagine things you can build

TV spots are still here. Outdoor in the hands of Apple and other brands still works. But print is slowly dying. OLA is proving less and less relevant. Facebook engagement ads? Just look at the stock price. In the future we will build things that invite participation and create community, which in turn spreads the word. It might be a long lasting platform such as Nike + or Garmin Connect, or even shorter lived campaigns like the wonderful Chalkbot for Livestrong that invited people to write messages from their home computer in support of cancer victims then see them appear on the roads of the Tour de France. A physical thing that turned into marketing and advertising.

Come up with ideas like this -- relevant, compelling, participatory, that connect the physical world, human behavior and brand objectives.

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Conceive relevant utilityWe are moving into an age of marketing as service. Too many ad campaigns and ideas start with “What should we say?” and “What do we want consumers to do?” Instead they should ask, “What can we build?” and “What can we do for our customers?” Obviously brands don’t give stuff away just to give it away, but rather to create utility that offers mutual value. Uniqlo might let users lower the price of clothing items by Tweeting. Charmin’ has an app that helps you !nd clean public restrooms.

Tesco installed digital supermarkets in Korea’s subway stations so that customers could shop on their way home and have their purchases waiting for them. It saved real estate investment, allowed for centralized warehousing and took into consideration the way Korean’s actually lived, commuted and shopped. Come up with useful ideas like this for your book.

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Start with the mediumMedia is the new creative department in many agencies. It’s about relevant context. Ask where are users hanging out digitally? What kind of content are they already sourcing? How can you, the creative person, use it differently to connect, engage, make a point?

What can you do with Spotify, with Pandora, with YouTube, with Twitter, with physical spaces?

Take a look at how Droga 5 launched Bing with Jay-Z. Or even how Mullen helped Jet Blue hi-jack YouTube or let Olympus demonstrate a camera’s features with an augmented reality execution. Then !nd a media property and think about how you could use it inventively to help a brand to solve a marketing problem.

17

Invent with the new platforms

Play with Instagram and photo apps.

The future of media isn’t coming from New York or LA. It’s coming from Silicon Valley. Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Springpad (OK, they’re in Massachusetts) are the new networks and magazines. Places where consumers come to create, curate, and be entertained. Learn to conceive ideas in these new spaces. Know what you can do with the social platforms, with their APIs, even with the latest apps as they emerge.

Broadcast using Thunderclap, create ad-like objects using Over Write + Text, hack the systems in a positive way.

Create a complete website using Pinerest

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Become a T-shaped person

These are the creative credits for Nike Fuel in this year’s Cannes Creativity Festival. It’s a long way from Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce. You may have one job title and focus on one function in particular. In fact, you have to develop a vertical skill.

But you also need a good sense of what all the other roles are. How do you relate to them? How do they relate to you? To what degree can you think like them?

It may not necessarily be re"ected in a comp that appears in your book, but it’s a good idea to become aware of the multiple functions and be a T-shaped person. It will help you !nd co-creators to work with on your ideas and prepare you for that !rst real job.

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Learn what works for youWe are all creative. But getting to ideas is different for all of us. Some like to write down dozens of directions or lines. Others think in pictures. Or in metaphors. You might like to start generating ideas immediately, or ruminate for while. Take a shower or a long walk. Doodle or create mind maps. Experiment, try different techniques, start in different places.

Explore lots of options. Eventually you will !gure out the tactics and techniques that work for best for you.

W. Glenn Grif!n and Deb Morrison have written a book exploring how dozens of creatives jump start the process

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Don’t forget to playToo many people are afraid to be creative. Fearful of taking chances and putting their work out there for world to see. Petri!ed of showing or sharing their ideas to someone who might criticize it.

Play helps. It builds trust between you and your partner or colleagues. It helps overcome intimidation. It makes you comfortable. All of which contribute to releasing your inner creativity.

Portfolio Development forAdvertising

Hi. I’m Edward Boches, Professor of the Practice in Mass Communication, Advertising and PR at Boston University’s College of Communication.

I'm also the chief innovation of!cer, at Mullen where I have been a partner for nearly 30 years, most of them as chief creative of!cer, a role I gave up in 2010. In addition, I serve on the board of directors for Springpad and also for BDW at the University of Colorado.

You can access the syllabus to this course on Lore.com.

If you want to access me, you can !nd me as edwardboches on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Springpad, Vimeo, YouTube, Slideshare and my blog Creativity_Unbound.

About the instructor

Page1: Taken from a presentation by Gareth Kay, director of strategy for Goodby Silverstein and partners.Page 2.Economist ad by BBDO Abbot Mead Vickers, LondonPage 5.From Apples’s 1984, spot by Chiat DayPage 6. Truth logo from campaign by CP&B and ArnoldPage 7.Bill BernbachPage 8.Rooftop Comedy LogoPage 9.Scale McCabe Sloves Volvo adPage 10.Vermeer’s A Lady WritingPage 11.Made by Many, LondonPage 12.CP&B ad for GT BicyclesPage 13.Hey Whipple…by Luke Sullivan

Page 14From Picasso Museum in Paris, a doodle on an old magazinePage 16Saatchi Cramer ad for Britain’s Health Ed CouncilPage 17Ad for Bic pen by TBWA Hunt Lascaris, South AfricaPage 18Nike Chalkbot, Wieden and Kennedy and Deep LocalPage 19Tesco, KoreaPage 20Mullen ad for Olympus Page 21Scamp conference created on PinterestPage 22Creative credits for R/GA Cannes entry for Nike FuelPage 23The Creative Process Illustrated, by W. Glenn Grif!th and Deborah MorrisonPage 24Tim Brown, CEO, Ideo Ted Talk

Credits