The Young Creative Council: Unite III

Mandy and I went along to The Young Creative Council’s Unite III last night, held at Cargo in Old Street. The night was full of awesome new student books, great ideas and creative minds. With book crits from some of the industries most creative agencies – Saatchi and Saatchi, Y&R, JWT, Inferno, TAG, RPM and VCCP to name a few – the room was buzzing. We managed to give 6 book crits in total, where we saw a real mix of work and gave our constructive thoughts, which hopefully helped! From pen-lids that whitened teeth when chewed, to Facebook frapping YouTube videos – it was a really inspiring evening.

So here are some SOS essentials for a book (some of them might seem blinkin’ obvious but you would be amazed at how many books were guilty – including ours at one point!!!)

• Check, check and even when you’re sure – check your spellings once more!!!! (If you’re like me and horribly dyslexic, get others to help you!)
• Write down notes on what you’re being told. Even if you disagree and think the person critting you is talking crap, write it down – just to show you respect their opinions.
• Long copy ads are crazy hard – don’t put it in your book unless your 100% happy that it’s a favourite, stand-out, potentially award-winning campaign.
• If you’ve made a TV/ radio ad, play it!
• You don’t have to have a million campaigns in your book to make it great. If there are around 6 different campaigns that each use lots of different media, that’s great.
• One-off ideas are fun, fab and show your silly side.
• Page dividers from campaign to campaign are a must – it gets soooo confusing and the presentation of your book represents you as a creative!
• Don’t just use traditional media – there’s so many ways you can show an idea. Keep everyone on their toes!
• It’s your book. You don’t have clients, account teams or creative directors changing your idea, so go all out ­– make it exciting and make it different.
• Just remember, everyone has been in the same ‘budding young creative talent looking for a job in advertising’ position too. On average, it takes at least a year – if not two – before you sign that desired first contract. Getting a job in advertising isn’t easy, but everyone is there to help you on your way.

 A couple of my fav books of the night:

 http://www.charleyandjames.com/

Although Charley and James have recently split up, so James is now working with Jeremy – a fun, talented creative on placement at JWT. Great book, so much fun and really brings their personalities across. Looking forward to seeing their new book together.  

Cargocollective.com/samandsarah

A good book – very well art directed. Maybe more time could be spent on the ideas first and then the art direction. Being a bit critical though, as it was a really inspiring book.

http://marcandcallum.tumblr.com/

A first year team from Sunderland University. Really excited by this team, especially when you think of the creative talent they’ll have when they reach their third year – I think they’ll easily walk into a job. And last night they were one of the teams that managed to get a placement. Definitely ones to watch – go team!!!!

All in all, it was a brilliant night – hats off to The Young Creative Council for putting together an amazing evening – can’t wait for the next one.