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The second agency we visited was DDB, this was an exciting experience because it is the home of modern adevrtising. DDB stands for Doyle Dane and Bernbach, and Bill Bernbach was the man who revolutionised the way creatives worked together and how adverts were designed. Previously art directors and copywriters were almost segregated and barely spoke to each other, now we work in partnerships and more successfully bounce ideas of each other creating bigger, better and more imaginative ads.
While at DDB we were given a tour of the graphics department and we were shown how they construct things in 3d now to save on time and money.
We also got the the chance to meet with three young creatives who talked us through their experiences coming into the agency and the projects they've been working on. I also stuck behind after most the group left to talk to them further, it quickly became apparent that if i'm to get a job in the US I'll need to create a quite heavily tailored book, as many of the products I've been working on aren't sold over there, so it would lead to some confussion. This is good to know long in advance. I've exchanged e-mail addresses with them so I can approach them for book crits once I have things in motion.
The overall experience left me thinking I definatley want to work in New York, the city is amazing, the people are stupidly friendly, and there is just so much opportunity.
The main reason we went to New York was to visit agencies and see how the industry works in the States. The first agency we visited was Mcann-Erikson Worldwide. This was a highly interesting experience because for the first time we were shown much of what goes on behind the scenes. Mcanns create most of their adverts in house, and have TV studios, editing suites, printing offices and all sorts, all within the building. We got to speak with someone from their HR department, who explained exactly what we'd need to do to get a job in a New York agency, which was really good and we got alot of useful information, and because of that I'm now in the process of setting up a website to deisplay both my ad book in and my photographic portfollio. The reason for this is that in todays modern age this is the most efficient way of showing a company your work, especially when they're all the way accross the pond.
We also met a man called Bobby from Southhampton, who's working there as a graphics tech. It was really good to see him talk about his experience as a Englishman in New York, I think most of us found it quite encouraging to find him there, and it gave us hope of making it in New York ourselves.
I've got to say that Times Square is one of the most spectacular places I've ever seen. I thoroughly suggest that everyone go there to see it at least once in their life. It is so much more impressive in person than on TV, previous to going there I just saw it as an incredibly gaudy advert space, where as it's actually a stunning awe inspiring sight. It's like stepping into a scene from a sci-fi movie like the Fith Elememnt or Blade Runner.
While we were there we went to Red Lobsters, quite possibly the best steak I have ever had.
While in New York we visited Ground Zero, though the site itself currently can't be seen because of the boards put up while redevelopment and construction take place. St Paul's Chapel, which lies just opposite the site, is famous because when the towers came down, despite detritus and debris for streets around, the chapel didn't gain even the slightest mark of damage not even to the glass or woodwork. Since the 911 St Paul's has become the centre of remembrance for the the tragic losses suffered. The chapel is filled with letters of condolence and remorse. Though for me the most striking thing was the red vestment. The red vestment is a trainee priests robes that was left there and over time has had the badges of all the different fire, police, paramedic, and other search and rescue groups, from all over the world, that came to help, pinned to it. The vestment is hanging on a bust, completely covered in badges, and there are badges piled up at its base, because there was so many that wanted to help, and right on top of the bust in pride of place, is a police helmet from the Northumbria Police. I think this moved me more than anything else because seeing signs that people from my own local police department flew the 2000 miles to New York to help in the search and rescue, showed how much it meant to the world as a whole, and made it personal to me. In about a year and a half it'll be 10 years since the towers came down, and it's still effecting us now, at St Paul's there were still very clear signs that emotions are still very raw. Just stepping in there you could feel it. As a species we supposedly don't have any supernatural talents or 6th senses, but it's at times like that I doubt it, there are very few people that would of denied feeling all the emotion there.
I recently went to New York with other people from my course. As cliche as it sounds, we all had the time of our lives. Though the journey was long and tedious, we made the most of it. The first day we were there we went to the Guggenheim Museum (www.guggenheim.org). The Guggenheim mainly holds paintings and photography of a more modern nature though it does have some classics from the likes of Picasso and Van Gough. The building itself is a work of art, it spirals upwards getting wider as you go leaving a dramatic atrium in the centre, normally naturally lit via the ornate glass roof. Even without the art inside it was worth the visit, I've always had a love of architecture, and this was certainly a fascinating example. They've currently got an exhibition on called contemplating the void, which is all about art within and designed specifically for the atrium area. All the ideas and concepts were displayed in one of side rooms. It was really interesting to see what different people had come with and done. There were options from filling it with water and using it as a giant aquarium, to fitting trampolines so you could bounce from floor to floor.
Around the spiral was displayed alot of photographic work from artists like Ori Gersht, Roni Horn, Hiroshi Sugimoto (www.sugimotohiroshi.com), and James Casebere (jamescasebere.net). There were other artists on display, but I enjoyed the work from these four the most.
Jaimie and Thompson from the second year have been given the opportunity to compete against Cravens, a local advertising agency, in the Northern Lights Film Festival www.nlff.co.uk. The Northern Lights is a festival designed to celebrate the skills of film makers from the North of England in particular, but is open to anyone interested. Both creative teams were asked to design a tv and poster campaign designed to attract a Film Director into using Whitley Bay as part of a film set.
Jaimie and Thompson came up with the idea creating a film of their own, showing off all the sights but deliberatley badly shot and written, trying to show that they had everything you needed in Whitley apart from the crew.
I'm including this in my blog as Jaimie and Thompson asked me to help out in the production, it was a good laugh, and we had a lot of fun making it. Though I feel admitting to this might be a bad idea, but I was responsible for all the bad photography and filmography, which as a photographer doesn't look good.
But despite my best efforts to look bad I was conscripted by Northern Lights as the official photographer.
At the event at the Baltic around 50 people showed, we were supplied with free tea and coffee from Ringtons the official sponsor.
Jaimie and Thompsons idea went down really well and actually won the competition
Jaimie and Thompson being Interviewed
Jaimie and Thompson with their trophy
