D&AD New Blood 09 - Roundup part three - Advice Lectures, London loving and plans plans plans

I went back into London on the thursday to attend the D&AD Training and Advice sessions, which were organised to coincide with New Blood and the people who exhibited.

It was a really useful day, held at Notting Hill's Coronet Theatre (which is this cute indie old-stye cinema, pretty sweet) and I attended 4 of the talks that were held there.

The first one was called 'How did they do it?' and that was a good one, it was 2 students, Ross Taylor and Alex... someone(argh cant remember his last name) who had graduated last year and had managed to successfully get jobs, and basically what they did to end up where they are now. Some really useful tips, things like keeping in contact with your contacts, don't be afraid to move on, win as many awards as you can, things like that.

Then there was a talk on 'How to make your mark', making your portfolio as good as it can be, by Paul Brazier of AMV.BBDO, who is going to be the next President of D&AD. Lots of useful things to take away there. The next talk I went to was called 'How to be Successful' (which is amusing, surely it can't be as easy as that) and that was by Steve Henry, who used to be the Creative Director at TBWA but left to take time off from the industry - he spoke a lot about how advertising works and how a lot of it gets watered down so much through the creative process that very rarely do you get an amazing advert - basically telling us as 'new blood' what we can do to make an impact in this changing industry, especially as 'ant- consumerism' and the recession takes hold, advertising is changing as people are realising that buying stuff doesn't make them happy. Loads to think about, it's a subject that I'm really interested it - how can advertising survive if people are starting to not buy things all the time, can advertising actually encourage people to buy less but buy better? Quality over quantity, no more of 'you need this now, loads of it, buy this now!' to something with a bit more austerity. I don't really know the answer yet.

And the last talk was all about Setting up a new business/how to survive as a freelancer - some of these things I knew already but it was refreshing to hear it from actual freelancers, and interesting to hear that going freelance straight from uni isn't always the best idea - get into the industry and learn from real life, get some contacts first before you go out on your own. Makes sense.



It was another beautiful day in London so I took a wander over to the Southbank - here are some pics taken off the Embankment bridge. I just walked down from here on my own to the Tate Modern, not really with an aim in mind, just taking it all in and realising how much I miss London. I used to come here every 2 weeks or so back before Uni, going to gigs and galleries, and now I'm lucky if I go 2 or 3 times a year. So being back in London so much these past 2 weeks has been great, and even though the tube is still as packed and nightmarish as usual, I love it. I know that place so well and it's made me realise that I definitely want to live there. After not being accepted into either of the MA's that I wanted to do in London, I thought I'd leave it for a bit, but these past 4 days at New Blood has really made me rethink everything - I want to do placements in London, working at studios, working freelance, doing all these things, and I know it's a cliche but you really have to be in London for these things. I love that city, the energy, even the horrible impatient Londoners and the mentalist cyclists. I felt myself slipping back into the Londoner mentality so easily almost straight away - (stupid tourists, can't even work the tube, it's bloody colour coded for god's sake, it's not hard) I caught myself thinking. How bad is that? :P

But I'm a bit torn because I planned to live with my best friend in Wolves for a year, and I have a job in Wolves, and so many friends up there, and not so many in London and at home, and all this stuff. But maybe it's time to just do something for myself. I never do that.

So I think I need a Plan of Action. Start contacting studios etc, keep illustrating, keep applying for placements, don't rush anything or make any rash decisions and hopefully by Christmas I'll be well on my way to where I want to be. Wherever that is.

First off, I need a Mac. Badly. Where can I get a reconditioned one? I am poor.

Previous posts about New Blood 09.