The Ranch A Blog for Texas Creatives

If you haven't been to The Ranch yet, you should stop by and leave your mark. It is a blog (and more) aimed at the Texas Creative community and founded by one of our own. You will discover an environment that is fun, interesting, and a useful resource for all the Creatives out there.

Currently, the blog features interviews with Ernie Schneck from Communication Arts, and Ignacio Oreamuno from ihaveanidea.com. Both interviews are full of sound advice for the budding Creative. The interviews are a must read for introspection and career planning. More interviews with agency producers, editors, art directors and group creative directors are lined up from DDB Chicago, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Energy BBDO, GSD&M, and Cutter's.

"The Ranch" also features an exhaustive list of advertising agencies, as well as links to resources for Advertising, Copy Writing, Design, Production, and more. Most importantly, it provides a list of agencies where "alumni work, live, and sleep." Lastly, let's not forget the links to all things cool and distinctive about Austin.

"The Ranch" was founded by David Wen, a Texas Creative senior, born and raised in Bedford, TX. His childhood dream was to design automobiles, but he settled for advertising (since UT still doesn't have an auto design department). He gained industry experience interning at DDB Chicago as a Junior Art Director concepting for Busch beer, Michelob Ultra, JCPenney, and State Farm. The webmaster of "The Ranch" is Matt Morris, another one of our Creatives. Other crew members are Natasha Fassell, Abi Stallings, Mark Bonus, and Monica Corona. Wen is the editor and major contributor to "The Ranch." He hopes that this will soon change, thanks to contributions from other Creatives. "I want to foster a community of Texas Creative students and Texas Creative alumni," says Wen. "I need people to contribute! Anybody who would like to post, please have them contact me via facebook or email."

When asked about the future he had in store for "The Ranch," Wen's reply was full of drive, and community spirit: "I want this to be a place that Texas Creatives can call their own. A place where people can surf to relax after a hard day at work or a week full of stressful tests, where they can see the freshest student thinking, where they can read smart, insightful commentary about life and the advertising industry. A place where students can feel free to post their thoughts, ideas and rough comps for feedback." As Sean Thompson, Professor of advertising at UT stated, "this could be a wonderful tool that means something to many, beyond the Texas network."

Wen believes that a College of Communication forum can play a vital role in connecting the alumni family, and a blog is the ideal medium. Wen's expectations are not limited to Texas Creatives: "I can see each part of Texas advertising (creative, account management, interactive, account planning, media, and research.) having sister blogs to the Texas Creative blog."

Enough talk. Click, blog, and make it grow!: http://txadv.blogspot.com

3/2/2006