Tocquigny's executive creative director, Eddie Prentiss, shares insights on advertising
Eddie Prentiss, Executive Creative Director at Tocquigny and founder of Brainco, shares his thoughts on the challenges faced by young creatives in advertising
What is your advice for copywriters and art directors as they go out looking for a job?
The most valuable portfolios are the ones that show big ideas and comprehensive campaigns. If you're a writer and you're working on a team and you have a big concept where you have TV, print, banner ads, digital and experiential and your writing flows through all of it, that's really what's going to set you apart. If you can show your breadth you're really better off.
If I were doing my portfolio all over again I would put a heavy emphasis on copy, whether I was a writer or an art director. Most of the ad schools do not teach art directors and designers how to work with large amounts of type and most of them don’t teach writers how to write. Nowadays a lot of student portfolios are filled with visual solutions. If you're an art director and you can take 700 words and make it look crazy good, you've shown a skill set that most young people just don’t have.
Unfortunately, one thing I hear all the time is writers going to their school critiques the teachers saying “Don’t worry about the copy. I'm not reading the copy, nobody reads the copy.” Then they go out for an interview and they get hammered because the interviewer says, “Okay I like your book and your ideas but where's the copy?” When you’re hiring someone you need to know that they can write.
How can we get realistic feedback on our work?
A lot of people come out of school with a false sense of security about their portfolios. It can be very easy to hear what you want to hear. One suggestion I make to students is to line up informational interviews in cities where they don’t want to work. Let's say you got a wedding in Boston, and you’ve got nothing else going on. Set up some interviews there, stay an extra day. Then you can go to the best shops and get great feedback. If your portfolio bombs, you haven’t damaged any opportunities. Yes, you could do that by e-mail, but the problem with that is you don't get the same feedback that you get in person. I used New York. I spent three days there and saw a ton of agencies and it was totally like, “tear it up!” I came back to my school for my last quarter and re-worked everything based on that feedback. If my book was really horrible at least I wasn't showing it to somebody that I really wanted to show it to yet. It was like a practice date or something.
When presenting digital solutions and apps in a portfolio, should we put a written description in there?
If I'm looking through a book or judging an award show, I don't have time to figure out what this [app] is, you know? You have to tie it all in. Show the stuff that a person can absorb quickly, the conceptual stuff, and the one-liners… tie it in with something else so if they want to look at your app they can. I've seen campaigns that are so convoluted, I'm flipping through them and I'm like “oh my gosh that took me 20 minutes.” and when I finally get through it, it wasn’t worth all the effort.
Should we be worried about getting pigeonholed in our first job?
It goes both ways. Sometimes you’re not known for anything. But then if you're the “social media guy” at least they know you're “the guy.” I came up on the traditional side and I had a client where I redesigned their website and they only saw me as their “web guy” and they wouldn't give me any traditional work. Ironically I had another client that we rebranded and he farmed the web work out to someone else. Sometimes you just have to "chameleon it” based on your skill set. But there is an old expression that’s really true. “Don’t get good at something you don’t want to do.”
Often the required skills listed in a job posting can seem a bit overwhelming.
There is a sort of a struggle between someone being a specialist and a generalist. Right now everyone's trying to come to grips with it. Companies are bloating up their job postings with all these crazy wish lists of skills. It's almost impossible for someone to learn that much in the amount of time they have in school.
Twenty years ago the industry was more focused on just a few areas of concentration. Now, if you look at a job posting they list twenty different skill sets. Just to be a designer or art director, you have to be strong conceptually, strong aesthetically, you want to have some basic business common sense and strategy and then you have to have the computer skills, the technical skills.
You have to keep learning! I mean, it sounds so clichéd but if you don't, you become irrelevant pretty quickly. However if you do, the opposite is true. You can become very relevant. If you're the only one that knows “X” in your company then you have a little job security there.
Given that a young art director is not going to have all of those skills- should they just go apply anyway?
Yes, there’s no reason not to apply. Odds are it’s going to be tough for them to find that miracle worker anyway, so at least you have a shot. Also young people are easier to “plug and play.” You can put a young person in a lot of different spots, because your expectation of what they’re going to know is different.
What about recent graduates who are considering setting up their own shop or freelancing?
It’s tough but it is possible. The nice thing about starting an agency when you’re younger is you probably don’t have the same financial concerns. You typically have a more flexibility so you and your buddies can start your own business. The downside is your experience level is limited. You’re probably not going to have the same awareness of how to handle some of the processes, but you find your way through it. Some of my students left school and immediately started their own shops and they’re doing great. They never worked for another agency. Freelancing can lead to client work, which can lead to your own shop pretty quickly. It’s a definite option.
Final thoughts?
Learn as much as you can about what you want to do. Meet as many people as you can, but don’t be abrasive. Give them some room to breathe. You have to get yourself into the right situation – it’s a numbers game almost. Just be a good person, do great work and eventually something will pop!