Yay/Boo: Thesaurus.com

photo by xorsyst

Thesaurus.com is free, this is a yay for copywriters. So shouldn't the Visual Thesaurus should be free for Art Directors?

BOO: It is not cool that Art Directors have to pay for a visual thesuarus that would benefit us while Copywriters get their word thesaurus completely free and clear.

Little Man Syndrome

Don't get me wrong I appreciate a beautiful truck. Though sometimes . . . it's a little . . . or a lot much. This is one of those times.

I'm tired of looking for Lorem Ipsom generators

Too much time is spent looking for this . . . so here are ten paragraphs for me to have easy access too.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce in sem eu ligula tincidunt sollicitudin ac non ligula. In semper ante erat, sit amet fermentum diam. Nunc tincidunt fermentum ante non egestas. Etiam dignissim, lectus ut convallis laoreet, nisi nisi placerat urna, molestie viverra nunc velit ut sapien. Aenean ut blandit metus. Integer eu quam nec ante semper porta. Aenean dui dolor, dictum at consectetur eu, fringilla nec diam. Donec tempus, nisl et consequat aliquam, est ligula rutrum odio, sed volutpat quam purus in arcu. Mauris dapibus iaculis turpis ut eleifend. Quisque hendrerit, turpis id blandit faucibus, turpis nibh blandit erat, non iaculis velit odio vitae libero. Proin pulvinar quam a nisl lobortis viverra. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.

Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Nulla vitae felis elit, eu fermentum lacus. Maecenas at ipsum dolor, quis lobortis massa. Ut eu rhoncus dolor. Pellentesque rhoncus ullamcorper ligula sit amet varius. Pellentesque fermentum purus sit amet nulla aliquet vitae sodales quam mattis. Maecenas ante ante, vehicula id molestie in, venenatis eget neque. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum venenatis egestas aliquet. Maecenas purus massa, molestie et ultrices id, mollis sed arcu. Sed eleifend enim nec augue imperdiet pulvinar. Nulla facilisi. Vestibulum et dui ligula. Curabitur dignissim risus eu tortor interdum tincidunt placerat quam blandit.

Aenean sit amet eros ut augue auctor vulputate vel quis tortor. Vivamus commodo cursus tempus. Sed et est justo. Aliquam ullamcorper nulla non sapien bibendum fringilla posuere orci malesuada. Integer lobortis metus vitae nulla aliquam cursus. Proin non erat erat. Fusce fermentum consequat quam sed fermentum. Maecenas varius vehicula nibh sed sodales. Phasellus tincidunt libero vel arcu vulputate quis luctus lorem cursus. Sed sed egestas urna. Donec lectus neque, porttitor pellentesque tincidunt eget, vestibulum ac erat. Donec lacinia enim elit. Nullam sit amet sapien ac tellus rutrum hendrerit. Integer non quam feugiat leo laoreet hendrerit vel nec felis. Pellentesque eget lectus dui. Pellentesque leo nisi, consectetur at malesuada quis, consequat ut nunc. Mauris mollis dolor libero, pretium interdum libero. Ut volutpat placerat turpis sed mattis.

Mauris semper sapien sed nulla sagittis ut pulvinar metus eleifend. Donec eget nulla metus. Suspendisse ac leo ac neque cursus tempus vel sit amet magna. Mauris consectetur massa libero. Fusce at quam eu elit molestie tincidunt vel et sapien. Quisque varius enim quis arcu ornare facilisis. Etiam tempor, ligula nec ultrices semper, urna lectus accumsan eros, quis pulvinar lectus felis sit amet turpis. Pellentesque egestas purus volutpat mi facilisis posuere. Suspendisse aliquet magna vel diam auctor ut tincidunt libero cursus. Donec quam elit, tristique quis semper vel, laoreet vitae justo. Maecenas sagittis varius lectus, vitae laoreet purus suscipit a. Sed lacinia feugiat dui. Nulla vitae nunc in nunc euismod faucibus sed id mauris. Vivamus varius nibh a dolor faucibus vulputate. Vivamus accumsan hendrerit nibh, sed rutrum enim congue in.

Nam condimentum est eros, sit amet ornare eros. Nulla dignissim, nibh nec viverra aliquet, leo orci luctus neque, eu consectetur turpis risus placerat ligula. Sed erat tortor, rutrum at elementum vitae, malesuada nec nisl. Vivamus et ligula vel sem mattis commodo at et eros. Sed et libero eget tellus commodo dapibus nec et dui. Sed quis sapien felis. Ut sit amet leo velit, sed mattis nunc. Donec tincidunt enim sed lectus congue molestie. Mauris vestibulum luctus viverra. Praesent egestas convallis odio quis suscipit. Ut at nulla eget sem elementum suscipit. Nullam in purus libero. Ut gravida dignissim dictum. Proin erat lectus, feugiat a tincidunt sit amet, volutpat at orci.

Maecenas neque sem, cursus quis aliquet mattis, convallis a risus. Phasellus ultricies elementum neque a convallis. Mauris dictum elit quis erat vehicula non molestie quam ultricies. In varius adipiscing congue. Suspendisse faucibus est nisl. Sed id ornare ligula. Nulla facilisi. Mauris nisl lacus, mollis eget fringilla a, tempor non mi. Morbi et facilisis neque. Duis bibendum lorem risus, mattis placerat tellus. Nulla facilisi. Duis eleifend sem id nulla vestibulum id rutrum leo condimentum. Nulla facilisi.

Etiam id urna risus, et placerat ipsum. Maecenas volutpat neque non leo varius rhoncus. Nunc ac justo risus, non fringilla urna. Suspendisse potenti. Praesent pretium viverra imperdiet. Maecenas imperdiet rhoncus diam, in posuere massa cursus et. Etiam pulvinar, lorem vel feugiat dictum, dui quam semper enim, eu laoreet leo leo ut est. Donec faucibus condimentum magna, eu venenatis sem aliquam nec. Aliquam velit tellus, mollis vitae feugiat dapibus, fermentum ac nisl. Donec eros purus, sodales nec imperdiet ut, vestibulum non libero. Pellentesque mollis velit eget turpis sollicitudin pharetra. Donec eu mauris ipsum. Donec placerat neque vel orci eleifend rutrum. Mauris imperdiet, quam sit amet consectetur tincidunt, dolor nibh aliquam magna, et rhoncus leo magna non lectus.

Morbi lectus nunc, pharetra sed pharetra sit amet, laoreet nec lacus. Nullam et neque in lectus lobortis mattis. Donec non orci nec ipsum molestie dictum. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Sed augue tellus, adipiscing in sollicitudin vitae, ullamcorper eget nibh. Vestibulum volutpat fermentum massa, vitae laoreet neque molestie vel. Ut a metus lacus. In ut porttitor massa. In vitae purus eget nulla accumsan luctus. Etiam lectus massa, scelerisque ac suscipit eget, elementum vitae metus. Etiam tortor sapien, fringilla vel facilisis nec, lobortis at nibh. Donec aliquam mollis dolor vitae blandit. Duis sed elit a elit porttitor sodales non in magna. Maecenas tristique felis vel dolor commodo eget hendrerit diam aliquam. Nulla nec est a dolor sodales eleifend. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Nullam in felis non purus vehicula condimentum quis sed lorem. Aliquam vel orci diam, quis pulvinar neque. Etiam in dolor et mauris viverra vestibulum.

Praesent porttitor sem eget mauris rutrum placerat. Mauris suscipit suscipit lacus eget vulputate. Suspendisse potenti. Cras id ligula ligula. Vestibulum in lobortis odio. Morbi non erat lectus, in fringilla elit. Aenean interdum tincidunt sagittis. Suspendisse potenti. Duis at dui in ante feugiat gravida. Pellentesque in ante est. Integer quis tellus et massa fringilla varius. Suspendisse eu velit facilisis tellus placerat fringilla. Donec ac convallis odio. Curabitur id mi vel felis lobortis pulvinar. Praesent vitae ipsum nunc, in consectetur enim.

Ut vel nibh at enim iaculis mattis. Integer ut lacus ut mauris aliquam eleifend. Sed lacinia semper scelerisque. In et risus sit amet neque cursus molestie ac sed mauris. Aliquam vehicula mattis mauris ut ornare. Ut auctor pretium est eu hendrerit. Vestibulum malesuada vulputate nulla, eu convallis ante aliquet gravida. Nam hendrerit odio non lectus molestie ut ultrices nulla sollicitudin. Praesent bibendum purus ac diam pretium et facilisis mauris aliquet. Sed mattis imperdiet metus vel blandit. Vivamus tincidunt justo at sapien dapibus luctus. Nullam augue justo, varius vel lobortis in, tempor condimentum augue. Maecenas malesuada, elit non faucibus viverra, libero nulla porta dolor, a tristique ipsum nisl non diam.

Jr. Creative Advice: Listen & Observe

photo by Toni Rantanen

I'm not talking about listening to orders . . . which is just common sense, I'm talking about listening to things going on around the office. Listen to how people think and take notes on how they do things. Use the little shortcuts and tricks to art direct faster. There are a lot of things I have learned in the last three weeks, that have allowed me to work faster. Learn all you can. Don't just hole up in your headphones all day and block yourself out.

Yay/Boo: Save the Whales . . .

This weeks Yay/Boo is definitely covered by Agency Spy and PETAs new poster.

"Sometimes it's fun to look at an ad and the things that can be derived from its message. Here today we have a poster for Peta (yes, it's from Friday). Clearly, it's aimed at fat or scared-to-be-fat people. But it really doesn't make any sense whatsoever when you think about it and luckily we've made a convenient list of our thoughts on the matter." Read More. . .

Yay/Boo: Another ONE!?

So this campaign just went up in the city. It has some decent lines . . . but there are little lines above the glass in script which you can't read until you are right up on the billboard . . . WHO APPROVED THESE?

The billboard would have been better visually without the line above the glass. Though actually now that I am writing about it . . . I don't know which rum this billboard is for. It reminds me of and makes me think about capitan morgan though . . . hmm probably not the goal.

Yay: The white background.

Yay: The layout of the headline.

Boo: Don't remember who the billboard is for.

Boo: Stupid script above the glass.

Boo: Makes me think of Capt. Morgan instead of your brand.

Yay/Boo: WHO DOES THAT?!

This is a billboard I saw on my way to work this morning. It's on the Fourth St exit of the 80 Freeway in San Francisco.

Yay: Good Placement, this is a long red light allowing ample time for everyone to see it.

Boo: I get that the left side is SUPPOSED to be a close up of the bottle's label, but it is too close and thus making it look like a split screen.

Boo: Using Mary Kate typeface for your headline. WHY would you add ANOTHER typeface to this billboard?

Boo: Headline . . .

. . . and the Boos have it.

Jr. Creative Advice: Grab Yur Pardner Dosey Doe

this is Krystha (left) and me (right) our first semester of grad school.

Today's advice is more for the rockstar adgrads still in portfolio. Get yo self a pardner. If you're an AD find a CW, if you're a CW find an AD. Find someone you really mesh well with and don't mind being around for 36 hours straight. Work with them relentlessly. Build a team book and really sell yourself as one cohesive unit.

In grad school I teamed with a lot of different copywriters. At the end of portfolio 3 I was looking for a new copywriter. Krystha had done some good writing and I wanted to work with her. So I asked . . . asked again . . . and again. She put off giving me an answer for about 3 weeks. Then she tells me that she is working with someone else. Alright fine, so I start to work on a campaign by myself. Then a couple days later she comes to me and says that the girl she was supposed to work with was working with someone else. Come to find out she was intimidated to work with me . . . .

We hammered out the two campaigns in two days. These were the only campaigns that needed a little to no tweaking at all and you guys know how long it usually takes to get something approved by Matt, Maria or Sean.

As we left grad school, Krystha already had an internship in New York (lame, jk), and I went straight to LA. Three months later she moves to Dallas for another internship . . . I wasn't so happy but I figured that at least she was slowly moving west. I was right, finally after NY and Dallas, Krystha finally decided to come to Cali and try to sell ourselves as a team. First try, we got hired.

Our current bosses sold themselves as a team when the concept was unheard of, but they have been together for 19 years so it seems to work out well.

I came across this funny posting of two creatives who currently work at W+K talking about how people react when you are talking about your creative partner.

Jr. Creative Advice: Don't Limit Yourself

KB and I graduated graduate school in May of '08 (Hook 'Em) and I moved to L.A. and did some freelance while KB did a couple internships in NYC and Dallas. Fast forward to December '08, still no agency prospects on the horizons, the economy is slow and I am still trying to get KB to move to L.A., and it's not really working.

Fast forward to January '08, I drove back to L.A. from PHX and got home at about 2 am. I was exhausted from driving but I decided to check craigslist for jobs before I went to bed. I found a posting saying an agency in S.F. was holding an open house in hopes of hiring a team. I got on the phone, facebook, myspace, twitter . . . and any other social network I could think of at 3 am and left KB a message telling her she needed to meet me in S.F. in 24 hours (she was in TX).

The next morning KB calls me and is like there is no way I can get on a plane and get there in time, so we start to think about her just sending her book and I could put her picture in a frame and set it on the desk during the interview. Anyway, we get off the phone and about an hour later she calls me back, she found a round trip ticket for $250 and would meet me there. SWEET!

KB packed and drove to Austin that night and flew out at 5 am the next morning (shoutout to MJ for taking my CW to the airport!)

We were nervous, excited and didn't really know what to expect. The postings went up 24 hours before the review and Agency Spy even said how bad the PR was for the review. So anyway, we get there and the place is PACKED as you can see from the video. There were over 300 people there and there was this short little asian lady shouting instructions on how to line up and other details.

KB and I got to interview as a team, and met with the ECD for a good 10 minutes which was way longer than a lot of other people were meeting with the CDs for. After our interview we felt good, they liked our work and we liked them.

After the shindig with the review KB decided to move to L.A. and even if we didn't get the job, we could search for jobs in L.A. as a team. Two weeks to the day, we got a call from the short little asian lady and she wanted us to come back up for another interview. Of course we would go.

I went downstairs to the gym and KB was riding the bike. I said, "So guess what we are doing Friday?!" She didn't know . . . and before I could finish saying going to S.F., she had jumped off the bike and was hugging me and jumping up and down with her schweaty self.

We went back up to S.F. interviewed again and we knew this was a place we wanted to be. We figured that we would have to sweat it out and we might get a call the next week, but we ended up getting a call within 30 minutes of interviewing with an offer for the job.

We accepted Friday and started Tuesday. It took me a month of weekends to get all my stuff from L.A. to S.F. It was a crazy experience and S.F. wasn't a place either of us had planned on moving to, but we have been here now for about six months.

Soo . . . the moral of the story is don't limit yourself. Be open to anything, it not only raises your possibilities of finding a job, it makes life more exciting.

Virgin U?

Virgin U huh? interesting.

Jr. Creative Advice: Invest in a Mini Fridge

You're going to have long nights and because pencils aren't a nutritious source of anything, you should buy a mini fridge and stick it in your advertising playpen. I found mine on Craigslist (no the stickers weren't included) for $50. Holla.

Yay/Boo: Would You Hire Her?

There's a post on Phoenix Ad Blog where an intern writes about her horrible experience interning at an ad agency "which will remain nameless". I am from Phoenix and went to AZ State for GD, anyone who falls into either one of those categories knows the agency with the basketball court & free beer. Way to go Moses you are famous for something.

The internship is unpaid and and that blows because I think internships should be paid at least minimum wage. Intern should have known this before taking the position, Moses has never paid their interns and probably never will because they can get away with it.
>> Boo Intern for not doing your homework
>> Boo Moses for not paying your interns.

The basketball court & free beer is definitely a bonus, we only get free pop & fruit at my agency, but as this is the real world and there is a recession/depression going on. Businesses and people are trying to keep their head above water and food on their table. Maybe Intern should read AgencySpy and realize how many people are getting laid off.
>> Boo intern for being naive to what is going on in the world today.
>> Yay Moses for even having a basketball court and free beer.

Organizing pens by color, moving binders, and running errands suck, but is part of being an intern. It's what makes helping out in the concepting and production phase that much more exciting. The projections you complain about come with proving the work has worked, the scripts you had to re-type give you the ability to see how scripts are written and how you should write them in the future. A lot of interns, even juniors for that matter never see a photo shoot until their second year in the business, you should feel lucky that you got to experience it.
>> Boo intern for bitching, everyone now knows you aren't a team player and you will get picked last for kickball.
>> Yay Moses for being OCD organized.

Intern you are not the only one who has interned . . . everyone does it. It's a right of passage, a shitty one none the less, but still a right of passage. Once you get hired, being a junior is better than being an intern but you still do the projects the seniors don't want to do, you still have to work your ass off, stay late, work weekends, and do whatever it takes to get where you want in this industry. Nothing in life is given to you, and nothing is truer than that in this industry. You made a three month commitment in which you couldn't follow through on. Boo to you.

I do love the fact that intern is gung-ho about creating competition for Moses, they need it, it will only make them a better shop. The only thing is, Intern will have to get her own interns to organize her pens by color because everyone knows she won't do it.

Read the entire letter below that was submitted to the Phoenix Ad Blog:

This open letter was submitted by Jenavi Kasper, who recently resigned as an intern at one of the large local ad agencies:

Dear Local Advertising Agency Named After the Founders,

Well, it’s been one heck of a time interning over at your super-cool office. The Friday in-house happy hour was a great touch. When I landed the internship at your place I was excited. Working downtown in a hip office, getting some experience in the industry and the free beer is what lured me in. It sounded like a dream! And I have to say, when I told people where I was interning they were pretty impressed.

But you guys dropped the ball (figuratively of course). Come to think of it, while I was there I never did see anyone start the pick-up game of basketball I was expecting to break out at any moment–but maybe I was tainted by the YouTube video. (What good is the basketball hoop in the office if nobody uses it?)

I would be crazy to leave, right? Even if it was an unpaid internship it’s still a resumè builder. But, if you can believe it, I left this experience disappointed.

Maybe that’s my fault. I had unrealistic expectations. I thought that interning would allow me to use my brain and maybe, just maybe, apply some of what I spent four years learning. But you proved me wrong. You have snatched my naiveté like a pillowcase filled with candy on Halloween.

The funny thing is, I didn’t get it right away. When you assigned me to organize the pens by color on my first day I didn’t worry much about it. When you asked me to drop off DVDs to your client’s office, I didn’t think twice (though I wasn’t paid for gas). I didn’t even mind when you asked me to help you move binders out of your office.

But it started to get old fast. When “helping with projections” meant reading you numbers off a spreadsheet I became a little discouraged. When “working with scripts” meant retyping scripts I was bummed. It was especially painful when I spent all morning cleaning out an office for the new girl while you guys took off to Starbucks.

It wasn’t all bad. You did let me go to that commercial shoot, which was fun, and it was great to be able to sit in on a couple of meetings. But there are some things you should keep in mind before you bring in my replacement:

Remember, we are ADVERTISING students. That stuff you do for your clients to get the word out, the get the brand promise out to the target audience, we know how to do that too. We also know those Jedi mind tricks.

We want to learn as much about the business as possible and if you can’t provide that training we will find someplace else that will. That place might be your competition.

Or heck, we’ll freelance and become your competition.

So be careful. You don’t want to end up being called out on a blog, do you?

Yours Truly,
The Intern

If you’re looking for someone capable of something a bit more subtle than sorting pens, you can reach Jenavi on Facebook and Twitter, or by e-mail at jenavikasper@yahoo.com.

Jr. Creative Advice: Buy Lots of Clothes

As a junior you will find yourself working a lot of hours. For example, this past week I have worked over 80 hours. All of it well worth it and pretty amusing as well, but with long hours there comes a price: Not being able to do laundry, so to avoid being the smelly kid at work.

ADVICE: Be prepared to put together 21-30 outfits before doing 1 load of laundry.

It's Friday.

And it's been a slow/weird week. We had some brief flashes of ideas yesterday for NCAA but not sure if they're going to take root. We're showing some of those ideas today at some point...

We're getting briefed on something 7UP too! wooo..hopefully there's a soda pop idea in my head somewhere.

Bird sans-leg.

There once was a black birdie who loved to fly and tweet.
One day while tweeting away a merry little tune, a little worm he spied crawling across the sidewalk. He thought, "Oh delicious, that'll be a nutritious breakfast. Worm meat is high in Omega-3's--all the other birds eat crappy human bread slices, but today, I'm eating a worm." This was a lot for the bird to think about while flying at the same time to consider how he would attack his prey of a critter. He swooped, he failed. The worm saw him and decided that he would trap that bird. So the little worm inched towards a glass door and SLAM goes the bird into the door and a human opened the door and then little black birdie got stuck by the leg cause he was just lying there and humans don't care. The worm said "That's what you get for trying to eat me. I know I'm nutritious, but damn man--I was just tryin' to get some exercise. Now you're foot's stuck in the door. Haha!" And so that's how he got his much hated name PegLeg The Stupid Blackbird that wanted Omega-3's.

Today in the NCAA and other such things

I'm not really sure how to get there but the ideas are starting to sprout like little flowers. But I want a big flower damnit. A really really big ass flower.

We're going to a Mavericks (not the Dallas...) film festival tonight in Half Moon Bay to watch surfers and what not--should be interesting.

Worked on Dell last week and had a couple of good ideas--we'll see if J.B. and Kevin can sell some interesting ideas.

What else is going on...oh I'm working on some personal essays and trying to compile them and maybe get Ashley to do a cover for them. Yeah--gotta make that happen somehow.

Want to learn how to mix music...I just got this sudden urge. Maybe I'll mess with something tonight. Yeah.

Yay/Boo: Git Em Greeny

K and I were standing in Safeway and saw these magazines sitting next to eat other. On the left is the cover of Sports Illustrated and on the right is the back cover of the magazine. I think this is really smart and incredibly well done.

Yay: The only logo is on the character.

Yay: There is NO text.

Yays have it!

YouTube Cannes Lions 48 Hour Ad Contest

We had 48 hours to make a video and now have two weeks to get as many views as possible!

 

Climate Change Cow FAIL from Ashley J George on Vimeo.

Climate Change FAIL

WATCH IT RATE IT SHARE IT!!

We got slammed . . .

So we've been behind yes. . . and we are sorry. BUT we were slammed and since we like to get paid and have a job we did our work. To make it up to you, here are two videos!