Friday, September 5, 2008

Not The Time To Coast

Hi Geniuses,

Let me talk to you for a moment about what you must do and what you must avoid doing this week.

For those of you in "good" shape, i.e. you have ideas and one or two executions that are working:

Don't coast.

The tendency is to take a little breather, throw a little design on it before class, maybe passively try to round out the campaign with a third execution.

I call that coasting. You're not really trying, and it will show come Tuesday.

You need to keep the proverbial pedal to the metal this weekend. It's always harder to come up with the second or third execution within a campaign, because those ads are forced to work harder to be unexpected. If you need to send us stuff to see how we're liking it, please do. It's better than waiting until you're in class to learn that you're not quite there.

You're going to have to work hard to get there. Don't stop your thinking, your mind-mapping, your "a laser level IS"-ing, your moron testing. For god's sake, don't stop now.

Now... for those of you who didn't walk out of class last week with a campaign we liked:

Don't coast.

But don't keep running yourself into the red, either. (Don't you luv metaphors?) Relax. Work hard, but don't freak out. If you're constantly worried, you won't come up with anything good because your brain isn't freed up to be unexpected. Plus you can't judge an idea very well when you're a nervous wreck.

Just keep going. Don't stop. Do lots and lots of work. Oftentimes it's the stuff you think is the dumbest that we're going to like, because it's got a kernel of newness, a spark, that sets it apart from what's already been done. So don't be too self-critical.

Remember, stupid-smart is a good place to be. Normal (the expected) is of no use. Make that your mantra.

Good luck this weekend. Hope to hear from you.

8 comments:

LOL AWESOME JAIME! said...

I have two i'm getting my other homework out of the way i'm buying a camera and some lights tomorrow but got in contact with a photographer as well, i'm looking for the models and I couldn't get my check today but as soon as I do i'll start buying the costumes

upfreak said...

Cool.

But even though you haven't shot it yet, you should play around with the look of your ads. Remember, we expect two different "art directions" on Tuesday.

By the way, you may want to start using the period. It's that thing you put at the end of sentences so you don't look like an illiterate imbecile when you write someone else. I know it ain't punk rock to use proper punctuation, but it reflects on you. Seriously. Writing shit like that makes you sound retarded, or lazy, or both.

And I know you're neither one of those.

Word.

LOL AWESOME JAIME! said...

:(.

upfreak said...

No need to be sad.

And... nice use of the period.

LOL AWESOME JAIME! said...

No, you're right. We do become lazy when it comes to typing on the internet.

kylekelley said...

IMBECILE

LOL AWESOME JAIME! said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LOL AWESOME JAIME! said...

like posting the wrong pulp fiction video