The Evolution of Creative Education
The Get A Job Workshop, edited by Laurence Minsky, is a book filled with insights and advice from advertising professionals in all areas of the industry. It is a great round-up of the three keys to a job in the creative field – the search, your portfolio and your reputation. It is a field guide for the new generation of “Mad Men” (and women).
One of the “legends of advertising” within the book is our very own co-founder and Global Director, Ron Seichrist. In his chapter he talks about his journey though the world of creative education, the changes in portfolios and the creation and constant innovation of Miami Ad School.
Check out an excerpt from the book below and make sure to get your own copy to read the rest of Ron’s commentary and other insights from the people who can help you get going on not just getting a job, but building a career.
I’ve watched the world change from analog to digital and television from black and white into color. Now telephones are mobile and tell you jokes. My car talks to me and gives me turn-by-turn directions. E-mail. Facebook. Twitter. Google. Apple. Microsoft. Last year I had stem cells implanted into my badly damaged heart so I can still play soccer. At my age.
My wife and I adopted two young children from Ukraine (from the Chernobyl region) and now they are driving cars, texting, tweeting and Facebooking. OMG! LOL.
Since I was asked to write this piece for a book about creative careers, I should now shift to the changes I’ve witnessed in training young people for a job in this business. I can do that. I’ve been in advertising a long, long, time. And I’ve been in advertising education for a long, long, time.
Let’s go back to the days when a young person came fresh out of a four-year college, with a black cardboard portfolio – with little black strings at the sides and top. He (few young women in those days) knocked on the door of an ad agency, somehow got to see someone, and spent ten minutes trying to untie the little black strings – then pulled out sketches, life drawings, and a hodgepodge of this and that.
In those days most college professors in most colleges had never worked in an agency – although they gave it a good college try. In most cases, the result was pretty bad. It was a sad state of affairs. Back then, I was an agency creative director, and I couldn’t help these poorly trained graduates. Some had talent, but we had no time or resources to train them, I had no school to recommend that could train them properly. There should be a place, I thought, a school that mirrors what the agencies really need.
