Back on track

In our last blog we mentioned we were taking a break whilst we settled in. So after filling in a mountain of paper work I think we are almost done.

We are also getting back into creative Wednesdays from 8pm at ‘The Monk’ (see map) which is still open to all those that are interested. It has started to really pick up momentum now with last week peaking at a grand total of FIVE people. Ok not so impressive but it will grow.

We’ve been really busy working on various concepts here and we are very eager to get some of the more ambitious ones made. We seem to be working more now than we ever did on placement, strange we always thought it would be the other way around.

This week will bring us to round three of presenting a concept to a client. This means presenting to the top Marketing Director. It is kind of a make or break meeting, the rest of the marketing team already seem to be on board.

However we really need to brush up on our presentation skills after our first attempt, which was a little stuttered. Fortunately our clearly more experienced planner salvaged the meeting.

We would love to hear any presentation tips or comments from your first time.

Back in Brussels

We have been back at the agency now for two weeks. Any free time we have seems to be taken up with searching for an apartment and personal admin. However we hope to get back on track with our blog once we get ourselves settled in Brussels.

We came across this cool web site recently last.fm , it allows you to enter the name of bands and artists you like to create your own radio station of similar music. Check it out.

Luau (moon - lit party)

In my last blog I mentioned about an end of course party for some ESPM students. I managed to get hold of some photos, again the night shots are unfortunately a little blurred though there were some awesome shots of Ipanema at sunrise.

Happy New Year

Rio 40 graus

Last week I checked out a friend’s final portfolio class here in Rio. It was a one year course they had just completed at ESPM (Escola Superior de Publicidade e Marketing).

Brazil is constantly producing top work; here are some of the great Brazilian agencies.

Africa
Almap/BBDO
F/Nazca S&S
Neogama/BBH
DM9DDB

The work of Brazilian students was of a very different style compared to that of British students, which made it difficult for me to compare standards.

Most of the work I saw was finished to an extremely high standard, for me to mock up half of what they produced would take days. Though there were a lot of great integrated strategies on display, the students themselves agreed they would be able to push things a lot further if they were not required to mock up to an excellent standard.

The truth in Brazil, and I imagine in many countries to be the same, is that if a team wants to get onto to a placement they unfortunately have to demonstrate great Mac skills as few agencies have the budget for extra studio work as one would in Europe or the US.

After the course presentations, they headed out to a local boteco (street bar) and a couple of days later they had a graduation beach party on Copacabana. Now that’s what was missing from the D & AD final workshop.

Sorry about the quality of the photos taken at the boteco.

An interesting way to learn english

English lessons found via Right-Half Chow

Time for a break

Over the last month we have been on a trial period for a position as a Jr creative team. Last week we were offered a permanent position.

So six months after graduation we are finally hired. It hasn’t been a bad run in fact we have both had an enjoyable time, once we finished our degree we went straight into the D&AD advertising workshop, following that straight into placements and now working.

We start in January though before that we are both taking a needed holiday James is back in the UK and Joao is heading to Rio.

The blog will be coming from various destinations over the next month, we now also have contributions from Alex Goulart a Belgium based copywriter.

Lets temp

A friend of ours from uni has recently started a blog about his temp work in a factory. It’s a good read and has some awesome photos so check it out.

www.dansboringjobs.blogspot.com

Creative night

Here is a photo from last weeks creative wednesday.