Breaking In

Check out some great work from Crockett Jeffers.

WS: Do you think books have changed recently?

CJ: From when I put my book together, and I finished at the Ad Center [now VCU Brandcenter] in 1999, it’s changed so much that I feel like I kind of got in when it was still relatively easy to get a job in advertising. Because it was just print ads, and you could do spreads and maybe you might have an outdoor idea like a bus shelter, or a billboard, or something like that. But this was before people started putting guerrilla ideas in their book or anything interactive. It seems like that came not too long after, but now you have to. I think you have to show so much more of who you are and show that you’re an interesting person and can think beyond just the page. Like a print ad, I think now, is pretty boring to a lot of people; but at the same time we still do a lot of print and you still have to know how to write a headline. And so I think there’s probably some sort of balance or a sweet spot in there where you can show that you do a headline, and a great headline, and then you also can do a website and write in the interactive space.

WS: How do you think you should show your personality in a book? Through ads, or through other things than ads?

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Crockett Jeffers is Creative Director at BBDO West, San Francisco.

Barclays

Chef Boyardee (CW: Brad Phifer AD: Will Geddes)

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Take a look at some great work from Susan Hoffman.

WS: What do you look for when you’re looking at a student book—what impresses you?

SH: Well, I think the thing that I’m sick of in student books is that they all look alike, and they all sound alike. And so I look for new ways to communicate, whether it be from a layout standpoint or a communication standpoint. But if I just see another “good headline” or another “good visual,” I’m not so impressed with it. So that’s the main thing, is looking different than any other book that comes in.

[ … ]

WS: Do you think long copy is important to have?

SH: What I would say to writers is it’s okay to have a lot of conceptual ads, one-liners, television maybe, that doesn’t even have copy in it, but what I think you have to have in your portfolio is some long-copy stuff. Don’t put a novel in a portfolio because nobody has time to read it—but if there are some great short stories a writer has done, or some long-copy ads, that at least shows the voice that a writer would have. I think that’s really important. That’s what I look for now, and I think there’s not much of that in most portfolios. I think they’re all typical “conceptual one-liners.”

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Susan Hoffman is Executive Creative Director at Wieden+Kennedy, Portland.

Levi’s

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In case you missed it, check out some great work from Todd Lamb.

WS: What do you look for in a student book and what impresses you?

TL: I don’t look at very many student books because my attention span can’t really cope with it. It’s a shame, but most of them aren’t very surprising. I want to laugh out loud. A lot of the student books are too controlled.

WS: Do you think you can put together a book of sketches and, if the ideas are good, that’s enough, or do you think you have to finish work on a computer?

TL: I think that sketches could be enough. I would be more intrigued by a group of sketches that were really funny than a book that looks like it’s from the future, but dull. So, I think it’s very possible to have a hand-done portfolio, if it’s good.

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Todd Lamb is a writer and director in New York.

Loud People

10 cane Rum

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If you missed it, check out some great work from Peter Gatley.

WS: What do you look for in a student book? And what impresses you?

PG: Stating the obvious, your book needs to stand out and be remembered. This is, after all, what our clients want us to do for them. When I look at a book, I’m open to being surprised. And I’m hoping to see that you’re smart. This is your chance to show me. What impresses me most is a book that shouts, “I’m smart” and belongs to someone who has enough humility to not be too sure.

WS: Are sketches okay if the ideas are good enough?

PG: Anything is okay if it fits a brief of being able to surprise me and convince me you’re smart. Don’t spoil good ideas by producing them badly. The smart thing to do is show a good idea some respect. Sketches are fine as long as the sketches couldn’t be done much better.

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Peter Gatley is a Creative Director at Fallon, London.

Lurpak

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In case you missed it, check out some great work from Dave Bell.

WS: What do you look for in a student book? And what impresses you?

DB: Whenever we’ve hired people, it’s always—and it’s probably a cliché—but it’s always the things they bring alongside the book. So sometimes, for example, we hired a young Scottish writer here a year ago, I think. I had seen his portfolio. He sent a PDF and there were all these odd mock-ups he made in London, and [for] another agency here. There were ads, and they were quite nice but it wasn’t really showing any of his personality. And then he came again. I read his portfolio, then we chatted, and it was the same work—another couple of odd campaigns he made, produced while working his first job—and then he had a little bag with him. He was too shy to take it out, and he was probably thinking, “I don’t have enough time.” So I asked what was in there. He showed me, it was filled with his writing and it was great. I mean it was laugh-out-loud funny and he made his own illustrations which were good—really nice quality and very expressive and they told a lot more than the ads. We hired him on that basis. It’s good to know that you can make an ad, but in the end we always hire people based on their free work.

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Dave Bell is Partner & Creative Director at KesselsKramer, Amsterdam and KK Outlet, London. The explanations below are in his own words.

“The Worst Hotel in the World” – Book for Hans Brinker Budget Hotel

We set up our own publishing company some years ago, because we like books and we like making books. We’ve had them published by others, and through that learned the ropes and started our own publishing company which became a business in its own right. Eventually all this knowledge – which might equally have its roots in documentary-making or product design – can filter through to the work we do with clients. So, with the Brinker – after 15 years of work – we were approached to make a book about it. We saw this as the next ad campaign, just in a different form than before. We called it “The Worst Hotel in the World.” So now it sits alongside other hotel books in stores, propped up against “The world’s luxury hotels”-type books. It’s also at online booksellers like Amazon and guests can pick it up in the hotel lobby as a reminder of the stay they’ll have forgotten about because of the 1,700 heinekens they drank at the bar. The book contains stories from the night porter, a diary of a writer who spent 4 nightmarish weeks in a dorm; the economic case study of the Brinker’s success. And the ad campaigns.

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