A Creative Way to describe a Creative School

The way an advertising or design school advertises itself must prove incredibly difficult. They have to prove the are worthy of calling themselves creative in an ever-increasingly competitive space.

Have you heard of Hyper Island?

"The Hyper Island Master Class is an intensive three-day program for professional focusing on how to create efficiency within your organization and using interactive media as a tool for achieving high growth and ensure long-term success. 

Hyper Island offers the Open Master Class in Karlskrona (Sweden), London (UK), New York (US) and Los Angeles (US)."


I kinda want to go. Especially after watching this cool video.


Hyper Island On a Wall from Hyper Island on Vimeo.

Wondering

This may sound pessimistic, but I'm really only curious. Yesterday on LinkedIn, I noticed an intern we had a couple of years ago had "Instructor" listed as their current title, teaching at an area art school. How, may I ask, does an intern go from recent graduate to art school instructor in that short of time?

Again, just totally and completely curious. Curious what class he's teaching. Curious if the students know he is fresh out of school. Curious how he got the job and where he has worked between graduation and this teaching post.

I am on the fence about how I feel about this. On one hand, maybe the guy is a wizard at some mad skill (flash or photoshop or the like) making him totally competent. On the other hand, he was a student less than three years ago and I wonder what the heck he is qualified to teach.

This is along the lines of people who are teaching at ad schools and became a teacher straight out of college. I wonder about that too. Listen, I am by no means an expert on the education front. I teach because I love, love inciting passion in students about this great industry. I am not qualified to judge the reasons or qualifications of other instructors.

I just kinda wonder.

No man is an island

When choosing a college, I'm sure your decision is based on quite a few things: reputation, placement percentage, location, tuition, and so on. Yet I've found, after surveying a large group of advertising and design school grads, there is one other thing you may want to consider. I've never thought about this, but it makes perfect sense.

Consider the other students who go there. Now you probably have no way of doing this on your own. You can't really ask every other applicant to show you their portfolio and have them assure you of their commitment to doing well at school. Fairly, if not totally, impossible.

But, what you can do is judge the caliber of the work done by graduates of the school. When passion, creativity and accountability are at the forefront of the curriculum, it is evident in graduate portfolios. Great work will consistently come out of great schools. Not occasionally, consistently.

Look to see which schools top the Gunn Report for best advertising schools that year. Find who is repeatedly on that list. I guarantee you, these are the schools where students are passionately committed.

This is important, because your education isn't a solo deal. You don't just go in, work hard, do some creative work and get handed a degree at the end. You work together with other students and their talent and drive just might affect your portfolio. How? These are the people you'll be partnered with on assignments, people you will need to count on for group projects, and that makes them the same people you'd want to be serious about doing good work.

Being surrounded by passionate and committed people is essential at an agency. It should be equally essential at school.

When I Grow Up

Someday I am going to start an ad school. Not one with 2- or 3-year programs, nor one that aims to compete with the likes of Brand Center, but one that offers select, relevant courses that can be taken individually.

After reading about this school, The Mission, I was inspired. Success in a school model like this comes a few ways:
1) in it's ability to expand and retract with enrollment. The school won't offer a course if it isn't filled to capacity, as well, they don't have the overhead of a bricks and mortar building. Classes are held at the agency of each instructor.
2) in the competitiveness of their pricing. I am hearing stories of many, many ad school students dropping out of their 3-year programs due to financial issues. A problem that's not going away anytime soon.

As an alternate to committing to an $85K degree, The Mission, and schools modeled like it, is a great option. You could take a concepting class or two. You could already be working in the industry (the classes are all offered at night). And you could start or enhance your education without a major time and money outlay.

Sounds great to me.

Toughen Up

I was talking with a co-worker yesterday, a guy who has been teaching a portfolio class at a local art school for over 4 years. He was telling me he made 3 students cry last week. Now if you knew this instructor, you'd know that he always makes a student or two cry every quarter. He's that tough.

And so we were commenting on how the students just didn't know it yet --but would in a couple of years-- that being brought to the brink of tears is actually a good thing. However bad it feels at the time, you will be a tougher creative in the end. Having your ego bruised once in a while hopefully helps make your work better and your skin thicker. His intent is not to make you cry, it's to honestly tell you when your work sucks. And I'm sure hearing that pretty much sucks.

Instructors make it hard because working in advertising is hard. This instructor is very, very tough on mediocre work because mediocre work will NOT be tolerated at any agency. Get used to it. I will bet you a million dollars that your future ECD will be equally (if not more) tough on your creative work. And your future ECD probably won't be too impressed if you burst into tears about it.

Thickening your skin, letting a bit of air out of your ego, and ending up a tougher person are all good things. And I'm sure that you'll have a teacher or two to thank for it in a few years.

Instructor Stats

I realize I may be a bit late with this advice, as most of you reading this blog are already out of school. But, I am becoming increasingly alarmed by the pool of instructors teaching in the advertising field. Specifically, by their "time since they worked in an agency" or their lack of expertise on a particular subject.

Before I rant on, I'll say this does not apply to all instructors in all schools. It just seems to me that a very important bit of research to do prior to picking a school would be to check the stats of the instructors who work there.

If their last job in advertising starts with a 7 (as in '79), you might want to reconsider. And if their specialty is broadcast production and they are teaching copywriting, be equally as cautious. I say this because I was recently asked to teach a media class. I am in creative management. Prior to that, print production. What I know about media could be taught in a single hour, not 12 weeks. Maybe some people are confident enough to teach in areas outside their expertise, I am not. And this is what makes me worry that the pool of folks teaching advertising is getting diluted.

Be diligent in this arena. Do thorough research. Make sure the school employs qualified people teaching appropriate classes. So much has changed in the advertising landscape in the last 5 years alone. Certainly you'd want to be taught what's current by people who know what's current.