How To Get Me To Offer You a Place at Watford.
It's dead easy ......
..go to The Home and Creative Test page. Complete the Test and send your replies to Michelle Crawford, Admissions, West Herts College, Hempstead Road, Watford WD17 3EZ. If you get offered an interview this is what I'll be looking for :
1. Prove you love advertising. You should know the names of all the agencies . You should know what accounts are where and the names of the creative directors and the leading creatives. You should know your advertising history. When I mention 'Dambusters' the ad should spring to mind , not the film. If I ask you to name the best three VW Beetle ads that DDB New York did you should have a view. You should have an opinion on the work of Erik Kessels,Bill Bernbach,Dave Dye,Trevor Beattie,Graham Fink and Flo Heiss.
2 Prove you are creative. If you are creative you are creating. You are building web sites, writing ads, making films, writing books, producing art installations. Don't be precious. Think. Do. Learn. Move On.
3 Prove you like writing ads. We all know what an ad is.Take a simple benefit. eg Brillo Pads. Best scourer. Come up with a campaign thought that communicates this message in a creative way and execute the idea in as many different ways as you can. Write your ads in posters. Poster are the purest , simplest forms of advertising. Writing poster campaigns forces you to think simply and clearly. Check the D and Ads to see examples of good poster campaigns. You should come to the interview with a book of ideas/ads for brands. Be as visual as you can. If you can't draw do crude drawings. Or find the visual you want on an imagebank and paste.
4. Prove you are a cultural sponge.
Mop up everything. literature, art, cinema,poetry,politics, economics,music, theatre,dance,opera,..............
You need to be an interesting person with a wealth of reference points and experience you can draw upon. I look to my students to teach me something. Students in the past have turned me on to Maus,Modest Mouse and Dangermouse. In reciprocation I have turned students' attention to the creative minds of Buster Keaton, Eno, Peter Greenaway, Prince Buster and Peter Cook.
5 Prove you love Digital. You should have your own website/blog.
6. Prove you can write or art direct. Or prove you can do both. Ideally, you should have some published work under your belt.
7. Prove you love hard work.
Right now some agency creatives are doing 60 hours a week to hang on to their jobs. Some are working weekends for free.If you love coming up with ideas and executing them you'll want to work the hours. If you don't love it you should consider studying something else.
8.Prove you know something about the Watford Course. Do your research.You wouldn't book a £3,500 vacation to Greece without research. Ditto Watford. And it's not even a holiday.
9. Prove you don't take yourself too seriously. You need to laugh at your mistakes and failures and move on with a smile as wide as The Dartford Tunnel. Writing ads is a trivial pursuit compared to what some people do for a living.
10. Be punctual and be nice. This is most important.
