Let me define for you the term adverstalking. Advertising portfolios are improving day by day. Without keeping track of the quality of portfolios being produced means that we undergraduate students will recieve a surprise upon graduation when none of the ad agencies will care about us and therefore as a result we have to: 1) fork out $60,000+ at portfolio school (I just made up this figure, but I can imagine it’s expensive!) 2) create your own agency called “I only work for clients that have no money and two employees.” 3) or become a stand-up comedian if your lucky.
So here are some pearls of pure wisdom in making sure you know what your book should look like. Also known as adverstalking.
Rule#1
If you are unable to find a student you are looking for by searching google, linkedin, or twitter, they are of no relevance or importance.
Rule#2
Based on rule no.1, a good place is to look is the roster of some of the leading advertising schools: Miami School, VCU, School of Visual Arts, Bergs School of Communication, Hyper Island, BYUadlab (obviously), Texas, Michigan, Creative Circus, etc.
Rule #3
ADC, One Show, Young Guns, Cannes, Graphis, Addys, Clios, DandAD, Andy, Comm Arts and other award show websites normally showcase the winning work, winning students, and professionals. Google, linkedin, twitter the names of these people.
Rule #4
This is probably my personal favourite (yes I am from England and spell with the ‘u’) LINKEDIN it up. Most people’s profile contains the link to their website. It is most beneficial to compare your book with the professional portfolios that exist. You can approach this two ways: 1) Type the name of a leading agency and job position into the search in Linkedin (ex. BBH copywriter, Pentagram designer, BigSpaceship art director) or 2) Look at the award shows for names of individuals, and you can almost always find the individuals by name on linkedin.
Rule #5
It is important to know that award shows, top schools (byuadlab), and top agencies do not always = phenomenal portfolios. As you will see, some genius created a clever single print ad that steals gold at the one show. You then check out this kid’s portfolio and discover that his book consists of a gold pencil print ad, two other clever print ads, and a billboard. In fact, recruiting only based on awards can be dangerous.
Hopefully these points have sufficiently defined the term adverstalking.
This post was written by Nathan Wigglesworth, student studying art direction and graphic design. Google, linkedin, or twitter his name and see what happens!