That may sound like a whole bunch of words to make one simple point, but you've got to understand just how critical your ideas are to your getting a job. Spend one hundred percent of your energies working on concepts for ads and commercials. If you spend one minute working on anything that isn't going to contribute to the ideas in your book, then you're simply not trying as hard as you can to get a job.
If you're just starting out and don't have any ads that were printed, any commercials which were shot, or any other pieces that were produced, don't worry about it. Do what's known as "spec ads." Spec (or speculative) ads are ads that you do for samples. You don't do them with the idea of producing them. You do them only for your portfolio: to show that you can think and conceptualize, and that you've got a brain worth hiring. Spec ads don't have to be printed pieces. They just have to be typed or sketched out. All the ads you see in newspapers and magazines start out in that format. And if your concepts are strong enough, they'll shine through even the crudest of presentations. We'll get into how you should assemble and present speculative ads a little later.
There's no reason to feel insecure about not having any printed ads in your book; almost everyone in this business started out with nothing but spec ads in their book. Some creative people, no matter how far along in their career they might be, always have one terrific spec ad in their book which was never produced.
There's no reason to feel insecure because your book has only spec ads and you see other portfolios with six full-color ads and a reel of eight television commercials. Sure, that portfolio looks more professional and the person who did that portfolio looks more experienced, but he does have more experience, so it's reasonable that he will look more professional. That's something with which you shouldn't concern yourself.
He won't be competing against you for a job. He'll be competing against other creative people who have the same amount of experience. You'll be competing against people who have about as much experience as you, even if that means no experience at all. Your portfolio full of spec ads will be compared to other portfolios full of spec ads.
I can still remember my first portfolio. I wanted to be either an art director or copywriter. I wasn't sure which. My portfolio consisted of a pen-and-ink drawing of a squirrel gathering nut, a self-portrait done in yarn and seashells, and a twelve-foot drawing of a skull. (You couldn't tell it was a skull, though. The entire piece was a blow-up of the inch or so between the bottom of the eye socket and the top of the nasal passage.) There were also a series of three photographs showing my friends in a snowball fight, two lettering projects from my first year in art school, a record-cover design, and one tuna with Muenster cheese on rye, heavy on the mayo. Not an ad or commercial in the mess.
It was sad.
Hopefully, you won't make the same mistakes.
No matter how good a portfolio you come up with, putting one together from scratch can make you feel like you're grasping at straws. That's why you need something to lean on, something to give you some guidelines.
We're all used to having things to lean on. When we learned to read, we had the alphabet to lean on. When we learned to walk, we had our parents to lean on. And when it comes to putting a portfolio together, it'll help if we give ourselves some sort of structure to lean on, too.
That structure is the subjects for which you choose to create ads, a whole series of focal points around which you can build your book. Use subjects that you know something about, and with which you can feel comfortable working, so that even if you don't feel totally at home the first time you try to make an ad, at least you'll feel comfortable with the subject matter.
Now, there have been other books written about the creative process, and on just how to go about conceiving an ad, so I'm not going to do that here. But before we get into picking subjects for which to do ads, it might help if we talked about just what an ad is and what it's supposed to do.
Basically, an advertisement of any type is a vehicle to implant a product or service into a consumer's mind, so that next time that consumer is any place where that product or service is offered, he'll remember it and try it.
An over-simplification? Definitely. But we have to start somewhere.
Usually, ads and commercials are combinations of words and pictures that work together to exploit a feature of a product or service in an interesting, dramatic, intelligent, and provocative way, so that people will want to buy it. Or, so that people will remember it and be convinced to try the product.
If every ad in your book accomplishes this, you'll get a job.
But there's no rule saying that the point has to be made with both words and pictures. It can be done with just words or just pictures. When you try to create an ad, there's only one rule to remember: there are no rules.
As long as we're talking about ads and commercials, there's one other term with which you should become familiar: campaign.
An advertising campaign is a series of ads and/or commercials for a product or service that all revolve around a central theme or concept. A campaign usually consists of at least three pieces.
Some people like to see campaigns in beginner portfolios. Others don't care one way or the other, so it's up to you.
