If you decide to try writing body copy, don't try to write it out on your layout. Type it on a separate sheet of paper, then indicate where it goes on your ad with a series of neat, clean straight or squiggly lines. That way your layout will be easy to read, your body copy will be easy to read, and it won't get in the way of your layout. Your interviewer will be able to see everything easily without squinting his eyes once. He'll be grateful for that, because I can tell you from experience, after spending a couple of hours looking through beginner art director's portfolios, you need a seeing-eye dog to find your way home.
INDICATING VISUALS
Shouldn't you spend hours and hours tightly rendering your visuals so they look beautiful? After all, isn't that what an art director does?
No, it isn't.
Doing tight illustrations is what illustrators do. Concepts are what art directors do, so don't worry if you can't render expertly. Just keep your visuals clean and simple, and be sure they show everything you intend your real visuals to show.
If you intend the visual to be a photograph, don't waste time trying to make it look like it was shot with a Hasselblad. Rather, indicate it simply. Then, when you show the ad to an interviewer, explain that you intend the visual to be a photograph.
This is not to say that a beginner art director shouldn't be able to do comps, just that he shouldn't have a book full of them. One or two beautiful comps in the back of your book are fine.
Another good way to indicate visuals is to use "swipe art." Find a photograph or an illustration in a magazine or newspaper that closely resembles the content and emotion of the visual you'd like in your ad. Then swipe it. Tear it out and paste it down as an indication of the visual in your ad. There's nothing illegal or immoral about it. I've used "swipe" in my portfolio and I know dozens of other creative people who've used it in theirs. In fact, most agencies have files full of "swipe art". Although it isn't always used to indicate visuals in a print ad or TV commercial, it is always used as source material by sketch people or art directors who draw the visual for their ads.
"Swipe" might be the best solution if you can't draw exceptionally well and would rather not just "make do" with one of your sketches.
All in all, print ads aren't very difficult to prepare for presentation. Just remember to keep them simple, neat, and clean, and your layouts will do everything you ask of them. Namely, showcase your ideas and help you get a job.
Indicating television commercials can be just as easy.
INDICATING TV COMMERCIALS
TV commercials in idea form are called storyboards. Story-boards show how the action in your commercial unfolds and how it works with the copy to be spoken by the actors and/or announcers.
There are lots of different ways you can indicate what happens on storyboards and some require lots and lots of pictures. But there's really no reason to indicate storyboards that way: they're too much work, too time consuming, and too complicated.
And after all, you're not entering an art contest. You're entering an idea contest.
One way which comes highly recommended is called a "key frame" storyboard. Key frame boards are designed specifically to keep the explanation of your commercial as simple as possible. The visuals are all simply sketched on a large sheet of paper, and the copy is typed or neatly written in a block and glued or taped next to the sketches.
For example, let's say you're doing a commercial for a given product. The commercial opens with the main character in your spot walking into a store. She then walks over to a counter and begins her pitch. Then she walks the length of the counter to the cash register, and back out the door.
If you were doing a key frame board, you'd indicate only those scenes that are central to the understanding of your commercial, and this means you'd only need to indicate three scenes.
- The scene where she walks into the store to show how your commercial opens.
- Any one of the scenes at the counter to show where most of the selling takes place.
- The scene where she walks out to show how your commercial ends.
You could even do a production board, if you want. A production board is a storyboard with one visual for each second in your commercial. If you do a thirty-second spot, you'd have a board with thirty visuals, a sixty second commercial would have sixty visuals, and so on. Personally, I believe they're more trouble than they're worth. They're a good exercise for forcing you to think a commercial through, but I don't think they're the best idea for presentation purposes, primarily because they give the impression that you're completely locked into whatever is presently happening in your spot and not anxious for suggestions on how to change it in any way.
