The Chicago Portfolio School

Secrets With Kia’s Chief Design Officer

Last week, MCormick Place hosted the 2012 Chicago Auto Show, the nation’s largest display of all the auto industry’s newest eye candy, state of the art technology, and gorgeous floor models you could ask for. As part of the show this year, journalists, news outlets, social media experts and the Chicago Portfolio School bloggers were invited to take part in the Social Media Preview day that allowed us exclusive entry to the show a day before it was open to the public.

The thanks actually goes to Kia, as the reason we were there was to sit down and chat with the brilliant Peter Schreyer, who currently serves as the Chief Design Officer for Kia Motors. Peter is the creative mind behind the design of the Audi TT, the Kia Optima, the tabbed front grills all Kia cars are sporting, and a host of other design achievements. He was most recently named 2012 man of the year by Automobile magazine.

As we joined an exclusive group of journalists and social media bloggers to enjoy lunch in our laps, Peter began talking about his lifelong career that has taken him from Audi to Volkswagon, and eventually landing him a top spot at Kia. The session geared more toward a Q+A as Peter fielded questions ranging from the technical aspects of designing around a car to working a brand image into a grille. In response to our question about where he gets his inspiration, Peter talked about having lots of hobbies and interests outside of automobiles and design. Find inspiration in music, nature, and your surroundings he advises young creatives.

Following lunch, Peter also talked about his new Kia GT Concept car that was on display (check out the picture below). It was very inspiring seeing the joy that came to his face as he talked about his new creation, even after a lifelong career creating groundbreaking work.

The displays and designs present at this year’s auto show was nothing short of jaw dropping. It was an excellent example of how excellent design and branding can come together to leave a truly lasting impression. Were any of you present at the Chicago Auto Show this year? What was your favorite display?

“You can’t make any advertising if you don’t have good design.” - Peter Schreyer

Optical Optimism

Sometimes, a little color can go a long way (Just ask anyone in the midst of a drab Chicago winter).

Project Color Corps believes in the power of color and sees it as a change agent. As one of their ‘Random Acts of Color,’ PCC invited participants to gather and organize the donation of warm items such as gloves, hats, scarves and coats in shades of red to create an enormous heART installation in cities across the country. CPS’ very own Courtney Long was in charge of the Chicago North event which benefited Goodwill, and we couldn’t be more proud!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone, and if you look close, you might be able to spot a sweater donated by our fearless leader: Jeff Epstein.

The Best Commercials Ever (Kinda, Sorta)!

So it’s been a couple days since all the hype from the Super Bowl has died down. The living spaces are back to normal, all the dishes are cleaned, and the losing team has begun to deal with the pain. But as advertisers, we can’t help but to think about and break down all the great marketing we saw over the weekend.

Clocking in at a cool $3.5 million, ad space for this year’s Super Bowl was the most expensive ever. Agencies were put to the test go above and beyond to make their money count. This year saw old favorites in the return of the Jedi (pun intended) with Deutsch and Volkswagon bringing back the Star Wars spot, Career Builder’s famous chimps, the E*Trade baby, and what would we do without Go Daddy and their Danika Patrick ads?

But 2012 also saw some newcomers: Audi jumped on the bandwagon in their :60 vampire spot for their new LED lights, John Stamos made an appearance for Dannon, and who can forget that inspirational soul-singing head for Cars.com (that spot came out of DDB Chicago, by the way).

Not all the ads are covered here, and Ferris Bueller did make a comeback (sort of), but all in all it was a good year for Super Bowl commercials. What did you think of the spots this year? What was your favorite commercial? Leave your comments below.

Friday, They’re In Love

Kyle Eertmoed and Kim Knoll are cool. Cooler than me, and maybe cooler than you. But that’s okay, because even cool people need cooler people to look up to.

Known professionally as the design team Knoed, Kim and Kyle have brought passionate design with a personal touch to some of Chicago’s most diverse (and coolest) businesses.

They’re brand builders. They’re designers. They’re really good looking.

Did I mention they’re married?

Serving as the Mates of State of the Chicago design world, Kim and Kyle treated us to another fantastic Creative Morning at CPS last Friday. Which begs the question, who are the coolest husband and wife creative couples around? Let us know what you think.

Ruby The Fox Talks Letterpress With CPS

Chicago Portfolio School is a creative hub chalk full of thriving ideas, soaring imaginations, and the naive souls of those who haven’t been crushed by the real world of advertising yet (just kidding on that last one, potential students). As such, it draws in professional creative talent from all walks of life to shed their wisdom on all of us young advertising neophytes.

Last Friday, as part of it’s monthly speaker series, CPS was pleased to host the invitation design and letterpress start-up company, Ruby The Fox. Comprised of designer/business duo Megan and Mike, the Denver couple got down and dirty with CPS students and faculty about the ins and outs of starting up their own business. From the story behind their name to mixing business with friends and relatives, Megan and Mike shared some great advice on how to be prepared to work for yourself.

The pair have been building their brand for the last couple of years and all of their hard work is finally starting to pay off, landing a recent article on Oh So Beautiful Paper, one of the leading design, wedding, and lifestyle blogs. So if you’re in the need for some inspiration, make sure you stop over at Ruby The Fox’s new website and get your creative juices flowing with their absolutely gorgeous use of letterpress and invitation design.

He’s Back!

Recent CPS grad Jake Reilly has been all over our radar lately (see several earlier blog posts on his recent CPS projects), but he may have just landed himself on the national, or even international radar.

Jake’s ‘Going Amish’ project has now found itself featured on the front page of Yahoo news!

Woah!! We here at CPS all knew his project was awesome, but not even he would have dreamed of this kind of exposure. It really goes to show that in today’s creative environment, it’s not just about the ads. Several of our guest speakers have talked about the fact that it is important for up and coming creatives to have other side projects going on that really demonstrate the true extent of their creative potential.

Jake may have just raised the bar considerably for the rest of us. Thanks a lot!

View Jake’s portfolio here.

And The Winners Are…

At the end of each quarter, CPS selects its Best of Quarter. These pieces can be from any student in any concentration, and are chosen by a selected panel made up of CPS faculty, staff, and 2 of the 9 Ringwraiths. These lucky winners get their work proudly displayed on the 4th floor for all to see.

So without further ado: The winners for last fall were Tom Francesconi, Alex Lee, Ben Klassman, and Jennifer Martinez. Congratulations guys!

And for any current student looking to submit work for the current quarter, the deadline is March 1st. Good luck! Please submit all work to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Are You Ready To (Royal) Rumble?

Ok, the title might be a little cliche, but the the competition is anything but. While CPS technically runs only four quarters a year, you can bet the students are working year round. And part of that work (ok, it’s not really work if you’re having fun) is the quarterly Royal Rumble competition.

Four times a year, Chicago Portfolio School sets up a competition with a real world client, splits the school into teams, and lets the creative fists fly as each team bouts to be crowned champion of Royal Rumble. The client gives each team a real creative brief and it’s up to the collective minds of each group to come up with the next million dollar ad. Did I mention the winning team also gets a cash reward and their campaign executed?

This quarter, Chicago based Sole Goddess was the client to impress. A fashion conscious brand that created a balm-like stick so that those new pair of high heels won’t cause any annoying blisters. 

Groups worked day and night to tweak, adjust, and modify their perfect ideas that would blow away the competition in the first round of presentations. Afterward, some critiquing and feedback is given so that teams can adjust their concepts and executions in preparation for part two of the presentations.

Currently, all of the teams have finished presenting their second round of comps and ideas. As we all anxiously await the announcement of the winning team, why don’t you leave your amazing ideas for Sole Goddess in the comments section below. Do you have anything that will blow us away?

Art as More Than Art

Today in Creative Methods we presented marker comps as usual, but also spent some time chatting about an art project we were assigned last week.

Our teacher Brian (Art Director at Ogilvy) had us think about the concept of “Anger + Art = Change,” and essentially gave us free reign to create anything out of it. Some used the computer and others painted, but all were impressive. It was really fun to see everyone take a step away from ‘comps’ or ‘ads,’ and just focus on something they found stimulating.

It was also very cool personally because (if you’ve been paying attention, that is), you know me as a copywriter. Part of CPS’s new scheduling system allows anyone to take almost any class they’d like to. Hence, a writer finds himself in a class surrounded by art directors, making art.

While I’m still no artist, the class itself has been one of my favorites. And now, back to headlines.

CPS + Sharpie = Forever

We here at CPS love our Sharpie. There is no other writing utensil that can bring such life to the thousands of marker comps produced every quarter here. “Can I borrow your marker?” is not an uncommon question to hear while walking through the halls of CPS and it’s time we let Sharpie in on our feelings.

As we have previously blogged, Tori and Jake have teamed up to show Sharpie exactly how much we love them. A giant paper mache Sharpie marker and one larger than life love note later, and the two students found themselves at Sharpie’s HQ, proclaiming our undying love for the black, permanent marker.

Now maybe it was our charm, good looks, and witty dialogue, but Sharpie saw something in CPS that day. Something that might change our future forever. But we’re taking it slow. We’re not, as you would say, “Facebook Official” yet. But Sharpie did visit the other week to take a look around our digs and meet the family. It was a great start to a new relationship.

While we’re still in the “just talking” part of the relationship, we cannot wait to see where it will go next. Check out the video of how it was all done above and if you’re interested to learn more about the project, you can check out the official CPS + Sharpie = Forever website. Stay tuned to see if CPS and Sharpie was truly meant to be.