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!
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?
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.
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.
Well, it’s finally that time of year again. Actually, it isn’t.
We here at CPS have been incredibly spoiled with one of the mildest winters in recent memory. In fact, it’s been so warm that several of us were able to keep our bikes on the streets until early January. Some of us are continuing to ride even now.
With winter in Chicago it’s not a question of if it will snow, but when. Actually, it’s not even a question of when, but HOW MUCH. Several CPS’ers newer to Chicago have been anxiously awaiting this day, and are handling it in different ways. One girl showed up to class last night crying. She tried to hide it, but her tears were frozen to her face. Another guy wore mesh tennis shoes. He left in an ambulance.
Ok not really.
In all honesty, winter isn’t really that bad. And as Jeff always says, “In Chicago three seasons of the year are perfect, and the other is perfect for working.”
(This is the second part in a two part series about one CPS students’ journey through Budweiser’s Band of Buds competition. See part 1 below.)
The next hour and a half flew by fast and furious. Each crew was given a different starting point and an envelope: figure out the riddle at each spot and receive the next envelope with your clue. It was an all out race to the seven secret places in Vegas. Each crew was given a limo and driver, and our first destination was the legendary Neon Graveyard; the place where Vegas has retired all the old neon signs from the past. We quickly found the vintage Budweiser sign and took off.
The second clue was a retro video game arcade where we had to play a 1986 Budweiser arcade game entitled, Tapper. That is where I came through, beating the game in less than three minutes and sprinting out of the door. The next location was located just down the street, so we took off to find that we got to ride the zipline over old downtown Vegas. “We Are The Champions” came on just as we took off. I couldn’t have asked for a better moment.
The moment didn’t last long, though; as soon as we hit the ground it was a full on sprint back to the limo. We’re feeling pretty confident as we take off to spot #4 as our limo begins to smell of gasoline and starts to smoke. Five minutes later we are pulled over on the side of the road with Budweiser trying to figure out how they could get us a working limo. After ten harrowing minutes, we were back on track, but far behind now. The next clue led us to the exclusive, members only club in Mandalay Bay, The Foundation Room, where we America’s Got Talent winner and master illusionist, Seth Grabel, put on a small private show and handed us our next clue.
From there it was on to The Venetian, but not before we had to memorize an old Budweiser jingle and sing it while riding the gondolas around the casino. A speedy ride out to the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign and back in town to our final destination at The Rok Club in New York, New York. On our way to the final spot, we begin hearing rumors that other teams had finished ahead of us. It was until we reached the finish line that we realized we were the last place team. Huge bummer. It took us a while to get over our loss, but we were still in the competition, so we put our game faces on and took over the after party.
Budweiser sponsored a spa day for the final day of the competition for the top six teams. All the women got hair and makeup done, and the men…pedicures and barber shaves. Pure relaxation. But we still knew that the final four teams were being announced before the final game show that night and we had to stay focused.
We arrived to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino for the finals, the last call, the big show. It was all or nothing at this point. As the crowd began to gather, the emcees called all six crews to the front stage. This was the moment we find out if all our hard work payed off. “And the second team in the Band of Buds Final Four is…...The 80’s Babies!!!!” Excitement ensued.
So we were in. The Final Four crews in America, vying for $100,000. Game on. The last competition was the Bud Wise Game. A Newly Weds type gig where one crew member from each team sits downstage while the other three members of each crew sit upstage. The emcees ask five questions for three rounds and the three crew members’ answers from each team must match the one downstage for 10 points to be awards. The questions asked ranged from “What is your buds’ most embarrassing song on his/her iPod?” to “What was buds’ teacher crush in middle school?” to “What is the most embarrassing thing in your bud’s bathroom?”
Touch questions indeed. And we didn’t do too well either. As the questions drug on, we fell farther and farther from first place. In the end, first place came down to the last question and Team America took home the trophy.
All in all, it was such an amazing experience and, to bring it around to CPS, a true lesson in how to run a successful brand campaign. It was simply mind numbing the extent to which Budweiser went to make this a top notch event. I made some amazing friends from around the country, got closer to my crew and best friends, and know that this will be an event I will never forget.
Best friends. Everyone has one. Someone who they share everything and anything with. Someone who is there always, no matter what. But not everyone has a group of best friends. A crew, if you will, of friends so close that they know everything about each other and could prove it in front of the country. But that’s exactly what I did, along with three of my closest friends at Budweiser’s 2nd annual Band of Buds competition.
The competition began online, with Budweiser posting video and photo challenges that we had to complete and upload, which you then got points for. Your crew was also awarded point for having fans and Facebook ‘Likes.’ At the end of that portion, the top ten teams in each of the 20 regions were awarded a spot in the regional casting call parties, which consisted of a red carpet walk, text voting, and various other games to determine the top team in each region. We ended up in 2nd place for our casting call, but luckily Budweiser chose five wild card teams from all the casting calls and The 80’s Babies were chosen for the top 25 crews in America.
The finals took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Budweiser flew each of the teams and put us up in the Mirage Hotel and Casino. Each team member was also given a $400 cash card for any extra expenses. We arrived Wednesday to a limo waiting to pick us up at the airport. Right away it was all glitz and glamor as a camera and sound crew followed and interviewed us on the drive to the hotel. As we stepped out onto a red carpet, camera men began shooting photos. Did I mention we had a Budweiser in our hand the second we sat down in the limo? That evening the welcome party took place, where each of the crews began to get a feel for everyone.
Thursday morning marked the official very early start to the competition as we boarded buses to take us to a breakfast and interview session hosted by the competition emcees, Covino and Rich from XM Radio. Afterward, we were all hoarded back on the buses, destination unknown. As we drove farther into the desert, military planes from the nearby airbase flying around, the Las Vegas Speedway began to rise. An hour later and we were all suited up, learned up on pit crew techniques, and speeding around at 180 MPH in a full on Nascar race with our professional driver. Twenty four laps, six laps for each crew member while the other three had to pit crew the car. We won our heat, and came in second overall; it was intense to say the least.
Dressing to the nines and spending lots of cash was the theme Thursday evening, as Casino Night was the second challenge in the competition. The crew with the most coin wins. Simple. Four games were played: Craps, Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette. Again, we placed well.
Friday was our day to sleep in before challenge #3. The Budweiser Run of the Buds relay race saw us in bad form. The race consisted of a mini putt golf hole, charades, wheel barrow race, bottle cap toss, and finally a foot race serving bottles of Budweiser. Despite all our preparation, we got stuck in charades.
Come Friday night,every crew knew it was time to cut the top 25 teams to the six. We drive out to the Stratosphere and waited on the deck of the bungee jump as they announced The 80’s Babies as the sixth team! After one of our crew members got to bungee jump, we had to literally sprint into our next competition: the scavenger hunt.
Normally, I’m not one to miss parties. At CPS though, sometimes you have to make a tough choice: Do I go to the 4th Quarter’s Stand-Up /End of Quarter Party? or do I stay at CPS until 10pm working on comps for tomorrow’s class?
I chose the latter. Luckily, my good friend (and fellow 1st quarter copywriter) Matt filed this report:
I was asked to write this post about the end of quarter party. Being a 1st quarter, I wanted to see for myself what this whole stand-up act class was all about. The free alcohol may have also played a role in my decision to go.
The CPSers who took the stage blew me away. I was expecting some screw-ups and some jokes that left only ‘crickets,’ but that wasn’t the case. You could tell they were all well prepared; which says a lot about the teacher, and also for the students themselves.
A couple things I took away from the night: Everyone has a crush on Maria. Also, not knowing Jake at all, I found out his dad was Rick Reilly. I’m always amazed by celebrities and sports icons, and being from Texas, finding that out was really cool.
Coincidentally (thanks to some of the other routines), I learned a couple of things about Jake’s mom as well!
One of the coolest things about going to CPS is that all of your fellow classmates are reading, doing, seeing tons of super groovy things. Early on, our quarter set up a Facebook group as a way of sharing all of the neat-o nuggets we find with one another.
I recently came across it again, and let it marinate a little longer. Not only is it beautiful, it’s important! Interactive Design is the bridge to the future. What will it look and feel like? It’s crucial that today’s design students understand the power they hold in their… well, you get it.
If you were to walk up to a random CPS student at any given time and give them the old elementery school shake-down, you would find two things: Landon (a third quarter) carries McDonald’s Sweet and Sour sauce on him at all times, and the rest of us, have bags, backpacks and purses comprised of 98% Sharpie. You see, at CPS, we love Sharpie. We love Sharpie so much we can’t bare to throw them away even after they’ve long since dried up. Sharpie is the wick in the candle of our creativity cat’s mouth. It’s the lighting bolt that strikes our creativity kite. It’s the lifeblood of our creative machine.
Two students, Tori and Jake, set out to profess the school’s love for the brand to see whether or not they loved us back. They built a website, CPS and Sharpie Forever, made a video (see below)
then went directly to the source (Sharpie Headquarters in Oak Brook, IL) to drive traffic to the site. Stay tuned for updates on the project and to see whether Sharpie is “The One” for CPS.
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