The Chicago Portfolio School

CPS Student Competes in Budweiser’s National Best Friends Competition (Pt. 1)

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.

End Of Quarter Par-tay

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!

Hands Off?

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.

Simon (our resident Canadian, eh!) originally posted this brief rant on the future of interaction design a while back. I read it, thought “Hmmm…,“stroked my imaginary mustache and moved on.

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.

And I couldn’t resist: One more. Sorry Simon!

CPS + Sharpie =

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.
 

The Jake Project—Update

I found Jake where most people find him these days: on the fourth floor lab, second computer in. This has become his de facto home for the last 90 (or so) days. He learned early on during his experiment that life would be much easier if people knew exactly where to find him. And while not having a phone, email, or Facebook hasn’t always been the easiest on Jake’s friends and partners, he seems to have taken a real shine to it.

I spoke with Jake for a bit about his experiment, what’s surprised him, and what he’ll take away with him when it’s all over. He said his project initially came from the realization that he, himself, was never fully present in his personal relationships anymore. Looking his friends in the eyes while his fingers replied to tweets on his phone finally got the best of his conscience. Something had to be done.

The technology shut down was to initially only include his cell phone. However, after some more thought, all modern-day forms of communication were added to the pile. At the beginning, Jake said he was most concerned with the overall idea of what he’d be missing by not being “plugged-in.”

Nowadays, he doesn’t miss much. His personal relationships have flourished, and his quest has taken on a spirituality he never expected. He writes notes on giant pieces of paper, pumpkins, and just about anything else he can that makes sense. All in all, Jake’s life now has less stress and more happiness than it has in years.

Maybe we could all learn something from the Jake Project.