The Chicago Portfolio School

Steel & Ink: Letterpress workshop with The Post Family

It was on odd feeling as I stepped through the door to the building where The Post Family Art & Design Collective is located. Ten foot white walls, no directional signage, and fluorescent lighting all make for an eery experience. But the Sunday we spent with The Post Family was anything but eery. In fact, it felt right at home.

Our guide and mentor came in the form of David Sieren, Post Family member and master at not getting his hands smashed in the antique, one-ton printing press. With his tutelage and a good serving of inspiration from the beautiful, lofty design studio, we were off setting our own type in no time. By the time we finished setting our 50 pounds of lead type, David was busy coating the ancient press with ink. Old as it was, the press worked quite well as we watched the rollers soak up the ink and deposit it with graceful strokes onto our waiting paper.

The end results were anything but ordinary. Experimenting with different papers, thicknesses, and type allowed for some truly amazing layouts. As amazing as my description of the day is, you can see the whole process for yourself in this CPS student-made, feature film. Make sure you check it out, the cinematography is top notch. Our thanks go out to The Post Family for a great creative learning experience.

Creative Mornings at The Chicago Portfolio School

It was a chilly, big city morning when the creative fires began to warm up the Chicago Portfolio School as advertising and creative professionals from the surrounding areas gathered for the world renowned Creative Mornings breakfast lecture series. Needless to say, every morning is a creative morning at CPS, but this sunrise had a little extra creative power packed into the room.

A big heaping of that creativity was duly laid on us by non other than illustrator Jay Ryan; part comedian, part human, and the full on creative genius behind The Bird Machine print shop. After the wonderfully delicious (and free) breakfast and coffee, Jay tore into his life work with fascinating details. And the devil is in the detail, as we learned through Jay’s painstakingly thorough process. There is so much more that goes into the process of printing one of Jay’s beautiful illustrations and it was very interesting to get a peak behind the curtain. In the magician’s profession, it is seen as career suicide to share your trade secrets. And even though some might call what Jay does magical, we are glad to have had the opportunity to learn some of his tricks.

The morning ended has it started, as people drifted around chatting with one another and finishing the last of their breakfast, satisfied with the boost of creativity they received. The lecture was a huge success and I can not wait for the next Creative Mornings. In the end, we shared some laughs, we shared some insight, and most importantly, we all had a reason to go into work a little later that day. What more could you ask for?
 

 

Chicago is a three-peat town. AGAIN!

Explaining the Big Ad Gig would take five sentences. Go the website for the full story. In short, it’s a competition between ad students. Winners get a freelance gig at one of five prestigious creative-type places. Hence the name: Big Ad Gig.

Last year, first place went to a CPS grad. Two years ago, ditto. This year, THREE of the eight finalists are CPSers. I’m liking our odds…here’s who’ll be representing our school at the final presentations in NYC.

Steve Stenholt made a funny video.
Sara Nitz also made a funny video.
William Shandling also also made a funny video.

10/6/11 UPDATE:
William was one of the Big Winners and will be working at Martin Agency in Richmond, VA!!!

Think small-ish

So, summer quarter ended a couple days ago. Goodbye, summer quarter.

That means another Royal Rumble is upon us. For those of you who are new here, the Rumble is a quarterly in-school competition hosted by a real client. Students are divided into teams, and they’re given two weeks to work on a brief.

This time around, our client is Fiat - the lil’ Italian car that’s actually quite spacious. We know it’s spacious because we took turns sitting in one & fiddling with various dials on the fancy dashboard.

The brand is relaunching in the States after a 50 year absence, so it’s an exciting project to be part of. Also, the winning team gets a cash prize, plus the possibility of seeing their work produced.

Like, produced in the real world. Where real things happen.

Everyone I meet is a designer…

I don’t know if it’s the circles I run in, or because it’s Chicago, or because I’m now hyper aware of it, but it seems like everyone I’m meeting now is or has been a designer. Friends of friends, guys at bars, and even my taxi driver! (Granted, he was the Singing Taxi Driver—if you’ve never heard of him, he’s a treat. You can’t request him, it’s all based on your karmic luck. He does sing, and he’s pretty good. He’s been doing this for about 20 years now, and yes before that in his long list of experience, he too was a designer/creative director for apparently a decently large magazine. He wouldn’t say which.)

Anyway, it’s no joke. I’m either a magnet for other designers or Chicago’s just full of them. When I’m talking to a guy and I tell him I’m a designer, if he responds with “oh, me too.” I can only say, “oh, nice.” It’s not a bad thing—I love creatives, and especially creative boys. But it’s really just a reminder of how many people are out there calling themselves a designer. Future employers and clients are going to have to weed through that whole mess and I need to make sure I get noticed.

So I’ve decided, I’m not going to think just like a designer as much. Too many other designers out there. It’s like we’ve turned into zebras—and of course we’re all debating whether it’s white on black or black on white. Instead of just being a designer, I’m going to start thinking like a visual strategist.*

*I was sadly hoping I’d coined a new term, but the googles have told me otherwise. Either way, there’s a good chance it’ll end up on some future version of my business card.
artwork by me

we’re lovin’ it…

For the past nearly over a month, a good number of us here at CPS have been thinking about hamburgers, fries, shakes, nuggets, and even frozen strawberry lemonades. These thoughts also included the ‘L’, hidden treasures, giant dogs, road trips, and even zombies.

Folks, welcome to Royal Rumble.

As you may recall, though we may call it a “break” there’s no break from work here. Part of that is the ad competition that happens when classes end—Royal Rumble. We work with a real agency, for a real client. Best campaign wins. Can I say, it’s a bit intimidating your first time…

All of a sudden you’re no longer presenting your wildest and most elaborative ideas in front of your peers. You’re presenting (what is hopefully) a strong campaign to real creative directors at DDB, our agency partners for this Rumble. It’s definitely a challenge coming up with something fresh for a client that’s easily recognizable worldwide. I know my partner and I alone had all but one idea shot down in the first round, most with the note “it’s been done before.”

About 9 teams made it through to the final round and presented this past Tuesday. My partner Tawnia and I were one of them! We didn’t win. Tied for third is good, though. I’m happy.

The honors go to my co-blogger Jake and his partner Erica. The guys from DDB said it was something they hadn’t seen before. This is the second Rumble in a row in which Jake’s been a part of the winning team—major kudos to you, sir. Second place went to Matt Mindis, John McKenzie, Justin Florio and Mike Schneberg. McCamie Cole & Alison Lato tied for third. (And I’m going to give a shout out to my partner for her awesome script writing abilities. She’s awesome.)

Congrats to all the teams, really. Guys, we rock.

why we should rethink QR codes

Some people think that QR codes are just a fad, and that they’re dying out. But really, they’ve just been misunderstood and misused. They’ve got a lot of untapped potential.

My friend Jenn knows this and recently wrote an article on the subject for Tech.li: QR Codes Aren’t Dead — They’re Misunderstood.

The title of the article says it all. However, Jenn offers some good examples across various industries on how some brands have been using QR codes, and doing it better than others.

“A QR code should enhance an experience, not redirect the user to a promotional website. Anyone who takes the time to scan the code should be rewarded. Encourage your customers to become a part of the experience; don’t just come at them with marketing mumbo jumbo.”

So check out Jenn’s article. As advertisers and designers we should all be taking steps like these to make our work an experience, not just a cool looking piece.

mind the gap. (the best advice I’ve gotten)

(Ira Glass - on storytelling. Click through for the full quote.)

Early on in my Design Fundamentals course, my instructor shared this interview with Ira Glass. The interview was about storytelling, and this bit really gets into what’s it’s like at the beginning for anyone in a creative field.

I’d like to say it’s the best advice I’ve gotten and truly gets to the core of what our school’s about (if I can be so bold to make such a statement). You’ve got to keep pushing through. One of my biggest frustrations so far has been that what I want to be making and what I’m able to do just don’t line up. And there’s only one way to solve this problem, one way to get better — do more work.

As frustrating as it can be, and as much as you sometimes want to quit, you just can’t. If you love this, you just can’t quit. It’s this advice that’s gotten me through my first quarter… and I’m pretty sure I’ll have the full quote put on the cover of my binder. And on my fridge. And next to my mirror.

I’m very grateful for my first quarter instructors for pushing us so hard. It was a good first quarter… I can’t wait for summer quarter to start in July. Luckily I’ll have Royal Rumble to keep me busy!