“I did this shitty thing at a shitty agency, but it was for a big brand. Should I show it?”
I’m sure somebody told you that agencies want to see that you’ve worked on major clients and produced real work. They don’t care. The only thing they are looking for, and ever look for, are people who have ideas and can do the craft.
“I’m a writer, is it ok if the art direction isn’t amazing?”
You’re a writer and people shouldn’t look at art, but I promise you everyone does. I had the same problem with my book coming out of school. The work-around is to get your foot in the door without doing ads, just finding some other way to endear yourself to people. Or some way to make the low visual quality be part of the idea. I heard that a guy once got a job with a book that just had one headline per page, no visual, but 100 pages of killer headlines.
“I see a lot of bad ads, how great does my portfolio need to be to get a job?”
Your book should scare me. I should live in genuine terror of someone finding it and firing my hack ass. You’d be surprised how impressive people’s portfolios are even if all they produce in their real careers is crap. Bad ads come from round after round with the client, but in your portfolio, they’re perfect.
This industry is competitive to the point where having a stellar portfolio is the requirement of an agency even talking to you. Unless you’re related to somebody. If you’re not James Omnicom, make that book sing.
What specifically is in a portfolio is always changing, but the basics are the same. You need ideas that are smart. You’ll need ads that show you can do your craft. And then you’ll need at least one ad that nobody has ever seen before. Do you need digital? Probably. iPhone apps? Sure, why not. But you will want an idea in there that is unheard of and can’t be defined.
“Every CD I show my book to says they like my work, but I can’t find a job. What gives?”
I remember as an instructor looking at a student’s book and telling him that his book was fine and that it was the worst possible situation he could be in. Nothing was wrong with his work and that is precisely what was wrong with it. He couldn’t grow because there was nothing to critique and he couldn’t get a job because it didn’t have that extra level of amazing. I told him to add a campaign that was insane.
Talent is recession proof. If you work honestly and your book is stellar, there will always be a position for you. I know people who were hired at the same time as the company fired huge chunks of the department. Sometimes it takes a little time to find where you ought to be, but that’s all it is, a matter of time. In that time, keep your craft sharp.
How can you get professionals to review your work?
Ask them.
When I was a student I was sitting on a crowded L train in Chicago. I saw a guy who had an agency’s logo on his bag. I asked him if he’d look at my book. He initially said no. A minute later he handed me his business card.
“How do you deal with people telling you your work sucks?”
I showed my book to a CD once who told me that there was one and only one ad in my entire book worth keeping.
I went home and put it on my wall, labeled with, “my first ad that doesn’t suck.”
Ever since then I’ve made it a habit to mark one ad in my book as my current ad that doesn’t suck. Every assignment I do is an attempt to top that piece.
If you look at your book now, I’ll bet there is one ad that is clearly the best. Everything else is just decoration for it.
The guy might’ve been wrong, but the truth is, any book can be better.
How do you get into the business?
Well, I have a whole chapter about this, but no, that’s cool. I’ll just repeat it.
Getting into the business is half about your work and half about your attitude. And then luck. And then who you know. Actually it’s really a 147% game. The trick is to find some way, any way, to stand out from everyone else. It doesn’t have to be some huge stunt, you’ve just got to be a little smarter and a little more persistent than everyone else.
One thought to remember is that a recruiter’s job is to hire people. If they don’t do it and do it well, they’re failing at their job. Give them an excuse to bring you in and they will. All they need is something they can point to and say, “This is why I brought this person in to interview.”
A FUN THOUGHT TO CLOSE ON:
Turtles.
AND NOW FOR THE WORDS “THANK YOU” AND A PAGE OF NAMES.
Super special thanks to:
My wife Jen for marrying me even before I was a published author of an advertising book.
My family in the US and Europe, especially my brother Martin.
My brilliant art director partner and work brother, Josh Engmann, who makes me feel ineloquent and stupid by comparison.
My book designer Anna Kasnyik without whom this beautiful book would be a hideous Word doc.
My mentor Jeff Goodby for writing the foreword and for doing more for my career than I have room to mention here.
Paul Malmstrom, Lauren Ranke, David Kolbusz and Justin Gignac for their kind words.
Special thanks to these people:
Laurence Minsky, my college professor, advisor, and author of a shelf of books.
Veronica Padilla for giving me my first big ad break.
Linda Harless for giving me my next big ad break.
Mary King for giving me my first New York job and moving me across the country.
Susan Holden for reading contracts as if they were in English.
Luke Sullivan, whom I’ve never met but who wrote the book that got me into advertising. I’ll never forgive you.
Thanks to the bosses I’ve learned the most from (somewhat chronologically):
Alex Bogusky, Andrew Keller, Donnell Johnson, Franklin Tipton, Rob Reilly, Jeff Goodby (again), Rich Silverstein, Steve Simpson, Jamie Barrett, Bob Winter, John Matejczyk (correct spelling), Will McGinness, Mike McKay, Feh Tarty, Pat McKay, Jim Elliott, Mark Wenneker, Jean Sharkey, Tyler Hampton, Marty Senn, Chris Beresford-Hill, Margaret Johnson, Will Elliott, Robert Riccardi, Michael Ian Kaye, Paul Malmstrom (one of the weirdest and most wonderful minds in advertising), Bobby Hershfield, Piers North, Tom Webster, Allon Tatarka, Rob Baird, Charlie McKittrick, Christine Gignac, Scott Hayes, Tim Jones, Bryan Rowles, Tim Wolfe, Rob Teague, Michael Bryce, Matt Curry, Justine Armour, Shanteka Sigers, Kevin Lynch, Stephen Neale.
Thanks to my former art directors for making even my bad ideas look good:
April Lauderdale, Jason Campbell, Antonio Marcato, David Byrd, Andy Babbitz, Jose Luis Martinez, Cris Logan, Sharon Kaye, Karen Land Short, Mandi Lin, Byron DelRosario, Martin Rose, Mike Coyne, Andy Dao, Billy Veasey.
Thanks to a bunch of other people I couldn’t have done this without:
David Littlejohn (your move I believe), Ken Miller, EJ Wolborsky, Rob Katzenstein, Nick Zafonte, Jonathan Graham (who overstates my ability to write headlines as well as he does), Mike Aperauch, Ben Rudlin, Mark Rurka, Colleen Hubbard, Erika Ayres, Jillian Fisher, David Girandola, Frannie Rhodes (thanks for letting me hide in your office on rough days), Nathaniel Lawlor (way to wreck the curve for all of us), Scott Norton (my favorite client), Shanita Akintonde, Peg Murphy, Tom Hamilton, Kara Taylor, Dany Lennon, Jerrod New, my accountant Max. All the people I forgot on accident, sorry. All the people I forgot on purpose, quit being paranoid.
Thanks most of all to powerHouse Books for taking a chance on this book and on me.
About the author:
Thomas Kemeny is an award-winning blah blah blah.
He is humbled daily by people who are smarter, funnier, and younger than he is.
www.thomaskemeny.com
About the designer:
Anna Kasnyik is an award-winning blah blah blah.
She is humbled daily by people who are smarter, funnier, and who have twice as many eyebrows as she does.
www.ksnyk.com
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