Having seen many graduates, as well as helping out at the Portfolio Surgeries for the DNA Event, you start to see the same issues cropping up, so I am adding my little nugget of advice for placement and graduate interviewees…

It may not help for some, but I am sure it will help for some others….

• If you are sending your work / emails to multiple agencies be sure to tailor each one to the correct person – I have had emails for a Laurel / Laura / Lisa, unfortunately they go straight in the bin, I know this may sound harsh and mistakes are easily made, but if this is for a placement of first job then we need to see that care and attention to detail will be used from the start!
• Make sure you choose the best work for your portfolio, there have been instances where I have been given a sketchbook filled with writing! That is personal development of your brief, your finished work should speak for itself and if you need to explain more into it, you can do that whilst discussing your project.
• Do not put every single project that you have ever done whilst at Uni and every single personal project in there to fill it out. Make sure the projects cover off what you want to shout about yourself, ie layout / typography etc these can be uni projects or personal projects. I would say about 6-8 projects is a great amount to show off your work.
• My main issue during interviews, is people talking into their books. The main thing to remember is, not only are we looking at your work and your design skills, but we are also looking to see what type of person you are, agency life is very different to the ‘9 – 5 norm’, so we like to see what type of person you are as well!
• Finally, try not to be nervous, I promise you we don’t bite, are nice people and are also keen to see your work!

Although this is not specifically about design, David Trott’s How To Get Your First Job in Advertising has been passed down as a GEM of advice from our Creative Director so have a read through!

So with that… Good luck to all you graduates and students looking for placements, I know it is a tough industry to get into, but a very rewarding one when you get there!

Vivid have supported this great product in its bid to become Barclays Business Take One Small Step Competition winner.
Click Here to see the Video and show your support

Take One Small Step – Lavender Mattress

Tobacco Related Deaths (TRD) picked up an award for cinema commercial of the year at the coveted Roses Advertising Awards 2010, and is the first Roses Award for Vivid and TRD.

TRD, commissioned by Our Life and Smokefree North West is one of 3 films designed to target 14-18 year olds- the audience that the tobacco industry recruit as new smokers to replace customers that have quit and died through their habit.

The film is part of the Smoke & Mirrors Youth Advocacy Campaign. Young people were involved in the very core of production, commencing in a series of roadshows to stimulate ideas. A film workshop led by Karl Sanderson, Vivid & Mike Cockayne and Integral Productions, resulted in around 100 young people ‘seeing through the illusion’ and voting for their favourite ideas at a campaign weekend in October.

Karl Sanderson, Creative Director Vivid said: “The client adopted a unique approach to this campaign. Rather than regurgitating the obvious health risks smoking causes, they asked Vivid to work with the region’s 14-18 year olds to research the truths behind the tobacco industry exposing the negative practices. What’s great about this approach is we were able to involve the films audience from the start and make sure we were delivering something that would change their and future generations behaviours”
Mo Iqbal from Runshaw College joined Vivid, Integral Productions and the film stars Matt Littler and Darren Jeffries, alongside Carley Stenson and Natasha Hamilton on location to shoot TRD, which highlights negative tobacco industry practices including marketing and the media in a spoof style detective drama.
Commenting on the film and award win Dr Janet Atherton, chair of Smokefree North West said: “Smoking is a childhood addiction and 80 percent of smokers start before they are 19. Clearly this project has created an excellent platform for young people to express their views. We congratulate Vivid and the young people in this achievement.”

The commercial, produced and directed in partnership with Integral Productions ran in Cinemas across the North West between December 2009 and January 2010. In foyer research, evidences the effectiveness of the campaign with 40% of smokers who had seen the commercial stating that the advertising had made them ‘more likely’ to quit.

Media was purchased by PHD North.

Vanity versus Sanity – the social media phenomenon – quick spread the word. So what if social sites have over taken porn as the number one use of the internet? Why do we care? When porn was number one did we all want to create a porn site to flog our products and services?
Everyone asks how can we get into social media, no one is asking why should we use social media. As my mum used to say, would you jump off a bridge because someone else did?

Arguments dominate the domains with who should ‘control social media’ – PR’s, strategists, in house, dedicated social media companies, digital agencies…What’s happened to marketing, integration, return on investment, measurability, accountability and creativity?

In a rush to jump on the social media bandwagon, in a frenzy of tweets, fans and virals, ideas are being shoehorned into fit 60” and 140 words, ads are being thrown up on YouTube and VSS’s (Very Short Sentences) tweeted every five mins.

Social media is not social marketing and it is not a replacement for advertising or design and should not be used as such. The very purpose of social media is to be social, so whilst hard sales pitches are a no-no, what you do get is an opportunity to share more, build knowledge and nurture relationships in a relaxed environment.
But equally social media is not about ‘having a twitter profile’ and telling the world what your CEO had for breakfast or having a page that is never updated or holds content that bores. It’s about adding value.

Read more HERE

From humble roots in Warrington, Vivid is now an established fixture within the Manchester creative network. With a strong sense of pride and commitment to campaigning, Vivid work closely with top notch clients, including, Library Theatre Company, Environment Agency, Our Life, Smokefree North West, Science in Sport and Northwest Regional Development Agency(just to name a few!)

With over 600 pink & black balloons, 10 pink Chinese lanterns and 100’s of pink arrows covering Century Street (all collected post event!) Vivid literally painted their small corner of Deansgate pink, throwing a party inviting their nearest and dearest friends to raise a glass of pink fizz, dine on pink jelly and Vivid’s Creative Director, Karl Sanderson’s mums cupcakes (yes iced in pink – Thank’s Mrs S).

The evening was a vivid success, with friends including, Visit Chester and Cheshire, Environment Agency, Our Life, Peoples History Museum, Science in Sport, Tangerine PR, Moorfield Media, How-Do, Weber Shandwick and many more clinked glasses to the past ten years worth of successful campaigns, bashed a bumble bee piñata, listened to music from the decades and witnessed the unveiling the new Vivid website and brand book.

With a strong new team in place, they have refined and polished their look to fit with their all-embracing and established status, yet maintaining their trademark bold and vivid brand. Vivid is looking toward the next ten years, with their mantra still intact, they aim to create victory through vision and ideas, working cross media – below, on and through the line.

As part of the NWDA’s High Growth Programme, Vivid has ambitious plans for their 11th year to convert the industry to see creative more Vividly, remaining fiercely independent, enabling them to add value by offering personal creative support, structure and strategy, all based on sound reasoning and judgement to public and private sector (challenger) brands, increasing campaign worth, presence and delivering strong results.

Rachel Emson MD, who was recognised for her talent with a nomination for
Crains Business Woman of the Year 2009, commented: “Vivid began life with the sole purpose of being able to relate to clients, we recognise our role is to look from the outside in, providing insights, questioning, encouraging, understanding and delivering – doing this with a refreshing creative outlook and finding ‘the big idea’ that works cross media – adding to that mix a lot of fun and determination, we want clients to enjoy the Vivid experience, safe in the knowledge we will deliver victory! ”

To promote the famous Glengarry Glen Ross production at the Library Theatre to a younger audience we designed an A5 flyer that folds out into a A3 poster. Using a popular quote from the play we created a strong  typographic design to reflect the string dialogue nature of the play.

The play centres around four desperate Chicago real estate salesmen. This month’s top guy wins a gleaming Cadillac, the runner-up takes home a set of steak knives, the rest get the sack. On from the 12^th March, this is a must see!