SCABs

Hindsight – By @fentonsaward

Fenton Saward

By Fenton Saward

 

 

Hindsight has always been my best and worse enemy. Sometimes I learn, others I don’t. I sometimes wish I didn’t look down on things I have done, painstakingly worrying about what I could have done better/differently. But for me it can also be the best instinct. I have learnt many a thing from my mistakes. I’m going to make more mistakes this year and and trying to look at that as a positive. I don’t think I can learn certain things without failing in them first. Accept failure. Learn. Progress.

 

The first few days has been really amazing for me. Doing things in the second day that on paper I would never think to even try. Learning about mindfulness and the way our minds process thoughts and emotion has been really beneficial and with the self journal it’s also given me more structure to my everyday life. It’s nice to be busy and organised.

 

Some of my biggest preconceptions about the ad industry were changed in my third day when we went to visit different agencies. The first agency that we went to was AMV over near London Bridge. The building is impressive and retains the somewhat corporate feel I think this is more down to the fact it used to be the RBS bank. The initial vibe felt somewhat intimidating, being in a giant building surrounded by some of the best creatives out there. Although daunting I also got an adrenaline rush of excitement, transporting me into my future. I could see myself working somewhere like this.

 

But then I had the realisation/thought. What if somehow I don’t make it to an above the line agency that deals with some of the biggest clients in the world? I felt somewhat gutted but my eagerness to learn/see more still grew. We then headed over to Haggerston. This agency wasn’t so easy to locate and was more out of the way. At first we walked past the plain black painted door with the small text reading “INT Works” in white.

 

I did some research into them before we visited but couldn’t find too much. I did however make the connection between them and It’s Nice That who I’ve been following for a while now. It’s Nice That are a cultural blog who champion creativity across all mediums. INT Works is from what I think is the sister agency to them, who do “adverts” for clients. Their office is small but gives a much more personal feel as you step through the door.

 

Upon learning more about INT I realised they do not come from the usual advertising mould. They collaborate a lot with different artists, instead of essentially buying people’s work and using it as the brand’s own artwork which I personally think is great for the aspiring art community. I experienced the same feeling as before. Excitement and hunger. This visit made me realise that it is appealing to work at these big sexy agencies but it was good for me to see something that was very different and less traditional in the sense of advertising. This was refreshing and during this visit was reminded that everything I learn over the next year at SCA is a transferable skill set. Even going back to what I’ve learnt in this first week about mindfulness is applicable to my own self consciousness and not just making creative work and letting go of ideas.

 

The preconceptions I may have had before last week are now part of my hindsight. This is a quote I find fitting to do with different attitudes towards hindsight: “We all pine for a time in life when things were simpler. Even when they weren’t necessarily simpler, hindsight makes them look a lot simpler. The reality of it was that it wasn’t.” by author Ben Gibbard. This to me is relevant to this year at SCA, it’s going to be difficult but I think that difficulty is subjective to different times in our lives. This is just the next challenge.

 

 

 

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