SCABs

I Finally Went to Paul Simon – By @JesseOHare

By Jesse Sharp-O’Hare

 

I Finally Went to Paul Simon

So, nominally, this is going to be about a SCAB about The Dots Masterclass myself, Max, Rollo and Miranda went to. I’m going to talk about the great mentors that were there, the good advice that was given, and maybe mention that guy (we know who I’m talking about). But I’m also going to mention my epic adventure, my labours of Hercules, to finally go to Paul Bloody Simon performed by the London African Gospel Choir. 

The Dots. At M&C Saatchi’s flashy offices, around forty or so creatives, portfolios or iPads in hand, waited nervously to rush around the tables to get seats at mentors. Work was passed round quickly, the various mentors throwing out nuggets of advice as quickly as they could. Its was particularly interesting because by no means was everyone in, or trying to get into, advertising. One guy (and Max will back me up on this) had the most incredible selection of photo-collages, including turning King’s Cross station in a butterfly. Another girl had a showreel of what can only be described as what I’d imagine Ian on Z-Brush plus a tab of acid would look like. Sometimes, especially now at D&AD, we can get a bit advertising-y so it was really refreshing to see what creativity means to different people of the same or similar ages. Above all, and Vikki mentioned this at town hall, a challenge was thrown down by the other creatives. There are a lot of very very talented people out there and I definitely need to up my game to compete with them. Most of them were people we’ll all be competing with in a few months and seeing the competition has given me a nice kick up the arse. 

Now, Paul Simon. As many of you will know, if you need tickets, deals, stolen watches etc etc, you come to me. This commercial-mindedness is, you’ll be surprised to know, something that was thrust upon me rather than something I’ve always had an innate skill for. For the Dots, I gave away my first ticket to Paul Simon, as Augustine has brilliantly described in her SCAB. The second ticket flew away from me due to more unforeseen circumstances, and so I was forced to flog that one as well. But, as they say, if at first you don’t succeed; try, try, try again. So I did. And it may have actually been a blessing in disguise. Right as D&AD was reaching its fever pitch, right as the studio looked like it was about to give me an aneurysm, I could take a night off. It worked brilliantly. A little bit of fun was exactly what I needed. Go do things that will benefit your learning/career, but always remember to have a bit of fun as a reward after. Have your cake and eat it. 

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