By Naomi Taylor

Never settle

So D&AD is over and I’m sure we all have mixed feelings of confidence and doubt.

D&AD was an emotional rollercoaster, one minute your idea felt great then it felt shit. I must of gone through about 10 different ideas for one brief in the final run up to D&AD deadline. The opinions of various mentors certainly changes how your idea pans out. I kept changing my execution over and over again, but all continued to make me doubt what I was doing. In the end I had to believe in my gut, the mentors are great but they will never all love one idea. You have to go with what you feel is right which I found out the hard way a week ago. I was too wrapped up in what others felt about my idea, I was trying to please everyone else and not myself. 

Having worked on such a personal subject for D&AD, it was only in the last few days that I came to realise that I was the best person to represent the idea, nobody else. With such a limited amount of time left, I was worried. However with such passion for what I was doing I was able to execute in time and the results were better than they would have been if I had stuck to one of the original ideas.

D&AD has taught me to not stick with the first idea or with the idea that some mentors like. We are always taught about the power of our gut but it can be hard to know when to trust it. Especially when you have so many great mentors in that have the experience of knowing what works and what doesn’t. 

My advice for all future SCAers is to believe in your gut, give your ideas the overnight test and don’t get too hung up on what mentors think. There is always going to be a mix of opinions, so chose wisely to who’s you listen too.

Lastly I just want to say a huge thanks to all the mentors. You have all been so dedicated in getting the best out of us and our ideas during D&AD. You have stayed late, worked weekends and been there to lean on when things have gone wrong. We are all extremely lucky to have you as part of the school. 

THANK YOU ALL!