By Ivan Stanojevic

Post Break Feels

Term 2 has been a rollercoaster. We were encouraged to try and figure out who we would like to partner with during Christmas. It was a frenzy of people awkwardly trying to figure out who they’d like to work with. Marc told us to think our decision through. So we chose, some partnerships worked and some didn’t. A few weeks into the term Marc decided to break most of us up and mix up the partnerships. I can see why he did it. Some people hadn’t found their potential »one« yet, and even those who think they did can still learn a lot from working with someone different.

We survived the first half of the term, it was turbulent and the half-term break in February was just what the doctor ordered. When we came back we got the chance to partner back up with our »original« partners (or other people if we prefer) for the D&AD preparations. That means that from now on, for about a month, we’re only working on those briefs. No Portfolio Briefs for a month! YAY. But also UGH. It’s a bit scary. D&AD always seemed so far away and it always seemed we’ll have so much time to prepare, but now it’s almost here and it’s freakout mode. However, everyone always says that we should treat these briefs just like we do any other brief. I know we should, but it’s also quite hard to do that.

Anyway, another change that the break brought was the school moving to a new location. It’s a cool space in Pop Brixton, it’s really nice and much tidier than the church was. It feels much more like an agency now. It also feels a bit more like a school. We did our first pitches in the new space yesterday and the growing pains were obvious. First of all, we still don’t have proper WiFi, so we’re forced to use the public one Pop Brixton has. As you can imagine, it’s horrible, barely works and crashes. That’s what happened before our presentations. As a result, some of the slides in the presentation deck were mixed up or missing. As the new space for presenting is much smaller than the one in the church, there was also a lot of jumping around, trying to find a space to stand without covering the TV, etc.

But I think some adjustment is normal whenever there is change. I think this space will serve us greatly in the long term. We just need to make it a tad more homely. We’re quite privileged to have been able to experience working in the church and now in the new space. The transitional intake. Another pro of the new space is that changing your environment helps with inspiration. And this new space is unusual and cute, albeit a bit loud. We christened the new space with an incredible masterclass from Rory Sutherland, which was unforgettable.

I think with warmer weather coming and us getting used to the change of location we’re in for a lovely spring!