By Christine Smith

The last week on placement at Gravity Road

Week two has gone by SO quickly and I feel very exhausted, exited and extremely happy at the same time.

What a journey. This experience has been amazing, full hands on deck from the beginning, with great people to learn from, so many great briefs to work on and loads of free booze to enjoy on the rooftop terrace overlooking Carnaby street. Sophie and I still can’t believe our luck. 

Here’s what our second week at Gravity Road has brought and taught us. 

Tuesday: 

Tuesday was the penultimate day to work on Cannes Future Lions. And seeing as we got our idea on Monday night… we didn’t have much time to make it. Nevertheless work was full on. There’s never a quiet day at Gravity Road. We had two meetings the same afternoon with the CD’s on two of Gravity Road’s biggest clients. I can’t believe they trusted us so much so quickly and let us work on projects like the ones they did. One of the clients needed a big content based social campaign with two celebrities which was really exciting. The other one needed a solid idea with purpose. Two very different brands. Two very different briefs. Two very different ideas. Just as excited over both. So all day was about making more and more ideas, putting them all in a deck, design/mockup and practising how best to present them (Soph, you’re a star at presenting!!) Review on both campaigns went really really well, only tiny bits to change.  

LEARNING OF THE DAY: Keep your hands dirty. There’s always room for more ideas. Quantity makes quality (you need many ideas to get that one great one).

Wednesday:

Cannes Future Lions deadline. I’ve been up all night animating. Only a few hours left to make it as perfect as possible before the entry closes. 

Inbetween comes the changes to our ideas from yesterday’s “real work” and a brainstorming meeting on a new project. 

Anyway – we did it. And I’m quite pleased with the result. I think that working under pressure makes it easier to make a decision. I like pressure. It was a bit opposite to the whole D&AD process where you had so much time to overthink the idea, swap briefs when you got bored/it got tricky. I need time pressure to produce good work. That’s why it’s so great at Gravity Road. You get a brief in the morning and have to present ideas a few hours later. 

LEARNING OF THE DAY: Even though time pressure seems to be the enemy it can turn out to be the best tool you have; as long as you trust yourself and your partner.

Thursday:

The big day. Everything got presented to clients today.  

Knowing something is going on (almost as if someone was giving birth next door) is so annoying in an exciting way. You’re just waiting without knowing what’s happening. You just have to cross your fingers and trust that the work you’ve done is good enough.  It’s a painful hour. 

The good thing is that they all loved our ideas. How crazy would it be if our work could actually get made for real? That’s the biggest dream for me. 

Work aside we became part of the Gravity Road special. Once a month Gravity Road has a rooftop party called “Pimms and pong”. Basically it’s a mix of Pimms summer punch and beer pong. I’m glad I had Soph and her long arms on my team haha! The night ended really late and included lots of 90’s music, dancing and chatting. Being social is important. And easy when everyone’s so nice.  

LEARNING OF THE DAY: Buy thew Nike Air Max 97 everyone is talking about and wear them so you’re sure to have something to talk about 

 – AND you look fancy. LOL. (Even if Soph thinks they’re disgusting) 

Friday:

Only just survived last night’s rooftop party. You can’t go home early when you’re new. (Soph did, so I had to stay for both of us – she’s a lightweight). 

Well. These two weeks have gone by so fast. I can’t believe it’s already the last day. Today we’ve had to make a storyboard for a client film and push some other ideas further for a client presentation. We’ve been working on so many nice brands and with many incredible people. It’s insane how quickly two weeks fly by. The ECD’s have been amazing at giving us proper feedback. Like, actually wanting to make sure we learnt from it. They took a lot of time out to help us develop, which is incredible. They listened, pushed and supported us everyday. It’s been so great and we are very very thankful for everything we’ve experienced at Gravity Road. (Big shout out to the two Marks for having us)

 LEARNING OF THE DAY: Never just go with one idea. Even though people at the agency say it’s fine with only one, present more. And don’t be afraid of pushing the boundaries. Scare them where possible.

THE BIGGEST THINGS I LEARNT: 

• Write down the names of people working there (or get your partner to do it for you) 

• Say yes to everything

• Time pressure can be good if you trust yourself

• People buy work AND people. It’s the golden combination 

• Do work you believe in 

• Listen to feedback and come back with amendments and more ideas 

• Never settle with just one idea 

• Aim to scare the other team with your work 

• Be friends with everyone

• Keep in touch with people afterwards

• Sleep is your creative fuel

• Working in teams of more than two is difficult

• You and your partner have to trust each other

• Don’t be afraid of showing last minute ideas (show your determination)

• Always ask how to improve. Even if they love the idea

Guess I have to conclude now. Sophie and I want to thank Gravity Road for about the 1,000th time for having us. We have had the best two weeks. We have been pushed, pulled and praised. Meaning we have left feeling more confident in our ability and feeling more hungry than ever to leave SCA and change the world with advertising.