By Christopher Medford

Under Pressure

Diamonds are formed under mass amount of pressure and something that I noticed about the teaching practices used at SCA. they put tremendous amounts of pressure onto us to push us to the point of breaking point with the aim that we form into the most valuable creatives the world has ever seen. But for myself personally this process would work even better if I could fully submerge myself into the world of advertising and totally shut down all outside distractions.

As an older learner I have found that it quite difficult to balance a working life outside of the school to fund the studies that I have embarked on but a creative problems require an creative solution, something I am still trying to figure out. One thing that I have found useful is creating a plan for everything to give myself the structure to thrive.

From an art direction perspective my process goes like this. Starting at the foundations and creating the file hierarchy soon as I get a brief or figure out a single-minded proposition for the client, just to keep all the files organised. Plan out the strategy for it then list out all the items that need to be created for that campaign. After discussing with Marc about time management he suggests that we break up our days into 30mins segments to do little bits on all our projects.

This time management system works very well for copywriters but not so much for art directors. I have found that this strategy tends to slow me down further when crafting execution, but nothing tried is nothing gained. I find by the time I’m ready to sit and craft the posters I need too, they are already planned out but the time taken for each one can wildly vary just down to the level of detail needed and information that has to be incorporated drawn by hand or digitally. Jobs that would of taken me a couple of days to do in the real world are greatly cut down by the limited amount of time I actually do have to do them and I no longer have the ability to push back to get myself and extension so I can make the work I am proud of.

Part of me feels my standards are too high, but at the same time I just want to be able to put out the best work I can. I need the work that I attach my name to too be able to stand out against all my peers and get me the recognition needed to make this career change the right choice so I can start that life that has been declined from me for so long.