Captains Log: 1 Week Down

Week 1 has come to a close, and I found all the work everyone has been talking about. So far my assignments for the week are as follows:

• Strategy 1
• Pull 21 Ads for discussion in class
• Intro to Copywriting
• Start a new blog and write for at least an hour a day
• 1 Page of body copy for each of the following using copy sins:  Triscuits, Rollerball pens, Gordon’s Fish Filets, GAIAM Yogurt
• Pick 2 ads from CA or Archive and decide to whom is the ad targeted and what is the message
• Pick 5 ads that are headline driven and write body copy for them
• Pick 5 ads that are visual solutions and add a headline
• Pick 2 adds that are visual solutions and add headline and body copy
• Art Direction for Copywriters
• Trace an ad with a sharpie (preferably home design, or something with heavy shape and texture elements)
• Draw 5 versions with serious distortion to one of the elements
• Draw 5 versions that evoke an emotional resonse
• Draw 5 versions with unequal parts with three differnt values
• Draw 5 versions that are heavy on pattern and texture
• Draw 5 versions that use Point Force to an Area of Focus
• Draw 5 versions that use Swelling Force to an Area of Focus
• Draw 5 versions that use Rule of Thirds to an Area of Focus
• Draw 5 versions with heavy contrast using light and dark values

As of 5:30 on Friday I still have 25 sketches and all the headline and body copy assignments to complete. Nothing worth having comes easy so I'm digging my heals in and preparing to get this knocked out.

The first week was great. Met a bunch of new people, enjoyed all my classes, and had a great Forum speaker come discuss the relationship between Developers and Creatives in the changing advertising landscape. Very interesting stuff.

Also, my schedule got a little tweak and now I only have class Monday from 9:30 - 12:30 and Tuesday from 9:30 - 9:30. It's been interesting getting myself to do work at home by myself, but so far so good.

Sorry the content wasn't perfect this week. I'll step it up a notch next time.

LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!

Well, the day has finally come. Today I started classes at Creative Circus. This morning I was nervous, but ready when I rolled into the parking lot.

I picked up my student ID at the front desk, chatted with some other students, and headed down to my first class, Strategy 1. My instructor, Jim McDonald, was awesome. He had some amazing stories about working with Jay Chiat at the beginning of Chiat-Day, and is a wise man with a young heart. Obviously its hard to judge a class based on the first day alone, but Strategy seems like its going to be a little bit of a review since I have a Marketing degree. Jim, described the class as "how to think like a client" so hopefully my experience on the dark side will serve me well.

I can't even get it in words how great it is to finally be at Creative Circus. I left school and tore in to my assignments as soon as I got home. Strategy is supposed to be one of the easier classes, but there is a lot of "suggested" work/reading for the class and I loved it all. Any qualms I had about quitting my 9-5 and going for it were completely erased today. This place is awesome!

Tomorrow I have Art Directing for Copywriters and Intro to Copywriting. I'm pretty worried about Art Directing since my last great work of visual art was in 2nd grade, but I'm here to get better so I'm going to go for it.

Sorry for the short post. I'll try to get more down as the week progresses.

One day down. Two years to go.