And so, the end is near!

First week back at uni has been eventful to say the least! Thrown into 2 crits first thing in the week, with the third intended for Thursday being called off. And why was that, you ask? Well let's just say that the spirit of the English Seaside brief we should've been presenting got the better of us, and we wound up at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Aside from the walk from car to theme park, the seaside was never actually seen! But hey, majority vote rules, and we wanted to act like big kids for the day instead - hell, even our tutor got caught up in the immense experience that is In Fusion lol!

This is possibly the closest we'll ever come to a full class photo, but hey!

This upcoming week is gonna be stress-fuelled to start with I'd imagine, as the time has finally come for our visit to TBWA in Manchester to pitch our GHD ideas to the creative director. Needless to say, some are less than keen at the prospect of getting full-on slated by an actual dude in the business, but I'm just looking forward to seeing my first agency and hopefully setting my mind at ease that they're not some big old dungeon-type places where you're whipped and beaten until you come up with work that isn't such a bag of crap.

GHD was hardly my favourite brief to begin with (and all through the middle, and right near the end too), but luckily it all came together for the final class crit we had in February. Now it's just a matter of getting it looking like the dog's danglers (not literally) and hopefully making a good impression.

So here it is - just about done all I can do with them and my Photoshop skill (or possibly lack thereof lol!):

The basic idea was to promote GHD's new gloss black and gloss white straighteners (which stupidly, we don't even know what they look like because they're not available to buy yet), the main onus being on the choices open to women when opting for one or the other. Though the imagery in my press ads is evocative and somewhat "black" in nature, the whole purpose is to put across a feeling of confidence to women, and the notion that whichever colour they should choose, this is a confidence that they'll carry with them always and will affect the way in which they make future decisions. I tried to encapsulate this in the line "Never be in two minds again", making women feel that with the confidence in their new looks, they can be the all powerful women they've always wanted to be, with no more worry or fretting over pleasing anybody but themselves.

Whether the layouts are OK is a whole other thing (as obviously to attempt an actual shoot for these would be difficult, with not many long-maned goddess-types out there), but as far as the idea and executions go, I'm feeling reasonably confident about pitching them on Tuesday. And hey, if they don't like it then that's only their opinion! That's right people, I'm trying on a little optimism for size to see if it suits me.

Well I'm sure I'll be on here again by the end of the week in order to let you all know how it went (and whether my optimism is still intact, or has ended up in the same place as my work lol!)