Pravda

Yesterday saw me heading off to the bright shiny lights *cough* of Manchester again, this time to visit Simon Sinclair at Pravda. Having walked past the building 3 times, I eventually worked out which one number 35 was (damn all the other buildings having no numbers!) and merrily lugged my trusty portfolio up 3 flights of stairs. Only to find that Simon had been called to an important meeting, and that Jim (the other CD) was also unavailable. So waiting for someone to tend to me, I spotted my friend Neale sat in his little booth (he's been working there since February), and duly wandered over for a chat - as you do.


Not long after I was seen by Cat, who so far has spoken the most sense regarding my portfolio - hurray! Here's what she had to say:

*Thin it down for starters! Currently carrying too much around for each brief - as long as 3 main press/poster executions are in there for each brief and maybe a couple of extended pieces, then it's much easier to go through. I'd had a suspicion there was far too much in it (based on me struggling to hump it here, there, and everywhere with me!), but as yet no one had mentioned that - don't fix what ain't broken, and all that!

*Start with my second strongest work, and end with the strongest. Been told many times to start and end well, but have yet to work out what that means for the ordering of my work, based on the varied responses I've had.

*Overall she seem pretty pleased with the work gone into it and that I didn't just stick to one or two types of media, and told me that I shouldn't have any trouble becoming a copywriter with the range of different copy in there and the quality of the writing. This made me very happy : D

*Generally speaking, I just need to sift out the shit in order to raise the overall standard of my portfolio, as the tag-along pieces have been sucking the life out of the good work in there for quite some time (and by god, am I going to enjoy ripping some of them to shreds!)

*Best briefs seemed to be: Slavery, Best Beginnings and Play-Doh (again, much to my joy, being my baby and all!), with a few good strong ideas in my work for Talk and Smart Car.

*GHD and Pacamac were doing little for her, which I'd be inclined to agree with. And there was something about Milk that just wasn't clicking with her - like I'd tried to go a little too far to be different, though she liked my thinking in using unconventional benefits.

All together, a really good feedback session with a lot of advice to be working on : ) Think it may be time to kill Pacamac once and for all - hated that brief as of around May 19th (yes, I do remember the date, and yes, I am a freak), and only Alan Young really seemed to buzz off it, suggesting it was good enough to come first in the portfolio. With all due respect - no way, Jose! For now I'll hang on to Milk, as both Cat and Alan Young both didn't seem to connect with it, but a lot of people loved it. One more "Nah, sorry, I just don't get it" and it will definitely be time to consider dropping it completely.

Fingers crossed I'll be seeing Simon very soon - sent him an email earlier to request his time again and he seemed more than happy to oblige, so a call to Pravda to arrange another meeting will be happening tomorrow. Watch this space!