Ok, this is the flat-lining post. I’m writing it after the fact because I didn’t have a spare second and my brain cells were beyond taxed. I felt like the above picture was a perfect representation of the feeling. (I found it while image hunting for comps)

So days 21 - 23 were pretty intense. I had stayed up really late cutting those bikes out which didn’t help because then I had three days in a row which I slept at )))))))))) two of the three days. (The details are fuzzy.)

Basically the BBF project was wrapping up and we had to comp all the ideas so that the company heads could present things to the client in New York. At the same time, we had a few quick short term projects kicking us during the day.

But everything got done and my supervisor really appreciated all my work. We worked all night Day 23 comping ideas. My parents were telling me “Beau, you’re going to burn out.” And I knew it was true, but I had to keep going. On night 23 around 3am, I could no longer think. Putting thoughts together was becoming impossible. Doing simple photoshop tasks seemed like insurmountable feats of strength. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. So I fell asleep staring at Google images and Ben told me to go sleep on the Agora. Since Ben did his undergrad in Graphic Design, he was able to finish up the last few things we had to do.

I slept on the Agora for about 3 hours, and then Ben woke me up and said we were free to go home. I consider myself a light sleeper, but Ben said he had to really rock me to wake me up. I went home and slept until 1:30pm. Made myself a big breakfast and watched Project Runway on the couch. I was feeling pretty refreshed and inspired by Tim Gunn so I got dressed and went back to work. There wasn’t much to be done, and all my bosses were out.

Day 24 was really cool. We heard back about our festival ideas. (We had come up with ideas for this big car company which sets up at music festivals) One of Ben’s advertisment ideas got comped (which was a cool collabo. He wrote the words and I set it up, etc.) and an idea I had “draw on the cars” got comped.

I did some work for a major ))))) company for an art director in Boulder. Initially she was like, “Well thanks for offering to help, but you’re in Miami so it would take too long to explain” and I was like “We can talk on the phone or video conference. Come on let me help!” and then she wrote me back shortly with a comp for me. I did a good job with the comp and she was all caps lock excited. I love getting caps lock words of praise.

On the morning of Day 25 (Friday), (((((( (the top creative of )))))) mass emailed everyone inviting anyone involved in the BBF project to attend a wrap up video conference to discuss the client pitch and the drama leading up to the pitch. I was really excited to be able to attend this meeting, but the video conferences always make me feel weird. You’re looking at 2 big TVs: one of a board room in Boulder and one of yourself. Everything is a little blurry and there seems to be about a 1 second delay when you speak and it gets transmitted so it tends to be a one way dialogue. (not that I’m saying anything.) Here are the notes I took from the meeting.

-))))) described the difficulty of getting through airports to get to the pitch as a Rock Opera.

-))))) began to talk about the ideas they pitched to the client. Ben and I listened intently hoping we might hear some of our ideas mentioned. 2 of the ideas he mentioned sounded like ideas that Ben and I came up with, but perhaps someone else came up with something similar.

-))))) said that the challenge for )))))was to “take what has never been sexy, and make it sexy and that’s a big shift.”

-))))) made an analogy about this particular pitch: because the company has a tradition of staying with an advertising agency for 50 year periods, this particular pitch was more like a potential marriage (ie. dating) than an arranged marriage. Alex commented that the company sent people to ))))) to meet everyone and really learn about how ))))) works.

The meeting was pretty cool. It was cool to see the actual people that I’ve been working for from afar.

Later Day 25: One of the Studio guys had to come to my desk to help me iron out some Quark problems I was having. (Quark is like InDesign: a program for document layout). It’s cool amongst college students to disprespect Quark since it isn’t part of the Adobe Suite, but the fact is that a huge part of the industry still uses Quark and thus I have to know it inside and out. I thought it was an inferior product, but many of the pros in Studio will swear that it is as good or better than InDesign.

Friday night: I went Miami clubbing with friends of my roomate and our neighbor girls that we just met like two days ago. By Friday I’m always tired, but I wanted to experience the Miami night life with people that do the Miami club scene all the time.

So I got ready! I got out my nice black pants and black shirt with grey pin stripes and my new nice black shoes. I went over to check on the girls that live across the hall to see if I was dressed appropriately for the club. I called Alxx (I’ve decide that girl Alex will be XX and guy Alex will be Alyx since boys have XY chromosomes. Clarity) to tell her I was go clubbing. She started giving me tips. We needed more girls than guys, and I needed to walk in “like I own the place.” I had also been told that there wasn’t a good chance of getting in anywhere unless you knew a promoter.

So I knocked on the neighbors’ door asking “Would you let me into your club?” Since they had previously only seen me in my PJs looking exhausted, they were quite impressed. Fast forward: I wasn’t really impressed with this club we went to. They had 2 dance areas. I thought everyone would be dressed really nice. The girls mostly were, but most of the guys were wearing jeans and tshirts. There’s not much more to say about my “clubbing” experience. It was quite pricey (compared to Gainesville) and not very fun. Miami is full of itself.

Here’s a great music video for Cat Power’s “the Greatest.” I felt it was appropriate for the way I was feeling after the 4 day grind for ))))). I have fond memories of Sam and I figuring this song out on her family piano that we moved to her house.

“Once I wanted to be the greatest
No wind or waterfall could stall me
And then came the rush of the flood
The stars at night turned deep to dust”

double exposure photo I came across on Flickr.

So I worked at ))))) until 4am last night. Pen tooling those bikes out took forever. As it got later, I wanted to call it a night, but I stuck it out. I was committed to finishing and I did. The bikes looked great.

I’m not a huge fan of staying at ))))) really late. It’s dark, and I feel like I’m alone in a huge factory (essentially I am). I was listening to my iPod and then I heard the sound of glass breaking. So scared. So I went to get the security guard (who is roughly 16 years old) and we scoped things out, tip toeing around corners. I decided that maybe the song I was listening to had the sound of broken glass in it, or I was delerious.

Another excellent meal provided by ))))) today. You can feel the BBF deadline fast approaching. They’re feeding me.

My idea for Movies on the Agora is going through the approval process. I want to make it happen. (The agora is a big stadium seating area in the main lobby with tons of pillows and cushions.)

I’m tired but still very motivated. Last night the studio pros were making binders (making binders from scratch) that the BBF project will go into for the pitch. It’s crazy. They are making the binders and hopefully some of our ideas will get comped and put in there.

I’ve heard from multiple young creative professionals that when they hit the working world, they mostly just work by day and go home and relax and they don’t want to invest in their own creative work. But they all admit its so vital. To stay fresh, to have your own identity and voice. Produce. Be prolific. Always be generating cool stuff that you would wear on your shirt, or stick or your guitar case or blast out of your speakers or send your friends links to. Be prolific. Whether its good or bad, have something to show at the end of the day that didn’t exist at the beginning of the day.

Hahahah, as I wrote that I was hoping to doodle a bit while I waited on feedback concerning some projects BUT the feedback has arrived AND my one of my BIG bosses just came visit it me at my desk with some COMP work!! What ideas am I comping you ask?? Some of the ideas that Ben and I came up with for the BBF!!! I love that he came to my desk! That means a ton, he knew I would be here.

YEAH!

Below is a video that I’ve always loved, and I’m working with that split screen cinema for a BFF commercial idea. Excited! Time to comp!

Yikes where did the weekend go.

We brainstormed late into the night (1:30am) on Thursday, presented our ideas on Friday for the Blue File Folder and a big ad in a major national newspaper ( I was designing blind)…and I know I stayed pretty late Friday night, but I can’t remember what I was working on.

Saturday morning I got to ))))) for 10am. I worked on comps for a car company. “We’ve got 4 layouts and we need all these headline possabilities thrown in. We need it real soon” Almost simultaneously, I got some more comp work from the west side of the USA. “We need you to find some big hi res images on the internet of ___. Real soon.”

I think I’ve touched on comping in previous posts. Here’s what comping is like:

“We need an image of 3 children, Ethiopian, riding on a dairy cow, on a beach, and the cow needs to be wearing..a party hat.” So I go online and start trying to find images of all the pieces. I search and search for the children and then I have to make them look like they are firmly planted atop the cow, and then the lighting on the cow should match the children, which should match the beach. Just when I think I have crafted something amazing, I send it off waiting, hoping, wishing that someone says “Great!” Inevitably, I always get an email back, “Can you find a cow with bigger spots and make the party hat fuscia.” But I have no complaints, I’m paying my dues and learning a ton and this has all been such a huge opportunity.

I’ve decided I know almost nothing about the Adobe software. You think you know, but you have no idea. I have so much to learn. I’m proficient, but the pros here are amazing.

The big blue folder project:::: going really well! Ben and I have been thinking about it round the clock and I called a ton of friends and family members to pick their brain about the subject of the BBF. (acronym for my blog’s current main character: Big blue Folder). Anyway, we piled up some pretty cool ideas and went and presented them to one of our bosses. We go into his office, and hold our breathe for the eternity that he flips through the ideas. He may rub his forehead and/or groan and we continue to stand silently preparing for a possible lashing.

But not today! He was like, “Hmm, I like these, there’s some good stuff in here.” He started to hold up the ideas to bounce them off the other guy in the room, and we started to breathe again. Whhoooo! BBF you are my BFF!

So he told us to scan the good ones and keep pushing them. We were so excited! So now we must develop the good stuff even more because…I think the BBF client pitch is on Thursday.

When CP+B pitches to a client, the whole firm holds it breath. It’s big.

Today, is day 20. Tomorrow, will be the 1/3 point of the internship. Everyone at ))))) has a different mathmatical equation for how long time is here. It’s kind of like dog years. 1 year is like 7 years anywhere else and so on.

Today ))))) fed me! A gigantic delcious burger from the CheeseCake Factory.

Tomorrow I have to wake up early to have my car towed to have a mechanic look at it. Nothing like starting your day watching your car get hauled off. Goodluck Dolores! (the name of my car.) Don’t be expensive!

I went to 5:30 mass today. Biked quickly through all the street cafes and Coco Walk walkers, and then was so relieved to not be staring at the computer screen. I walked right up to the front to sit near the music. The music was BEAUTIFUL. There was a middle aged Cuban lady playing a Spanish style guitar (much like my Ricky Martin), and she played all these great church songs that I’ve grown up with but in this great simple guitar way. I was so content. And the priest’s first language was English, so that was a plus.

The image above of a bike gear: I’m having to clip out 2 bikes this weekend. Perfect pen tool paths. This is taking…a very long time. I close my eyes and see pixels. It’s midnight, and the end of the night is far off in the distance. (below is a funny video I found while eating my dinner, which was cut short when I got a “we need some headlines in an hour” project. Ben rocked it. Anyway, this video is hilarious.)

“You guys are designing blind. This is blind advertising. When you were sitting at your desk, did you really think, ‘Oh I can’t wait to show him this?! He’s going to really love this!?’ What is this? This tells me nothing. This tells the consumer nothing. You are immersed in this product, but the consumer is not. Take these ads to someone that doesn’t speak English, and if they know immediately what you’re advertising then you’ve got something.”

Advertising. I’m getting a crash course in it. I’m learning by trial and error. I’m learning by studying what has been done and figuring out why it was successful.

Designing blind: There isn’t a magical recipe for advertising. It’s just effect communication that resonates. Ben described clarity to me in terms of pushing a nail in. (Clarity in the sense of having your message be clear). If you have a single nail sticking out of board, you will easily puncture anything pressed into that nail. But if you have a bed of nails, you can lay on that bed of nails and you don’t get punctured. Advertising is like that. You’d like to tell the consumer 100 things about the product, but then you don’t puncture. But if you hammer down that one thing, the message is going to break through.

I was designing ads for a big company and I wasn’t even thinking about the visual anymore. I was convinced that the car would just be sandwiched between a big headline and a small paragraph. I thought the headline should be something…powerful. For example, Unstoppable. Unstoppable + Car + paragraph explaining unstoppable = success. NO! That’s blind. Because Unstoppable gets read first, and the car gets read second and neither of those things say anything, nor are they even complementing one another: so your customer has moved on. You’re ad told them nothing.

The headline isn’t even needed most of the time. If the image is clear, concise and thought provoking, you’ve won. Say what you need to say without anyone having to read a word. Because you’d like to use as few words as possible…thus.. a no-headline ad with a picture that speaks volumes is a big win.

This was week 3. When I started week 3, I knew I wanted to shift gears. I’ve been “paying my dues” and earning respect from everyone by jumping at every job (big or small), working long hours and always being open to learning. So, I’m still doing that, but I wanted to really start going even further above and beyond. This is hard to explain. I want to be telling people goodnight as they leave and good morning as they walk in. I’m still here. I’m still working on this problem. I can help you out, I can offer my unique perspective.

And I can see the shift I wanted happening. We’ve got a HUGE project now. The blue file folder mentioned in the previous entry. And if we can crack this problem, it’ll be a flood of ideas. I’m talking to everyone and reading everything. I called many of my family members and friends of friends to gain greater insight on this problem. The thing about ))))) is that they solve advertising problems from outer space. Their is no limit to where they come from when they are solving the problem. They don’t think what will be a great TV ad for this. They think WHAT is going to have everyone talking about this. What is going to shift public opinion. How do we make this brand something we want to live with. What would PT Barnum do?

I find it very fitting that in 4th grade I got the title role in the school play, PT Barnum, and now I’m working for a place that idolizes the chutzpah of Mr. Barnum. He created the word Jumbo. And now it’s commonly used. The grocery store sells Jumbo Eggs. Jumbo size it. He created a new category of big. That level of huge didn’t exist until he created it and labeled it Jumbo.

I’m fascinated by the Cogs. Cogs are the cognitive research specialists that work for and within big advertising agencies. They study culture and trends and what people need and want. How they think and feel. I think if I were at a party, I would find the Cogs and talk to them all night. I’ve started working with the Cogs when I was working on the branding for their new group and now I’m watching their “video-ographies” to understand the people this new Big Blue File Folder project is seeking to serve and draw in.

There’s a really nice guy in the “Studio” that helps me when I have a software question or I’m trying to figure out the best way to do something. When you learn a software, you learn the basics, and you make that work for you indefinitely. But professionals know software inside and out. They know intimately every tab, window and option in the Adobe Software. The fastest way to look like an amateur is to not know some basic software trick that they use everyday. You hunting for a photoshop option is running the clock and thats money.

My goal is to somehow help a few people in every department. Build little relationships everywhere. Supposedly there are roughly 400 people at ))))), and by my estimates, 60 dogs of varying size and bark-intensity. It takes the Coffee Fairy ~ 3 hours every day to flit around the building to deliver a plastic medicine cup of syrup-y caffeine. I’m also looking to build some camaraderie and Miami spirit. I will keep you posted on this. I’ve got a plan. Can you dig it!?

Hidden perks of the internship so far: I drink my weight in free milk. Those little cartons that are often difficult to bend the mouth part of it open. I usually drink 2% throughout the day and then in the evening I treat myself to whole milk with my dinner or with some Honey Nut Cheerios. I think of it as desert milk. Other perks: There is a wall of CDs that I’m slowly absorbing. Nothing screams intern like walking back to my desk gleefully with a stack of 20 CDs.

Time for bed. Big weekend. Doing comp work for people on the west coast and SOLVING THE BLUE FILE FOLDER.

“I’m going to throw you in the deep end, and you’re not gonna drown brother” <

This project is wide open. Brand new. We need to find the spirit. “We’re not thinking in terms of Tv spots, because if that’s the case we’ll only make TV spots.”

How did I get this big fish? Staying late. Leaving the lamp on. I walked around ))))) around 6 asking who needed help. And they decided to include me on this. I’m hugely excited.

Today was very good. We met with one of our bosses to discuss the huge packet of ideas we came up with for the festival. Alot of my ideas got some praise, but we still have a long way to go and develop them.

Doug, my professor, reminded me of an important point: this blog can serve as a document of my time here AND a document for my design school peers and myself to know about this whole other world of ADVERTISING. Design isn’t everything. It’s just a piece. The real world doesn’t make CDs and posters. They make ad campaigns and they stare at a huge blue file folder and solve big conceptual problems. What are we trying to say to the world about this company? What is the company trying to say and how can we make that a manifesto that the world absorbs.

So from now on I’ll put more emphasis on “I learned this today and it’s really important.”

Today I learned: You always have to be ready to make more. For you’re first round of drafts, you should tip the scales with the pile of ideas you have, and they all need to be GREAT. (I’m paraphrasing a stern email the interns received recently)

You are not a sprinter; you are a marathon runner. The page or 2 of ideas you think are great are not enough. Think long and wide. Amass a pile. A jawdropping pile.

Study advertising. I used to think advertising can be a little shallow, but great advertising can really be a barometer of culture; the voice of the times. Study culture. Know what people care about.

I’m going to start reading into this giant blue file folder.

Here’s a screen shot of a little animated short I’m working on. One day at CP+B, things were a little slow, so I got out my X-acto and cutting board and started making some paper animals. I arrived at the lion and gazelle.

It doesn’t matter if you are the lion or the gazelle: you just have to hit the ground running every morning. (Rick Ross = Every day I’m hustlin’)

So on nights where I get home earlier than midnight (rare), I’ve been tinkering with this.

In the previous blog, I was heading out to the Jewish Museum to meet my sunday club friends; the Alexsss. We had a great time poking through the Jewish museum. You would have thought we were entering the Pope’s bed chambers the way the security guard metal detected us. Once inside the former temple, we were greeted by a little old lady with a heavy Yiddish? accent. High gilded ceilings, stain glassed, and foam-board mounted pictures of everything Jewish that has ever happened. Being the well behaved kids that we are, the Alexsss and I started reading the captions of the first wall of Jewish facts. These facts were very…enlightening. For example, “Robert Levine was elected in 1932 the first Jewish City Commissioner of Polk County” Umm..ok. Slowly we all started to read, and fake-read less and less the captions and then we just let the funny foam mounted portrait cut outs inspire conversation. Probably the funniest: a head to toe seashell costume that someone made for a party in the mid ’30s. Creepy and hilarious doesn’t begin to describe it.

We weren’t ready to call it an afternoon so we drove to Dairy Queen, ducked into the natural foods grocer (macrobiotic drinks anyone?), ate ice cream, discussed our favorite candy bars (Kit Kats were very divisive), it began to storm more so we discussed our childhood summers, then we went into the plastic polly-pocket-style furniture store next door, and talked more. It was a great afternoon.

Any time I get free time at home these days, I take my new Spanish guitar (that I named Ricky Martin) out onto the balcony and play my heart out. Buses pass by and their passengers are my fleeting audience. People walking their massive dogs, people going to get food from Slice and Ice.

Day 15- Monday June 11: Ben and I stayed until Midnight working on some festival ideas for one of the big clients. We produced a 36 page Word doc of ideas, sketches and comps. I was feeling very spaced out so we took a break to ride the scooters around Crispin.

Day 16 - Today I worked on a logo for a new internal department of CP+B. My knack for logos has evolved alot over the years. I struggle with Less IS More Design, which is the name of the game, especially logos. But I made some very simple effective, thoughtful logos and got some good feedback.

Today, I’m rocking The Incredible Bongo Band. (A goldmine of dancy samples)

I talked to Jefferson Rall on the phone yesterday on the Agora. He guest lectured a class this past semester, and I got in touch with him to discuss some business ideas I’m having. He was incredibly supportive and encouraging, and when I got off the phone with him, I said “Ok, well, keep in touch, I’ll let you know about this stuff (business ideas). This is going to happen.” And that’s it: when you say something outloud, share an idea, bring it into the light of day: it starts to grow. The momentum has begun and you HAVE to make it happen now. So I’m excited. Taking the reins.

Things are good. I’m feeling very positive. I want to continue making a big impact at CP+B. Time for bed. My sister sent me some laugh out loud text messages today. I could fully LOL because I was at work, but she put the joy in my heart today.

Yes, I’ve neglected to update this blog for 2 weeks, but the CP+B internship has really blown up. I’m going to try to start being more daily with this and upload alot of my photos.

NOTE: I’m not really sure how discreet I’m supposed to be about the clients and projects I’ve been working on, so I’ll err on the side of vague.

In no particular order:

Today Sunday 6/17: Going to the Jewish museum with the Alexsss. Guy Alex and Girl Alex (Team Nikeville) are some of my favorite CP+B employees (obviously the lady that brings me a shot of Cuban coffee every afternoon is in my 5 as well). Happy Fathers’ Day Dad!

Bad news: my car won’t start again. So I had to do all my CP+B work for the day with the little bit of battery that my laptop had (intense time deadlines = perfect recreation of a normal day at CP+B). And true to intern form, I got it all done, just as the computer blacked out. (Power cable is at work)

I watched Nickelodeon Guts as I ate my breakfast this morning and rushed off to Father’s Day mass. (The priest “you’re not a father.” Me: “no, I am not”) Anyway, I used to watch Guts sooo much as a kid. Mike O’Malley + Moe: the british girl: classic combo. I laughed out loud when the spotter for the paddle boat event fell in the water. You could tell Moe was cracking up too.

Crispin Porter has been awesome. It’s very surreal to me that I now regularly inhabit the tremendous factory of cool that I once toured on a graphic design school trip.

Most of the creatives have moved to Boulder, so I’m not going steady with any particular accounts or creative directors the way the Boulder creative interns seem to be, which means that I try to be really proactive and get every project I can. DJ told me that any time anyone needs help, no matter how late at night or how busy I am, I always need to say yes. And I have been. I get into CP+B about 9am every morning and always end up working at least until 10pm. There have been numerous midnight or later nights.

The work comes in waves: there’s usually a few morning projects and revisions waiting on me in the morning; there’s the “can you finish this in an hour” lunch grind; afternoon tweaks of various projects nearing completion; and then when the 4pm shot of Cuban coffee comes–I know the day is only half over. At this point, I start getting open ended emails from Chicago, Boulder and Angeles asking for help (usually comps).

Coming from a very design-based program, the world of advertising is pretty foreign to me. I’m still learning the lingo and flow of how a project is routed from person to person to client pitch. But so far, I spend the bulk of my time COMP-ing. Tiffany taught me how to comp on my first 12am+ night at CP+B. Whenever CP+B has an idea for a client (commercial, print ad, anything), they have to create a comp. I think of it as a COMPosite: you scour the internet and stock photo houses for enough images to build the image you’re trying to create. My computer is daily littered with internet scraps that I pull together with Photoshop magic to create the comp.

Comp challenges: It has to be as hi-res as possible. The client will be looking at print outs of these so lo res images just won’t fly. Sometimes I have to find pictures of things that existed in the time before cameras. In the words of Tim Gunn, make it work!

Now, I’ll go backwards in my CP+B notebook where I scribble down my daily to do lists:

Day 13: June 16, Saturday: My friend Frances and I had a really nice lunch at Taco Rico, a tiny local place with excellent food. Topped it off with their fried ice cream. Mmm. Kudos to the genius that dared to fry a near frozen treat. I told Frances that our outing meant the world to me; it did. We rode the MetroRail (elevated monorail) down and back across Miami. We took turns sitting by the window and she told me about the Altruistic Twins (heart of gold 6 year old boys) at the summer camp where she works. I went to CP+B to finish some little things that I was working on Friday until 11:30pm and then I went to Barnes and Nobles in this huge Coral Gables Mall (Sunset Place) which features $500 jeans and ugly tshirts. I bought the book: Small Business for Dummies. This summer internship and my other readings are pushing me to think that I want to run things; work for mice elf. Thomas Edison. Donald Trump. Richard Branson. Alexander Graham Bell. Some of the guys coming up on my radar.

Day 12: June 15, Friday: “Beau, can you finish this in an hour.” >>”You know I can, but first I have to go a quick meeting about this other project.”

When I go to meetings with important verybusy people, I try to get in and out as quickly as possible. But, it’s really important to understand their often-cryptic comments. I need to get all the info, but I don’t want to eat up too much of their time. Big thanks to Ben (the Copy Writing intern) for helping me translate scribbled comments. “What does this say? I need to make these changes in like 30 minutes, and I can’t read any of these comments”

Simultaneously, all the interns in my area were craving DJ Shadow. I put on “Building Steam with a Grain of Sand” and Ben was like “I was just listening to that!” and Laurelle over my shoulder was like “I was just about to buy DJ Shadow from iTunes.” DJ Shadow = design music. The inspired incessant drums, the odd appropriation: it’s all a perfect fit.

Have to dash! The Alexsss are downstairs ready for the first outing of our Sunday club. Yes! Did I mention I love the Alexsss.