And it all goes to Shiz! Update!

SO i was to take on this placement through the graduate challenge scheme. Tuesday morning i arrived at the uni to discuss the academic side of the placement. Turns out there is 9000 words to write and many other things academic related that i decided half way thoguh the discussion that more qualifications and "points" towards masters is not what i needed. So therefore I decided to not take part, and for the first time in my life i actually walked away mid lecture. which i dont think i have ever done. So I cant do the placement. But what i have asked to do is volunteer 2 days a week to help with leaflet and brochure design aswell as any other marketing ideas i can think of. I am however slightly annoyed as i missed out on the opportunity of a concept day in bristol with many creatives. I may email Richard and see if there are any other chances.

So back to trying to find a job.

If anyone has any top tips then please do tell.

I dont know how to title this

http://www.hitthebitch.dk/

The pace finally picks up

At last I have something to blog about. Im sorry I don't blog very often. I feel I should only blog when its worth blogging about. And apart from reblogging what other people are posting I have not had any news, Until now!

So I applied for the graduate challenge scheme through the university of gloucestershire, went to an interview, and yesterday i was accepted onto a paid placement. The role I will be taking is that of "THE" marketing officer, to market, design and rebrand a Gloucester based charity. Although this isnt a placement at an Ad agency it is in the right area of expertise and will be good experience and something really good to add to my CV. It is also a massive challenge especially if I can succeed in rebranding the organistation. I start November 24th, and it also entails an academic qualification, which I have to write 9000 words for!!!! not so keen on that part.

SODS LAW.... I was approached by a Richard Moore from a digital agency called Juniperblue after he had noticed Myself and Emily on the Talentpool website. He was keen to know more about me and where I am in my career. He has offered me the opportunity to get involved in a concept day with 5 other creatives ranging from juniors to seniors. And I will be paid as a freelancer! PAID WORK AT LAST! Unfortunately it is the same week as the start of placement so I might not be able to see through the concepts to execution. But I will definitely keep up to date with whats going on with it.

So thats my news for now.

Aaron

Not goin so well

Well i havent posted in along time as I havent had a lot to report, finding it tough going to find employment in the south west even placements are hard to come by. Applied for lots of jobs though waiting on replies and had a few well a lot of knock backs mainly because I dont have the necessary experience! Well why wont people give me the opportunity to get experience? if anyone knows the answer please do tell. Fellow graduates seem to be having the time of there lives over in London many have jobs and many are getting placement after placement, but I dont fancy the London lifestyle so i guess its a sacrifice I have to take, even if unemployment is a bore and a depressing one at that, but I am determined to get into the creative industry and havent done all these years of education to work in an office. So im sticking at it!!!!

Dudeism and the power of film

Whilst browsing blogs i came across these idents for VW's See Film Differently campaign which supports Independent Cinemas by DDB London. I totally agree that films can craft people into things they always wanted to be and that films can be inspiring in so many ways if still a bit creepy in some aspects. Maybe films should be an aspect of your culture and not be your life. And if films can craft lives and adverts are essential mini films then surely as we are surely all aware adverts can craft life too. I do agree with and think the Dudeism philosophy is a good one in some aspects "just take things easy through all kinds of struggles and strife and negative things that come your way". Things are particularly negative and a struggle for me at the moment trying to look for employment in the creative industry and i feel this philosophy can help, just to take things easy with rejection and don't let it get me down the right job will hopefully come along soon. Obvisously the laid back approach will not work and i have to keep struggling and striving. And hopefully now my stomach issues are finally clearing up (fingers crossed). And i can hopefully get back on the placement trail.



The Dude



Imaginantion




Rocky

Creative cheese!

A great way to advertise cheese! "I got chheeeeeeseburgers maaaaan"

Food gone mental! Now the question i put to you is do these burgers actualy taste nice? or are they just the creation of greedy fat Americans. I quite like this site its like pornography for fat people. All that dripping grease oozing in to all those layers of more grease. You do have to admit that they do look good evenif some our a weird mix of heart attack in a bun. My personal favourite is the Sheboygan! Hell of a word!

http://www.cheeseandburger.com/sheboygan

Also a fan of the commentary especially on the casanova "its a cheesburger and mouth love affair waiting to happen" O GOD YEAH lol

recently learnt how these type of flip animations are created in flash when thought about it its so simple, not that i would be able to create it lol but the function seem easy enough.

Also found a site where you can MadMen yourself, if only we had found this website before our exhbit dam it!

www.madmenyourself.com

Portfolio!!!!

As me and Emily have parted ways I have created my own online portfolio, for now it consists of university work created whilst working with Emily. It will be updated as my work progress' with placements. please take a look and leave comments.

http://mccarthy.carbonmade.com

2ND Pencil arrived

FUNNY! but true?

NEGOTIATOR


CONSISTENCY


BUZZ


BONDING


RESPECT



One day I hope to be a creative director, and i will probably fall into these stereotypes, but for now its funny to laugh at how some creatives work...

I saw these pop up on my facebook newsfeed, Sean O'Mara had posted them from businessguysonbusinesstrips.com

The Negotiator is my favourite, especially as i am looking for employment

BORED!!!

Well this lack of work is boring me slightly now! SO I have been keeping myself entertained, see....




Multicoloured Coke branded bottles, I have put a light behind these so at night they glow! This inspired an ad campaign which I am going to work on.





I re-arranged my figurines, yes thats right!





I have stenciled my logo onto things like this board. Next step T-shirts and Wellies for festival time! A McCarthy brand domination awaits!





And finally here our my D&AD certificates framed, border and metrosexually pretty ha!


This is what I have been doing to keep myself busy and them juices flowing, still bored though! I also got turned down for a Designers position on the SU which would of been cool but alas, apparently they recieved 22 applications, 20 of which had 1st class honours. I wonder how many have D&AD pencils though? plus my editorial skills were non-existant! I could debate about this rejection all day but i won't! Gonna be slightly gracious in defeat. plus there is no point dwelling on rejection as im sure there will be plenty more to come. hopefully not the first of too many though.

BUT...


I have applied for a junior watch designer position which could be really fun. And i recieved a call this morning fron the guys at Mason Zimbler and Strange and Dawson about a placement which i will start on August 10th, for a week or maybe two. Really looking forward to this as they are digitally focussed and my book lacks this, plus really keen to get my teeth into some live work and impress the guys there!

Thats all for now me thinks....

Return to the Mac!

I am now back from my long week up north in Ulverston! Where for a week i was a labourer, painter and decorator, landscape gardener, carpet fitter and an afternoon Napper. The latter because I am now on different medication which makes me drowsy and light headed, but on the plus i feel much much better and have started to regain my health. just waiting on the blood test results now! heres a photo of my Doings! FIRE!






So back on to the hunt, this week I am meeting with Mark pearson of TDA To have a book crit and a chat, I will then get back in contact with the guys at Mason Zimbler and Different Kettle to arrange dates for the placements on offer, still waiting to hear from the SU about the designers position though! Argh!

Not a complete wash out!

Today i went to Bristol...
...And it rained! ALOT! I had planned for such events so had a trusty umbrella. I must say i do like the rain especially summer rain. But, it is just not convenient for walking from ad agency to ad agency. I had to protect my book with my life (well my dryness). All the way up the top of the hill to Clifton and along the way to my first stop of the day at Different Kettle.



There I met the team and Dave Sturdy (great name). We went through my book and i had some good feedback and some really good constructive critism. This critism focused on some of the copy (Amnesty), which I know is vulnerable to "attacks". Although the descriptive measurements on the cones seemed to be really liked by both agencies. I left Different kettle with an offer of a placement which i will definately follow up! So it was back into the rain! and to my next venture. I was goin to explore the Banksy exhibition but the queue was mahoosive and an hour and a half wait. In the rain! so i decided to give it a miss take a photo of the outside and pop down the road to snap a real life (although vandalised) original Banksy!






I then shopped! Allsaints sales are not ideal when you have no money. But alas all i bought was a new pair of diesel pants, this time the blue ones hahaha!

The afternoon arrived and i gave David Sloly a call who is the creative director of Mason Zimbler and Strange and Dawson.





I had a strong quick book crit followed by a tour of the agencies, which was then followed up by Tyrone and Dave who are creatives from the agency. Again this crit went well, again the cones going down nicely. I was surprised when the Aboards of Cluedo attracted alot of their attention especially when Dave at DK didnt seem to keen on the and suggested i removed them. Ideally the Aboards need to be vitalisedm but the guys at MZL agreed it was a really nice untapped medium. Digital elements seriously need to be incorporated. And being offered another placement at MZL i was told that i would get trained in various digital techniques, IDEAL!!! so i shall be on the phone and on the tinterweb arranging times and dates for these placements.

Plus i popped into the Apple store and as if by magic I had my lathargic iPhone replaced! just like that!

claim to fame!

Nice little surprise today, flicking through the local paper I noticed a little article on our achievements at the D&AD student awards.

Freshening up!

As my current iMac is becoming more and more unusable due to updates and the fact my cd drive does not work, and i cant connect my itunes to my iPhone because i do not have a new enough version of osx. I have now purchased a brand new iMac for £830 using my student discount before it runs out, not only that but i have taken advantage of the "free" iPod touch, which you have to claim the money back on. Little present. So by next week i should be all up to date with all the newest apple gear, although my iPhones battery is pants and i need to ring o2 to sort this.






Tomorrow I have two meetings with creative directors, an 11 oclock meeting with Gerry Doran from Target and a 2oclock meeting Roger from Montpellier creative. I Initially sent emails for jobs and placements but also mentioned book crits, so i am unsure wether i will just be getting critiques or if it will be a "job/placement interview" hopefully the latter as i need to pay off the apple purchases. I have also another meeting set up with Mark for TDA for Tuesday the 28th after my trip up north.

I am waiting on replies from two agencies in Bristol who have got back to me regarding placements, just waiting on the Creative Director to get in contact.

Same goes with an agency in Worcester.

So its time to freshen up. New mac, Need to find some new software. Freshen up for these meetings, relevant work in my book, and a shave, well maybe not a shave but clean clothes at least :) and lucky pants!

The Babies are back!!!

Doing a bit of research and I stumbled across the new evian advert, babies are back with a beat bopping rollerskating bang

Also...

The D&AD student annual is now online where you can view winning enteries and in book enteries. please take a close look at enteries from the university of gloucestershire in the Ambient, Direct mail, and outdoor catergories.

http://studentawards.dandad.org/2009/

This lad seems quite happy about it all

Lets get up to date, fresh new blog.

So I have officially finished university. And have exhibited at D&AD new blood and was fortunate to attend and win 2 pencils at the D&AD student awards! yes 2!





It is now time to start looking for a job, as money makes the world go round and ultimately helps to pay the bills. So i have started to email lots and lots of different local advertising and design agencies in the hope they will be able to offer me something. I have chosen to target local agenices in the Gloucestershire and Bristol area as although i understand the many peoples goal is a place at a London agency i believe that there is just as good quality and work oppurtunities in other areas of the uk. This is one of the reasons me and my creative partner have parted ways, she is a very keen art director, we both shared the same enthusiasm to succeed in the creative world and hopefully she will be well suited to the London lifestyle. Hopefully this works out well for both of us and now she can fullfill her ambition to be an art director in a team where as she was being forced into copywriting working with me. (sorry Em lol).

Another aspect im hoping to overcome is the fact i will now be working solo. Something I was keen on in my first year at university coming from a graphic design background. Although i did learn to accept and utilise other peoples ideas to be able to create some work that i am very proud of and also to acheive a first class honours.

So this is it into the big bad world. If anyone reads this and knows of any opportunities for me don't be afraid to contact me.

here is some of my work:

www.churchesmccarthy.carbonmade.com