The Bardsley Blog: 2009

Reflection

I believe I have a very strong mind for inventive ideas. I try to think ‘outside the box’ while maintaining direction and meaning behind what I am trying to produce. I feel my main weakness is sometimes dwelling on an idea that I believe in which is not as effective as I think. However, this may be solved by experiencing and studying the market. Another strength I feel I have is being able to combine design, intuition and logic to create an effective advert for a particular need. I also feel I am very versatile and am comfortable working with most medias. Even though I feel one of my main strengths is thinking outside the box, sometimes I struggle to once I have direction and clear idea in my head.

Specialist Route

I would define ADVERTISING as a way of using images and media to get people to think in a certain way. Whether it be about a product or a question left in your head, which makes the advertisement memorable.

Without a doubt I would like to continue my Graphic Design degree exploring advertising. I have always been very interested in how advertising works and thought it is something I would be good at. I always try to acknowledge advertisements around town and how they are successful in what they are trying to achieve.

However, I am unsure at the moment how to go about it. I have already bought a company name (Look Advertising Ltd) and website and believe this has extreme marketability. Currently I am thinking that I would like to be a free-lance advertiser, but due to my lack of knowledge and experience I think it would be more beneficial for me to have at least a few years (ideally starting through placement) as part of an advertising firm; to better my understanding of the advertising world.

Plan of Action

To successfully ‘gain entry’ into the advertising world I feel that I would need to develop my digital media skills. Even though I feel my ideas are strong enough and would be effective, I sometimes struggle to communicate them through digital imagery. I want to be involved in all genres of advertising as I feel that limiting an advertising scheme to a certain media is limiting the success of the advertisement itself. This means I would have to develop such skills as product design, directing, packaging design etc- of which I am very interested in.

My plan is to do up to a year working as part of an advertising team during my placement year to gain a better understanding of how an advertising firm works, and hopefully to improve myself as an advertiser. After leaving university I would probably continue working for a firm un-till I feel confident enough to try to do it for myself, under my own company. This company would offer to design a bespoke advertising scheme for each company’s individual needs.