WEEK 1

(Day 2) The day I realised this is not a regular 9-5

29/09/2022

I learned how members of a creative direction team operate – everyone gets the same brief from the client, then goes away to develop their own ideas, finding references that would represent their vision well. Copywriters focus on language/script while creative directors find visual references and concepts. Everyone comes back to present their ideas one by one, grouping/merging them based on similarity in vision/theme to create different directions the project could take. This is then presented to the team leader who will critique, evaluate, further enhance and develop the ideas into something clearer or better-suited to the client.

Still with the pre-conception that these are regular work hours, I assisted in note taking, summarizing each direction and idea on a whiteboard, preparing to leave at 6pm sharp, though things just kept…going, with no sign of the discussion coming to a conclusion. That was when I realised that work isn’t done until the work is done.

I came into work at 1pm that day and left at 11pm – not because they finished at 11pm, but because my mother had called in to check when I would be coming home and so they insisted I could leave early.

The process of discussion itself was interesting. It was my first time observing creative ideas being developed in a professional setting, as well as being given the chance to present my own ideas and research with some references that I found for the presentation of other people in the team. The team leader was extremely casual (some might say too casual) though his criticisms on the ideas including mine were very insightful, giving me a pointer that every media reference must be chosen with a clear purpose in mind and identify exactly/specifically what I am trying to communicate with it.