Practice Safe Design...

Use a concept.

That comes from Steve Koloskus. And that's really what it's about here. Without the concept, the client will go away without a solution that really works. It's a good reminder for those in the industry and those, like the students here, hoping to be.

Last year, Steve Whittier, the man from Factory Labs who wrote last year's brief, told the students that executing the concept should be a given, that they wouldn't be here (at an event like this) if they couldn't do that. He reminded them though, that the concept is the thing to put the effort into. We're about to see what kind of concepts our teams tonight have come up.

10 minutes!

Peter stops by Steve Koloskus' team's table to give the 10 minute warning. Steve is Principal/CD at Extra Strength Marketing. Along with Steve, tonight's team mentors include Andrew Hoffman, Art Director at Motive, Roland Leppek, CD at Xuma, David Schiedt, CD at Buster York, Becky Clark, Senior Designer at Denver Art Museum, and ADCD's own Jay Roth, Senior Copywriter at Integer. Jamie Webb, Senior Cog. at CP+B is here as well. He wrote the brief for the client. We are grateful for all the effort they've put into tonight's success.

Concepts

Students working. We're about halfway there. At this point the teams have likely got 1 idea out of many that they've come up with and the task now is to figure out how to sell it to the client. Why does the idea work? How do we implement the idea? These are the questions at hand now.

Briefies Underway

Kendall Peterson from UAF represents the client tonight.

It's 6:30pm and this year's Student Brief is well underway. There are 10 teams of 3 or 4 students each, representing 7 schools: Metro State, Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design, Colorado State University, CCA Film School, U. of Northern Colorado, and Arapahoe Community College. Their elbows rest on table size sheets of butcher paper, sharing and recording ideas. Laptops are open and ready, but so far most of the work is in the conversations.

At the head of each table is the guru assigned to the team, a local senior copywriter, creative director, art director, etc. They look as involved in the process thus far as each of the students. Collaboration is the word of the evening.

But let me back up just a bit. The brief this year is presented by the Urban Arts Fund. They ar epart of DOCA, the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs. UAF was created, in part, to be advocates for developing and funding positive outlets for artistic expression of todays youth. Basically, the brief comes down to this:

How can we create and launch a newsworthy art program that enables true self-expression?

Stay tuned for more action on the Brief.

The Brief is SNOWED OUT!

The ADCD-sponsored Student Brief has been rescheduled for next Thursday, November 5th, due to horrendous weather.

Same time: 5:30 - 10pm

Same place: Auraria Campus, Tivoli room #640.

If you are a student currently registered and you can't make it next Thursday the 5th please contact Peter Regenold Bergman <pregenol@mscd.edu> for a refund.

In the mean time, registration has been extended to the end of day next Tuesday. We still have room for more students so please sign up.

The Brief Is On Fire!

It's heating up as the students are now putting their concepting phase into action. They are required to make it a visual presentation to pitch the client. There are groups doing impromtu photo shoots inside and out of the building, groups surfing frantically to find the image they need from stock, and others frantically sketching. This should be good.