Presenting the Concepts, Picking a Winner

Photos, top to bottom:

1. The Winning Team:

Concept: Burn the Wall

Mentor

David Schiedt : Creative Director, Buster York Creative

Students

Loni Huston : Metro State College of Denver, Senior

Mia Huang : Colorado State University, Senior

Kyle Olsen : Colorado State University, Senior

2. Part of the Burn the Wall concept included tagging pizza boxes so the art travels

3. The three presenting teams were very organized with their rationale.

Honorable Mention

Concept: Rail Car

Mentor:

Jay Roth : Senior Writer, Integer Group AND ADCD President!

Students:

Brooke Schott : Metro State College of Denver, Senior

Adrian Newman : Metro State College of Denver, Senior

Kate Dzintars : University of Denver, Senior

Lynette Losasso : Arapahoe Community College, Sophmore

4. They were also excited about their concepts.

Honorable Mention

Concept: The Scrawl

Mentor:

Steve Koloskus: Principal, Extra Strength Marketing

Students:

Lauren Shviraga : Metro State College of Denver, Senior

Katie Matteo : Colorado State University, Senior AND ADCD Student Advocate!

Daniel Ahrens : Metro State College of Denver, Junior

Kendall and Peter discuss the problem and the many solutions proposed

5. Kendall and Jamie talk to the teams about their concepts and pick three of the ten to present.

At about 9pm, Kendall Peterson from UAF and Jamie Webb, the brief writer, circulated room, talking to the teams about their concepts. It was impressive to watch their involvement, their sincerity at treating this like a real opportunity for these students. That's part of what makes The Brief so great: it is a real opportunity. The work will get used by the client.

They chose 3 teams to present their ideas, and in the end, one team, one concept to follow through with. Remember the basic problem at hand:

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

The idea centered around getting street artists to express themselves in ways that are both satisfying and profitable for them and whose format or venue is acceptable and appealing to the city and community (read: legal and non-vandalising). The concepts tonight ranged from movable train car installations to pizza boxes in actual use, and included ways for the artists to exhibit and auction or otherwise sell their work.

In the end, the team with the pizza box concept won the project. That's just the kernel of the idea, really. The concept, titled Burn the Wall after the colloquial language of showing up another artist, included auctions, subversive formats, and a "rebellious" aesthetic, and is easily executable on a variety of budgets and scalable to fit the needs and growth of the client's program. (I'd personally love to see some of the Cherry Creek style boutiques and chains sign-up to have their bags tagged beautifully; Ann Taylor, Betsey Johnson, etc, with traveling art that reaches across age, style and economic gaps would be interesting.)

Congratulations to the winning team and the client. And thanks to all who participated in this year's Student Brief. Another great ADCD event.

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.

Animal Crackers

Nice re-imagination of a lost-its-shine-after-your-three product. The idea combines two flavors in separate containers. Once you fold open the box you are greeted with a pop-up animal. Simple clean and fun with a wonderful surprise. Would like to see the work of student Meg Eaton come to life (and would be curious what would happen to the cost of the product) if only a client believed in the fun that a consumer would spend for.

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.

Ad-o-matic

The Ad-O-Matic from James Kiersted on Vimeo.

Feeling like a communist? The truth is, when truth be told, truth, maybe, hurts. Yep, the students out of the Miami Ad School already know the demons in marketplace, here's to being able to avoid them.

Art for Ransom

Brought to you by the amazing Peter Bergman, ADCD, Steve Whittier of Factory, Stella Yu of Arts Street and all the students who participated in The Brief last year.

Who says we can't do good things for each other? In times of trouble, we all need to kick in and help each other out. Let's stand up and get involved!
Check out artforransom.org for details on the upcoming show. More to come...

NEXT Program

A nice addition from our friends over at the NDAC. This program helps with blah portfolios.

HP Open Brief

Very fun idea for D&AD and HP 's Open brief by students Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth. This is worth the watch.

The Brief :: Concept Winners

The awards were broken into 2 parts - Best Concept and Best Design. They did not necessarily have to relate to each other.

Congrats to Team 1 for their remarkable concept (you'll have to wait to see it rolled out):

Creative Director: Steve Koloskus, Extra Strength Marketing

Karen Andrews: Metro State College of Denver

C. Sidney Clewe: Colorado State University

Jeffery Steffonich: Metro State College of Denver

Garrett Buckert: University of Wyoming

All winning students receive $140 in scholarship funds and an award.

The Brief :: Design Winners

I want to personally thank all the students, teachers, volunteers and CDs and ADs that showed up to make this one of the more exciting events I've attended in a long time.

Congratulations are in order to Team 19 for the design aspect of the competition.

The team consisted of:

Creative Director: Nicky Alden, Idaho Stu

Rebecca Wood: Metro State College of Denver

Jenn Workman: Colorado State University

Matt Starr: Metro State College of Denver

Each student wins $140 in scholarship funds and an award.

Nice.

Student Work

Great work, and oh, by the way, student. Miami Ad School Europe. And the Egotist's article, School of Fools, not withstanding, there are some great sudent work around town too. If you are said student, with great work, share it here and get a little publicity to go with it.