Freelance work

During last 2 months I've been working on a freelance project,
with one of my classmate Bee, a copywriter.
Together we've helped our client, a real estate agent,
to brand her in a way that's different than any other traditional agents. (Read on...)

Give it all

16 weeks flew pass just like that.
Woosh. That was it.
All the hard work was amplified in the final few days.
36hrs of non-sleeping-ultimate-charge towards the finishing line was expected.
It was stressful and tiring but I loved it. (Read on...)

3-months-flashbacks

A seriously overdue update of what happened.
Super roller-coaster ride it has been.
To keep it simple. This is how it went.
AWARD School kicked off.
Awesome lectures, wonderful lecturers.
Especially Paul Nagy, Duster, Jamie Hitchcock, & Toby Talbot.
Along the way some very tough & done-to-death briefs.
Somewhere in between those briefs,
I've got some good and some terribly shit ideas...(Read on...)

My first ever animation clip

I did this clip before AWARD School started 

and sent it to a few CDs on the course.

It was a really fun process 

and learnt a lot while I taught myself how to do it.

I'll definitely do more in the future!

Hope you enjoy it!

New post on Michael's blog

Just a quick update for my ad friends.

I've written a new blog post on Infinideas.

Advertising-unrelated but hope you still check it out!

Award School kickoff

The prestigious and world-famous Award School
started on Wednesday night at The Intercontinental in Wellington.

For its 26yrs history of hosting the idea-based course in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore & Thailand,
this is the first time ever it’s being host in NZ.

To be considered as great a course as the Miami Adschool,
I felt proud, nervous, and excited to be part of it.

Knowing that all of Australasia will be looking at the result of this class,
first lecturer (and course leader) Paul Nagy said he’d make sure to be super-tough on our work
and pushing us to be the best we could so that we won’t be the bad exception to NZ’s great creative reputation.
What a nice challenge to be given on our first day!

(Dan Moth, Paul Nagy, Duster & Anton Hart)

We had 3 speakers on our first lecture. After Paul, we had Clemenger’s writer Dan Moth who’s an ex-Award grad.
Both Dan and Paul gave us great advices on how to do well in the course,
while our final speaker, Duster the ECD of Clems,
was funny as hell when he inspired us with his own wits and references from Paul Arden.

The roughly-1-and-a-half-hour lecture flew past and I was so psyched up that I felt I wanted more!
You know, it’s just such rare chance you’d get to listen to three brilliant creatives on one single night!

After the lecture was the opening night’s welcome drinks at the Motel Bar.
It was a nice and cozy bar to chat with my fellow classmates
and it was very interesting to know that everyone is from different background.

(My classmate Antonia & me)

There are three actresses, two interactive geeks I had so much fun chatting with (consider I’m a bit of a geek as well), some are from marketing / media background plus some are currently doing a placement with Clems.

(tutor Duncan Munro, my classmates Nicola & Tom, tutor Claire Stapleton of Y&R)

Haven’t had a chance to chat with all,
but I was glad that I also get to meet my tutors from Y&R – Anton Hart & Duncan Munro.
Before the night ended I chatted up Dan & Duster,
and enjoyed their openness and down-to-earth attitude.

So this is the beginning of something that’s gonna be very interesting and without a doubt, competitive.
Most went home reasonable early and eagerly await the tutorials on the next day when we’ll be given our first brief.

A new chapter.

Recently I've relaunched my old personal blog
after leaving it untouched for quite a good while.
Ever since Anna & I have started IAMCREATIVE2,
I've always felt the need for another space
to express my other interests and opinions other than just ads.

The re-design of that site has been long coming but I've done it now
because I thought a big news would be quite fitting for a re-opening:
-my career has just received a new and exciting opportunity.
I've been accepted into the first ever AWARD adschool in New Zealand!

After finishing a placement with Blackwood, this course is a great chance for me
to up-skill during a very tough economic environment.
And need not to say, there's no better chance than to learn directly from some of the very best.
The likes of Paul Nagy, Tim Hall, Chrissie Lahood, etc.
I'm already shivering in excitement!

This also marked a huge change in my creative partnership with Anna.
We've been enjoying a wonderful partnership for the last 9 months,
and more than that, we've forged a great friendship.
We've done some great work together,
not just on the drawing pad, but on the football field as well!
And we even have a song together.


But for the next 3 and a half months, we'll have to be fighting on different fronts.
Anna will be looking for some graphic design gigs while pondering what's her next step.
While I'll be the sponge and try to absorb as much learnings as possible.
Hopefully with lots of hard work and many great ideas I'll come out on top at school.

But IAMCREATIVE2 will keep on going.
We'll be trying to find freelance gigs and work on them as remote teammates.
The blog will be kept updated with what's going on around us.
And surely, industry events will still be reported on, from our junior's perspective.
So keep your eyes out for our next post!