My career began with a little portfolio of ideas.
I needed to get it in front of someone who might give me a job.
After scoring a meeting with an art director, I was waiting in an office in Knightsbridge.
Parquet floors. Italian furniture.
My host – one Tony Palladino – sat behind a desk that had nothing on it except for a white pad and a single Pentel pen.
I produced my portfolio. He leafed through the pages.
He extracted one sheet.
Then threw everything else in the bin.
I was crushed.
Until he held up the reserved page. It features one single idea.
“Now this is good. But I’ll show you how to make it better.”
He took the headline, condensed it. And made the copy more succinct.
Palladino emphasised the power of reduction.
Finally, he said: “Come back with ten other pieces of work as good as that, then you’ll be ready for a job in this business.”
This episode taught me the value of three things.
1. Persistence – when your ideas get shot down, have more.
2. Feedback – the most useful is often the hardest to take.
3. Brevity – shorter is better.
Allegedly, Palladino had to leave London in a hurry after an incident involving a piece of creative work, a very sharp Stanley knife, and an account man’s neck.
Perhaps this underlines the importance of (2) again.
I never did get the job.
#creativity #ideas #brevity #persistence #businessofcreativity
if every business is a story, let me tell yours
2 tyg.bardzo lubie ten koncept. trzymam kciuki