This week was fantastic! We had our first proper session with Catherine on the Managing Creativity module, which was basically a loooooong discussion on the make-up of a creative individual. Nature vs. Nurture is a topic which I have been considering for a very long time. I have always considered myself a creative person, I was lucky and grew up in an environment which encouraged my creative thoughts and practices; both of my parents worked as designers, and some of my earliest memories are of going to museums and galleries in London.
However, my elder brother, Freddie, pictured above in one of my younger creative moments, always considered himself a more scientific, practical person, studying Environmental Science as opposed to Fine Art like me. Had you asked him 2 years ago if he was a creative person, he would’ve said no. However, recently, he began a course to train as a plumber. Not the most creative profession, some might say. However, I have watched the way that he works, sketching, thinking in new ways, and coming up with ways to make things work. In his own way, he has become one of the most creative people I know. I think that sometimes, on this MA in the ‘Creative Economy’, we slip into dangerous territory as we try to define traits such as creativity, or what exactly constitutes a creative industry. One conclusion I have come to, is that working within a particular industry or environment does not make you a ‘creative person’, but the way in which you apply your knowledge, your experience, and your practical skills, does.
In the afternoon session, we had our first Apprentice challenge, with GRM.tv (Grass Roots Music TV). We had a couple of hours to prepare a pitch to the GRM.tv team, suggesting ways for them to generate greater awareness of their service amongst their target audience (18-25), generate revenue and how to launch the service to a UK and potentially global audience. This was as much an exercise in dealing with a client as coming up with a marketing strategy. This was a real test of our ability to work efficiently as a team within a very short amount of time. We pulled together a presentation with some cool ideas on how to generate interest through the use of a stages at small UK festivals (like my picture from End of the Road Festival below – totally my cup of tea!) and we won the can of sprite for a great presentation. It was a great (and exhausting) afternoon, full of great ideas from all teams and alot of great feedback from the dragons.
After all the excitement of Friday, it was time to get back to business with Temptation! In a freaky turn of events, we had already begun the planning of a 60-second advert for the business, in an attempt to bring back some fun and spontaneity to our group meetings. We had a great time filming on Monday, you can see the original storyboard of the advert in my previous post. Anything which involves Marmite and beer is good with us! It was nice playing around with Megs, Jonny and Bing again, and I’m really pleased that we developed such strong personas early in the business which are still interesting and relevant now. I then spent the week hunting down the perfect soundtrack, working with Jam on the text for the ad, and editing the images to make the advert as good as possible. So take a look here! Enjoy…
