By Alicia Cliffe

 

Introducing Tracey – The third member of our team

 

We’d all set massive goals that we wanted to achieve over half term. Whilst we were out of the studio there was a lot of pressure to come back with a new book full of work to show our classmates.

 

As well as that, a lot of students were hammering hours upon hours of work in preparation for D&AD.

 

But, I took a few days off. Four in fact.

 

I went home to visit my boyfriend, family and friends and to get some well-needed air that wasn’t completely polluted.

 

I’d hit a point where I needed to take some time out.

 

And honestly, I didn’t even feel guilty doing it.

 

I’ve said it before that at SCA it’s easy to be completely consumed by everything around you, where you can often lose track of the real world.

 

We’re all working really hard, we’re giving it our all and it’s easy for it to become the most important thing that’s going on in our tiny London lives.

 

But it really isn’t. And being consumed by it isn’t doing us any favors.
That’s how half term became the most valuable piece of learning I’ve done all year.

 

The few days away meant I learnt to take a step back. From SCA, from London and from our briefs.

 

I’d hit the classic, I’m no good at this and I’m a fraud mentality. I was worried about work and if I was ever going to ‘get it’ and how that was actually going to pan out over next term.

 

I knew that there were other students doing more work than me, people making progress towards briefs that I wasn’t and people with more new campaigns in their book than me.

 

But I figured out that simply smashing time wasn’t going to help me become a better creative.

 

My biggest hold back was worry and I realised that to get any better I needed to chill the hell out.

 

I was stressing way too much, putting too much pressure on briefs and the outcomes. Yet, what I should have been doing is taking the briefs in, letting them mull over in my mind whilst I made a cup of tea or went to the gym.

 

So when I came back to London I told Katy all about my new discovery.

 

And somehow we created Tracey.

 

She’s our newest member to our team, she’s my, ‘cool as a cucumber’ alter ego that has come out a lot since we’ve been back the last two weeks and she’s really helped me worry less.

 

I have no idea how, but it’s ridiculously easy to pretend you’re super chilled and therefore become it, than try to chill out.

 

Jokes aside, although she’s a top gal, the new lack of worry has helped me take a step back and I think our work has benefited dramatically from it.

 

I can put on the Tracey hat and look at our work from a different angle.  The focus has shifted more on what we want to say instead of worrying over how were going to say it.

 

So, my best piece of advice for anyone having a wobble is to get yourself a Tracey.

 

She’s cool, calm and collected and will improve your work over night.