Lessons from D&AD season – By @james_reyn
By James Reynolds
Lessons from D&AD season
Learning #1: CHOOSE YOUR BRIEFS WISELY.
I thought that I was quite meticulous when picking which briefs to work on. I narrowed sixteen down to seven straight away, considering only the ‘advertising’ focussed briefs. I then made the mistake of choosing the briefs which just sounded the most exciting to me. Mistake. I should have interrogated the briefs harder and pulled them apart more to see which I could answer the best.
Learning #2: DON’T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET.
I chose to focus on two/three briefs to start with, but then decided to focus all my attention on one brief. This was against the advice of Marc who stressed the importance of switching between briefs to help unlock ideas. I well and truly put all my eggs in one basket and this can send you slightly mad working 15 hours a day going round in circles in your own head.
Learning #3: KNOW WHEN TO LET GO.
I had committed everything to this brief. I was determined (ok, desperate) to crack it as I had invested so much time in it already. But sometimes you just have to know when to try something new.
What I have noticed is, almost everyone has ended up doing a different brief to what they expected to do. You need to have the flexibility to switch between different D&AD briefs and don’t limit your options.
