Lauren Eddy and Aicha Wijland’s Creative LIAisons Diary: Day 1 & 2
CHE Proximity Melbourne copywriter Lauren Eddy (left) and art director Aicha Wijland (right) are delegates at the 2019 LIA Creative LIAisons program in Las Vegas, featuring some of the world’s most respected creative directors as speakers. Here Eddy and Wijland report exclusively for CB.
DAY 1
The first thing we got told at Creative LIAisons by Barbara Levy was to get rid of anything we thought we knew about advertising. Following this advice, Lauren and I decided to swap roles for this diary and share our experience through art and copy in a new way: worse. Please enjoy our account of Day 1 with an attempt at words by me and beautiful illustrations by Lauren. Thanks Barbara.
Two of the three talks today were focussed around sound and sonic branding (by Ralph van Dijk and Diedrick van Middelkorp). These are words we felt like we hear thrown around a lot, so it was interesting to get the lowdown. It never occurred to us that Audio Directing is a job that exists – although now it seems obvious. Going forward, we want to involve more thinking around this in our work – if Lauren doesn’t run away to become an Audio Director first.
We also witnessed the definition of creative chemistry between Diane Jackson and Oliver Fuselier, which was appropriate since their whole conversation was about “collaboration in pursuit of magic”. They stopped using the word “partnership” to replace it with a much more active, involved one: “collaboration”. If there was one thing I took away from today it was this attitude – I love the idea of creative people working together without barriers of perceived roles (Lauren – can you please insert joke here about who’s the better writer). Speaking of roles, this is a photorealistic rendition of Diane and Oliver on stage:
The rest of the day we were in a workshop making 6 second videos with Great Guns. We were given the afternoon to create a 6 second ad for CloseUp toothpaste in groups of 10 type A’s armed with just an iPad and a box full of random props. I don’t know what happened to Lauren in those 4 hours we were split up but she reappeared with what I can only describe as Soft Core Clown-on-Panda BDSM…. but with toothpaste?? See below.
Anyway, see you tomorrow. We’re having a great time and learning a lot. Xx
DAY 2
Dear Diary,
We’re exhausted. Day 2 was a heckers back-to-back onslaught of information & we’re terrified it will all fall out of our brains since it’s fired at us so quickly. Today’s episode is brought to you by the number 8 – the hour that we will be in bed by tonight.
In the morning Pum Lefebure’s presentation was filled with fearless colour, attitude, and meticulous attention to detail. There was an audible clatter when every jaw in the room fell to the floor. Our inadequate summary consists of a few memorable quotes; we particularly liked her phrase “visually vigilant”, which means always being aware of the things you see around you. She said every creative, not just designers and art directors, should be fluent in visual language. Lauren’s putting that to good use below, inspired by the work Pum did for Hong Kong Ballet:
We were relentlessly hit with wise words throughout the day, from the gravitas of Piyush Pandey to the fast-paced world of the Branded Entertainment panel. Both talked in contrasting (but complimentary) ways about how to communicate with empathy with your client and other creatives.
Interestingly this topic came up again with Emad Tahtouh when he was discussing what happens when we combine emotion and tech. It sounds like storytelling will always be a part of what we do in the industry.
We then got an engaging crash course on presenting from Matt McDonald; from not having Coke at a Pepsi preso to the nuances of pitch theatre, “don’t try to solve the problem in the room” is probably the best advice of the day. It was a massive relief to see something we get could put to use immediately when we get back to work – in amongst all the case studies of Beautifully Crafted Multi-Million Dollar Ads with clients who would catch you in a trust fall…
Throughout the day, everyone kept talking about always learning, always being awake, and responsible for your self investment. That is, being proactive in furthering your skills. It was inspiring to hear this, especially since so many things went over our heads sometimes. We have a lot of self investment to do.