Blah blah blah here's your intro
Blah blah blah here's your intro
“Kev, we need your help. Can you come and cover on the Advertising course for a couple of weeks?”
This was the call I received from my old lecturer while freelancing in 2016. Eight years later I was leaving as a Senior Lecturer, Course Leader and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. So what did this unexpected career turn teach me about being a creative, and how does it benefit me back in industry?
INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE
Keeping the course relevant and up-to-date was essential, as was ensuring that what we delivered was correctly preparing the creatives of tomorrow. A big part of my role was revising and maintaining the curriculum, preparing and delivering learning material and writing briefs designed to introduce students to the key areas of creative practice. This meant I had to be across every aspect of the industry.
LEADERSHIP
Running a course had all the responsibilities of running both a studio and a school. This included day-to-day organisation, planning workflows and timetables as well as running a team of teaching staff.
Another responsibility was to promote a creative career path to schools and colleges. To help in this I wrote and designed the newspaper above, which distilled all the key info about the course. It was so successful the concept was later adopted by all the design courses.
Mentoring and pastoral care was also a huge part of the job, with a focus on professional practice and supporting students in a studio environment that helps them develop their own individual process and body of work. Working closely with Gen-Z has also kept me up-to-date on their influences and cultural touchstones – learning goes both ways.
COMMUNICATION
Teaching forces you to not just know your subject, but to communicate the knowledge in a way that a diverse audience of learners can understand. This could be traditional lectures, tutorials, or workshops.
The course was a hands-on, and I would guide students through solving a range of live industry and competition briefs to get them industry ready.
My experience of working at independent agencies was a huge benefit – You can't really have an off day creatively when you need to demonstrate those skills to a class.
In 2023 I was asked to contribute this lecture to Leo Reader, the neurodivegent friendly learning platform that that brings together some of the best lecture content from the UK’s leading advertising education professionals
IMPACT
Over the years the course has started the careers of many young creatives who have gone on to be copywriters and art directors at some of the best agencies in the country –something Im incredibly proud of. Below are some examples of our award-wining work produced during my tenure.
Teaching has given me an opportunity to learn twice. I look forward to bringing these skills back to industry practice while continuing to contribute to supporting young creatives and designers.