As I had already completed one of their student briefs (M&S Plan A brief) I was intrigued to find out what Zoe's and YCN's interpretation of it was. I was relieved to discover they wanted us to approach it in a similar way that I already had, so it was good to see that had I entered the competition, I would have been on the right tracks. Every year YCN holds an award ceremony for those who have successfully completed the briefs, and each year they produce an annual to commemorate and promote these new young graphic designers, illustrators and moving image designers. I have received this annual every year now since being at university, and although it is a really interesting insight into what talent is emerging and how people have approached the briefs, I have never really been that impressed with the book itself. Zoe agreed, explaining how they felt the last annual was too detached from the students. It's always seemed quite cluttered, and considering it showcases designers, it didn't seem well-designed enough to do the work justice. However, their latest copy (YCN annual 2010-2011) was designed in-house so that they were able to promote the young creatives more personally. They approached many writers, big-name designers (for example Johnny Hardstaff and Jeremy Leslie) to help to create the annual, and commissioned young illustrators to help create a more interesting and exciting layout. I have to be honest, this was a far better approach to the annual, which has a better aesthetic now and is definitely more of an interesting read, with passages and advice from various well-known creative people.
It was clear that Zoe loved what she and the agency did for young people. She was excited about every brief they were presenting, which was really refreshing to see as I am assuming she has had to explain them numerous times now to numerous different people and institutes.
The lecture was then handed over to Lee and Joe, from Propaganda design agency based in Leeds. I was interested to see what they were presenting as I am often in Leeds, so it was good to see a more local agency talk about what they do. Propaganda came to discuss their representation of the energy drink brand Boost - which is one of the products setting a brief for students via YCN. Lee and Joe made it clear that Boost was a challenger brand; there to compete with the bigger name drinks companies such as Lucozade and Red Bull. I found this interesting; it seemed that they were trying to promote Boost to us, and try to get us to buy their product, rather than promote the brief or their other projects which became a little frustrating at times. On the plus side though, we did get some free drinks which made it more worthwhile!
Propaganda showed us a reel of the work that they did, which was interesting. They represent big name brands such as GHD, Republic and Habitat. Their style of work wasn't really to my personal taste if I am completely honest.Their work was very commercial and I found it to be a little generic. I felt that their reel was over-worked and really didn't do their projects justice, which left me feeling a bit put-off by them. But I suppose that's just down to personal taste, and once put out into the industry the campaigns seemed to be successful. I must admit however, I did feel that they didn't speak to us very well, at times they came across as quite patronising and the had clearly stuck to a script when speaking making the whole lecture seem really unnatural and over-rehearsed which was a shame! In hindsight though, if it was me stood there, I would probably act the same - we are a pretty scary bunch to talk to!
It was definitely interesting however, to see people from the industry and to see the background behind a large-scale campaign. I don't think I want to go into advertising when I leave uni, but it was good to get more of an insight into this area.
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