AWARD school attracts people from all walks of life. This week, we chat to Former Hey Hey it’s Saturday cartoonist Andrew Fyfe who applied to AWARD School to upskill in the adland creative space.
TCC: What made you apply to AWARD school?
I’ve worked on the periphery of the advertising industry for years and wanted to get a taste of what was needed to work in a creative department.
I wanted to learn, push myself and see where it could take me.
TCC: Was there a particular tutorial or brief that has remained with you?
I enjoyed the challenge of creating my own strategy. It gave me free reign to define a strategy and creative on anything I wanted.
TCC: What do you know now about creative work that you didn’t know before?
As a cartoonist I do all the work in my head without a set process. This course has taught me techniques of defining an insight and staying true to it. One thing is to generate a good idea, another is to have one that is relevant to a proposition. It’s also taught me to be prepared to ditch your favourite idea, sleep on it and come up with something new. Listening to others is very important.
TCC: What are you working on right now?
At the moment I’m producing explainer videos, designing a graphic facilitation session to bring a business’s story to life, drawing cartoons for clients and adding to my advertising creative folio.
TCC: Do you think your background as a cartoonist helped or hindered your development during the course?
As a cartoonist my job is to distil an often complex situation in to a simple humorous idea. I think this skill has been helpful during the course as advertising involves finding a truth and working with it to convey a message in a creative way.
TCC: What do you most enjoy about your current job?
I enjoy the creative challenge of finding an insight within a topic and working with it to create a joke and if it gets a laugh that’s a real bonus.
TCC: Any advice for prospective students?
If you love ideas and generating them, this course is fantastic. You’ll learn from the best, be tutored by top agencies and be introduced to some amazing concepts, but as with all things in life you get out of it what you put in. Be prepared to work hard, embrace constructive criticism and you’ll get a lot out of this course.