“Are You In?”
Last week, for the first time in my life I felt like I was having a real, positive impact to develop my career goals. I was chosen as one of the nine Festival Guides at D&AD’s New Blood in Old Spitalfields Market. It was a brilliant week that was filled with excitement, dread, fun, stress, enjoyment, inspiration, happiness and then hope.
Here’s a breakdown of what I did during the week:
- Monday (30th June) – On Monday morning, I attended the training session with my fellow Festival Guides at the D&AD Studio. The training included a fun icebreaker, a presentation on breaking into the creative industries and some tips on social media usage during the event. I found it very useful and informative. After that at noon, we were all sent out to do a social media challenge and scout the area before having to meet up for lunch. Having done my social media challenge, I made my way towards Old Spitalfields Market to see the route that I would be taking to escort people to and from the market to the studio during the week, as part of my role. However, I just found it very difficult with no drop curbs on many of the pavements, having to walk on the roads throughout my trial journey and lots of cobble stones, which caused a lot of neck/back pain— in short, it’s not accessible and not very wheelchair friendly given the short time I would have to get back and forth from venues. This made me sad and I felt like I was already letting D&AD and my fellow Guides down by not fulfilling my Festival Guide duties. So after we met up for lunch and had some tasty food at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, I had a quick chat with the New Blood Programme Co-ordinator at D&AD and told him the issues I was having, as well as my concerns. He then kindly suggested that I could stay onsite at the Festival in Old Spitalfields Market during the week instead, and that I could help D&AD’s New Creative Executive with all the social media activities and other stuff for the week’s events. This made me still feel a bit sad, but I thought to try my best and see what happens. I was impressed by how kind and flexible he was though, and it turned out to be a great idea as I had a lot of fun helping the New Creative Executive. It really helps when whoever you are working with is willing to adapt, and makes me want to work harder.
- Tuesday (1st July) – Tuesday night was the Private View for New Blood and I didn’t really know what to expect since I have not done anything like this before. Though, I was taken aback by the sheer amount of energy in the room and the truly inspirational work by some new, raw creative talent.
- Wednesday (2nd July) – This was the first day that New Blood Festival and Exhibition was open to the public. When I arrived, I met the New Creative Executive at the D&AD stand and to begin with she gave a big social media challenge to work on. Once I had finished most of the challenge as the internet went down, I decided to go around the Festival taking photos, use social media to drum up people to come to New Blood, talking to students and tutors, and generally trying to be helpful wherever I could.
- Thursday (3rd July) – This was the last day of the Festival and Exhibition, as well as the New Blood Awards Ceremony later that night. Upon arrival, I continued the previous day’s social media challenge and interactions around the Festival until about 17:00 when I went to rest for a bit and get ready for the Awards Ceremony. I got back around 18:00 and I then went over to the local with the New Creative Executive and some students to just have a chat before the Awards Ceremony at the Boiler House, The Old Truman Brewery. At around 19:00, we all left to head to the venue. However, as I got stuck since there was no drop curb, I ended up walking on the road and lost the crowd so I didn’t know which way to go. Thankfully, the New Creative Executive came to find me and kindly helped me get to the venue, though unfortunately we had to walk around the back and through the parking lot because the entrances had steps. Through the back entrance again it is for me. Story of my life. When I finally made it inside, I was very amazed by the décor and the playful atmosphere it had. Around 20:00, the actual ceremony began and some fantastic work won. Congrats to all the winners and nominees! I still feel really inspired after seeing your work and meeting some of you. It was really good to see all the passion and energy the new talent brought to the event, which I feel (no offense to anyone) was missing and is lost in the Professional Awards / environment by most agencies. All in all, it was a great night!
And so it ends. My time as a Festival Guide this year is over.
I thoroughly had an amazing time and I cannot thank the entire D&AD team enough for giving me this incredible opportunity, which I will never forget. It was also such an honour and pleasure to have met all my fellow Festival Guides, as well as to work with them. Thank you all for helping to make this an awesome event. I hope you enjoyed this wonderful experience as much as I did. I feel like I have made some great new friends, so please do stay in touch!
Words cannot express enough how proud I am to have a part of New Blood 2014, and how much I utterly love D&AD and all the extraordinary, hardworking people that work there. This whole experience makes me feel very hopeful that my career goals can develop and bloom; and I aim to continually help D&AD to make this our best year yet.
Cheers and see you next year!
ONWARDS and UPWARDS.
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Listening to “Are You In?” by Incubus