An overlooked aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic is the effect it’s having on the next generation of creative talent: graduating students at colleges and ad schools around the world who suddenly find themselves with little in the way of professional guidance, internships or job prospects.
To help maintain opportunities for graduating students this year, The One Club for Creativity announced its annual in-person Young Ones Student Portfolio Review program has been transformed into a free global online portfolio review program.
The virtual program will enable graduating students around the world to upload their portfolios at no charge and get feedback from some of the industry’s top creative professionals.
Among those who have agreed to serve as reviewers are 35 members of The One Club’s National and International Boards of Directors, including FCB global CCO Susan Credle (One Club chairperson), 72andSunny CCO Glenn Cole (vice-chair), McCann Global creative chairman Rob Reilly, Goodby Silverstein & Partners CCO/partner Margaret Johnson, Design Army co-founder/CCO Pum Lefebure, Burger King global CMO Fernando Machado, Apple VP, marketing integration Nick Law, Google director of user experience Chloe Gottlieb and VP Robert Wong, Dentsu head of digital creative/ECD Yasuharu Sasaki, and AlmapBBDO CCO/partner Luiz Sanches.
For info on the Portfolio Review, including submission of portfolios (deadline is May 1) and signing up to be a reviewer, click here.
“Graduating seniors have been dealt an unimaginable situation that no one has ever experienced before,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club. “After years of hard work, their classes and graduations have been canceled, they suddenly have no opportunity for one-on-one professional guidance and little prospect of a job or internship. The advertising and design community owes it to these young creatives to step up and help them.”
He added, “We should do everything possible to prevent the next generation of creative talent from becoming a lost generation”.
Each year, The One Club holds a day of in-person portfolio reviews as part of the Young Ones Student Awards and Festival, where creative directors and recruiters already in town for the other Creative Week festivities volunteer to offer advice to eager up-and-comers. The One Club’s education program has benefited thousands of students through its various initiatives for over 30 years.
With Creative Week this year being reimagined into a broader online initiative due to the pandemic, the organization has built a system to allow student portfolio reviews to continue in the new online format. Instead of being limited to students able to attend the in-person portfolio reviews of the past, this year’s online system opens up the review opportunity to students globally.
“Young Ones has always been one of the highlights of Creative Week, where we get to support and celebrate amazing work from students around the world,” said Swanepoel. “We are committed to continuing that role in any way we can. This new online portfolio review, for the first time featuring dozens of the world’s top creative leaders as reviewers, is one small way to help young creative talent globally when they need it most.”
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More