I’ve just been helping out with a D&AD / IPA talk about ‘sharpening your creative skills’ for wannabe Creative Directors. Not sure how much help I was, but hey ho, I told a few stories and gave my opinion on some stuff.
(The image above is from the top floor of the IPA, I didn’t look inside their copy of Penthouse, but it’s much more advanced than the brown paper bags they used to use when I was a paperboy!)
Anyway for some reason the course got me thinking about the courses that I’d like to do. Unfortunately I don’t think that any of them exist… (if you know different let me know…)
So here’s my five:
- Doodling for success – regardless of how good your drawing skills everyone can doodle, learn how to harness your inner doodler to illustrate any idea that might be lurking in your brain so that people immediately get your point.
- Making little films – how to use bog standard video editing software to make movies that are interesting and don’t look rubbish.
- Making music that sounds like other music – in this course we deconstruct and reconstruct classic genres of music and show you what makes rock rocky, dance music dancey, and so on…
- Interior design for the timid – get over your fear of DIY and painting stuff so that you’re comfortable using your home as a creative canvas.
- Hypnosis for selling – forget about tricky pitches, learn to hypnotise clients into buying the things you really want to do.
I think they’re all courses that are teachable and I’d definitely pay good money for any of them.
I’m starting a real ‘Drawing Skills’ class on Saturday in the hope that I can end up with some degree of (1).
What would you like to learn?
1. how to get my bosses job.
2. how to cook great meals in under 5 minutes with only two saucepans.
3. how to start up an online casino (because no one ever lost money underestimating peoples stupidity).
4. how to make bratz and barbie unattractive to my daughter; and
5. how to know how much a person really knows about a subject in 3 easy questions.
easy.
Hey – have you heard of
http://www.schoolofeverything.com
The courses you want sound like the sort of stuff they are trying to encourage.
(I’ll come clean – I’m on their advisory board)
they’re still building the first version so they’re here too for now:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2314177298
Also, they are looking for visual design and UI design help if you know any keen young things looking to do a nice stretching portfolio piece and help out a good idea…
Huh, this all seems like exactly what a playful, interdisciplinary design education looks like, which I note because it’s exactly what I happen to be taking at the University of Oregon.
Have I missed the boat on why people bother to study advertising, or does that boat not exist?
Course I would love to do:
“How to Make More Money Than You Need”
Huh, this all seems like exactly what a playful, interdisciplinary design education looks like, which I note because it's exactly what I happen to be taking at the University of Oregon.
Have I missed the boat on why people bother to study advertising, or does that boat not exist?