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 Pingsweetie article in Photoshop Mag

Out now in 'Advanced Photoshop magazine' (Issue 65 Jan 10) is an interview with Alison Bates (Pingsweetie.com) as the 'Industry Insight' on advertising Art Direction. 

The piece contained an interview with a couple of art directors and a bio of (me) as a Senior Art Director,

This for those who are interested is what I said: 

 

Name:
Alison Bates
Job title:
Senior Art Director and Illustrator
Freelance and sub-contractor
Company:
Pingsweetie.com
(if freelance, please state)
Years as an art director:
19 years already! Blimey!

Clients:
I’ve worked on numerous clients over the years small and large, here’s a few:
Boe | Brighton & Hove | Channel 4 | Coca Cola | Dixons Stores | Fire Fighters Charity  Future Fibres | Halifax | Heals | IBM | Legal & General | Met Police | MOD | Pret A Manger | Powergen  | RBS | RNID | Shell | Sunsail | Unilever | UoP | Violent Veg | Virgin Atlantic

Website:
www.Pingsweetie.com

Why did you decide to pursue a career as an art director?
 How did you get the role? (Was it through work experience, university, working your way up through roles?)
What do you enjoy most about the job?
I fell into being an advertising art director. I was putting up my final year BA Graphics show at the London College of Communication (formerly LCP) which was full of kitsch jewellery, puns, mermaids, when a tutor came up to me and said ‘you’re interested in advertising aren’t you, Alison?’ I didn’t like to disagree. Some weeks  later I’d started as a junior art director at a small B2B agency in Southwark. We had some big clients and I ended up doing a few animated tv spots which I was very proud of at the time.
Four years later I  moved into the huge and very tight knit community of recruitment advertising. Big budgets, big brands, a dedicated copywriter and free drinks on a Friday. I worked for Riley, MSL which then merged into the great big monster, TMP Worldwide. The creative dept alone was 30+. It was an amazing, fast moving creative hothouse and although there was a lot of ‘oneupmanship’, I learnt a lot from my peers. The USP and the creative concept are king, the graphic design bit comes later. Rec advertising employs exactly the same creative skills you would need for traditional advertising, extolling the virtues of a fizzy drink is just replaced by extolling the virtues of a particular job. It even has it’s own awards ceremonies (from which I’ve picked up a variety of metalware).

Four years ago I moved out of London and have invented myself my ideal job. I do a bit of everything remotely for anyone or on site round Hampshire, and it’s the variety I Iove. Still very conceptually driven, the work I do now covers the role of art director, graphic designer, web designer and illustrator, and have recently done a whole raft of miniature room sets and figures for Violent Veg. So I’ll put 3D model maker as well. I’ll have a go at anything, the more arty the better, I love a challenge.

What advice would you offer to readers wanting to work as an art director?
Someone asked me that just the other day. If I had one short answer I would say try and get a job or work experience (unpaid if you can’t get paid) in London first. Or failing that a big industrial city like Manchester etc. Large cities have a thriving advertising industries and London seems to still have a certain caché with employers. It’ll stand you in good stead for further jobs. And don’t go freelance until you have at least 2 or 3 years experience, not only do you have to learn the tricks of the trade you have to learn about being a business person and it’s a very steep learning curve. I’ll let you know when I feel I’ve climbed it!



 

 

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