STUDENTS + PROS + JOBS = CHICAGO PORTFOLIO NIGHT
Published in Reel Chicago, May 2014
On Wednesday night, the Chicago Portfolio School and Razorfish joined forces to establish the Windy City as one of 24 locales around the world to host the 12th annual Portfolio Night, an evening of creative reviews held in select advertising agencies from Austin, Texas, to Tokyo, Japan.
Promising “advice, networking and recruitment,” Portfolio Night offers thousands of aspiring young creatives an opportunity to receive one-on-one career advice from hundreds of senior level industry veterans every spring.
It began at 5 pm, when fifty creative directors hunkered down in separate locations throughout Razorfish’s office on the 12th floor of the Merchandise Mart.
For the next five hours, during individual sessions that lasted roughly fifteen minutes apiece, they reviewed work and gave critiques to eighty-six aspiring young creatives.
Junior copywriters, art directors, recent graduates and advanced level students made pitches to the pros with iPads, enthusiasm and remarkable insight into the advertising industry.
“I used to think it was all about being clever, like just having fun, catchy lines,” said Molly Stapleton, a copywriting student at the Chicago Portfolio School (CPS).
“But the best campaigns are really meaningful, like when you see something and you’re like, ‘oh my god I totally agree with that.’”
As with many of the evening’s attendees, her presentation was sharpened with help from the industry veterans who populate the teaching staffs of programs dedicated to advertising.
Christine Barrett, director of learning at CPS, wields more than a decade producing and recruiting for the likes of Chiat\Day, Wieden & Kennedy and Leo Burnett.
“We tell the students to have at least three campaigns ready to show,” she says. “To be able to explain their concept clearly and talk about the choices they’ve made.”
The CPS program puts students through “countless reviews with their instructors” in the course of its year-long term. The practice helps them avoid a common mistake that Barrett has seen a number of young creatives make during portfolio reviews: “When the nerves get the best of you,” she says, “you start talking too much.”
Helping to calm the nerves but still keep things lively on Wednesday night were two beverage stations and a taco bar from Wicker Park restaurant group Big Star. A doodle contest from co-sponsor Shutterstock provided yet another outlet for any remaining unspent energy.
“We’re doing a cocktail napkin promotion,” explained Shutterstock account manager Chris Shermach. “Draw whatever you like on the cocktail napkin, take a photo of it, post it to Twitter or Instagram.”
The first Portfolio Night took place in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver in 2003. It was created by members of the international advertising organization “IHAVEANIDEA,” who decided to bring “present and future superstars” together for a “social event to unite the entire national industry.”
Since then, the event has grown to occasionally be called, “speed dating for creatives;” but Portfolio Night’s website asserts, “it’s really much more than that.”
The results of Chicago’s event support the claim.
“Last night generated three internship offers on the spot,” Barrett notes. “And countless interviews were set up.”