We love our reality television shows, but there’s a new tv show that will be right up the alley of all creative professionals.  If you’re a fan of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice or Celebrity Apprentice, then you will definitely like the new AMC TV series The Pitch even more.  Here you can watch the first episode, S01E01 of The Pitch for free (also viewable on Netflix through May 28th in HD). The Pitch gives us a real life look into the lives of creative professional and process behind landing the next huge marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies.

Another Reality Series?
Yeah, it’s another reality series, but we don’t have that many relating to the creative fields.  Sure there are cooking shows, bakery series like Cake Boss, and custom motorcycle documentaries like American Chopper; but it’s not often that we actually get a show relating to our field of marketing and advertising.  That’s what makes The Pitch so exciting!  In the first episode, we see two competing advertising agencies travel to Milford, CT to pitch their ideas to Subway on their next breakfast sandwich marketing campaign.  The two agencies literally are working head to head just to win the job.

What’s Cool
Celebrity Apprentice and The Apprentice are a little similar, because we get to see an entire marketing campaign from brainstorming sessions through the final branding and execution. With the The Pitch, these advertising pitches aren’t made up for the sake of a TV show.  This is the real thing – the big leagues in the marketing and advertising world.  We get to see the agencies’ branstorming sessions, the good ideas, the bad ideas, and even their creative processes. You get to see how they interact with one another.  We even see how some of the creatives’ ideas become things they are personally attached to, while other members of the team don’t always see the value in them.  You also see how hard these advertising professionals have to work, and travel.  It even gives us a glimpse into the private home life for some of them.  Let’s just say it’s not the type of job we’d all like to have.  Unless you like to work to live; working long hours, lots of travel, and

Advertising in a Show About Advertising
Not surprisingly, you have to remember that the point of all television shows and movies are created to also bring in advertising dollars. At one point in the Subway pitch episode you will see them browsing for stock images on the Getty Images website.  Getty is obviously of a traditional stock agency (non-microstock pricing) where iStockphoto is their microstock collection.  Not surprisingly enough, at the end credits, you’ll note that it says “promotional consideration by Getty Images and iStockphoto”.  Talk about a great advertising opportunity, because ever single advertising/marketing/graphic designing creative type (at least that I know) is going to be watching this show. Getty is smart to have added this paid product placement, but it would be nice to see if we could also see behind the curtain to when the ad agencies actually purchase from microstock agencies, as well.  We probably won’t, because that is what the promotional consideration Getty has paid for will mask.

Let us know what you think about The Pitch.  Leave a comment below, and please share this post!

We know how it is – especially when you freelance all by your lonesome, or work in a company with very few other designers.  You can’t always bounce your creative designs and ideas off of another person that easily.

If you’re a graphic designer, web or app developer, you probably have already heard about this sweet website called dribbble (with 3 B’s, yo).  Dribbble is amazing, but being restricted to spectating kind of stinks.  It’s nearly impossible to actually get an invite so that you can post your own work. I’ve been trying to find an invite to the big dribbb casually for a few years now, but they keep the gates tight on that place (and for good reason – they want to keep out the riff raff, like those pesky folks that like to post iphone photos of their cat).  Even without an invite, dribbble allows you to follow people, click like on their “shots”, and also to compile “buckets” (lightboxes or galleries) of your favorite works.  Here are some of mine, to get an idea.  Nonetheless, it’s an amazing place to view the work of other creative professionals, and to get inspiration from.  But, what if you want to actually participate more, by posting some of your work right now?

Here are 5 of our favorite websites similar to dribbble that you can post your design work to without an invite.

favwork
The first cool site, very similar to dribbble called favwork. I definitely have to post some more of my own personal graphic design portfolio, once I can get around to it. The only main difference to is that there are no gallery or lightbox creating options, and you can’t follow certain artists. You can like pieces, comment on them, and even rework them just like on dribbble.  The traffic is decent, as I’ve been following it regularly these last several days.  It’s not as hopping as dribbble, but I think it will get there once people keep spreading the word.  You would think that this would be the “dribbble for all of the misfits” but I think you will be really impressed with the selection of work on the website.  The site is called favwork for a reason – you’re only supposed to post your favorite and best pieces, for discussing.  Favwork is my favorite dribbble alternative

behance network
Ease of upload on Behance net isn’t as smooth as the others, but the social design community is crazy big, and covers a slew of creative fields.  If you’re a photographer, videographer, illustrator, painter, this website covers it all.  You can submit your work as much as you’d like, without an invite.  This is also another one of my favorite places to browse when I’m bored for inspiration, or just for fun.

deviantart
It’s another website similar to behance, but with a lot more anime and teeny boppers mixed in.  I call it the myspace of creative social networks.  Behance would probably be more like the linkedin of design social-networks.  Deviant is still a fun one, and really well trafficked.  If you haven’t at least browsed the site in a while, we’d highly recommend it.  They have everything from crazy retouching examples, to cool photography, awesome vector illustrations, pencil sketches, paintings, and even more traditional artwork.

forrst
I’ve applied but have to wait to see if I get in to forrst. You can do the same.  While I was waiting, I had a few friend send me an invite.  I am loving Forrst!  This is probably the best dribbble alternative I’ve found, to date.  The community is hopping, and you’ll get lots of honest feedback and critiques.  The site is very easy to use, and allows you to enable email notifications, if you care about that sort of thing. 

psdbucket
This place is similar to favwork, with very quick and easy signup and uploading.  The main difference is (this coming straight from the owners on twitter) “Psdbucket is more to promote your best work/sell good items and favwork is more to get feedback”.  So there you have it.

Honorable mention:

Coroflot
This website has been around for a while, and is more of a personal portfolio tool.  It also allows users to follow one another, leave comments, and like each others’ work.

Yes, there are many other places similar to these we’re sure, but these were the major ones that stood out.  Graphic design related forums can also be a good place for feeback, but the problem with most internet forums is they’re full of trolls (at least most of the recent ones we’ve visited).  We hope you enjoy these free online services for sharing your work and hopefully getting the type of quality feedback and criticism you yearn for. Have any thoughts about these places, or want to link up with us? Chime in below with a link to your profiles on each.

This is a powerful example of how rewording such a simple phrase gets an entirely different reaction. The blind homeless man has a cardboard sign with the words “I’m Blind – Please Help”. An onlooker stops and changes his sign to read “It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see it”, and then the spare changes starts coming in like money is falling from the sky.

Thinking outside the box (as cliche as that expression is) when it comes to slogans and advertising propaganda is definitely necessary. Sometimes being overly simple and direct with your message can cause your audience to overlook it. We all are being inundated with information on a daily basis; so much that we tend to zone most things out, sometimes without even realizing it. Think about this video on your next marketing project, whether you are designing a simple ad, or titling your next tweet or blog post; I know I will.

Let’s face it. Sometimes while freelancing, the jobs coming will just die down. Other times you’re so swamped, that you have to pick and choose; maybe even turn work away. There’s a simple solution to all of the madness!  Remember that old saying, “One hand washes the other”?

It’s always good to have a network of friends and colleagues to push work back and forth to/from. Remember – one hand washes the other. When you “pay work forward”, it all comes back around. Whoever is too swamped at the time, or doesn’t want to do a particular job, will push it over someone else that might want it. This type of arrangement is highly recommended with regards to any type of freelancing position.  Sometimes you might not want to deal with a certain type of a client.  Dealing with the public can be trying, and not all of us handle certain types of people as well as others.  This is another perfect scenario of why you might want to shoot the job over to your colleague; not to dump them with a jerk of a client, but maybe you know they really could use the work.  “Beggars can’t be choosers”.  Wow, two old school expressions in the same blog post *facepalm*.

Great platforms for building your social work network such are twitter, behance, google+, linkedin; anywhere you can interact and connect with like minded creatives.  It takes constant effort, though.  You’ll need to actually keep in touch with your “creative network” somehow, and make sure you communicate regularly.  You’ll want to remember members of your network, and hope they remember you as well.  Keep each other updated on how busy everyone is, and who is in need of the most work at that present moment.

Do you already have something like this?  Please share your story in the comments section below.

UPDATE 1/1/12: We have our winners!  First place Big Kahuna Prize goes to graphic designer Stephanie Malone @smalonedesign and our Comment Contest winner is photographer Ben Goode.  Congratulations, guys!  Thanks again to all entrants, and all partners that made this contest possible. Read the rest of this entry »