Shea is a copywriter/creative director at Cactus in Denver. Since his last post on MC (back on 02.04.19), he’s been busy—including making the jump to CD at Cactus. Lots of new work up on his site for Colorado Lottery (ton of fun spots), Odell Brewing, 7-Eleven, and Camp Colorado. Definitely time for an update.
Portfolio: sheatullos.com
Always so great to see the new VCU Brandcenter graduate portfolios. This year, there are a lot of ’em (over 100). From Ashley Sommardahl, Associate Director at VCU Brandcenter:
“We are thrilled to debut the Brandcenter Class of 2021. They are a talented group of just over 100 students with concentrations in Copywriting, Art Direction, Strategy, Experience Design, and Account/Brand Management.
If you haven’t had a chance to review their work yet, we hope you’ll take some time to browse our microsite. You can get to know them by their concentration or skills, view their portfolios, and schedule time to meet with any soon-to-be graduates who might be a good fit for your agency/company.
To learn more about Brandcenter graduates, check out the demographic information on the Class of 2021 and our Alumni Salary Survey (which we release every two years).”
This is so cool. Sarah Latz, Director of Education for Chicago Portfolio School, reached out to MC to help spread the word about their new scholarship for Black creatives. From CPS:
“Everyone knows that the advertising industry is severely lacking in diversity. Only 2% of creative departments identity as Black. We think the path to a more inclusive advertising and design industry starts with more talented Black creatives considering portfolio school as an option.
That’s we created The Pipeline Fund, a full-tuition scholarship to help more talented Black creatives to attend Chicago Portfolio School.
We’re matching every donation made to the Pipeline Fund, dollar for dollar. To donate to The Pipeline Fund and invest in a more inclusive advertising industry, visit the scholarship GoFundMePage.
Or to apply to be a Pipeline Scholar, reach out to Sarah Latz at sarah@chicagoportfolio.com.”
Ready for some fresh student portfoios? The latest Denver Ad School grads are ready for you. From DAD: “These were the last creatives standing out of our second-ever finishing quarter, Winter 2021. They rose to the challenge and displayed the kind of resiliency that will make them all contributors on day-one in whatever agency is lucky enough to land them.” Can’t wait to see where they go!
Check ’em out here: denveradschool.com/portfolios
Justin is a copywriter at Forsman & Bodenfors NYC. Since his last post on MC (back on 11.15.17), he’s been busy. Awesome work on his site for Friendly’s, Saucony, Seagram’s 7, and Oatly, which MC saw all over San Francisco for a time. Very cool. He’s also got a bunch of humor writing, cartoons, and other good stuff up there. Time for an update!
Portfolio: cannonjustin.com
Patrick is a copywriter/senior creative at FCB Chicago, working remotely from NYC. All kinds of cool projects up on his site for brands like NBA 2k, Blue Shield, Glad, plus a Michelob Ultra as-big-as-it-gets Super Bowl spot featuring Jimmy Fallon and everyone else. Also, don’t miss his McSweeney’s article from June 2020, “IF YOU DON’T DONATE $2 TO MY CAMPAIGN IN THE NEXT 16 MINUTES, I’LL BE FORCED TO DIVE HEAD FIRST IN FRONT OF THIS RICKSHAW.” So good.
Portfolio: mrpatrickfrench.com
David is a new copywriter after graduating from Chicago Portfolio School last June, and is currently freelancing at Digitas Chicago. His student book features a campaign for HomeAdvisor called “Tool Break Up” and it’s exactly what the world needs now (including MC). Dig it. Can’t wait to see where David lands!
Portfolio: thedavereiss.com
Sarah Latz, Director of Education at Chicago Portfolio School, checks in with 13 new copywriter, art director and designer grads: RJ Dralle (copywriter), Ian Souter (copywriter), Patrick Leahy (copywriter), Abbey Blankensop (art director), Bree Bregman (art director), Cooper Brannigan (art director), Emily Panico (art director), Erin Nedelman (art director), Grace Ren (art director), Taylor Glicksberg (art director) Tiffany Mei (art director), Priscilla Cha (designer), and Rachel Fried (designer). Link to their portfolios below. Congrats to all!
Winter 2021 CPS Grad Portfolios: chicagoportfolio.com/debut
After 14 months, Denver Ad School’s “debut pioneers” portfolios are here! On Thursday, January 28, they’re hosting a virtual hangout where you can hear each graduate walk you through their favorite campaign and ask ’em questions. How cool is that? Cool. Links to portfolios and RSVP for the event are below.
Check out their portfolios here:
Hayley Lyons (copywriter): hayleyjlyons.com
Emily Devery (copywriter): emilydevery.com
Alisha Benda (copywriter): alishabenda.com
Gaby Strnad (art director): gabystrnad.com
Riley Draper (art director): rileydraper.com
Graciela Robertson (art director): graciela-png.com
Trisha Knope (art director): triciaknope.com
Sabrina Saccente (art director): sabrinasaccente.com
RSVP for January 18th here.
Denver Ad School site here.
Adia is a new copywriter and a Savannah College of Art & Design grad. All kinds of fun spec projects on her site for brands like Yankee Candle (above), Zoom, Barilla, Scott’s Turf Builder, Swatch, Arizona Tourism, Tile, and Converse. As always, so cool to see student books—before client feedback and production budgets start influencing things. Be sure to check out Adia’s Visual Journal under “Stuff that’s not ad” for a peek into her brain and thought process. Dig it. Can’t wait to see where she lands!
Portfolio: adiachaney.com
Sarah Latz, Director of Education at Chicago Portfolio School, checks in with seven new grads ready for prime time: Lucas Simes (art director), Winston Thompson (art director), Kimmy Mueller (designer), Rachel Tenuta (designer), Erin Ayalp (copywriter), Nicholas McGuire (copywriter), and Teddy Cohn (copywriter). Link to their portfolios below. Congrats to all!
Fall 2020 CPS Grad Portfolios: chicagoportfolio.com/debut
Austin is a new art director in Chicago and a former student at Chicago Portfolio School. His portfolio features spec campaigns for brands like Nike (above, cool get-out-the-vote idea), Payday, Field Notes, Audible, Post It, and Xfinity. Can’t wait to see where Austin lands!
Portfolio: austinanglin.com
Andrew is a senior copywriter at Adrenaline Agency in Atlanta. Since his last post on MC way back on 07.20.16, just after graduating from Creative Circus, he’s been busy. His site features some cool work for Atlanta United (above) and UNIFY Credit Union, plus a spec script for Seinfeld that takes place during quarantine 2020. Time for an update!
Portfolio: andrewlepere.com
Kimmy is a new graphic designer in Chicago and a recent graduate of Chicago Portfolio School. Lots of really beautiful work on her site including rebrands for Walgreens and Oikos yogurt, a needed fix for an online Myers-Briggs personality test, work for Stoli (above), lettering and typography, logos, and more. Can’t wait to see where Kimmy lands!
Portfolio: kimmymueller.com
Jon is a copywriter at FCB in NYC. Since his last post on MC (back on 06.29.17) right after graduating from Miami Ad School, he’s been busy. Cool variety of projects on his site from Purex “How to Laundry” for dads to anti-smoking “70 vs. You” and “Kick(flip) the Habit” to Restaurant Talks for Lincoln Financial Group (above). Dig it.
Portfolio: jon-gruber.com
Big thanks to Aaron Marshall, new copywriter and recent Creative Circus grad, for giving MC a heads up that links to all September 2020 Creative Circus graduate portfolios are available now at the link below. Congrats to all of the grads—can’t wait to see where they land!
Creative Circus Grads: creativecircus.edu/talent-search
Justin is a copywriter in NYC, previously at ViacomCBS and Nickelodeon (before getting pandemic’ed), now on the hunt for his next thing. His site is full of work for/in partnership with Nickelodeon, including something called Toiler Paper Blasters which would have been an immediate MC purchase pre-pandemic, before TP became became the new money. His site also features a two-minute LEGO stop-motion video that he got to write for the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards. That’s not work. That’s just fun. Can’t wait to see where Justin lands next.
Portfolio: justinhenrydavidson.com
Matt is a copywriter/ACD in San Francisco who has spent time at Droga5, 72andSunny, Saatchi NYC, W+K Shanghai, and most recently Lyft in-house (pre-pandemic). Since his last post on MC (way back on 05.08.11, when he was a baby copywriter), he’s been busy—and it shows. His portfolio is so good. It was nearly impossible for MC to pick which project to feature, Dos Equis “Keep It Interesante” or Samsung “Let’s Go To Work” or Nike or ESPN or … had to be Seventh Generation “Vajingle” with the one and only Maya Rudolph (above). OMG so good.
Portfolio: cargocollective.com/mattvitou
Benji is a senior copywriter who was recently furloughed from DDB NY and is on the hunt for his next big thing. Since his last post on MC (way back on 12.16.14), when he was fresh out of ad school, Benji has added all kinds of cool campaigns to his portfolio for brands like Jameson, Nespresso, VISA, Capital One, and Tostitos. Don’t miss his 7-Eleven project “53¢ FOR LIII” (above), for which he got to write a real-deal long copy ad that ran in the Boston Globe. For a copywriter, that’s victory.
Portfolio: benjishaw.com
Brendan is a copywriter at Fallon in NYC. As one would expect from a Fallon writer’s portfolio, there’s genius and hilarity all over his site, including projects for Cumberland Farms, Hotels.com, RITAS, and a handful of spec projects as well. But the grand prize goes to Brendan’s masterpiece: “Work From Home” set to the tune of “Let It Go” from Frozen, to benefit Broadway. It’s what the world needs now.
Portfolio: brendanthewriter.com
Tarik is a new copywriter and a recent graduate of VCU Brandcenter. (Big congrats!) All kinds of fun work on his site for brands like MTV, Kodak, Depop, Vital Farms, and North Face. In Tarik’s “Not Ads” section, don’t miss “Surviving Winter” (created with AD Emily Adamson). Which absolutely needs to be a real thing.
Portfolio: tarik-atallah.com
Matt is a copywriter/creative director who splits time between New York and Los Angeles. So many great campaigns on his site, including a Super Bowl spot for Busch Beer, a Febreeze save-the-day project for the Parrish, Alabama Poop Train (have to see it to believe it), a Febreeze Super Bowl spot about a man whose bleep don’t stink, hilarity for Booking.com (above), plus tons more. Love it.
Portfolio: matthewmoyer.com
Emily is a new copywriter and a recent graduate of VCU Brandcenter. (What a time to be graduating, sheesh.) All kinds of killer spec projects in her portfolio, including a super fun idea for Halo Top ice cream. Which is technically not ice cream, but is ice cream. Right? Right.
Portfolio: emilyrhodes.work
Robert is a copywriter/ACD formerly at Commonwealth/McCann in Detroit (pre-COVID-19). His portfolio was submitted to MC by Joel Austin, a fellow copywriter located in Dallas. (Big ups!) Huge variety of projects on his site for brands like Chevrolet, NAPA Auto Parts, Key Bank, International, University of Alabama, and more. Joel also recommends Robert’s “Quarantine Check-in Videos” where he interviews fellow comedians and creatives. (Link to video below.) Good times.
Portfolio: robertsbrains.com
Quarantine Check-in Episode #2: youtube.com/watch?v=iFgkPi3AJKI
Joel Austin’s portfolio: runthejoels.com
Shevek is a copywriter at McCann in NYC. Since his last post on MC (back on 04.19.18), he’s added all kinds of new work to his portfolio including projects for Verizon, New York Lottery, Purell, and Soundcloud (above). His site features a “here’s the pudding” link that curates his portfolio into four bite-sized categories for recruiters short on time. Smart.
Portfolio: shevekanandan.com
Big thanks to Sarah Latz, Director of Education at Chicago Portfolio School, for sending MC the latest CPS grads sites. So much great work! Below are links to all Spring 2020 grad portfolio sites, plus a note from Sarah.
From Sarah:
“Chicago Portfolio School has been offering a free class to undergraduate students who now have to finish their academic year from home. Jeff Epstein, the founder of Chicago Portfolio, leads the online class and discussion of more than 70 college students from around the country. Advertising professors from around the country helped spread word of the class, and students from all of the Big 10 campuses, and state schools like Florida, Oregon, Arizona, as well as smaller schools, are registered.
Recruiters from Leo Burnett, plus veteran copywriters, art directors and strategists have virtually visited to talk about how to get a job and create award-winning campaigns.
For now, the class is ongoing, and seniors (creative and non-creative majors) are still welcome to register for the online class. Additionally, the school’s allowing anyone to virtually “sit in” on a number of other classes they offer.
Reach out to Sarah at sarah@chicagoportfolio.com for more information.”
Nick is a new copywriter and a new Chicago Portfolio School graduate. His Pizza Hut packaging redesign is what the world needs now. The best thing about ordering pizza tonight is having leftover pizza tomorrow. So why not include reheating instructions inside the box?
Portfolio: nickarchibald.com
Julia is a new copywriter and a new graduate of Chicago Portfolio School. With her Rent the Runway Airbnb partnership project, “you can rent your vacation home and the wardrobe you need for the trip.” Um, yes please. Such a good idea.
Portfolio: juliaherrick.com
Eric is a new copywriter and a new graduate of Chicago Portfolio School. The first project in his portfolio for Golden Road Brewing brings celebrities, stolen by Hollywood, back to their hometowns—with an apology and a gift. Craft beer. Apology accepted.
Portfolio: erichulting.com
Solomiya is a new copywriter and a new Chicago Portfolio School grad. (Big congrats!) The first project on her site is “Equal Payday,” using the classic Payday candy bar to promote equal pay for women. (Also seen in Hilary Stevens book.) Super smart. Also, candy bar. Win win.
Portfolio: solomiyachuyko.com