Jimmy’s Divorce-A-Ments project begins with this simple introduction: “A lot of things change after your parents get divorced. One of those things is Christmas.” Amen, brother. MC is guessing we’ll see some form of these in Urban Outfitters around November/December.
Portfolio: jimmyburton.com
Samson is from South India, where from 2002 through 2012 he was a professional bass player, church elder, missionary, guitar player, songwriter, clinician, proofreader, gofer, report writer, activist, publicist, singer, change agent, band manager, hotel lobby musician, content writer, and social justice advocate. Today, he is a new copywriter grad from VCU Brandcenter, and his site features projects represented by electric guitar pedals. Excellent.
Portfolio: samsonmadella.com
You know what’s funny? Listening to people annunciate when they’ve got a cold. It’s just stupid funny. Ally’s campaign for Afrin features a Google Translate language setting for Congested (sponsored) that turns ordinary sentences into their stuffed-up equivalent. Afrin needs to do that.
Portfolio: allyfarrish.com
VCU Brandcenter Week 2014 kicks off with Mr. Garrick Sheldon. Part of the fun of putting together a student book is that you not only get to go crazy creative with the work, but also with clients/projects. Garrick’s Monsanto campaign “In search of solutions, not popularity” flips the finger at protesters in the name solving world hunger. His Gas-X campaign “Focus” is a series of short documentaries about people who need less distractions on the job—female and male strippers is the first (above), bomb technicians will be the second. His LegalZoom.com campaign “Garage, Inc.” is about connecting entrepreneurs with investors who are willing to invest workspace. Dig it.
Portfolio: garricksheldon.com
Taylor is a copywriter/acd at R/West in Portland. After checking out his portfolio (don’t miss the First Tech spot with the pen, “A pen. Notice anything different about it? No chain attached.” Yes.), click over to his Culture page and behold Cruisedays On The Roof, which is all about watching Tom Cruise movies on the agency roof. (See Ice Man ice sculpture above.) Warning: there’s a tight-whitey shot halfway down the page.
Portfolio: taylorsiolka.com
Ben is a freelance writer in Chicago. Since his last post on MC, just after graduating from Circus (09.28.12), he’s spent time at INNOCEAN and Draftfcb, and added a bunch of work to his site. His book is in that in-between stage, part student and part produced, which MC digs seeing the most. So interesting to check out what writers create in school, and what that means in agency life, at this shop or that. Clicking through Ben’s site, MC totally remembered his school book vibe. And watching his FootJoy video, it’s like, yep, there he is—Bag Checking a pro golfer, just hoping to find Atomic Fireballs or Laphroaig.
Portfolio: bensantoriello.com
Jenny is a copywriter at Ogilvy in NYC, just over a year into it. Her book is in that part-student/part-produced stage that MC loves to see. Jenny’s got nine projects up on her site at the time of this post, three produced for UPS & Ferrari, Philips Norelco Social, and Big Ad Gig/Bully Prevention, plus six student campaigns. MC had no choice but to post a piece from her student campaign for Half Price Books, featuring The Cat In The Hat plus Gulliver’s Travels (originally titled “Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships” for the literary among us). “Two books for the price of one.” Nice.
Portfolio: jennybean.virb.com
Josh is a recent grad of Miami Ad School (Oregon before that, go Ducks!), in New York, just starting a gig at R/GA this very week. How great is that? Great. Who wouldn’t want to be Josh this week? Nobody. Meaning, everybody. Would want to be Josh this week. Nobody wouldn’t want to be him. Big ups, Josh!
Portfolio: jgocreative.com
Bryan is a new copywriter in NYC, having just finished up his first portfolio at Adhouse. (Big ups, Bryan!) Lots of fun writing on his site for brands like Bolt Bus, Major League Soccer, Strand Bookstore, and Money Magazine. Can’t wait to see where he lands.
Portfolio: cargocollective.com/bryanjmcmanus
Stevie is a copywriter in London, currently freelancing at Droga5, previously at Channel 4 and Mother. He shares a site with AD/creative partner Emily Churches. Don’t miss Gay Mountain—their video showing Channel 4’s support of gay athletes at the Olympics in Sochi. Rawrrr.
Portfolio: emilyandstevie.com
James is a copywriter/art director/CD in Milwaukee, on the hunt for his next adventure. Notice the CW/AD slash in his title. How many CWs have fantasized about having that slash? “I know my copy is great. It just needs to be designed different. If only …” and then you wake up, still seeing some ghost of the perfect layout in your mind, but not clearly enough to do it yourself, and besides, you don’t really know how to do type in InDesign anyway, even if you do know the kerning button. Dang.
Portfolio: holymolycow.com
Keat is a senior copywriter at Free Agents in Richmond, VA, and an adjunct instructor at VCU. Awesome to see portfolios come in from long-time Richmond creatives. (Big-ups, Keat.) Such a strong community there, led by Martin and VCU. Dig it. More, please!
Portfolio: keatpowell.com/
Jason is a copywriter/CD at The Buntin Group in Nashville. He’s got my favorite all-time McDonald’s spot in his portfolio (above), which MC has no choice but to feature in his post—though he has plenty of new work in on his site, too. So good. Just so so good.
Portfolio: jasonwrightcd.com
Jayant is Creative Copy Group Head at Publicis in Mumbai, India. How does a copywriter get a campaign of straight-up palindromes in his portfolio? When it’s a campaign for the Skoda Laura with Parktronic, which drives the same forward or backward. Tip o’ the Hat, Jayant. Palindromes!
Portfolio: coroflot.com/koffeewriter/portfolio
Steve is a copywriter in … well, he’s all over the place. From his site: “Throughout 2014, I’ll be plying my craft at advertising agencies across North America and documenting the entire experience as I go. It’s about discovering creative transcendence, experiencing native cultures and developing a new understanding of what it means to be a part of this crazy world we call advertising.” Awesome idea. Good luck, Mr. Taylor!
Joe is a senior copywriter at Bernstein-Rein in Kansas City. Bunch of fun stuff on his site, including a spot in the Filet-o-Fish Submarine, outdoor for the Hostess Comeback, terrifying showers for Beauty Brands, and Bon Appétightwad for McD’s Grilled Onion Cheddar Burger (nice).
Portfolio: joe-d.com
Since his last post on MC (07.13.2010 “Elf Yourself”), Nick has become a writer/director—first with his short The First Day and soon with his first feature No Retreat. Nick is currently trying to raise $10k through indiegogo to produce it, and has over $7k so far. Check it out at the link below. You can also visit his portfolio site at the link below that.
Link: indiegogo.com/projects/no-reatreat
Nick’s portfolio: nickzafonte.com
Elizabeth is a copywriter/ACD at Kirshenbaum in NYC. She’s got tons of awesome work for BMW all over her site, and that’s really what MC should have featured above. But then, as Elizabeth put it, “Diamonds are a copywriter’s best friend.” Don’t miss Wall Street Journal Print, with side-by-side ads for the BMW 6 and 7 … Sterling, Draper … so good.
Portfolio: kingportfolio.com
Bevan is a copywriter in NYC. Since her last post on MC (6.10.13), she’s added a bunch of new work to her site including “Spread the Jam” for the Jam Wireless Speaker. Which looks like a giant food fight (with different flavored jams) slash rave on the streets of NYC. At some point, there was a producer who had to order a permit for that. “So, yeah, we’ve got these buckets of jam …”
Portfolio: bevanmahaney.com
Emily is a copywriter at Energy BBDO in Chicago. Bunch of fun work on her site, including “Best Lunch Notes from Mom” for Ziploc (39k submissions, nice), and “How Attractive Are You?” (to mosquitos) for OFF!. Sorry, Emily. In that one lone category, MC is actually the most attractive person on earth.
Portfolio: emilyakins.com
Phil is a freelance copywriter in Minneapolis. Over the past 20+ years he’s spent time at just about every great shop in Minneapolis, including Barrie D’Rozario Murphy, Carmichael Lynch, Fallon, Hill Holiday, and Leonard Monahan Lubars. He’s also written a bunch of work that makes MC flat-out jealous, like the above spot for United, with VO by Robert Redford. Geez.
Portfolio: philcalvit.com
Dave is a senior writer at ViTRO in San Diego, previously at Arnold, Leo Burnett, SapientNitro, and MMB. All kinds of killer work up and down his site for a crazy variety of clients, including Asics (the marathon treadmill is genius), Dodge Ram, Truth, Jack Daniel’s, Bahamas, Alaska Communications, Red Sox, and Radio Shack. Love it.
Portfolio: davekuhl.com
Brandon is a senior copywriter at Arnold Boston. He went to U of Texas plus VCU, then onto McKinney, Crispin and now, Arnold. (Nice.) Lots of killer work on his site for brands like Coke Zero, Domino’s Pizza, Carnival Cruise Lines, and Under Armor. Good stuff.
Portfolio: cargocollective.com/bwillingham
Aaron is a copywriter at Translation in Chicago. Been about a year since his last post on MC (03.25.13), back when his book was part produced, mostly student work. Since then, he’s added a bunch of new stuff including a crazzeee social campaign for Big Mac. BTDubs: when MC looks in the mirror, he is always hungry for Big Mac.
Portfolio: menwillbeboys.me
Brett is a freelance/permalance senior copywriter in NYC. He shares a site with AD/creative partner/spouse Krista Brown, who submitted it to MC. All kinds of cool stuff in their portfolio, including work for Acura, Carl’s Jr., Harley, and an Armored Tailgating Vehicle for Union Bank. But, work aside, can we just pause here for a moment and applaud a married freelance/permalance creative team who still likes each other enough to do something nice, like submit their site to a little industry blog that specializes in what the other person does? Love that.
Portfolio: broughttoyoubytheletterb.com
Bernie is a copywriter/former punk rocker from Brisbane, Australia, who is about to land in the States with a Green Card/Diversity Visa and will be, well, ready to rock. It’s not often MC features direct mail in a post, but the above piece for Suncorp Insurance is pretty genius. Lots of other good stuff all over Bernie’s site, too. Looking forward to seeing where he lands!
Portfolio: berniewatt.com
Dave is a copywriter at Saatchi & Saatchi NY. He shares a site with creative partner/AD Juan Leguizamon (both are pictured above, auditioning for their CW/AD roles, funny), called shoot-1st.com. From their About page: “We believe in burning midnight oil for work we believe in and that the best way to do something is to stop talking about it and do it.” Amen, brother.
Portfolio: shoot-1st.com
Will is a copywriter/CD in NYC. Since his last post on MC (05.24.2012), he’s got a ton of new work up on his site, including the above spot for the new BMWi launch that’s running during the Olympics—which kicked off this weekend in Sochi. In fact, MC just saw it while watching Luge. Dig it.
Portfolio: bloodsweatideas.com
Aron is a copywriter/CD at Tom’s Shoes in Los Angeles. Since his last post on MC (11.08.10), Aron left DDB NY to join Tom’s as Creative Director and start their Creative Lab. Awesome. What’s double awesome is that he found the gig on MC. Might even be triple. Love it love it love it.
Portfolio: cargocollective.com/aronfried
Chad is a copywriter/CD/entrepreneur/performer in Austin. Since his last post on MC (02.10.10), he’s got a ton of new work up on his site, launched like eight new companies, written and performed sketch comedy, done a bunch of voiceover work, and made some awesome silkscreen posters (including “Let’s Have a Meeting about a Meeting” above). MC gets tired just trying to sum it all up in one post. Tired, and inspired. Love it. This is what being a CW/idea factory is all about.
Portfolio: chadrea.com