Say you’re contemplating a career in advertising. It’s no secret that getting your “foot in the door” is a daunting process. That’s why it’s been amazing to see what Denver Ad School is doing, cultivating young talent locally in a way that our small-but-mighty industry in the Mile High City definitely needs.
And what better way to help students learn than by giving them real-world assignments? In announcing the Jim and Nechie Hall Scholarship, that was the game plan from the start. And the result was smart, weird, and awesome—the best kind of creative in my humble opinion.
So let’s talk about the process. The students began by creating a logo for the campaign, which they knocked out of the park. Andrew Brown did his homework on the agency’s background, and delivered several options that were so pro, you’d swear they were done by a seasoned vet. We landed on this one.
We also tasked the students with presenting a handful of mini-campaigns for promoting the scholarship. Again, we were floored by three unique, intuitive, thorough directions, which they teed up and presented beautifully too.
Now, I know that if you had told me as a student that I was going to be pitching work to the CEO and ECD of a real-life ad agency, I would’ve been shook. You’d have never known this was their first rodeo. Calm, cool, collected, and sharp. Definitely an indispensable skill set, and one that you can’t start developing too soon for a career in advertising.
From there, we jammed with Gunnar Renjard and Madison Graham on art and copy, respectively. I can already tell you they’d make great teammates, and I’m so stoked to see what the future holds for them. This campaign’s direction is so unexpected, especially for a scholarship, which is why it’s so cool. It’ll definitely serve as a scroll-stopper across social. Just a taste of what’s to come …
And here’s why it all really matters. This process and the campaign that it produced is just what the Jim and Nechie Hall Scholarship is meant to do. The scholarship is a barrier-breaking opportunity for any person pursuing a career in advertising. A way to gain agency-like experience so you can go and vie for agency work.
It’s one thing to be told you need to go to college—it’s another to be told once you get there that you need to go to portfolio school to get a job making ads. The bills add up, the time adds up, the stress adds up. Denver Ad School’s model is tackling this set of challenges and, honoring the legacy of our founders, VJ is helping.
The talent at Denver Ad School is poised to do big things. To the student who earns this scholarship: I can’t wait to watch you shake things up. Maybe that’s you, or someone you know? Apply today.
Now in our 50th year of business, Vladimir Jones is Colorado’s original independent, integrated advertising agency, with offices in Denver and Colorado Springs. We believe in brilliant brands and love making the world love them as much as we do.