Here are a few more student reviews from this Fall’s Killer Work class at SVA. They’ve graciously agreed to respond if you have any questions. Emails are below their comments:
Kristian Cruz
‘Killer Work’ was like getting an advertising degree in 3 months (without the boring textbooks).
I dove into this with no background in advertising. I took the class with the intention of learning what makes a more compelling powerful ad, and to relate it to the new company I’m starting next year, a men’s fashion line. With that objective in mind, I found the class directly and concretely useful in the following ways:
My thought process was revised and ultimately enriched. Instead of waiting for the Muse of Inspiration to slap me and hope for the best, I can now initiate the process immediately, confident that it too will lead to a Muse (a different one but better-looking). I have several businesses I plan to start down the road. I will use Killer Work’s brainstorming/conceptualizing method to create advertising for every one of them.
The single greatest takeaway is understanding the concept of ‘a true ‘Idea’. Applied, it means an ad that truly has ‘something to say’. I know that sounds elementary but like many others in the class, I initially focused on the visuals without backing it up with a message (be it a product benefit, a market position or an aspiration).
The beauty of this class is that I learned this great takeaway experientially. I am not sure I would have gotten it if I read it in a book. Much of my learning came from:
1) Learning from my own mistakes in class
2) Learning from the mistakes of others in the class
A suggestion is for a final assignment where students get to choose their own product to work on, maybe for their own business or something they are working on at their job. (Although, I see the point of revisiting a previous project for the finals and see how much growth was achieved at the end of the class.)
iam.kristian.cruz@gmail.com
Stacy, Marianne, Cristina and Kristian at the wall
Marianne Merritt
Killer Work was a 10 out of 10! The class taught me how to develop my own idea generation process and to figure out what ways worked best for me to concept. For example, I learned not to kill work before I found more ideas – I can come back to a seed of an idea and find something new and exciting in it that worked.
During the class, my presentation skills improved. I had to think about the way I spoke about my work, set up the story, and explain through the process I went through to get there.
I would have liked to work in partners but I realize it was a very short time period to include that — perhaps for the final project.
Marianne.merritt@gmail.com
Text would go here relating to the offer