About a month ago I got the news that I was offered an internship at
Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Boulder, Colo. The call came when I was in the bathroom of a local restaurant, urinating 3 glasses of wine consumed to celebrate the Brandcenter’s pre-prom festivities. Coming back to our table, obviously I was thrilled, but I can admit now that part of me was a bit terrified. Even sad.
Thrilled, terrified and sad. An unlikely combo for someone who's just been told they've been granted 2 months of their lives to work at one of the best agencies on earth.
The sadness seems out of place, I know. But the reasoning is pretty straight-forward. I didn't expect to get an internship. I wanted to travel this summer. I envisioned myself letting loose and shelving anything ad-related while I went Darjeeling-Limited-style around India and Southeast Asia for 2 months. The idea is in line with an interesting point my roommate,
Jordan, made on his blog a while back:
“Do agencies want new people who already know how an agency operates and understands the social politics found there -OR- do agencies want people who have made a conscious effort to experience and observe life and humanity?”
In regards to the answer to this question, for a long time I was leaning towards the latter. Until I got the call that basically whispered softly in my ear: 'Opportunities like this come around a few times a lifetime... Only if you're lucky. Take it. You dipshit.'
I did.
The truth is, I’ve heard stories about Crispin. I’ve heard about the long nights, the intern-slave-driving, the nervous breakdowns that all interns are pretty much required to have, the 3AM I-can’t-fucking-take-this-place-anymore work sessions, the marathons lasting literally from sunup to sunup, and beyond.
But I am willing to overlook all that and instead concentrate on the immensely absurd gift I am being offered.
It didn’t really hit me until people started congratulating me. Until professors started looking at me differently, eyeing me up as if to say, ‘who the hell is this guy and what does that place want with
him?’
I’ve been told that a Crispin internship means nothing if you think of it as an internship. You have to make your own opportunity out of it. Seek out work. Seek challenges. Seek solutions. Seek more. And revel in the fact that you very well could be working in the Agency of The Decade, flat in the middle of that golden decade.
I leave for Colorado tomorrow night, start work on Tuesday morning, and plan to end 10 weeks later, bloody and bruised and cut like stone, on August 1st.
What happens between now and then I hope will determine a good chunk of my future. The strange thing is, I know that it can.
dubs. out.
My role is just momentum, throughout the whole organization, with projects, clients and creative people. If you don’t have it, you die. We’ve seen great brands run out of steam. It’s hard because you have to be constantly on it. It’s not about being delusionally positive, trust me. But we try to keep that and that comes from the top
About a month ago I got the news that I was offered an internship at Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Boulder, Colo. The call came when I was in the bathroom of a local restaurant, urinating 3 glasses of wine consumed to celebrate the Brandcenter’s pre-prom festivities. Coming back to our table, obviously I was thrilled, but I can admit now that part of me was a bit terrified. Even sad. 
The truth is, I’ve heard stories about Crispin. I’ve heard about the long nights, the intern-slave-driving, the nervous breakdowns that all interns are pretty much required to have, the 3AM I-can’t-fucking-take-this-place-anymore work sessions, the marathons lasting literally from sunup to sunup, and beyond.
I’ve been told that a Crispin internship means nothing if you think of it as an internship. You have to make your own opportunity out of it. Seek out work. Seek challenges. Seek solutions. Seek more. And revel in the fact that you very well could be working in the Agency of The Decade, flat in the middle of that golden decade.
dubs. out.
Cabell Harris' Ad Concept Development- Out of every professor at the Brandcenter, with all of the egos and the money and successes, there is still only one man whose life I would aspire to have. Cabell is the epitome of a man who has become wildly successful, wealthy and famous doing what he loves, and yet has still remained humble. What was great about Cabell's class is that he's interested in solving problems, not making ads. If there is a void in the human experience and a brand can fill that void, he's all for it. Ads are the last thing he wants, and out of everyone at this school, he has truly grasped the fact that this is where the business is heading.
Coz Cotzias' Concepts of Copy II- Last semester I called Coz a beast. A mean, tempermental, genius beast. I take nothing back from that statement. Coz is often mean--there's nothing untruthful about that--but he's always mean with a purpose. He cares about us, and sometimes I think we forget that. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Coz is the best professor at this school, and he's probably the best teacher I've ever had. He is the main reason for the Brandcenter's success, and I almost feel guilty now for ever doubting his methods. It took me a long time to realize that he wasn't holding us back, but instead (to use a lame metaphor) was laying the start of tracks that would let our trains go on their own. (Goddamn that was lame)
Wealth awaits the writer who values the art director over the dictionary.
To see the fruits of our labor, click here. (Pay close attention to the brown-haired stud in the fantastic pair of pants).
We like to go with that one idea that we’ve really fallen in love with. That one idea that’s most highly evolved and expresses itself really easily. But you have to be careful about that Eureka moment where you have the feeling that you’ve found the perfect campaign. Because if you don’t apply scrutiny to your idea afterwards you can end up realizing that you haven’t been in love – you only had a mental orgasm.
