On the 22nd of April, creative industry experts gathered at the Singapore Polytechnic auditorium to provide valuable insights to creative students, lecturers and young professionals. This year’s seminar was divided into three sessions; Interactive/Design, Film/Photography and Advertising, attracting over 400 attendees.
This year’s Crowbar Awards chairmen, Jon Loke and Victor Ng, Creative Directors at Euro RSCG, managed to give Billy a call and recorded the conversation. Surprisingly, Billy just laughed at Ng and brushed him off. The call ended abruptly, drawing laughter from the crowd of participants gathered for the opening session.
The Interactive/Design session started off with Graham Kelly, Executive Creative Director/Creative Integrator for Asia, TBWA Singapore stressing the importance of integrated media. He cited humourous examples from campaigns such as M1’s Bye Bye Ring Ring and treated the students to a preview of Photolibrary’s upcoming campaign. Kelly then handed over to Shawn Loo, Interactive Media Director for BBH Singapore. Loo presented examples of integrated campaigns like the Axe Effect and the famous Kallang Paya Lebar Expressway. He concluded with a resounding statement. “Ideas that spread, win.”
As the morning progressed, Chris Lee, Asylum’s Creative Director, entertained the seminar participants with funny anecdotes as he took centre-stage. He explained why Loof was not called Roof. “Chinese people can’t pronounce roof properly. They keep saying Loof instead of Roof, so we decided to stick with the name Loof!” To wrap up the morning’s session, Roy Poh, formerly from Kinetic Singapore, delivered an honest and humble presentation about his experience in design and how he made it this far.
As participants returned from their lunch break in the early afternoon, Sebastian Tan, Group Managing Director for The Shooting Gallery, resumed the seminar, explaining the approach and management of a commercial production.
Rennie Gomes, Managing Director of Yellow Box Studios, then touched on a subject rarely talked about – Sound, and the importance of it. His presentation was aurally stimulating and different from the rest. As Gomes aptly puts it, “Never underestimate the power of sound”.
Photographers Jonathan Tay and Eric Seow closed the Film/Photography session by touching on points like “What makes a good photo?” Pointers and tips were dished out to those interested in starting a career in photography.
During the final session, Charlie Blower, ECD at Euro RSCG, revealed his secret to creative thinking – Curiosity and Insight. He also advised students to “stay young, stay foolish”.
Jagdish Ramakrishnan (or better known as Juggi), ECD at BBDO Singapore, spoke about why “Two heads are better than one”, encouraging students to develop good working partnership with others. Not only can they critique each other’s work, they can help one another out too.
With over 20 years of experience, Linda Locke, CEO of Godmother Consulting, concluded the seminar with her topic of “Advertising, Not as We Know It”. Locke reasoned why “Brands have to involve and entertain their consumers toget their attention.” As the session closed, students lingered around, hungry for more words of wisdom from the advertising gurus.
In conjunction with the Crowbar Seminar, there was also a creative exhibition held above the venue. The winning works from last year’s Crowbar Awards and Creative Circle Awards were on display and open to the public. Visitors milled around and studied the works, occasionally reaching for their cameras to take shots of the exhibits. Some were even seen staring at pieces for long periods of time.
True to the 4As aim of nurturing and preparing students for the creative industry, the seminar proved to be useful to the students.
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