We have a saying around here…portfolio schools aren’t a substitute for college, they’re a supplement to college.
To put it another way, you can’t even think about overseeing someone’s health as a doctor without first completing an undergraduate program.
Now, we’re not suggesting that working as an art director or copywriter at an ad agency is anywhere akin to the noble vocation of saving lives. (Don’t worry, you can still create marketing campaigns for healthcare clients.) But, we are saying that a typical four-year college program simply won’t provide you with the highly specialized skills needed to work in a creative department. Let alone create a job-winning portfolio.*
The Milwaukee Portfolio School was founded in 2006 with this simple proclamation: We pick up where college leaves off and ease the frustration of creative directors stuck with graduates who lack the specific skills needed to work in advertising. Here, students learn to concept like agency pros, discover what job-winning portfolios look like and spend time with award-winning creatives. All of this and more in a six-week program that costs about half as much as just one college course hour.
Well, same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.
As working creative directors in the position to hire, we are still continually contacted by graduates who believe a degree, a press release and a couple of drawings are their tickets to the promised ad land. We’re sorry to say they’re not.
We need to see proof that you can solve our clients’ complicated business problems with insightful ideas manifested in the form of stunning combinations of brilliant prose and beautiful pictures. In other words, ad campaigns. In real terms, at least four or five of them. In actuality, this is all we care about.
So, without a well-packed portfolio populated with perfectly purposed propaganda, what’s a person to do?
Simply see below…
https://www.chicagoportfolio.com
https://www.denveradschool.com
https://mkeportfolioschool.com
PS Our Summer Session starts June 6th. To paraphrase a popular bar saying, you don’t have to go here, but you can’t stay unemployed.
*In case you’re wondering what we mean by a “job-winning portfolio,” check out one of our previous blogs, Portfolios. The Good, the Bad and the WTF.