Admittedly, this recap is way overdue. Expectedly, it’s because most creatives are procrastinators. Excitedly, it’s great to be able to write this.
After having to shut down the Milwaukee Portfolio School for over two years, we had some trepidations about starting up again. Would we remember how to teach? Do people still want to get into this business? Will anyone show up? Well, we’re happy to report yesses across the board.
This summer we welcomed an equal mix of writers and art directors, an unequal blend of ages and a full-on plethora of personalities. Pretty much the perfect description for a productive creative department. Different people from a variety of backgrounds putting their brains together to solve complicated problems in unexpected ways. Which, by no accident is how we prefer to run our class. Like a little agency. But with a lot of support.
2022 marked the school’s more than 15 years in existence. (We don’t really remember the exact start date and if you subtract two years that’s, well… um. Okay, in addition to being procrastinators, most creatives suck at math.) So let’s just call it a long time. But even though we’ve been doing this for a while, it’s really something we can’t not do. We’re only here to help others because others were there to help us.
So to those of you who we had the pleasure of spending time with this summer, go on and do great things. But don’t forget to give back. Because there’s an odd side effect that occurs when you teach… you learn. And in this business, you can never stop learning.
So in conclusion, the Summer Session of 2022 may have been small, but the ideas were big.
And as we look forward to our Winter 2023 Session, no matter the size of the class, we’ll strive to make sure the ideas are even bigger.