The South Bank Arts Centre at Bedford College staged Design Clinic 2, sponsored by Bedford Borough Council, Bedford Development Agency and Creative Bedfordshire and designed to bring together creative minds to share ideas and inspire creativity.
Graham Fink (pictured), creative director of M & C Saatchi, was joined by leading figures from across the creative sector to talk candidly about their experiences.
He gave the audience a tantalising taste of advertising with examples of campaigns and adverts that had been groundbreaking in their originality. The Honda TV advert launched in 2005 used the song ‘Reach the Unreachable Star’ to give emotion to the commercial and Mr Fink explored that theme with the audience.
He said: “I urge you to follow your dreams and reach for the unreachable star. True creative spirit breaks through everything – ignore people who tell you you can’t do it… be brave. The best things in design normally have one person with vision who is going places.
“We are exposed to over 3,000 commercial messages a day. If you are going to do something creative – make sure people remember it. Whatever you do, it must stand out.
“We live in a world of mediocrity – if you are going to be great you have to push it. Be the best that you can be. You can achieve the unachievable. Nothing is impossible.”
Andy Sandoz of Work Club gave a rollercoaster ride through the internet, from the birth of on-line banking in 1983 to email, Google, blogging, social networking, Youtube and the political campaign by Barack Obama, President-elect of USA.
He said: “This powerful medium has changed our life, industry and culture. People still want to interact with each other but in different ways – it gives a layer of technology on top of what people have always done.”
