#bigspaceship

Some more renders and closeups of this doughnut thing. Hope you like it :)

New York City was a 4 night 5 day trip planned by the program at Algonquin, to encourage all the students to experience the heart of advertising. I was sifting through pictures, and realized, the experience I had there, was one I never want to forget. So this is why I am now blogging about what went down :)

We left at 5 am, the whole class, except for a few students. We didn't exactly know what to expect. We knew we had a line up of killer agencies that we planned on visiting, but we didn't know what the visits would entail.

After a day full of driving we arrived in New York City. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. We drove by all these vegetarian restaurants, and I felt guilty that the restaurants where what I was most excited for in that moment. The feeling quickly diminished when we arrived at the beautiful hotel. I was now excited for not only the yummy food, but also all the amazing location and place we were staying. Amaritania, was in the heart of Times Square. The rooms where massive, and beautifully decorated. My roommates Katie, Kyle, Andrew, and I, all started to settle in, and quickly became excited. Here is a picture of the pretty room.

Once we got settled in, my friend Katie and I decided we wanted to go shopping (understandable), and Kyle decided to come along. What we thought was a short shopping trip turned out being a 9 hour walk around times square, experiencing the culture, and spending tons of cash. It was awesome, the blisters could testify. 

After the long shopping day, we decided to pick out our outfits, have a few drinks, but not many, and chill. We needed to be rested for our big day the next day. We were going to visit DDB (favorite agency EVER), Big Space Ship, and HUGE. 

Katie and I carefully picked out our outfits for our first day of agency tours. We wanted to look professional, and make an impression, even though it probably wouldn't matter. We met up with the class outside the hotel, and started walking to DDB.

When we got there, they had little books written by Mr. Bernbach himself, books with inspiring quotes on creativity. There was 3 presentations, all of which I had goosebumps for the entire time.

 My favourite though, was when Keith Reinhard spoke. He gave a whole presentation, about creativity, and his personal development with the company. It was interesting, capturing, and INSPIRING to say the least. I look over to see my design teacher nearly in tears with excitement, and my other teachers eyes wide-open like children in a candy store. Everyone was amazed with what he had to say. He even spoke about how they came up with the Big Mac Song, and The Hamburgeler. He was so humble, it was nothing I expected, but everything I needed to re-spark my passion. They even fed us pizza. New York pizza is awesome.

the gang outside DDB

Everyone was rattled after the experience, you could feel the excitement and motivation off our skins. Our eyes were all wide and goosebumps remained on our arms for the entire bus ride through Brooklyn. Brooklyn was gorgeous. Graffiti everywhere, my inner gangster was so excited about this. We continued the day and visited agencies HUGE and BIG SPACE SHIP, both were cool, but very different. These 2 agencies were in the same building in Brooklyn, first we went to visit HUGE. Huge was interesting, they showed us all kinds of online work they had done, that wasn't even released yet. We got an inside view on some cool accounts that they had been working on.

our crew at HUGE

After HUGE, we took the elevator up to BIG SPACE SHIP. BIG SPACE SHIP wasn't big at all, it was a cute cozy agencies, with an adorable office dog. It was a lot different then DDB. Basically we just got a run down of how the agency is run, and some of their best work. I left there feeling inspired about working in the advertising field. The lady that spoke with us was young and hip, and the people in the agency just seemed all together like nifty characters.

Us at Big Space Ship

After the tours we had a yummy dinner at a cute little cafe in Brooklyn, it was Italian. The funniest part was when the server thought I meant salad when I asked for a Caesar. Oh america. Once she understood what I meant she brought me the nastiest tasting Caesar I have ever tried, I swear it was made with Jack Daniels. Anyways, after the long day of visiting agencies, it was time to hang out once again. Again, my roommates and I didn't get too drunk, because we wanted to be presentable for the next day worth of agency tours. After a relaxed night of walking around times square, shopping, eating, moderate drinking, and just hanging out, we went to bed.

We woke up the next day and took a walk over to JWT. Believe me when I say, I have never seen a work place like this one before. It was surreal. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was massive, the interior design in this place was to die for. I just wanted to sit down on a computer and start working there immediately. The concept of the building is way too cool to explain. I took a video, because I was so in awe. I know I wasn't the only one who felt this way. They had a full on bar and cafe, a game room with pool tables and lounge rooms on every corner. The desks where all laid out in an open concept, except for the few private offices' that had amazing views. They had sound proof chill rooms for people to talk and discuss creative ideas. They had all kinds of cool chairs and lounge areas just for creative thinking and chilling. It was probably the definition of a dream agency, in my opinion. The walls held beautiful art that was rotated regularly, to inspire. I was in love the second I walked in to that place. We got to hear from young employees, which made getting a job in the field seem attainable. We heard from a Researcher, an Account ex, and a Creative employee, they were all really interesting and informative. 

After JWT we went to Droga5. Droga5 has some of my favourite work EVER. I was so excited to go to this place, mostly because I am inspired by every single piece of work I have seen come from them. My all time favourite may seem obvious but here it is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNic4wf8AYg (you have to watch this, I don't care if you are into advertising or not, you will love it).  It was a humble little agency, with really cool young staff. We got to hear the inside scoop on some of the coolest advertising on the market right now. It was awesome, and a great way to sum up our agency tours. 

After Droga5 we went to eat at some yummy restaurent in the area, then head back to the hotel. We had 2 more nights to party, and no more obligations or responsibilities. If you know anything about advertising people as a stereotype- we like to party (every single agency we went to except BIG SPACESHIP had a bar). So my 2 friends and I started boozing pretty early on. Right about during this time in our trip, some crazy business that I shouldn't get into went down. Lets just say our curiosity brought us to Harlem, where we almost got killed (for real). I wont go in to detail because of family and potential employers reading, but it was scary and exciting, and CRAZY. That night we went to the bar next to our hotel and got black out. In Ottawa, dancing on the bar is a regular thing, in the states? Not so much. All the girls got up and started shaking it, and it was like as if we were a tourist attraction, everyone in the bar was taking pictures and ooing/awwhing over us dancing- that's when I decided it was time for me to get down. 

Picture one of the girls in my program made LOL

We woke up the next day with a hangover and determination to see all of NYC before we left the next day. We went site seeing and saw all the obvious, went to China Town, Shopping, Statue Of Liberty, Twin Tower Memorial, etc. We spent the entire day site seeing, eating, drinking, the common. That night we went to an adorable comedy club, almost every one of the comedians cracked a joke about me (that's what I get for sitting in the front). The night was hilarious, we drank and laughed our asses off until we couldn't laugh anymore. We spent the night being drunk around times square and just enjoying what was left of NYC. We went up on the roof top and saw all of New York from up high. It was surreal. I will never forget this experience, I feel like it has shaped me and inspired me so much as an advertising student. I am still excited about my future when I think about this trip. I will leave you with a few pictures from the trip.