Can It Be All So Simple

Your design sucks! Just kidding.

I am one of the senior Camp Counselors at this year's Portfolio Camp (shades of Meatballs) on Saturday. Set up by the Ad Club of Buffalo, four professionals (and I use this term lightly) are going to speak to a large gathering of ferocious young designers and upstarts.

I did this once before a few years back... it goes like this:

• You sit in front of a bunch of youngsters.
• You give them your 2 cents, tips, tricks, secret handshakes, etc.
• Answer some questions.
• Show your portfolio- which is recently updated so it is on fire!
• each some pizza and drink some soda, talk with the kids.

It's a lot of fun, but I have seen some really crappy student work in my days and some really great stuff. I am an old school 'show me your book' sort of art director. Though we deal in a lot of digital media at OW headquarters, we still like seeing actual work. I like to also see sketches and optional designs and logos- I like to see the process.

Panelists this year are:

• Jordan Case, AD Eric Mower & Associates
• Mark Wisz, OtherWisz Creative Corp.
• Mike Telesco, President/Creative Director, Mike Telesco Design, Inc.
• Dan Wangelin, Designer/Illustrator, [re]noun creative

I don't know any of these folks, except Mark Wisz. He's got a new haircut!