Marc Lewis : Articles : SPEAKERS for BUSINESS

Marc Lewis

Ideas galore from an innovation master

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THE SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION ARTS 2.0 LIMITED by Rory Tregaskis – Student

Marx Lewis and The Anti-University

When I arrived for my interview I walked around the block a few times. When I was slightly less early I poked my head round the door of a rather randiose church on Kennington Road and spotted, sitting beneath the alter, a shockheaded chap in unbearably (not to mention unwearably) colourful trousers. It was Marc Lewis, the Dean of the school, looking like a super villain from an old DC comic. He turned out to be an amiable fellow, and so far has proved to be nothing to be scared of. The interviewees were given five minutes to show examples of whatever creative work they had, not necessarily to do with advertising. We then each had a one-on-one interview and were given a brief to work on as a group. All this took three hours, the longest interview I had ever had.

I left slightly bewildered but elated, surely interviews aren't meant to be this much fun?

After two tense weeks I got a call from Marc. “Well done.” I was not quite ready to hand in my notice so I had to keep the good news quiet at work, straight on the phone to friends and family though. I was very lucky, out of 800 people who were interviewed, only 21 started this Monday morning, with another 20 due to start in January.

Why was I so excited? Because there is no other specialist advertising school in London, and, I suspect, no other school like it in the world. This is a brand new model and, being the first intake, there is great interest in us from ad land and the educational establishment. Our success this year is paramount to the success of the school. So no chance of skiving.

Marc describes the school as being an 'anti-university' because the material we are taught is written by industry professionals, rather than university professors. And the teachers are all industry professionals rather than dusty old academics. Our 'Curriculum Wiki' was written by the 300 mentors who will guide us through our learning over the year. The school is a model of a real working agency. We will be set real live briefs; we have already been set three, and this is only our third day.

The students are also being asked to add to the Curriculum Wiki by posting films we make of interviews with our mentors. Today we interviewed the legendary Graham Fink. We were shown round M&C Saatchi, Albion and Digital and Direct, just three of the agencies that support the school. We made films at each, interviewing people in a variety of roles (thanks for your time everyone who gave it) and we are in the process of editing this down for the first of a weekly series of ten minute documentaries that will be shown on Campaign's website.

Three separate pathways are taught at the school. The two traditional disciplines of art direction and copywriting are covered, along with a third new area called ideapreneurship. 'Ideapreneur' is a new word. It describes a person who comes up with innovative new solutions, bringing together aspects of entrepreneurship and creativity. The students with the best new business ideas will receive funding to make their idea a reality.

The school has an egalitarian attitude to the knowledge it gathers. The amazing (and growing amazing-er) resources put together by the school and its students are available to anyone online, including our competitor colleges. One of the aims of the school is to improve diversity in terms of sex, ethnic and social backgrounds of the ad industry. To do this each year they offer 10 full scholarships to people who otherwise would not be able to attend. These scholarships are made possible by the philanthropic agencies that make donations to the school. I am going to see if I can get the nick-name 'Marx Lewis' to catch on, not sure how keen Marx Lewis will be though.

Having not been to university and not been in a classroom for five years plus, I had no idea what to expect on Monday morning, however I don't think anything could have prepared me. On the first day the dashing Seb Bishop, CEO of (RED), the business dedicated to beating the AIDS virus came in to set us two briefs. After that we were taken to TEDx at the Science Museum where we ate food made by Jamie Oliver's catering company and got to see some lectures on the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN five years ago to beat hunger, reduce poverty and improve people's lives in the developing world. We heard some inspiring stories and got very useful information relevant to the briefs set by (RED).

The next day we learnt one of the most important things so far; how to act like an idiot. Even after years of practice I still have room for improvement. This was brought home to us by a workshop with our mentor Ryan Offut and his mate Isaak, who are improvisational comedians teaching us the tricks of heir trade. They showed us how we can free up our minds to allow new ideas to surface and how to improvise stories in a group, which I am sure will be useful when brainstorming briefs. After lunch another mentor, Ben Andrews, the former Kung Fu champion of the world, came in to talk to us about how spirituality and mindfulness can help us in our work and everyday lives.

So far this week has been one of the most challenging, interesting and exciting I have had and it is only Wednesday....