Adland Live at Central Saint Martins - Show One

It’s a term that you’re unlikely to come across nowadays, but long ago in the history of advertising, Art Directors were once called Commercial Artists. Such language has become rather unfashionable in recent decades as ways of working change – as do agency models to reflect this.

At Lowe Profero London, our Creative Department operates on a ‘Team” model, where we pair up a copywriter with an art director to tackle briefs together. However back in the Mad Men era of the 1950s, copy and art were considered different disciplines – often split between two separate departments with little to no communication. In the UK agency scene, Advertising Creatives come as a duo, providing a portfolio of ideas that reflects projects they have worked on together. This isn’t the case in other countries in Europe – such as France - where the “Creative Team” model simply isn’t in vogue.

The reason I’m considering the concept of the Commercial Artist and the way in which agency models change across the globe is because this week I’ve been at Central Saint Martins: Show One. This graduate fine art show was an incredible experience, illustrating the best of young British artists. It’s the 5th consecutive year that Mullen Lowe Group has partnered with prestigious Central Saint Martins, an institution that counts amongst its notable alumni list the likes of Laure Prouvost, John Galliano, Christopher Kane, Alexander McQueen and Ricardo Tisci. Producing some of the world’s most celebrated figures in both art and design, such a show carries with it a weight of expectation – something that those graduating will know only too well. Such artists are aware that this is their first formal opportunity to make a big impact, to build their reputation and establish themselves on the art scene.

Walking around the venue, one is immediately taken aback by the breadth and depth of ideas on display. This is true not only in terms of an almost unimaginable variety of form and craft, but of styles, themes, tones, impressions, methods and modes of production. The term that comes to mind is Alice in Wonderland; that’s exactly where you’re transported – a wonderland of juxtapositions – objects and experiences which shock and surprise. You enter a room stacked with TVs at one end, broken CDs on the floor, disturbed scrawlings on every surface of the walls. Around the corner, objects are melting to the sounds of EDM. Nearby hangs a tapestry, deconstructed Princess Mononoke montages, a dolls house, spools of thread winding their way across moss and pinecones and books bound by hand. Tanks of water gurgle menacingly as strangely illuminated debris bobs about, and the artist – a girl with a bright turquoise bob – graciously accepts compliments from visitors. Far across the building, a boy in a pink tracksuit makes music from the leg of a mannequin. It’s all real, but it feels like a dream. It feels like real art. It feels like a well of raw unprocessed stuff, bubbling up and percolating and drowning you with a thrilling rush to the head.

In 2011, Mullen Lowe created the #LoweNova Award, celebrating the most outstanding work that represents truly original creative thinking and execution. Out of 15 shortlisted from the final degree shows, there are only three Lowe Nova award winners handed out to students whose work represents truly the best of creativity. As commercial artists, there’s an enriching thrill of remembering what unconstrained art looks like – ads without briefs, without deliverables, without any aim other than to communicate and affect. And for me, it makes me consider the relationship between arts and advertising, how one is so intimately affected by the other. As creative advertisers, I believe our job is to surf the zeitgeist, to express ideas in new forms as new modes of communication make the transition into mainstream cultural consciousness. We surf those waves, looking for novel ways to express often old messages - new, better, aspirational - touchstones of the craft since the first drawing on a cave wall. Shows like these fill me with serenity and a wonderful sense of hopefulness for the talents who cut into dreams and extract raw handfuls of visions.

Plus, with everything for sale, I bought the coolest framed etching. Perhaps we’re all commercial artists, each in our own way.

Congratulations to shortlisted artist:
Dario Srbic, MA Photography
Alice Cazenave, MA Art and Science
Hugo Cantegrel, BA Fine Art: 3D
Inga Loyeva, MA Fine Art

Fine Art (Show One) is on display at Central Saint Martins 27-31 May; Design (Show Two), is up 24-28 June. Winners of the #LoweNova prize will be announced in June 2015.