If I Had A Portfolio Jess Price
Daughter of florists. Listened to the obituaries on the radio every morning for 18 years and thought it was normal. Grew up in a greenhouse situated between a cemetery, a cornfield, an envelope factory warehouse, and train tracks (wrong side).
And then someone let me into WK12.
WK12 They told me I was a copywriter. I wasn’t going to argue, so here I am acting like a copywriter.
VW You know those old VW ads that are so perfect and changed advertising and no one will ever top? Well, WK12 creative director Jim Riswold thought it would be a good exercise for each of us to take a stab at them. You know, because we’re a bunch of ad newbies who can totally handle that caliber of work. CW/AD: Jess Price
Wordstock On my second day as a copywriter in wk12, Wieden+Kennedy’s in-house ad school, we were tasked to do the advertising for wordstock, the largest literary festival in the pacific northwest. It just so happened that several of this festival’s authors were food writers, and it just so happens that Portland is pretty bonkers about their food. And so it was that our driving idea became “be a literary omnivore,” or as we liked to say in 12, BALO. Holy christ, we made a lot of stuff for this campaign. Here is just some of it.
The campaign hit a lot of traditional media including newsprint, pole banners, and bus ads. The most engaging work lived in two prime Portland locations: Powell’s bookstores and New Seasons Markets. Wordstock was a collaborative effort on many fronts, as no one in 12 had one single role. I was one of three assigned copywriters, however, I shared the task with the whole crew.
the film making school at nwfc
The Portland Art Museum’s Northwest Film Center’s School of Film is not a good name for a film school. In the process of looking for a new name we realized that this school is all about making. And then there was a happy typo. And then there was The Film Making School. I shared copywriting duties with anyone who was capable of writing words and sharing them.
wk12.7 Recruitment 12.7 wasn’t going to recruit itself, so a few of us got down to business. we produced zines, buttons, postcards, and a video that were sent to various influencers. ads for idea makers were placed on craigslist and job search sites in over 50 cities across the country. all traffic was driven to a website where applicants registered and downloaded their application. beyond just tweeting about the site, we also invited followers to skype with us if they had any questions about the program. www.wk12.com/year7 CW: Jess Price, Beth Fujiura, Casey Hall AD: Beth Fujiura, Casey Hall
now is your
chance
to charm our collective pants off. Show us who you are and how you think with what you do/create/build/write/draw. Send us whatever work defines you. We have attached an assignment for you, too. It’s a blank sheet of paper. 8.5” x 11”. Do anything you want with it. Slam it all in a 9” x 12” envelope. Get it in our hands by April 1, 2010. W+K 12 224 NW 13th Ave. Portland, OR 97209
no place like home
12 had the run of the wieden+ kennedy gallery space for a month and decided to just move in. we practically live at the agency already, so why not bring home to work? for four nights, we worked, created art, and slept in the space. shockingly, no one died. and on the fifth day, we had a housewarming party and it was good. the whole process was captured on camera and live streamed on the no place like home website. sometimes that was fun and sometimes it was just plain embarrassing. I was responsible for curating the furniture and personal belongings brought to the space as well as a great deal of painting and managing people and going to Target. www.12noplacelikehome.com
oregon zoo the oregon zoo has this habit of having a summer dinosaur exhibit at the zoo. 12 presented several campaign directions to promote it. manu and i took on the “make dinosaur facts cool� direction. our creative director loved it. the client put it on the extinction list. cw: jess price ad: emanuel gregori
LEARN ABOUT THE FINAL DAYS OF DINOS AND MORE AT THE OREGON ZOO
Neighborhood Poo Watch One of our WK12 assignments was to figure out how to keep dog owners from leaving their dogs’ shit on Andrew Dickson’s lawn. This was supposed to be a quick exercise that would last a day. Instead we worked on a variety of solutions for several months. The Neighborhood Poo Watch is a reminder to owners that their dogs’ poo is not welcome and the neighbors are watching. Flyers are left at the homes around the Dickson household, urging people to post lawn signs to designate a poo free neightborhood. CW: Jess Price AD: Beatrice Thompson
minigolf i really wanted 12 to make a hole for holocene’s minigolf art invitational. we did. sometimes what you think you want is not what you want after all. photos deliberately not shown.
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR: 10 Lessons From Minigolf
1. Don’t manage a project that you can’t physically do on your own if need be. 2. Trust the ideas and opinions of others. 3. If you know he’s wrong, don’t listen to the benefactor just because he’s the benefactor. 4. Don’t manage a project that hinges on the participation of someone you utterly despise. 5. Find the courage to tell your team that their idea is bad. 6. Don’t be afraid to pull the plug. 7. Don’t rely on people you know you can’t rely on. 8. Be nice. No one listens to a bitch. 9. Don’t entrust the budget to someone who doesn’t understand the concept of budgets. 10. Don’t feel bad. It doesn’t matter and it’s over.
issue 3: blind faith
issue 7: the interview issue
no.2 no. 2 is 12.6’s bathroom zine. it lives in the bathrooms of wieden+kennedy portland. every two weeks, one of our names is drawn out of a viking helmet and that person is in charge of the theme, cover, and production of the next issue. each 12er gets their own spread to express the issue’s theme. see the full issues at http://issuu.com/wk12/docs
nearly award winning moustaches
i once entered an agency-wide moustache contest at wieden+kennedy. i took the ladies division at the portland office with my steel wool ‘stache, but was defeated by a beautifully groomed upper lip in tokyo. the muppet ‘stache was simply more comfortable to wear.
OUTSIDE OF Wk12 sure, i spend a lot of time doing 12 stuff, but occasionally i manage to get some other things done.
hand writing i have had a long habit of writing notes to myself on the back of my hand. this on-going documentation is a reminder of what i’ve reminded myself of. for more, see my blog. yep, i have a blog: http://ifihadablog.tumblr.com
words occasionally i write things that don’t have anything to do with advertising.
I’M NOT IN A RUT
I’m in a fucking pit.
It’s deep and it’s pretty dark, but it’s not that bad. I mean, it’s definitely a pit, but it’s like the kind of pit that’s got, like, really good snacks and a pretty good—not great—but a pretty comfortable chair. And there’s this ladder right freaking in front of me. Not a ladder, actually. That’s too easy. A rope ladder. Not a rope ladder, just a rope. Like the rope you had to climb in gym class. A real long fucker at that. Remember: the pit is deep. Anyway—it’s a pit, but there’s the rope. But also the snacks. Snacks like Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion potato chips. And cake. Sometimes Vanilla Coke. I thought they had discontinued V. Coke, but I saw one the other day and I bought it. It was good. Not the kind of thing you want to have all of the time—too sweet, but still good every now and then. Anyway, there’s always an escape route on account of the rope, but who’s to say what’s up there? Maybe it’s all hot and muggy. Maybe it’s raining. This pit sure is nice and cool. But maybe you get up there and there’s a dragon and he gives you a high five and shows you around—OR—maybe you get to the top and the dragon is all cheeky and says, “It wasn’t worth it!” and then just gobbles you up.
Probably just worth it to stay in the cool pit, right? I sure do love snacks.
junk listen, i really like junk. really pretty junk. if i could spend all day trolling around looking for weird old sewing supplies, dusty envelopes, ugly paintings, random doll parts, and the like, i would. but for whatever reason i can’t do that everyday, and it breaks my fucking heart. so instead i just plaster my walls with it and stare at it all day. someday i will own a junk shop and finally i will be happy.
Experience worth mentioning W+K 12 - Portland, OR Copywriter July 2009 - Present
Experience worth mentioning from A PREVIOUS LIFE Holocene - Portland, OR Assistant to Bookers, Stage Manager April 2008 - July 2009 Everyday Music - Seattle, WA/ Portland, OR Record Store snob January 2006 - March 2008 Fanclub Collective - Ithaca, NY Concert Promoter - President April 2002 - May 2004
education Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Graduated May 2004 Fuller’s Coffee Shop - Portland, OR Server April 2008-July 2009
i always read all of my emails and deal with them in a timely fashion, which is important because not all people do that: jessicaprice65@gmail.com
only communicate in 140 characters? twitter.com/jessprice65
SURE: linkedin.com/in/jessprice65
please do not call me: 217-370-9448
see more work at www.ifihadawebsite.com
see more bullshit at www.ifihadablog.tumblr.com
well, i guess this is goodbye.
goodbye.