Creative Portfolio class at OU

20 hours of in-class work crammed into a three-day marathon over the weekend, where the creative concept is key and coffee is a necessity. Yes, I’m talking about the Creative Portfolio class taught by Bob Rickert. Bob is a Creative Director at an agency in Boulder, Colorado. The University of Oklahoma flies this one of a kind in two times during a sixteen week semester where you literally sit in a class Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and pump out as many ideas you can on a variety of brands from Tupperware to Lost Trail Root Beer.

The Class is structured so that you get the most out of the time you have with Bob where you jump right in with showing any of the work you have done in the past. It’s more of a round-table discussion on what constitutes your “good” and “bad” ideas. Most of them were on the latter side of what constitutes a really good ad for me, but hey, the ideas were there.

After that you are given clients to start marketing either the whole brand or specific items within that brand. You can leave the classroom if you wish and you get a few hours to just pump out idea after idea. By day three, the whole class is starting to show the signs of being cooped up in a room together, but some great things emerge out of our work. Everyone ends up with a great direction to go, and the end result should be a working portfolio that everyone is proud of.

Out of all of the classes I have taken at the University of Oklahoma, this is the one that has been most informational and creative for me. As a creative advertising student, there are not many ways in which to expand your knowledge through classes here, but this is a MUST for anyone that wishes to be a creative in the ad industry. Bob is invaluable in his knowledge, you’ll meet your peers that have similar interests as you, and when it’s all said and done, you’ll be coming out with a greater knowledge of the industry itself.

As for what this portfolio is for, I spoke with Bob about the faults of the creative program here and he said you have to shoot for something like what they are offering at the University of Virginia, BrandCenter, (which is where I’m currently applying to.) Sad as it is that there is no creative masters program here, at least there are ways for students to find an outlet in what seems to be the most underrepresented side of the advertising business at OU.

I've included that VCU BrandCenter promo video, where it speaks of the people, instructors, directors, building and program at the University. The work is great and I would love to go here.