Three places that want your creativity when your ad agency doesn’t

Congrats! You’ve made it! Your business card finally reads “Copywriter” underneath your name. That’s great! Because starting now, you can immerse yourself in the thing you do best – creativity – AND get paid for it. What more could you ask for?

Do you want your creativity to spread?

But soon enough, the harsh reality sets in. The creative job you’ve dreamed of for so long drags on for weeks without the slightest hope of showing your creativity.

Your CD hits you with brief after brief, all daily business for that one client whose life goal seems to be crushing every little attempt at creativity.

So you go home at night, totally exhausted and disillusioned, ready to just call it quits.

Don’t. Every creative goes through the cycle of letting their creativity run wild and then caging it in the smallest, tightest pocket possible.

The unsaid part of your card reading “Copywriter” is that you have to learn how to live with this cycle; you have to come to accept it; and finally to take advantage of it.

Yes, you can most definitely take advantage of it. Here’s three ways you can do that.

1. Work on a creative brief for someone else

Team Darwin is a different kind of ad agency and becoming its employee is easier than creating an e-mail account.

Founded and headed by one creative and one strategist, Team Darwin is, in their own words, “the community powered creative agency that breeds in effectiveness.” In less fancier terms, if you’re a creative in dire need of a challenge, join their team and all sorts of wonderful briefs will come your way.

Their projects, quite often, require fresh thinking and allow you to stretch your creative legs. And if you stretch them long enough and your idea or even an element of it gets selected, you get paid.

And voila! You’ve got your dream job back.

2. Add a new skill to your resume

The internet is filled with places where you can pick up a new skill. Iversity is one of those places and it’s not half bad.

As an online university, it offers a wide range of free courses, from Architecture all the way to Economics and Philosophy. And that range includes your writing niche. All you need to enroll is an e-mail address and an internet connection.

Their courses are fun, easy to follow, and, most importantly, liberating for your creativity.

Everything that I’ve failed to mention, you can find at www.iversity.org.

3. Get on TV

No, I am not suggesting a reality TV show. I’ve got something better.

hitRECord is Joseph Gordon Levitt’s long-time project which just so happens that is now a TV show.

So what is it, actually? An online community where artists of all kind (yes, writers too) are invited to contribute their work. Once uploaded, the content belongs to the community, which collaboratively edits, remixes and develops each other’s work to create short films, songs, animations, music videos – everything creative.

The result is featured on a TV variety show. If you want to see the first episode, head over to www.hitrecord.org.

So there you have it. No need to quit your job. No need to lose faith in creativity. Regardless of the brief that’s lying on your desk right now, you can easily reawaken and get your creative juices flowing in no time.

Andreea Nedelcu – Copywriter

Andreea is a Hamburg-based conceptual copywriter with over 3 years of experience. Although officially trained as an Art Director, she’s realized that no amount of Photoshop filters can dwindle her one true love – copywriting. So ever since, she’s travelled the world while writing for full-service agencies, smaller places and international ones alike.