An incomplete record of current creative professionals student portfolios
Mitch Bennett is the ECD at Baldwin& .
Before that he was Chief Creative Officer at Luckie, an SVP, Executive Creative Director at Fitzco, an Associate Creative Director at CP+B, a Creative Director at GSD&M, a Senior Writer at McKinney, and a copywriter at BBDO.
Before that he was a student at Creative Circus.
His work has been recognized at every major award show including Cannes, One Show, D&AD, Clios, Art Directors Club, New York Festivals, and the Mercury Awards.
Current Portfolio: https://www.mitchbennett.com/
Student Portfolio Below
From Mitch:
When I graduated Creative Circus, you left with a printed certificate and 300-lb suitcase full of mounted print ads to drag around the streets of ad towns. Everything you’d been working on for two years, clean and neat and ready to be awkwardly lifted out and shown to someone one-on-one at their desk. Yes, the internet existed then. But the idea of using it for an online portfolio did not.
Anyway, here is a peek into my student book in all its awkward glory.
People told us that the first headline looks like it says SOUP but we were not receptive to this clear and obvious feedback.
Art Director: Steve Hollis
This ad depicts a piece of technology called a fax machine.
Art Director: Jeff Parson
Later at McKinney, my partner Wes Whitener and I sold these ads to an online Swatch dealer and reshot them to not have the headlines-in-the-picture thing going on which helped a lot in that it meant we could have the headline replace this cringey body copy. They got in Archive and won our first award, a print show called the Kelly Awards, but then they stripped us of it when the award show learned it had run in a Canadian magazine. It’s a tough business, people.
Art directors love when you write 600,000 words. Well done, Joel Williams.
Art Director: Joel Williams
Art Director: Sergio Moreno
There was a third where the card member name was Vanilla Ice but I think someone must have convinced me to throw it away.
Art Director: Stephanie Simpson
They definitely don’t make ads like this anymore! And for good reason.
Art Director: Joel Williams
A long-lasting paper towel? What does that even mean? Luckily no one ever questioned it.
Art Director: Marco Worsham
I took this baby to New York with plans of showing it to every agency I could get into. I had my printed Google Maps ready to go, and headed to BBDO, where I had my first interview lined up. Bill Bruce looked at my book, said he liked it and that he was going to keep it. I thought he was kidding so I said, all cool-like, “Okay.” And then he just kept it. And I went back out onto the street with no book or any proof of the last two years. Not even the printed certificate. And then later that day they called and offered me the job. Which I gladly accepted, because it was a really good place to start a career and because I didn’t have a portfolio anymore.