Expert: Sean Trapani - 7/31/2007

Question
I currently work at a small marketing & PR firm where I'm getting experience doing all kinds of things. What I really want to do is copywriting, and I'm getting no experience in that area. When I was in school, all of my professors said I had a natural talent in that area. So I guess my question is what can I do to break into that field? My college portfolio was stolen so I don't have a portfolio anymore. Is it acceptable to have a portfolio completely made of "fake" ads? Just copy that I designed on my own? How important is graphic design for my book? At work now, I mainly do editing and things of that nature, how can I incorporate that into a portfolio? I know this is a lot of questions, but thank you in advance. Anything would be helpful at this point.

Answer
Hi, Sylvia

The good news is, depending upon where you live, it's not too difficult to break into copywriting these days - at least not from what I've seen.

Don't worry about your college portfolio. Your instincts are correct and design is important, but thousands of students are hired directly out of ad programs without "real" ads.

My suggestion is to A) find a friend who is a good designer/art director to help you put the ads together; or, B) design them yourself by using current ad design principles that can be "inspired" by good ads you'll find in ad annuals, like Communication Arts Advertising Annual.

Don't get me wrong - it's not going to be easy. But you can spin your current position into an active writing role (so you can claim some experience there); then, one way to get attention is to offer to do an ad on "spec" for an agency. Basically, that means that you will do the work for free - and they will only pay you if they use the work. This is how I got my foot in the door many eons ago.

Best of luck, Sylvia!


-ST