When I was a wannabe creative I found a job by cycling around the offices of Leicester knocking on doors.
That's what the Tory Government of the time told us to do.
'Want a job? Get on your bike', they said.
I managed to get a job 3.5 miles from where I lived.
I worked out that 3.5 miles was the maximum distance that my front bicycle tyre would manage.
You see, it had a slow puncture and I couldn't afford a new inner tube.
I stuck a new Elastoplast on the inner tube every morning.
I pumped it up and it got me to work.
And every evening I stuck another Elastoplast onto the tube and managed to cycle home.
That's why my first job in advertising was at a local advertising agency called Gaytons.
3.5 miles away from home.
The Creative Director didn't have a bike.
He had a sports car and a pretty secretary.
He also had a hyphen.
I'd never met anyone with a hyphen before.
I was really impressed with hyphens.
Back then it meant you were posh and rich and you came from a good school.
The Creative Director was called Nigel Parry-Williams.
And when 'the hyphen' spoke I listened.
He told me that if I wanted to make it in advertising I would have to go to London.
I told him that if I worked in London I would need 60 Elastoplasts a day.
30 to get me there and 30 to get me back.
He gave me money for a train ticket.
Nowadays, young folk can afford inner tubes.
They can fill their house with inner tubes if they like.
So, they can work further than 3.5 miles from where they live.
It's not surprising that an increasing amount of my ex-students are now working a long way from home.
Here are some ex-Watford students who now work in The U.S.
Some of them have bikes.
None of them have hyphens.
Sherry Malik Ogilvy New York
Adam Arber, ex-Watford and now Creative Director. His Joe Boxer campaign for FCB Chicago, below.
Michael Micetich class of 2012 and now working as a writer at 22 Squared in Atlanta.
Simon Horton, ex-Watford, and now freelance writer/art director in New York. Simon is Brooklyn's very own Catman.
Simon's view from his office.
Below, Catman strikes.
There are stray cats behind every apartment I lived in. I fed them but wanted to do more, so sold this idea to my local cat charity:
The idea is that lucky cats have brought good fortune to people for centuries, so its time cats had some good fortune themselves - particularly those at the Brooklyn Animal Action. We made 40+ ceramic lucky cat donation boxes and put them in stores across Brooklyn.
Each ceramic cat was hand glazed to resemble a cat in need of adoption, we also added the cats name to the collar.
It's a tiny project but it's providing the charity with a steady income and helping with adoptions. Simon.
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| Ex-Watford team, Thom Glover and Eoin McClaughlin with the account handlers at Droga 5 New York. |
Ex-Watford, Jeeves works at Wieden & Kennedy, New York. Below, one of his silly films for Gap plus a recent print ad he did that unsettled a few people
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Sam Oliver, class of 1999 and now the Creative Director of Apple, Palo Alto California. Sam sent me a pic of Eric, his faithful gnome. Eric is not a digital gnome. He is just a gnome.
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Paddy Fraser, Watford Student Of The Year 2008 and now Creative Director at Crispin Porter, Los Angeles. Jana Pejkovska, ex-Watford and now a senior art director at Publicis New York .  |
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| Gavin Lester Creative Director, Deutsch Los Angeles. |
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| Antony Goldstein Creative Director WK Portland, Oregon. |
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| James Cooper Creative Director Betaworks New York. |
