The Epica Book 2003
The 17th annual edition of the Epica Book features more than 800 commercials, print ads, publications, internet sites, direct marketing operations and packaging design projects honoured in the 2003/04 Epica Awards, Europe's premier creative award show.
Judged by journalists from 30 leading advertising magazines, the 17th Epica Awards attracted 4.554 entries from 609 of the best European advertising agencies, photographers and production houses in 39 countries.
All the Winners and finalists are in the Epica Book, together with a selection of other high-scoring campaigns.
The Epica Awards have become the reference for creative achievement in Europe. The Epica Book is a lasting record of the awards and a unique source of information for all those interested in contemporary European creative trends.
THIS BOOK WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO DO ADVERTISING. THIS BOOK WILL TEACH YOU HOW NOT TO DO ADVERTISING
John Pallant, European Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi.
This is the least interesting page in this book.
(Feel free to turn over now, if you wish. I completely understand.)
Much, much, much more interesting are just about all the others.
For there you'll find some of the best ideas from some of the most talented advertising writers and art directors in Europe.
And fabulous they are, too.
(The ideas, that is. The writers and art directors are a pretty odd bunch.)
Study them closely. And when you have studied them, keep this book by your side and study them again.
Because while there are many 'how to' books on just about everything else, this is the closest you'll get to a 'how to' book on creative advertising.
If you are just starting out in this business, there is much to learn here.
And even if you are not, there is much to be reminded of. The power of simplicity, the importance of..(well, I won't go on, you can find out for yourself).
You will see, too, that these principles apply everywhere in Europe .
There are no great cultural differences when it comes to advertising.
Look closer still, and you may even start to detect some techniques which could be borrowed and applied to your own work.
A layout design. The way a headline is constructed, perhaps. A clever image.
Please resist this temptation.
(Hard to do, I know, in these days of less people having to do more work in less time.)
And please resist it again in a few years from now when you think nobody will remember.
Because although this book will teach you how to do advertising, it will be advertising like the advertising in this book.
And as great as it is, the advertising in this book is now the great advertising of the past.
The great advertising of the future will be nothing like it. That's why it will be great advertising, of course.
And where will you find your inspiration for that? Well, fortunately, just about everywhere else apart from this book.
In other words, don't just spend your life thumbing through advertising annuals. And don't spend your life sitting in your office looking out at the world through the window either.
Go out and actively search out new experiences to feed your imagination. You'll have more fun, for one thing, and it will show in everything you do.
And then when you create an idea that bears the unique stamp of your personality and experiences, that's when other people will say, 'I wish I'd done that'. Because they couldn't possibly have done it in a million years.
(And guess what, some of those people will be sitting on awards juries.)
But before you do all that, of course, please do enjoy the wonderful work here and absorb everything it has to give you.
And be inspired, too.
But be inspired not to imitate, but to go and inspire us all back in return.
Which is all from me.
So now you can turn to the most interesting pages in this book.