Ika Jumali + Maddy Merzvinskis’ Cannes Diary #1

Ika Jumali (left) and Maddy Merzvinskis (right), designer and brand designer at CHEP Network are competing in the Design category of the Cannes Young Lions competition. The pair write exclusively for CB.

Hey Campaign Brief.

Who knew summer in the South of France would be this darn hot.

Day 1 of Cannes has been… overwhelming? Exhausting? Inspiring? Way more sweaty than anticipated? All of the above?

Here are our Top 3 Takeaways from today:

1. 1. Take care of yourself and the rest will come.

We started off the day with Stevie Archer, Executive Creative Director at SS+K, and Soyoung Kang, Chief Marketing Officer at eos Products, giving us their tips for survival in an Inspiration Session for all 450+ Young Lions competitors. This thought stuck with us – “it’s hard for your heart and soul to create when your body is just trying to survive.” How poetic is that?! That means eating proper food, staying hydrated and actually getting some sleep before expecting yourself to be at your creative best. Considering we’re about to throw ourselves into a 24 hour brief, this felt like particularly pertinent advice.

1. 2. Don’t try to come up with ideas.

Yeah, you heard us. Another pearl of wisdom from the super-duo above – “Don’t try to come up with ideas. Try to solve problems.” Sitting down to a blank page and asking yourself to come up with a great idea can sometimes make you freeze up. But every brief can be broken down into smaller problems, and smaller problems, and smaller problems. And if you know what the problem is, you can figure out how to solve it, or make it better, or more interesting.

1. 3. Have a power nap.

It’ll do you wonders. Seriously.

Now, we’re about to kick off our 24 hour brief for the Young Lions Design Competition – so we’ll see you tomorrow when we’re even more underslept than we already are, and probably just as sweaty.