We have been in existence now since 1988. We are currently located in Los Angeles and Orange County, California. If you live near there, you may want to sign up to take our courses in person with our many professional instructors. Otherwise, you can go through our online program here on this site. There are no instructors for these online courses. Instead, you will learn how to build a portfolio with sample ad examples, assignments and lesson plans. We are very proud of our success in the advertising industry with helping students build the kinds of portfolios that have allowed them to get jobs over the years at many advertising agencies in cities across America and beyond. In fact, we have helped hundreds of students over the years, many who are now working professionals in the field of advertising and related fields. In these online courses, we will definitely give you all the tools you will need and then it will be up to you to build the shed (well, the portfolio in this case!) or to learn how to do great ads for your business.
There are five classes/workshops total in the online program: Introductory Workshop, Intermediate Workshop, Advanced Workshop, Body Copy/Radio Writing Workshop (this class is for writers only) and Art Direction/Layout Workshop (this class is for Art Directors only). Copywriters and Art Directors typically work as a team in the creative department at an ad agency, so the first three workshops are designed for both to learn how to come up with ideas and create attention-getting ads for a portfolio. We then have a class just for the Copywriters to learn how to write the body copy for their ads and also how to write award-winning radio spots. For Art Directors, we offer a course on layout, type style choices and designing your ads to catch attention. (Art Directors note: you will need to know how to use design programs on your computer such as Photoshop, In Design, Illustrator, etc. We do not offer these courses, though many local colleges do).
Each class runs for a “semester” that goes for nine weeks. You will get 8 assignments that can take a week each to complete, though given that this is an online course, it is up to you to go at your own pace. Just be sure to spend enough time on each week’s assignment to get the most out of the workshop. There is no way to “rush” this process. Be sure that you are absorbing each style of ad we cover and understand why the sample ads we are showing are working well so that you can emulate them for your own ad ideas.
If your goal is to finish a portfolio, we advise that you complete the entire series of classes. Each class is designed to prepare you for the next. So any single class simply won’t be enough to be able to build the kind of portfolio you’ll need to get a job in today’s market.
