It's our final week at Leith for Chris and I. Ending not only a great Edinburgh adventure, but the partnership of CR and AP.
It's been two years (almost to the day) since we first moved up here. And I wouldn't have changed it for the world.
As I've found Scotland or agencies outside of London can offer young teams so much more.
Why?
Because you get thrown in the deep end.
In London you'll usually get eased into life. Feeding on scraps. Or working with two or three teams that are more senior than you, which means their ideas will more often than not get chosen over yours.
In our six month stint in London, we did a few press ads and a piece of DM. In six weeks up here, we'd done probably twice that. And since then, we've worked on numerous TV, radio, online and DM projects. Not to mention the odd pitch or two.
My skill set has increased. Purely with creative departments being more dependent on you knowing the software. No longer to do I fumble around CS3 and I've even learnt how to code (slowly). I'm not scared of writing 1,000 words. Or even having 10 or more briefs on my desk.
We've got to work on big clients. STV (Scotland's ITV), Historic Scotland, IRN-BRU, ScotRail and First Group to name a few. And had decent budgets to work with too.
We've been nominated for awards, had plenty of Fridays in the pub and even met a few celebs. It all happens. You don't have to be in London to get all that.
So when you have your sights set on London, be it now or when you graduate, see what's closer to home. You never know what great agencies are on your doorstep. Or in our case, the other end of the country. Even if it's just short term. It could have a great long-term effect on your career.
I've learnt so much up here. I've grown up. And then some. But I feel the time is right to start my new adventure in ad land, which starts on Monday... in London.