• by Larissa Faw , April 7, 2020

An overlooked aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic is the effect it’s having on the next generation of creative talent: graduating students at colleges and ad schools around the world who suddenly find themselves with little in the way of professional guidance, internships or job prospects.

The One Club for Creativity is responding to that void by transforming its annual in-person Young Ones Student Portfolio Review program into a free global online session.

 “After years of hard work, their classes and graduations have been canceled, they suddenly have no opportunity for one-on-one professional guidance and little prospect of a job or internship,” says Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club.  “The advertising and design community owes it to these young creatives to step up and help them.”

Students are invited to upload their portfolios at no cost and receive feedback from some of the industry’s top creative professionals. Among the participating creative leaders worldwide are FCB’s Susan Credle, McCann’s Rob Reilly, Goodby Silverstein & Partners’ Margaret Johnson, Burger King’s Fernando Machado, Apple’s Nick Law, and Google’s Chloe Gottleib.

Those interested in serving as reviewers can volunteer their services at the OneClub.org website.

Each year, The One Club holds a day of in-person portfolio reviews as part of the Young Ones Student Awards and Festival, where creative directors and recruiters already in town for the other Creative Week festivities volunteer to offer advice to eager fresh talent.  With Creative Week this year being “reimagined” into a broader online initiative due to the pandemic, the organization decided to switch to this new online format.

One upside is that instead of being limited to students able to attend in-person portfolio reviews this year’s online system opens up the review opportunity to students globally.