OUAN501 - Outside Collett Dickenson Pearce (11)

One of our final lectures was delivered by Janine Sykes on a case-study of (advertising practice) research she did titled, 'Outside Collett Dickenson Pearce'. Collett Dickenson Pierce being a British advertising agency which operated from 1960 till 2000. The agence was founded by John Pearce and Ronnie Dickenson who bought an existing agency owned by John Collett. Thus creating the name Collet-Dickinson-Pierce.

I believe the purpose of the lecture was to demonstrate to us as a year about the importance of research. Furthermore, she had to show us a full example of a case study from start to finish. This was a good example to us about how to go about creating a large body of research with a final end goal, especially when approaching the COP2 and even more so, the COP3 module next year. Through the example we would be shown process that we would be able to understand from a research perspective; understand the nature of a case study and (practice-based) research; gather insight into contextual analysis, see into the research findings that were collected and finally, like I previously mentioned, give us some important tools that would help with our COP 2 and 3 modules.

It was interesting to see how the research developed and what steps were taken in order to advance and broaden the information that was being collected. During the initial research that was done by speaking to people, reading from sourced and interviewing people for first hand accounts the name 'Collin Millward' came up. From here, it opened up a whole new avenue of research for the study. This was quite eye opening for me, and it showed me the relevance of talking to people and finding out as much as possible. It also demonstrated to me the way that research can progress through different ways, in this case it led to former LCA student, 'Collin Millward'. Research questions were also devised to further the development of the study. Layout out questions such as this gives a more objective driven study and gives the research a purpose and direction rather than finding out as much as possible only to have to scan through it for the more relevant information later.

• What type of art education did Collins & Millward experience at LCA? And could this have contributed to their successes?
• What were the contextual influences upon CDP work (1970s)?
• What’s so distinctive about their creative work?
• Where are Millward’s paintings David Puttnam mentioned?
• Why is CDP (still) most successful ad agency (creative awards) in the world?

Once the questions had been established, Janine went to the 'History of Advertising Trust' to collect more information about Collett Dickenson Piece. Archivists helped her to discover what she was looking for, and using sources such as D&AD catalogues she was able to collect even more information. Janine eventually curated an exhibition around Collett Dickenson Pierce titled, 'Outside Collett Dickenson Pierce.'