Servus!

Hello to everyone who is reading my blog. My name is Godfrey, the creative intern from South Sudan. As promised in my last blog entry I will now tell you more about my work at Serviceplan Campaign in Munich.

It was quite a big change for me to switch from my one-man-company to an agency as big as Serviceplan that employs more than 900 people here in Munich – and many more worldwide. Even the apartment I live in is bigger than my creative workshop at home.

And that is great because I have so much space for my paintings. So far I’ve made several 60 x 60 cm paintings – and I was able to sell one of them to the very nice mother of a colleague last weekend. I am hoping to sell even more so that I can invest more money in my little business at home.

In the meantime I have also learnt a lot about working in Germany and for Serviceplan. First: The Germans are very diligent. They work long hours, are constantly on the phone and always on the go.

Although my colleagues are very busy I have a small team that looks after me very well. The creatives Elias, Lorenz and Franz, the account men Felix and Tobias and the Creative Director Oliver.

They always try to involve me in ongoing projects –I already attended a photo production for the engine oil AVIA, for example.

Then I did some illustrations for HiPP for a new drink. The colleagues were very excited by my work. Unfortunately the client cancelled the concept and we are currently working on a new idea. That is also a bit different from how things work at home. Here in Germany we constantly develop many more ideas, refine them and improve them. A bit like with a car.

Because I can draw so well and am a qualified graphic designer I have developed proposals for a new BMW Motorrad CARE logo. I tried to apply my own style and one proposal made it into the presentation. Wish me luck!

Then we also took part in a pitch. But that is still a secret, so I am not allowed to tell you who the client is. Wish us luck here also!

In addition, my colleagues support me with my own projects. I am working on my company logo „ProLine Artist“ and an online portfolio. And mainly they help me with my ideas for a big plan: I want to build my business and show other young people in South Sudan how to earn a living with art and creativity. This is really important to me, so others also have a chance.

South Sudan is still „under development“. We very often have power outages and a very slow internet connection. Society has a very conservative attitude, especially towards professions like graphic designers or artists in general. My parents wanted me to become a doctor or a lawyer. Until I started being successful and was able to earn a living with my work.

That’s why I am so excited that I can improve now and can pass on my knowledge to other young talents.

That’s it for today. I look forward to hearing from you, and next time I will tell you all about my trip to the „Directors Lounge“ in Düsseldorf.

Best wishes
Godfrey