Diving in headfirst: Lucas & Chris, our Next Gen-ers

People & Culture

As part of our Next Gen programme, designed to inspire the next generation to choose a career in the creative industry, we partnered with the School of Communication Arts to bring Lucas and Chris into our agency for a paid placement. We sat down with them to hear about their experience at We Are Social.

We’re Lucas & Chris, a creative duo born at the School of Communication Arts. Like all great love stories, we were friends first. Only deciding to make it official at the very end.

Chris is a music and art nerd – a sucker for the classics. With a background in media, he knows how to make an idea travel, and as an art director, he brings a good eye to any project.  

Lucas is obsessed with fashion and football. Growing up in Portugal, he’s seen many ballers bring the flair, but the fashion remains questionable. With a past in strategy, he’s supposed to bring logic; most times, he brings madness…

We believe in the disappearing art of the creative duo. The bouncing of ideas to birthing them and the sacred act of killing them. The partnership is the best part of the job.

1. What surprised you the most about working in a social first creative agency? 

How unrestrictive it is. As creatives, we love not being boxed in by formats or channels. If it’s an idea that gets people talking, we’re up for it, and We Are Social feels like the perfect marriage for that kind of thinking.

2. And what did you enjoy most?

Difficult question, we’ve been getting some banging briefs, but it’s hard not to shout out the amazing team we’ve been working with. 

3. What’s a key lesson you learnt? (and who taught it to you!)

The doughnut-shaped idea. How do you create an idea that leaves space for people to get involved, and build talkability that way? Huge shoutout to Ken Moore and Simon Richings for teaching us this (and plenty more) so far.

4. What was your favourite piece of work that you got to be a part of? 

We’ve been part of a creative brief onslaught, kindly orchestrated by the team, so we’ve seen our fair share of briefs. Plenty of great ones: from Lucozade to Booking.com.  But if we had to choose, Carlsberg takes the cake.

5. What’s one piece of advice you’d give new joiners at We Are Social, knowing what you know now about life at the agency?

Dive in headfirst. Everyone here is really sound and always ready to help, so don’t sweat the mistakes, ask loads of questions, and ask for help if you need it. At first, we felt a bit awkward admitting we didn’t know something, but everyone always went the extra mile to help. Also, a big shoutout to Cat Holbrook for making it all feel so smooth.

6. Sum up your experience in emojis

🔥🏆🔝

And, what did Chris and Lucas’ line manager have to say? 

“Chris and Lucas have brought the energy for Lucozade, have been an incredible creative team on Carlsberg and constantly gone above and beyond across the agency. Marc Lewis at the SCA really knows how to set up his students for success at a creative agency built for a world dominated by social media.” – Ken Moore, Creative Director at We Are Social 

We want to inspire the next generation to choose a career in the creative industry. Our next gen programme consists of a mix of academic partnerships – like this one with Chris and Lucas – our Upstarts initiative, which is a week-long work experience programme for young underrepresented talent, and inspiration and immersion sessions. Click here to learn more about Next Gen at We Are Social.