Creative vs. Creative Director

There's an article in CA's Interactive Annual by Xanthe Wells called "Promoted to Fail." It includes  this chart from Rob Schwartz.

I love it. It's true. Absolutely true.

But if you're a young creative with aspirations of becoming a creative director, don't just jump to the right-hand column. Embrace the left side. Be about your book. Have lots of ideas. Worry about now. It's what you need to do now.

Someday, you'll realize you're more concerned about the client than your book. You'll know what finding the idea feels like. Unifying won't sound so lame and kumbaya-ish.

Nothing wrong with either column. Just know where you fall. And play your part as best you can.

It doesn't have to be what you think it has to be.

I'm a fan of Stephan Sagmeister. I like his book. I like his TED talks. Maybe I'm suckered by the Viennese accent, but I think he does fascinating work.

Sagmeister was asked by Adobe to "make an interpretive graphic of their logo." A lot of creatives would have come back to Adobe with just that. A different version of their logo. Sagmeister gave them a game show. The first episode is below. But you should view the entire experience here.


Episode 1, Sagmeister X Walsh from Sagmeister & Walsh on Vimeo.

I work at The Richards Group. And though I'm not on this account, one of our most famous campaigns is the Chick-fil-A cows. This is one of the longest-running, most-awarded advertising campaigns around. And the Cows were completely off-brief. Not even close. The idea was at odds with the original strategy. It took guts to present something off-brief to the clients. And it took guts for the client to buy it. But it's done pretty well for both parties.

We all approach assignments with pre-conceptions. And sometimes we're able to overcome them. But even then, we still stay within expected parameters. Yes, we have clients to answer to. And yes, we have to be grown-ups and deliver what we promised. But don't let that stop you from doing something more.

It doesn't have to be what you think it has to be.

The 30 Most Creative Women In Advertising

How many amazing, world-class female creatives can you name? (Go ahead, post them in the comments section, I'm curious.) Not just good female creatives, but Cannes-jury-level female creatives. Off-hand, I can think of four or five. And a couple of them aren't really in the business anymore. I know there are more. But unfortunately, they don't come as easily to mind.

There are lots of women in advertising. But not on the creative side. At least not in my experience. If you're a female writer or art director, I hope you can change that. I hope you can put your stamp on the industry. Here's a list to get you inspired. It's The 30 Most Creative Women In Advertising according to Business Insider.

Go through the list. See how many of these women you already know. You probably already know their work. See what they do, and how they do it. Then, go do it yourself.

Guys, you may want to pay attention, too.

Things We Don't Want To Hear In A Radio Ad (Parts 1 and 2)

Things We Don't Want to Hear in a Radio Ad (Part 1) from Radio Mercury Awards on Vimeo.

Things We Don't Want to Hear in a Radio Ad (Part 2) from Radio Mercury Awards on Vimeo.

Moving and Working Overseas

Having worked overseas, I get a lot of questions from students about how they can work abroad, too. I published pretty much all I know in this free ebook. But my experience is hardly comprehensive.

I recently traded emails with Tripp Jakovich, a creative working in Shanghai. I asked Tripp to share his advice on moving and working overseas. Here's what he had to say:

Back in October I decided to take my chances abroad in hopes of starting a career amongst the heavy hitters of the advertising world. So I set my sights on Shanghai, China. It wasn’t a completely random decision. Having used to live in Beijing and a working knowledge of the Mandarin language, it seemed like a reasonable venture.

Within two weeks, not only did I meet a multitude of inspiring individuals, but I also landed a job as a copywriter at an international agency.

The ad industry flourishes in cities like Shanghai. With more brands establishing themselves in the Chinese market, it only makes sense that agencies are following suit and setting up shop. After months of learning about the opportunities to be had, I compiled a few reasons why and how one might start a career overseas (in advertising or otherwise).

1. The Whys

-       Go out, see the world and challenge yourself. Find out what you are really capable of. If you can make it on your own in a foreign country, you can likely be successful anywhere.

-       Creative curriculum is prominent in Western education. In my experience, it seems artistic minds are in short supply in developing countries. Their more basic needs drive educative focuses, so creative education isn’t really necessary. For cities with growing ad scenes, there is a huge demand for people who have learned to control and communicate the creative process.

-       You will get chances to prove yourself no matter how experienced you are. I have been given responsibilities and opportunities that I never would have had in the US because of my limited amount of time in the advertising field.  

2. The Hows

-       As always, do your research. I used both WeChat as well as LinkedIn to search for people who were working at companies in which I was interested. By merely reaching out to them, I was able to get a number of different interviews. Don’t be afraid to ask.

-       Get lost and connect. Go explore the city and meet people along the way. Get lost and find your way back home by asking directions. Stop at a bar, buy someone a drink and pick his or her brain. If that person has any jobs leads or connections, your desire to learn will leave a good impression.

-       Take the plunge. Just go for it, no extensive plan needed. Don’t have a job lined up just yet? Hire a headhunter a few months before you leave.  Set up some interviews for when you arrive. Meet people and find work through new contacts.

-       Have faith that it will work out. It always does in the end, doesn’t it? You will find a way and when you do, your fight to success will make you mentally stronger and more confident in your abilities. 

VCU Brandcenter launches Experience Design Track

Whenever I go to the VCU Brandcenter's recruiter session, I get so inspired when I talk to the Creative Technologists. They make some crazy-cool stuff. Tangible, with real-world applications. To be honest, the thought has crossed my mind... "Dang, I should go back to school and learn to do what these cats are learning."

So it's exciting to hear the news that the CT track is evolving. It will now be called Experience Design. The curriculum concentrates on the conception, design, prototyping and building of brand experiences  - pushing the envelope on what is technologically possible.

From the Brandcenter:

"We are experience designers.  We dream things.  We make things.  We break things.  And then, we do it again.  We don't define ourselves by the things that we make.  We do define ourselves by how those things make others think and feel and act. That is why, on any given day you might find us making any number of things:  ads, interfaces, apps, wearables, robots, flying machines, ... whatever it takes."

Last year's students were in high demand. They will continue to be so as agencies and brands see their increased value. Students interned and were hired by companies like Coca-Cola, The Barbarian Group, BBH, The Martin Agency, AKQA, Deutsch LA, and R/GA, to name a few.

 The track is run by Andrew Levasseur. Here's what he has to say about it.

If you're interested, here's some more info. This is without a doubt where the industry is headed. It's not surprising to see the school one step ahead.

Cris Carter on Stuart Scott

You probably saw the news a couple weeks ago that Stuart Scott, ESPN sports anchor, passed away after a long battle with cancer. Many moving and inspirational things were said about Stuart. He was indeed one-of-a-kind. You could see in the genuine reactions how much respect and love his colleagues had for him. One reaction that really struck me was Cris Carter's. I can't figure out how to imbed the video, but you can see it here, at about 5:10.

"He was a role model for me. He talked, on Sportscenter, like me and my friends talked. He did it his way and was great at it."

That, for me, summed up why Stuart Scott was so revolutionary. Before Sportscenter, sports news was kind of like the other news. The guys on Sportscenter talked about sports like fans, like a bunch of guys just hanging out watching a game. They changed the way sports were covered everywhere. Scott, in particular, brought a unique voice. He wove hip-hop references into his coverage and connected with young people everywhere--urban African-American kids because he sounded like them and young white kids because he just sounded cool. Someone could have--probably did at some point--tell him that he wasn't talking like a serious sportscaster. But he did it his way. He believed in his voice. That's what made him great.

The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry

I read a handful of books on creative thinking and management every year. Some are more helpful than others. The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry is one I found full of good advice from both perspectives. In a nutshell, Henry's focus is on practices that help us make the most of our creative resources (time and energy). It also has some good advice about managing a creative environment. 

My review is below, along with some random notes (I post reviews of everything I read on my personal blog). 

Additionally, Henry runs The Accidental Creative podcast. And he has a new book out, Die Empty. I haven't read that book. If anyone has, let me know what you think of it. The title's a little cheesy, but he usually has smart stuff to say. 

Bill Murray

I was going to add something else to the title of this post, like ":Creative Genius" or ":Master of the Unexpected," or ":God of Mt. Comedius," but if you need more than "Bill Murray," you should be kicked in the nuts.

I just finished this article about Murray in Rolling Stone. Please read it. My takeaway from it, broadly, is that the characteristics that make you a good creative person are the same characteristics that make you a good person. A fun, interesting person, at least.

In addition to some great stories, here are a few gems:

"Someone told me some secrets early on about living. You can do the very best you can when you're very, very relaxed. And I realized the more fun I had, the better I did." 

"Wear your wisdom lightly, so insights come as punchlines." 

On his famously bizarre/amazing interactions with the strangers: 
"My hope, always, is that it's going to wake me up. I'm only connected for seconds, minutes a day, sometimes. And suddenly, you go, 'Holy cow, I've been asleep for two days. I've been doing things, but I'm just out.' If I see someone who's out cold on their feet, I'm going to try to wake that person up. It's what I'd want someone to do for me. Wake me the hell up and come back to the planet." 

Pushing for cool.

Seems every time OK Go comes out with a new video I have to post about it.



What does this have to do with advertising? As I've written before, OK Go does a great job of surprising the viewer. That's what great advertising does. We say "That was cool." What we mean was, "That surprised me."

The band could have made this entire video about those Honda Uni-Cub scooters, and it would have been been pretty cool.

And that's where a lot of advertising creatives stop. We come up with one idea and say, "Cool. Let's do it."

But what OK Go did was say, "Cool. And then what?"

We take them outside the studio and ride around.

"Cool. And then what?"

We have a bunch of Japanese girls come dance around us.

"Cool. And then what?"

We film this with a drone to get a bird's eye view of us and the Japanese girls.

"Very cool. And then what?"

We make patterns that can only be seen from the drone's eye view.

"Cool. And then what?"

We incorporate umbrellas opening and closing to add some color.

"Cool. And then what?"

We use the umbrella's as pixels and create patterns only the drone could see.

"Very cool. And then what?"

Let's not just create patterns. Let's create images. And even text.







They could have just stopped at "Let's ride around on Honda Uni-Cub scooters."

And that's where most of us stop creatively.

But there's always more we can do.

Don't stop too early.

You've got to push for cool.



(On a side note, I just did my first shoot with a drone. Loved it. Shout out to Charlie Kaye, our drone pilot.)