How To Network

Being a Minneapolis native, I was spoiled with constant opportunities to network with individuals in advertising, design and other creative fields. When I came to Arkansas I had to learn to seek them out.

I network because I’ve found that through sharing with people in the industry, you get a good gauge of your level of work, are among the first to know about new job opportunities, you can feed off of one another’s ideas and you get your name out there with people that could share your work in their network.

When coming to Arkansas where there is no advertising, design or creative community I found I had to rely more on social networking to connect.

1. Blogging. Although I never had been one for blogging initially, I have found that through this blog I have made a number of connections when a post inspired debate, discussion of work or simply having them look at my personal site after reading my blog. I’ve been able to receive a lot of feedback that has inspired me to revisit my portfolio and refresh my personal brand.

2. Twitter. I’ve always been one too much prefer a face-to-face conversation to 140 characters of exchange. Yet, I’ve found that through sharing the things that I like, I’ve made connections with like-minded people that has progressed to longer conversation and collaboration over messaging and emails.

3. Linked In. Many have a profile; but, few see the value in it. I’ve found that it has been useful in two distinct ways. One, it allows for me to bookmark the people in my profession that I made a valuable connection with. Two, through using your few free emails to target individuals in your industry asking for feedback, I’ve found I’ve fostered strong connections and received great constructive criticism on my work.

Although this is by no means the only ways to connect, and not the only ways I’ve tried, I’ve found that through blogging, twitter and linked in I’ve achieved the best networking results so far. Yet my biggest piece of advice is, if you currently live in a hub of advertising and design use those networks to meet people, you’ll be glad you did.

Creatives Breaking Into the Industry

One of my biggest concerns with the ad industry is the increasing difficulty for young, talented creatives to break in.

I was told by a creative recruiter, that I highly respect and admire, that he feels a college education should be a requirement or a high level consideration. Speaking as one that has an expensive college education from a private design school, I totally disagree with this analysis.

I also believed that one of the best things about the ad industry is some of the best creatives had absolutely no intention of doing advertising in the first place and have no formal education in it. I think it should, as it has for so long, come down to only the work. No matter if the creative spent four years putting his or her book together or a weekend, the only determining factor should be how good their book is.

Yet, no matter what, the monetary and time investment in trying to break into the industry for networking, developing concepts, putting together a book, making revisions, publishing a website, interviewing, following up, etc. is rapidly rising and may hold back some extremely talented creatives in the future.

Non-Existent Hero

Can your hero be non-existent?

Society, across all spectrums, appears to have embraced the idea that one can become a hero to another before their prime has passed or even when it has just started. For example, a few designers and artists that are currently looked up to and studied in art and design schools are still very much active in their fields, such as Barbara Kruger, Michael Graves or Milton Glaser.

My question though is the idea that your hero could actually be someone younger than yourself. The concept of looking up to one that is a fresh up start. An example for me, and a few of the people that I went to MCAD with, is Olly Moss. A relatively younger designer and illustrator in the UK, best know for his movie poster work, that could be at par with some of the greats such as Paul Rand or the Eames.

I don’t think it is unusual because I feel that when one is a great in their field, no matter what their age or industry experience, they deserve the recognition for their ability.

What Inspires You?

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." -Jack London

I believe that seeking out inspiration, not just for a specific project, but as an ongoing process is necessary for all successful creative people. The things that inspire us tend to be so different, and for many, it doesn't always come from the same creative field as our own.

I collected together all of the inspiring things that I have posted on my facebook over the last year. They tend to be from industrial design, graphic design, advertising and things that just made me smile.

Check it out and get inspired: pictoral///video

Heimie's Haberdashery

As I mentioned in previous posts, I started working on a project for a small men's clothing boutique based in St. Paul, Heimie's Haberdashery, with my art director friend Dan Spillman. This is an update on our progress thus far.

It's been about a month or so since we started the project and after 20 or so ideation sessions we have it narrowed down to half a dozen ideas for fleshing out and picking one to produce. We also took on an awesome copywriter that is finishing up her last year at MCAD, Katie Bode.

Dan has been illustrating some logo concepts for rebranding Heimie's to give it an updated feel that still stays true to Heimie's roots. We were drawn to the more stamp, ornate feel of the top row and the more distinctive aristocratic look of the second row. Dan is working on fleshing these out and turning them into vector images.

While narrowing down the concepts, we have been left with the decision to ramp up the wankiness of the store and sell it for all it's ciche. Or to take a slightly more serious refined route with the creative. It will be exciting to see where we end up so stay tuned for more.

Some of our inspiration on this project: Mustache Blog, Victorian Portraits, Old Spice, Postmodern Gentleman, & Kubrick's Barry Lyndon

Transition of a Blog

This blog was going to be about the search of a "modern day" art director student for his first creative position during a recession. That hunt lasted less than three weeks (thankfully). This marks that transition of my blog into the progress of a young art director as I continue to build my book, make a name for myself and hopefully win an award or two along the way.

It also is a cataloging of the transition of an art director working as a designer, a traditional advertising thinker into an interactive one and a northerner operating as a southerner.

This will definitely be an interesting journey and marks the second step into a career I'm looking forward to.

Lost Touch & Heimie's Ideas

An interesting subject was broached among my mother, my sister and myself, the effectiveness of the new Toyota Prius Ads.

How effective are ad reviewer's at major publications and how objective is their analysis? I read an article decrying the Toyota ad for being to flippiant and creative for creatives sake. Yet, many non-ad friend's and relatives have brought up the ad on their own, and upon looking it up it ranked 3rd in most liked ads by Nielson during May. Judge for yourself.

Read this review on an earlier Toyota ad by Ad Age.

Toyota Prius' "Harmony"

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

Reason: Although it hinges on being visually stimulating it truly has the effect of capturing the consumer's attention and getting across the eco-friendly message.

As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to get some in-progress work up for the concept I'm working on with my friend Dan on Heimie's Haberdashery. For the time being it's been primarily research, consumer target and the bigger picture idea; but, I had a chance to start sketching out some logo and tag line ideas.

Take a look at the progress thus far. And below is a first go at a logo. I'm not too terribly happy with it at the moment; but, it was great to get it out of my system and see how it looked.

Other Sources of Inspiration

As creative person in the advertising industry, many individuals have different sources of inspiration that influence their work, mine tend to be in the camps of graphic design, industrial design and package design (a strong sector of industrial design).

While working on Heimie's Haberdashery this morning I stumbled upon some great finds of vintage logo inspiration and package design.

Hermann Oak Leather Logo
Reason: I love the looseness of the typography and the wanky placement drawn together with the aesthetic curly elements.

You Smell Packaging
Reason: Not only a great vintage inspired logo, it also has a very distinct personality in the placement and usage. Found on thedieline blog.

Old World Deli Logo
Reason: Another great vintage inspired logo but with a bit more of a masculine feel to it.

I also came across a great bank of over a hundred 70's logos you can download on Eric Carl's blog.