While compiling my notes and writing this book, I thought it would be beneficial to contact friends and colleagues who have made their way through the ranks to creative leadership and gather some insights from them. Because we have all taken different paths to leadership, I believe it’s also important hear perspectives other than mine. As you read this chapter, you will discover a common thread—these leaders are passionate about their craft and driven to succeed.
Everyone in this chapter was provided with the same questions. They have chosen to respond to them in their own way. There were no requirements to how they responded or how many questions they answered.
As you read the words of Claudia Camargo (LatinWorks: Austin), Kim Arispe (POP: Seattle), Kevin Lane (Razorfish: Austin), Monica Ramirez Nadala (Geometry: Chicago), Lisette Sacks (New York), Elizabeth Grace Saunders, Jessica Walsh (Sagmeister & Walsh: New York), and Debbie Millman (Sterling Brands: New York), you may be even more inspired to succeed as a creative leader.
Figure 13-1. Maria Claudia Camargo
Claudia Camargo
Art Director
LatinWorks: Austin, Texas
http://cargocollective.com/claudiacamargo/
Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Claudia Camargo moved to the United States 16 years ago. The past eight years of her life have been devoted to advertising, and she would not have it any other way. Quickly becoming a hybrid of Hispanic and American cultures, now she considers Spanglish her first language. Claudia is an art director who is taking stabs at copywriting for fun. Her knowledge and experience come from working at some of the best Hispanic agencies such as Alma Advertising Agency in Miami, Florida and now LatinWorks in Austin, Texas. When it comes to her job, Claudia strives to discover and develop new ways to be creative while maintaining extreme focus on the Hispanic market.
How long have you been in the industry? I have been in advertising for seven years. My first job in advertising was as a Studio Artist while I was still in school.
What type of degree do you have? A Bachelor of Science in Advertising.
What would be your dream job? To be a creative director at an agency where there is a total 50/50 gender ratio.
Describe your typical day. I get to work and check e-mails. If I already know what I have to do, I jump on in. If I am not sure, I have a quick check in with my Creative Directors. I have to have a cup of green tea, otherwise I just don’t function. I don’t really have a set schedule because with a client like Target, you just never know what the day brings.
How do you stay current in your knowledge and your skills? I try to keep up with what’s going on in the industry through blogs, websites, podcasts, conferences. But I also like to be very immersed in pop culture because that is where advertising comes from. I watch every single awards show, whether I like it or not. I also watch any new shows that are creating buzz. I keep up with music. Everything that shapes society as we know it, I like to follow closely.
Do you have any formal supervisory/leadership training? No, I have been lucky enough to be mentored by the three best creatives at LatinWorks. Everything I am now as a creative, I owe to them. With them I learn how the manage situations, clients, meetings, and teams every day. I try to absorb as much as I can.
How do you deal with different creative personalities on your team? Both of my Creative Directors are total polar opposites. That’s probably why they have good chemistry. It’s always fun to see them interact, get into arguments, laugh. I have learned to celebrate each person’s strengths; whether I consider them a strength or not is a different story, but if they are good at what they do, who am I to judge?
Did you have any mentors? Still do and always will! My two Creative Directors and the Executive Creative Director at LatinWorks and a Creative Director from Alma. Not to say that all my peers have always played a huge role.
What advice do you remember them sharing with you that you utilize or that holds true for you now? To learn how to talk and interact with other people (accounts, client, peers). I have a very strong personality and I usually just say what I am thinking. I am still learning how to say what’s on my mind without sounding careless. I believe I have found the perfect team that celebrates who I am and takes the time to shape me into a better creative without shutting me down.
What advice would you give creatives who aspire to make it to creative director? The advice that I give to my future self as a Creative Director is “don’t be mean.” Respect and fear are two very different things. I want to be a leader who guides, not a bossy bitch. Also, don’t be a “know it all.” Your creatives will have a fresher mind. Just because you have the experience doesn’t mean that you do know it all.
What warnings would you give? This is not an easy world. We live in a time of constant change. Be receptive to new things, especially what young talented creatives can bring to the table.
Do you have any techniques for presenting that work particularly well? My Creative Directors taught me to write an outline or a script of what I am going to say. Go over it a couple of times and memorize key points. When I’m up there I end up improvising half of it, but being prepared beforehand does help.
How do you brainstorm? I am a mess brainstorming because I get easily distracted. I like to read BuzzFeed while I brainstorm. I think is a great source of pop culture, fresh content and new ideas. I also like to see other ads or case studies. Sometimes, I just scroll through design blogs and it helps spark ideas. For websites of inspiration I always check Adfreak (for advertising), Creativity Online (for pop culture), BuzzFeed, Vice, Fusion, Flama, Remezcla (for design inspiration), VisualGraphc (yes, the spelling is correct).
What role does research play in your brainstorms? Huge! Planners are your biggest allies. Granted, you still have to do your own research, but the bulk of it should come from your Planners, if you have them.
Do you brainstorm in large groups or do you try to limit the number of people involved? I haven’t had a partner for the past two years. At this point, I have gotten used to working on my own. I still enjoy brainstorming with some people, but I am very picky who I brainstorm with. I have to have a good vibe with that person.
Figure 13-2. Kim Arispe
Kim Arispe
Senior Art Direction + Creative Leadership
Seattle, Washington
Kim Arispe is a senior art director and creative manager who leads teams in creating award-winning work in traditional and digital media for brands like Starbucks, Target, Procter & Gamble, Home Depot, H-E-B Grocery, Time Warner Cable, and the San Antonio Spurs. Her work has been recognized by the American Advertising Federation, Logo Lounge, Font Aid, the Aster Awards, and HOW Design Magazine. Kim enjoys battling it out at amateur “Iron Chef–style” cooking competitions and blogging about her passion for food, travel, and everyday moments. She is also currently working on her first cookbook.
What does your job entail? I lead a team of full-time and freelance art directors, designers, and copywriters. I oversee all work from initial client briefing to final execution. My responsibilities include guiding the work/team in brainstorms and internal reviews, partnering with strategist to write creative briefs, working closely with UX and content strategy, client presentations, scoping the work for timing and resources, account leadership and innovation (and being a therapist and scapegoat—that last one is not by choice).
How do you distribute the work? Every week I meet with my project managers and resourcing director to review the current and upcoming projects (sometimes up to 25 or more at a time) and make assignments. In our war room, we have a giant color-coded calendar grid displaying all projects, internal and client deadlines, resources/assigned hours, and internal and client out-of-office schedule. I assign people to projects based on their talent, experience/context from a similar past project. Basically, who is the best person for the work from my dedicated team. Then, my resourcing manager tells me all the reasons why I can’t make those assignments based on other work or vacation time. This meeting is also where we decide if we need to hire more people to fill any gaps. It’s like trading players in the NBA. Or, like playing Tetris at Level 10. And it happens every week, and goes on throughout the rest of the week as project timelines speed up or get put on hold.
How do you deal with different creative personalities on your team? I’m still figuring this one out! This is one of the hardest parts of my job. I’d say patience and over-communication is my go-to.
What do you feel the biggest differences are between your previous creative experience and your current gig? At GDC Marketing + Ideation and previous places, I was able to wear so many hats. You could say I filled the role of designer, art director, project manager, producer, interior designer, coordinator, strategist, UX designer, the list goes on. At POP, my role is more narrowly focused on creative work and team leadership. Also, a lot of agencies and corporations in Seattle have many contractors on their staff. It’s just not something I’d ever experienced before.
What was the transition from your previously print- and broadcast-heavy to your currently digitally focused job like? I had already been leading the digital efforts at GDC, coordinating, producing, and designing websites and apps, so the transition wasn’t too hard. Learning who to talk to when and who does what was the biggest challenge. You have all these roles like—Dev, IA, UX, QA, Motion, etc., etc. One of the things I learned from my time working on Target was accessibility standards. You have to make sure that your information is accessible to anyone with disabilities—that means any kind of vision, hearing, or cognitive impairment. Imagine a visually impaired person trying to scan a webpage and purchase a product. There are many rules around type sizes, colors, image tags, etc.
Did your degree prepare you for what you’re doing now? Oh, hell no! I have learned through trial and error… lots of error.
How did you prepare to take a leadership role? When I first started at POP, I was on an established team and it was nothing but smooth sailing. After we won the Starbucks account, I became the lead creative and had one designer and writer. In less than a year, I grew the team to over 20 people. We didn’t have a Creative Director or an Account Director, so it was me and my Senior Project Manager, Amy, just rolling up our sleeves and doing it all. We were so scrappy. It’s like I woke up one day and had this giant team. I literally hired ten people in two days when we were super-busy at the end of last year. Design school never taught me how to interview people, let alone manager a team of creatives.
Do you have any techniques for presenting work? I’ve taken a couple of presentation classes and read a couple of books. I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is to be myself, and not try to mimic other great presenters. That, and 75% of what you say is actually “how” you say it and not “what” you say. If I am passionate about what I’m talking about, it will resonate with people, even if I don’t always say all the “perfect” words.
How do you stay current in your knowledge and your skills? Great question. I feel like I’ve become a subject matter expert (SME) on all things Starbucks and on most loyalty programs. This has really been my focus. I like to dive really deep and learn everything I can about what makes a brand tick. I research other brands and also rely on my strategy team to supplement some specific target info.
What advice do you remember your mentors sharing with you that you utilize or that holds true for you now? One of the things that really resonated with me was the idea of making my team feel like I “have their back.” One of my mentors said that to me, “No one can fault you if that is your main priority… fighting for your team and making sure they feel like you have their back.” That really changed my perspective and I think it’s great advice—above all people want to feel supported and understood.
What is the hierarchy at POP (i.e., Junior Art Director, Art Director, Senior Art Director, etc.)? The structure at POP is interesting. A lot of responsibility is assigned to each position. For instance, my job description and responsibilities as a Senior Art Director are comparable to a Creative Director in smaller agencies in Seattle or most agencies in San Antonio. Most of my day-to-day responsibilities revolve around creative direction and strategic thinking. To paint a better picture, I’ve hired creatives that had the title of Art Director (AD) in their previous agency and were given the title of Senior Designer at POP based on the responsibilities and experience that is required at POP. The hierarchy for design is: Designer, Senior Designer, Art Director, Senior Art Director, Associate Creative Director (ACD), Creative Director, Executive Creative Director (ECD) (there is only one ECD overseeing the whole creative department at POP, where other larger agencies might have an ECD over a certain part of the business, and then a Global Creative Director (GCD) overseeing everything). For writers, it goes copywriter, senior copywriter, ACD, CD.
Figure 13-3. Kevin Lane
Kevin Lane
Associate Creative Director
Razorfish: Austin, Texas
When Kevin was a kid filling in the Sunday morning crossword, his grandmother taught him that words equal ideas. He has been playing with syllables and stories ever since. For the past nine years, he has been making groundbreaking advertising with amazing brands and incredible people. He has worked on commercials, interactive print ads, and even tweeted bikes. As a leader, Kevin focuses on inspiring creatives of all types. He also enjoys driving the business side of things from client goals to agency operations. He believes his biggest strength is his ability to always bring tacos. Off the clock, you’ll find him traveling with his lady, running his YouTube channel, or killing a crossword.
Is this the first time you’ve been a creative lead? Yes, I recently made the jump to leadership. I’ve been ACD for about six months now.
What was your first creative job and how long did it take you to get to your current position? I started out on a two-week trial run as a junior copywriter. I failed miserably, but I think they just needed a warm body, so somehow I got the gig. I’ve been in advertising ever since, for almost nine years now.
What would be your dream job? What I’m doing now—leading creative on an iconic brand (Patrón) as part of a fully integrated team. I love working on a brand that has a rich history of heritage and craft. I also love doing integrated work, and we work with other agencies who handle the traditional, social, PR, retail, and events work for Patrón. All the agencies work really well together, and that makes the work we all do even better.
What is the hierarchy at your current location (i.e., Junior Art Director, Art Director, Senior Art Director, etc.)?
Jr. Copywriter to Copywriter to Sr. Copywriter to ACD to CD
Jr. Designer to Designer to Sr. Designer to Art Director to Sr. AD to ACD to CD
I know it seems like there are more steps for art, but you usually spend longer in each role as a writer, so it all pretty much evens out.
What are your favorite projects? My favorite projects are where all the pieces come together perfectly, and business gets done. That first part never really happens, but that’s the fun part. And if the business goals are met, everyone goes home even happier. Motorola, #UseMeLeaveMe, and Patrón are my three favorites to date.
What was your role in the creation of those projects? For Motorola, I concepted the creative campaign and messaging—I also learned how to program a computer to read colors, but I couldn’t do it for you today. On #UseMeLeaveMe, I helped conceive the stunt, wrote a personality for 20 bikes, and soldered together the brains of each bike. On Patrón, I’ve led product launches, a 360° mobile experience, a mobile-first redesign, and their latest Margarita of the Year campaign.
Do you produce work, lead a team to produce the work, or both? Occasionally I jump in and produce work, but I try to stay out of the way by leading instead of doing.
What does your job entail? Team kickoffs and check-ins, client presentations, agency-to-agency relations, mentorship, learning, paperwork, and making stuff up. Best job ever.
Describe your typical day.
9–10am Coffee, hellos, emails, daily planning
10–10:30am Team stand-up (assignments, check-ins, housecleaning, updates)
10:30–11am Client check-in (status, updates, housecleaning)
11am–12pm Individual check-ins with team, prep for upcoming presentation
12–1pm Lunch with team or other colleagues
1pm–2pm Client presentation
2–2:15pm Coffee break, walk around the block, check on my team
2:15–3pm Team kickoff on a new project
3–4pm Agency-to-agency meeting to align on an ongoing project
4–5pm Prep for upcoming presentations
5–5:30pm Individual check-ins with team
5:30–6pm Emails
6pm Beer
What do you feel the biggest differences are between any previous creative experience and your current position? It sounds cliché, but leadership requires a lot more responsibility—time management, priority management, decision-making, team morale, business acumen, strategic thinking, and a little thicker skin. I used to only feel responsible for my own work, but now I feel responsible for my whole team’s work, plus making sure everyone’s happy with the work and the results—from clients to bosses to colleagues to consumers. It’s been a big shift in thinking and doing, but I find it rewarding, thrilling, and just the right amount of scary.
How do you stay current in your knowledge and your skills? I’m always reading agency news, world news, and tech news. I try to meet other successful people and steal as much from their brains as I can. The occasional freelance or art project keeps me sharp as well.
Do you have any formal supervisory/leadership training? No formal training here, but I have a history of leading groups – from the theater troupe I was in in high school, to the band I started in college, to the startups I’ve helped with on the side.
If not, how did you gain supervisory/leadership experience? Even from a young age, the schools and clubs and bands and businesses I’ve been in… I’ve always been a natural leader. Through those experiences, I’ve learned how to get to know people, encourage them, and get out of their way so they can do amazing things.
How do you deal with different creative personalities on your team? I try to treat everyone the same but different. Different people respond to different stimuli, so I like to get to know everyone as much as possible so I know what they like to work on and what perspectives they bring and how they like to work – plus how to factor those things into the overall team/work equation. But if you’re an asshole, I don’t deal with you at all.
What type of degree do you have? Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration, with a dual focus in Marketing and Management from Trinity University.
Did your degree plan prepare you for what you’re doing now? If so, how? If not, how did you prepare for your current position? Yes and no. It over-prepared me for the business and management side of things. It didn’t prepare me much at all for the creative side of things, but I was lucky enough to have life experiences and a natural hunger that made up for that.
Did you learn on the job or were you prepared before taking the role? A little of both. I’ve always been a creative writer, so I had the raw talent before. But all the advertising stuff I definitely learned on the job.
What advice do you remember your mentors sharing with you that you utilize or that holds true for you now? Oh man, a lot. They’ve given me all kinds of creative, strategy, and business wisdom, as well as great advice in life, love, and happiness. The biggest lessons they’ve taught me have been to keep it simple, choose your battles, dole out credit, never stop learning, fight for your people, listen more than you talk, and the art of the soft sell.
Do you mentor any younger creatives? I do. I’m always there for my team and colleagues. And even when people I don’t know reach out, I make myself available and offer any advice or help that I can.
What advice would you give other creative directors or creatives who aspire to make it to creative director? I always go with Garrison Keillor’s signoff from The Writer’s Almanac: “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.” Be well, because if you’re not physical and mentally healthy, your work is going to suffer. Do good work, because when you’re proud of the things you create, it drives you to make your next project even better. And keep in touch, because the ad world is all about connections, and most people are always willing to help.
What warnings would you give?
If you don’t love advertising, get out. Life’s too short to do something that doesn’t make you happy.
Don’t be an asshole. You’re better than that.
Don’t fall in love with your ideas. A lot of them are going to die on the cutting room floor. If you had a great idea today, you’ll have another one tomorrow.
Learn the business side of things. It’ll make your ideas stronger, your clients happier, and your work more effective.
Raise your hand. The most successful creatives are those that aren’t afraid to take on extra work and “small” assignments. You’ll get more work out in the world, and you’ll get an even cooler project next time.
Do you present your work to clients? Yes, everything from minor updates to fully integrated campaigns. Most are over the phone, but many are also in person. And the occasional pitch.
Do you have any techniques for presenting that you believe work particularly well? The best technique I’ve learned is to slow down. The goal is not to get through every slide; the goal is to start a conversation.
How do you brainstorm? Are there any techniques you use or find particularly useful? Whiteboard all day. When you’re spitballing ideas, it helps to get them all out and up on the board. That way everyone can see their contribution, come back to an idea later, and not be afraid to blurt random things out. Once everything is up, I like to bucket ideas under themes to see what’s working, what’s not, and where the holes are. Then we do a one-sheeter on each idea—a representative image/sketch and a short writeup (three sentences max). Eventually the best ideas stick around and start to work together, while the not-so-great ones fall away.
What role does research play in your brainstorms? A ton. Every big assignment starts with consumer research by our planners, who will do focus groups and follow-alongs and in-home interviews. They also tap into trends, demographics, and research studies. Then they distill all that down into a few key insights, which the creative department will play off of. I find the research part crucial, because it gives you that nugget of truth that can make an idea personal yet universal.
Do you sketch before going to the computer? I do. Even though I’m a writer, I like to sketch things out. And most of the designers and art directors I know like to sketch things out first. I think it’s because it lets you get a lot of ideas out quickly, and it helps you distill things down to their simplest form.
Do you brainstorm in groups or do you try to limit the number of people involved? I like small teams—five people max. If there’s a large group, I like to split off into smaller groups. It helps you find chemistry quicker and feel less afraid to speak up.
Figure 13-4. Monica Ramirez Nadala
Monica Ramirez Nadela
Creative Director
Geometry Global. Multicultural Practice: Chicago, Illinois
Monica has over ten years of experience in designing on-strategy, on-target, and on-budget cross-platform marketing solutions in the following categories: Retail, CPG/Beverage, QSR, Technology & Telecommunications. Some of the clients she has worked with are Tecate, US Army, Nextel, JCPenney, MillerCoors, ConAgra Foods, JMS Smucker’s, Hershey’s, Kraft, H-E-B, Amway, Kimberly-Clark, Jim Beam, Liberty Mutual, and Mondele−z.
Creative Mantra: Think Action. Inspire Action. Connect. Never stop asking why? Solve a need. Make it different. Earn loyalty. Win hearts and a place in their carts. Preserve meaningful connections.
Persona: Culture & Insight Matchmaker. Heart & Head Idea Advocate. Strategic Adjudicator. Creative Solutionist. Brand Whisperer. Processes Championer. Results Deliverer. Turnaround Driver. Bicultural Explorer. Spanish, English and Spanglish Adventurer.
Journey: My work on both the agency and client side focuses on building solutions at the intersection of the brand and sales objectives. For more than 15 years I’ve been exploring and unveiling the fascinating Hispanic Market. As a foreign-born U.S. Hispanic, I’ve ridden the acculturation roller coaster through the diverse stages, absorbing and applying all the knowledge and learning into my work. Today, I’m still riding it and I’m having fun learning!
What led you toward your current position of creative director? When I started working in advertising, I don’t believe I had set my mind on becoming a Creative Director, I think what took me down this path was my passion for communicating and engaging with people. Since I was in college back in Mexico City, my passion always was more about the content and the people than the mediums or methods.
What was your first creative job and how long did it take you to get to your current position? My first “official” job in an agency was as a Junior Spanish Copywriter, which was back in 2001. Roughly, it took me about 15 years to get here, but I think every Creative Director’s story is different and there is no such thing as a “standard” number of years you need to pay your dues to become a CD. I believe what it takes to be a CD is drive, not time.
What would be your dream job? That’s a tough question! I think my dream job changes as I grow older, but in all the versions of my “dream job” it’s about connecting and engaging with people, it involves design and art, but above all, it’s about something that adds value to your life.
What is the hierarchy at your current location (i.e., Junior Art Director, Art Director, Senior Art Director, etc.)? We have art and copy, then Senior Art and Copy, Associate Creative Director (which can come from any background), Creative Director, Group Creative Director, and our Executive Creative Directors.
Describe your typical day. Every day is very different, but I spend a lot of time meeting with planners, creative directors, and account directors to drive the creative strategy, attend brainstorms, and do some work, a lot of research and writing opinion pieces. There’s a lot of work before we get to execution and every brand has different timings. Every day is different, there’s no routine, except for getting to the office.
What do you feel the biggest differences are between any previous creative experience and your current position? The biggest difference is the support I have received from the organization; they empower me to share my knowledge and my vision and to sharpen my skills. Training is another big difference, access to tools and mentorship is key in this agency, and last but not least is how everyone works: as a team, and of course the teams here are quite larger than what I was used to back in Texas. (In a brainstorm session you can have anywhere from 10 to 20 brilliant creative minds!)
How do you stay current in your knowledge and your skills? Subscriptions to the top industry publications, newsletters, etc.; key conferences, reading, reading, searching, searching, and observing! Always learning from senior and junior people.
Do you have any formal supervisory/leadership training? No. When I first became an Associate Creative Director I probably made a lot of mistakes but I took it upon myself to look for inspiration on creative director blogs, reading books, taking personality assessments and training when they were available. Nowadays I’m very fortunate to have access to tools to learn and the guidance of my mentors and my boss.
How do you deal with different creative personalities on your team? It’s a learning process, but to me, the most important element is respect. You have to respect every member of your team in order to establish a relationship and be able to figure out what is going to work for both parties. While creating a list of tasks might work for one of your team members, you might be better to give another one more responsibility. As the lead of your team you need to understand their strengths and weaknesses in order to help them grow. When differences arise between your team, your role is to be the mediator and remain neutral while reminding them what is at task and what to focus energy on. I personally like to talk to each team member in private about the conflict to try to understand what originated it and try to find a solution.
Do you have a degree? I graduated in Mexico City from a Licenciatura en Comunicación con especialidad en Filosofía, which roughly equates in the U.S. to a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts with a major in Philosophy
Did your degree plan prepare you for what you’re doing now? To a certain degree, yes. My studies were really more focused on the contents of the communications; how to connect with people by understanding what drives and makes them tick, a lot about how ideas are generated, psychology, sociology, etc. We did also have the technical part of how to produce radio, TV, movies, and how to design and craft an advertising campaign. All that was very useful.
Did you have any mentors? I do now. I was looking for them for a long time, and I finally found them here at Geometry.
What advice have they shared with you that you utilize or that holds true for you now? From the creative prospective, it is about how the ideas we create should change behaviors, what is “that thing” that will make people change and act. From the leadership role is to not to become a shell that is so focused on her responsibilities and deliverables, but to be with the rest of the creatives and feed of their fresh thinking and energy.
What advice would you give other creative directors or creatives who aspire to make it to creative director? [They taught me that] being a Creative Director is not about the “shiny” title, but more about the commitment that you have with consumers to create ideas with passion and honesty.
What warnings would you give? It’s a tough job. Some days you’re completely drained. Any creative job is quite challenging. You need to keep yourself motivated, inspired and find a method that works for you to create ideas… Most of the times you can’t wait for inspiration to strike because of timelines and due dates. So as a creative, you’re responsible for keeping your mind clear, focused, and full of ideas at the same time, because you want to be able to do what is best for the idea at all times… My big red warning: you will be working 24/7… maybe not physically by being at the office (perhaps) but because solutions or ideas might come to you in the middle of your sleep (keep a recorder or notepad handy at your nightstand), in the shower (waterproof notepad, great gift from a colleague) or while you commute to work… It really never stops.
Do you have any techniques for presenting that you believe work particularly well? I’m a bit of a nerd, I do like to prepare before my presentations, commit the content I’m presenting to heart. I do not like to read off a PowerPoint. I like to create stories to present creative work and use images rather than words. Connecting with the audience before you start presenting is key (which is a bit challenging for me since I’m quite an introvert).
How do you brainstorm? Before I brainstorm with the team, I like to sit down with the planner and the account team to have crystal clear what the strategy we need to solve creatively is. After that, I like for the creatives to spend some time with it for initial thoughts. Once we have the brainstorm, the rule is there’s no such a thing as bad ideas, everything goes on the board. Sometimes I like to use phrases as “what if”… to spark ideas, or write a list with words that are related to the task and start making associations. I don’t have one “proven” method for brainstorm, you need to feel the energy of the group and adjust accordingly.
What role does research play in your brainstorms? Huge!!!! You can’t resolve a problem if you don’t know the problem and its parts.
Do you brainstorm in groups or do you try to limit the number of people involved? Both; I think it depends of the task at hand. For new big ideas, I like to have as many creatives, planners, and account people as possible at the first brainstorm, and then you regroup and follow the thinking process with a smaller group.
Figure 13-5. Lisette Sacks
Lisette Sacks
Creative Director
New York
Lisette Sacks has 17 years of experience in advertising and publishing: first as a graphic designer and the last nine years as a creative director and art director leading teams. She has deep Consumer Package Goods (CPG) expertise and a broad client portfolio spanning food, beauty, finance, and home.
Sacks has launched global brand campaigns in digital and print; social media content + campaigns, websites, video games and video content for American Express, American Greetings, Amway, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Black Dinah Chocolatiers, Chex Mix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Dupont, Marzetti, MasterCard, Moen, Nature Valley, Nestlé, Sherwin Williams, Steinway & Sons, and Zing Zang.
Have you always been on a path toward creative director? I started off as a graphic designer. For the first few years I never thought about my personal trajectory upward. I was interested in having fun and learning as much as I could. I have been very fortunate to have interned and worked in places that showed me different aspects of being a designer. At a boutique letterpress and design shop, Purgatory Pie Press’s Dikko Faust taught me about typography in a way I never would have learned if I hadn’t actually got my hands dirty setting type and working the letterpress. I’ve worked at multiple magazines, including Wired (where I interned) and was exposed to a much more rigorous attention to templates, grids, and pixel-perfect computer-based work in a Swiss aesthetic.
Conversely, I worked at American Greetings as a card designer where expression and free-form creativity off the computer was very much encouraged. I worked with top-notch calligraphers, illustrators, and photographers and got to see how they worked every day, which informed how I work with artists today.
I started doing web design work and animation in 1998. That led me to moving from design shops to advertising, where I never thought I’d end up, but which was a great place to tell stories, rather than just make things pretty. I became much more interested in copy, which was natural since I am a total book nerd and I am in awe of great copywriters. Advertising felt like I was finally using a lot of the parts of my brain that I hadn’t when I was just doing design.
What was your first creative job and how long did it take you to get to your current position? Aside from my internships, I was hired as a junior designer at a small (now defunct) design firm called Tieken Design. It was about a 15-person shop run by a husband and wife in Phoenix. It was all print design where I led my first photoshoot. That was 1996 and I was 26. I made $21,000 a year and I felt like I won the lottery back then. It took me 10 years to become a Creative Director moving up through various jobs.
What led you to consulting and freelance? I worked at big and small boutique ad agencies throughout the country and finally became a Creative Director under the best mentor I ever had, the co-owner and Creative Director, Leslie Perls, at LP&G in Tucson, AZ. After a couple years there, she encouraged me to move to New York and try my hand “with the big boys.” I was hesitant at first but I knew I’d never truly be happy with my career if I didn’t try to make it in New York. Two months after her suggestion, I sold everything I owned and moved to NYC in 2009. After 6 months of no one wanting to talk to me, Doug Speidel the ECD, gave me a big break in New York at MRM / McCann—then the digital arm of McCann-Erickson. I became the CD of MasterCard and General Mills—working on Betty Crocker, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and a bunch of other brands. I left after 3 1/2 years to freelance and work on my own. I now consult directly for brands and take occasional in-house freelance gigs.
What would be your dream job? Doing Creative Direction for a fashion brand.
Are you primarily print focused, digitally focused, or a little of both? I am mostly digital focused these days, including social media content and strategy, but I also do some packaging and print as part of the larger campaign.
What do you do in a typical day? I start work around 9am, read my feed of blogs (I use Feedly to aggregate everything I’m interested in) before I start my day, just to get a jolt of news and creative inspiration and to stay on top of trends. I then respond to e-mails. I check in with my team on various projects and that usually informs what needs to be done for the day. Sometimes I go straight into designing, sometimes I’m researching and creating a sort of inspiration brain dump, and then sometimes I’m actually concepting with my writing partner. It all depends on the project at hand. At some points I’m off the computer writing and taking notes. Oh, and in between all of that are meetings, meetings, meetings, which disrupt everyone’s workflow but are the necessary evil to include members outside the creative team. I usually end work around 6:30 or 7pm or often later when the project calls for it.
What do you feel the biggest differences are between any previous creative experience and your current position? Freelancing really means being organized and holding oneself and one’s team accountable for deliverables and timelines. It requires a lot of self-control to not get sucked down into rabbit holes on the Internet when researching. I feel like a project manager, account person, and creative director all rolled into one; whereas when I was working at firms or agencies those roles belonged to other people.
How do you stay current in your knowledge and your skills? I read a lot of design, tech blogs, news, and books on design and consumer consumption theory. I think there is something to learn every day. Listening to UX people and developers has really changed how I think about the creative process digitally. I also think it’s very important to always hire people smarter or who think completely differently than you. People who work outside the industry are often excellent resources for new ideas. I have learned so much from people I’ve hired over the years.
How did you gain supervisory/leadership experience? I have been fortunate to have had some (aforementioned) great bosses. I learned by watching how they nurtured, supported, and created a great working culture. I always strive to create the environments that I thrived in when I was younger. Also by seeing that everyone is an individual. My management style adapts to the individual.
When you supervise a team, how do you distribute the work? I’m pretty democratic about workload. There are certain projects that I know will be great for certain people because they have experience in that specific market or a lot of interest or great skills. Sometimes, it’s just the opposite—I might give work to someone who may not think they can do it, but I know they need to be pushed a little to show them that they can rock it if they believe in themselves a bit because I believe in their ability.
How do you deal with different creative personalities on your team? There’s been a lot of difference in my teams. Sometimes it’s age and experience, sometimes it’s how they like to work. Sometimes it’s shyness versus boldness in personality. A good manager should really know their teams and take everything into account and talk to people as individuals. Some people need more encouragement and check-ins and others need to be left alone to work independently. The main thing is really to understand each person’s style and adapt. (It isn’t always easy but it makes for better work in the end.)
What type of degree do you have? Bachelor of Fine Arts, Graphic Design. School gave me the basics of design and theory, but it did not show me how to manage or lead.
How did you prepare for your creative leadership? By watching and taking note of my own Creative Directors as I worked my way up to this role. I saw who I didn’t want to be and I saw who I really wanted to emulate.
Did you learn on the job or were you prepared before taking the role? I think with every role I’ve had, I’m always biting off a little more than I can chew in the beginning (which is scary and exhilarating) and then I learn as I go and eventually it becomes second nature.
Any advice from mentors that you utilize or that holds true for you now? Not quite a mentor, but my professor (and Eleazar’s), Louis Ocepek said once in a creative critique in school, “There is elegance in restraint.” That has stuck with me and I think about it often. The best mentors like Leslie Perls and Cheryl Van Ooyen showed me that creating a nurturing environment, staying calm, and having a sense of humor when it seems everything is going array, is something I try my best to employ. (I often fail at staying calm, to my own dismay.)
Do you mentor any younger creatives? I am often asked to review portfolios, give advice, and help younger creatives. I am very honored and humbled to do so. I think this is the natural progression of being a Creative Director and I take it very seriously. I’ve noticed young women doubt themselves a lot and they need someone to embolden them and tell them it’s okay if they haven’t figured it all out yet. They just need to keep persevering. I’m very interested in helping younger women find their voice and encourage them to work towards being a CD. There need to be more women in advertising in leadership roles.
What advice would you give other creative directors or creatives who aspire to make it to creative director? To other creative directors: Work hard, be nice, and try to remember you were once in a lower position. Your ideas are not always the best ideas either. Keep learning and listen to people who work for you.
To aspiring creative directors: Work hard, educate yourself outside the field of design, look for inspiration in unexpected places (not just design or advertising), and fill your brain up with everything you can. You never know when it might come in handy. Read and look.
What warnings would you give? Don’t be cocky or get too comfortable.
Do you have any techniques for presenting that you believe work particularly well? I have a love/hate relationship with presenting. In order to make it run smoothly I do a few things:
Prior to the day of the presentation, I outline my thoughts. I make notes (sometimes in Keynote) so I know what I want to touch on in each slide. I also do mini-rehearsals with the team if it is a big presentation. I like to be ready for client questions so I play Devil’s advocate in my head and try to jot questions and answers down to what I imagine their concerns might be.
Once I’m in the room, I am a little bit jokey with the client. I keep things professional, but I also like to lighten the mood. There’s a lot of tension sometimes in presentations but this is creative work and it should be fun. Listening and asking questions works well for me. I never want to leave a presentation where the client didn’t feel heard when giving feedback.
What role does research play in your brainstorms? Research (and understanding the strategy and demographic) is the biggest thing before even beginning brainstorming for me. I am a stickler for a very well-written brief too.
Do you sketch before going to the computer? Sometimes I sketch but more often I write little notes to myself about combinations of ideas to evoke a certain mood or color or structure or to remember a feeling. A lot of my notes are about tapping into an emotion.
Do you brainstorm in groups or do you try to limit the number of people involved? Group brainstorming is great when it is structured and I have a certain technique for that so that it’s not just everyone talking on top of each other. One-on-one brainstorming is faster and when it is someone you’ve worked with for a while, you know their style. When it’s good, ideas just flow. Some of those “darlings” will get killed but every once in awhile, there’s a great little angel that makes it to the campaign.
Figure 13-6. Elizabeth Grace Saunders
Elizabeth Grace Saunders
Real Life E Founder, CEO
Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E, a time coaching company that empowers individuals who feel guilty, overwhelmed, and frustrated to feel peaceful, confident, and accomplished. She is an expert on achieving more success with less stress. Real Life E also encourages Christians to align themselves with God’s heart through Divine Time Management.
McGraw-Hill published Saunders’ first book The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment: How to Achieve More Success with Less Stress. Harvard Business Review published her second book, How to Invest Your Time Like Money. Elizabeth contributes to blogs like Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, and the 99U blog on productivity for creative professionals and has appeared on CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox.
You have written about creative leadership for 99U. Are there any tips that you can provide that would help guide creatives who want to achieve success at the higher levels of leadership? When you move to a creative director role, you need to realize that your focus must shift from doing to leading. That means more time spent on planning work, communicating vision, giving feedback, and developing staff. Given that higher level of people management, you’ll need to reduce your expectations around how much project work you can do yourself. If you don’t, you’ll end up frustrated because you’ll end up working two jobs and not feel like you’re doing a great job at either.
As a leader, communication with the people you work with is a key component. What would you say is the most important things new leaders need to remember about communicating with their people? As noted above, you do need to make time for communication. However, you also need to set boundaries and expectations. That means talking about your preferred method of communication, i.e., is email best or do you prefer other methods like IM or Slack. It also means discussing the most effective way to communicate to minimize interruptions. That could mean a daily stand-up to address the main questions for the day so that there are minimal drive by meetings or setting—and keeping—a weekly one-on-one with your direct reports.
Embracing a new role is difficult. It can be even more difficult if you have suddenly moved to management over a team that was once your contemporaries. How would you recommend that new creative leaders go about preparing themselves and their new team or their new role? Leading is about serving so starting out by meeting with each staff member one on one and understanding what support they need from you to thrive is critical. However, at the same time, you’ll need to reset expectations on items that you will not do anymore given your new management responsibilities. That could include stepping off certain projects and/or delegating more. This allows you to spend more time giving direction and feedback across a broader range of work.
For new creative leaders thrust into a management position, do you have any warnings for them? Anything they should watch out for ? Make sure that you still reserve time for the work that you do need to do. That could mean blocking out certain times of day or setting aside some larger blocks of time on multiple days. That could also mean working from home, a coffee shop, or ducking into a conference room when there’s something really important that you need to focus on. Just because you’re a manager doesn’t mean that you always need to be available on demand.
Figure 13-7. Jessica Walsh
Jessica Walsh
Designer + Art Director
New York: Sagmeister & Walsh
Jessica Walsh is a designer and art director working in New York City. She is a partner at the New York–based design studio Sagmeister & Walsh. She teaches at the School of Visual Arts and speaks internationally about design and creativity. Her work has won awards from most design competitions including Type Director’s Club, Red Dot, Art Director’s Club, SPD, D&AD, Print, and Graphis. Her work has also been featured in numerous books, magazines, and exhibitions. She has also received various celebrated distinctions such as Forbes’ “30 under 30 greatest makers” Computer Arts’ “Top Rising Star in Design,” an Art Director’s Club “Young Gun,” and Print Magazine’s “New Visual Artist.” Clients include Jay Z, Barneys, Museum of Modern Art, The Jewish Museum, The New York Times, Levis, Adobe, and The School of Visual Arts.
What is your creative philosophy? I am interested in creating emotionally engaging, concept-driven work that is embodied in beautiful forms. I always try to approach the process in a playful way, with a sense of humor. I want people who view my work to experience or feel something, whether it makes them think, brings them joy, or offers them inspiration. I always aim to create functional work that achieves our clients’ goals.
Where do you find inspiration? I believe that creativity is all about making interesting connections between things that already exist. I think inspiration for those connections can come from everything we experience as human beings: our conversations, our travels, our dreams, art, a great psychology book, our love lives, etc. I try not to look within our own field of design for inspiration; that’s when you run the risk of regurgitating styles and techniques people are used to seeing. If you find your inspirations from unexpected places, and vary your inspirations to not be too close to any one source, it’s easier to create unique work. I frequent museums and shows and look at all kinds of creative work, like fashion, furniture design, painting, photography, and sculpture. I listen to music and have conversations with friends. I read books about psychology and science, and blogs about popular culture. The list goes on.
Do you avoid trends? Trendy design and styles can work if you are designing something temporary, like an illustration in a magazine or a poster with a short lifespan. However, most of the time at our studio, we seek to create work that can have a long lifespan and stay relevant for a long while, especially in relation to branding. The identity and visual language we create for our clients should stay fresh and relevant even after a decade.
Do you have any techniques for presenting that you believe work particularly well for you? We only show our client one option. We’ve found that it’s much harder to force ourselves to think of the best possible solution to a client’s problem based on their goals, brand personality, and restrictions (timelines, budgets). It’s easy for us to come up with five possible solutions and let the client decide; however, this often leads to mediocre work. When you show options, the client often ends up picking and choosing their favorite parts of the various options like a buffet and all of a sudden you end up with a “frankencomp” which you never meant to happen. This isn’t good for us or our clients.
The technique of forcing ourselves to really study and immerse ourselves in our client’s product/culture, understand their goals, and then come up with a smart single solution that we know will work well for them, has worked well for us. Most of our best work has come out of this method. We do assure our clients that if they don’t like our presentation, we’ll completely redo it. However, when we spend so much time and strategy in the initial presentation phase as we do, we most often do create things our clients like.
How do clients react to only one design option when the industry is accustomed to multiple options? We assure our clients that if they don’t like what we do, we’ll redo it. However our clients are usually happy with what we create. I believe a large part of this is due to the enormous time we spend on research and process. We strategize with our clients to determine brand personality attributes, which our work will then reflect. We research their target audience and do competitive analysis. We force ourselves to think of the best possible solution for a client that is also respectful of their budgets and restrictions. It is much harder to come up with one great idea than it is to come up with numerous iterations and make the client decide. This does not make things easier for us. However, we have found that it yields better results.
How do you deal with client rejection? We try to listen to them and understand exactly why it isn’t working for them. If we agree that there is something we can do that will function better for them, we’ll revise the work.
Are there any techniques you use to brainstorm? Try making unexpected connections between things. So thinking of random words or nouns and then thinking about how they can connect to the project you are designing for.
Who are your role models? I truly believe that you can learn something from almost anyone. I know that no one person is perfect, and often when a person excels greatly in one aspect of life, another aspect suffers. I’ve never been a “fan” or “starstruck” of anyone because of this. Instead I look up to and admire certain qualities from all different kinds of people. If I have to list a few off the top of my head right now: my mom, Alain de Botton, my cleaning lady, Salvador Dalí, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, my sister, Charles Bukowski. In the design industry, I am inspired by those who are not just strong formally but also author their own projects and have a unique voice: Christoph Niemann, Maira Kalman, Stefan Sagmeister, Paul Sahre, Brian Rae, Tibor Kalman, and Timothy Goodman, among many others.
Figure 13-8. Debbie Millman
Debbie Millman
Chief Marketing Officer
Sterling Brands: New York, London, San Francisco, Chicago
Named “one of the most influential designers working today” by Graphic Design: USA, Debbie Millman is also an author, educator, brand strategist, and host of the podcast Design Matters. As the founder and host of Design Matters, the first and longest-running podcast about design, Millman has interviewed more than 250 design luminaries and cultural commentators, including Massimo Vignelli, Milton Glaser, Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink, Barbara Kruger, Seth Godin, and more. In the 11 years since its inception, the show has garnered over a million downloads per year, a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, and—most recently—iTunes designated it one of the best podcasts of 2015.
Debbie is the author of six books and two collections of illustrated essays. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Chicago Design Museum, Anderson University, School of Visual Arts, Long Island University, and The Wolfsonian Museum.
Debbie is the Chief Marketing Officer at Sterling Brands, where she has worked with over 200 of the world’s largest brands, including the redesign of Burger King, merchandising for Star Wars, and the positioning and branding of the No More movement. She is also President Emeritus of AIGA, one of five women to hold the position in the organization’s 100-year history and a past board member and treasurer of the New York chapter. She has been a juror for competitions including Cannes Lions, The Art Directors Club, The Type Directors Club, Fast Company, HOW Magazine, Print Magazine, ID Magazine, AIGA, The Dieline, and more. Currently, Debbie is the editorial and creative director of Print Magazine, the oldest magazine about design in the United States.
Could you give a little insight into your ideas on creative leadership in terms of your career trajectory? My love affair with brands began when I was in the seventh grade. I looked around and everyone in school was wearing really cool pants with a little red tag on the back pocket and polo shirts with little crocodiles on the front right section over your heart. Levi’s and Lacoste. But they were expensive and my mother didn’t understand why we had to pay more money for the little red tag and the crocodile when clothing without them was the same quality, only cheaper. Furthermore, she was a seamstress and her compromise to me was an offer to make me the very same clothes and stitch a red tag into the back pocket of the pants and glue a crocodile patch from the Lee Wards craft store onto the front of a perfectly good polo shirt from Modell’s. While that plan didn’t quite suit my aspirations of being a seventh-grade trendsetter or at least voted the best-dressed girl at Elwood Junior High, I eagerly pored through the racks of Lee Wards desperately searching for a crocodile patch to stick onto the front of my favorite pink polo shirt. Alas, there were none. Nothing even close. The best I came up with was a cute rendition of Tony the Tiger, but that really wasn’t the brand look I was going for.
I rode my bike home from Lee Wards dejected and mopey and when mom found out I wasn’t successful, I could see she felt sorry for me. She then took the matter into her own hands. The Lacoste shirts were too expensive, but there were indeed some Levi’s on sale at the Walt Whitman Mall and she bought me a pair. Problem was she didn’t get me the denim kind like everyone else was wearing, she found me a pair that must of been from the triple mark-down racks… they were a pair of lime green corduroy bell-bottom Levi’s. It was with a mixture of horror and pride that I paraded in front of the full-length mirror in my bedroom, ever-so-slightly sticking my butt out so that I could be sure the little red tag would show. So what, I was wearing lime green corduroy! They were Levi’s. I was cool. My reign of logo worship had begun.
Logos and brands are not the only things I love. From the time I was child, I loved to make things. I made my own coloring books, I made my own paper dolls, I made dioramas, and I even tried to make my own perfume by crushing rose petals into baby oil. I made barrette boxes out of Popsicle sticks, key chains out of lanyards, ashtrays out of clay and Halloween costumes out of construction paper and old sheets. I even handmade an entire magazine when I was 12 with my best friend. Her name was Debbie also and we named the magazine Debutante. We were very proud of it.
I went to the State University at Albany in New York. I had an incredible education, despite the lack of fancy pedigree. I knew I wanted to do something creative but thought I was going to be a painter. I studied painting and took some design classes because I needed the credits. But my major was in English literature. After I graduated, I quickly realized I was not going to be able to pay my rent as a painter. I also realized that the only marketable skill I had was the design bit that I had briefly studied. That, and I had been the editor of the arts section of our school newspaper. I went to school in Albany and the Albany Student Press had the largest circulation of any student newspaper in the country, so it was a pretty big deal. This is one of the reasons people went to school in Albany. I went just because my best friend did, and, at the time, it was the best state school that I could afford. So off I went to Albany, and got involved in the school newspaper. But, as it turned out, I didn’t really like the editing part of it. What I loved was creating the design of the paper. I actually came out of college with this fantastic portfolio because it was a large format paper. I had a 12-page section that I did every week. I had these little magazines that I designed entirely by myself. I would give my friends articles to write and I wouldn’t edit them. I’d publish them. There was this guy that was the campus clown. More like the campus soapbox guy. He was the political guy that would get up on his soapbox and talk about whatever political issue he thought. He was my favorite writer. I’d say, Hubert, write me an article about women’s choice and he’d come back with 15 pages. I’d print the entire thing.
After I graduated and started looking for a job, I saw an ad in the New York Times for a magazine job at a publication called Cable View. The ad specifically stated “no visitors.” Resumes only. I decided to go in person anyway figuring “what would they do, throw me out?” I figured I would just deliver the resume. They hired me that morning, on the spot, and I started right away. But they didn’t really know what to make of me because I had this bizarre English/Art degree. They put me in trafficking, and I ended up working in both the editorial and design departments concurrently. I did a little bit of design and a little bit of editing. It ended up being the perfect job. I could do everything I wanted to do and I loved it. I thought it was fantastic, but I couldn’t live on the money. A year later I got offered a job at an advertising agency doing design, and I took it. It was real estate advertising, and all I did was design brochures for tasteless nondescript buildings. I knew the day that I quit Cable View I had made a terrible mistake because I cried for 48 hours. And it turned out that I did indeed make a mistake, as the work was dreadful, and I found that I hated doing work I didn’t really believe in. I quit after a year and started working at RockBill magazine, again doing editing, writing, and design. Shortly thereafter, the creative director and I decided to start our own design firm. This was in 1987, and I had been working professionally for about four years at the time. Looking back on it, I don’t know where I got the courage to start my own company! I think that I had more balls than I’ve probably ever had on any day of my life since or before. I had no idea how we were going to do it! We didn’t have any money. We didn’t have any clients. We didn’t have really any contacts. But we did it anyway, and all of a sudden we had this business. All of a sudden we had a company, and then we had 20 people working for us. It was incredibly exciting. But ultimately, I didn’t like the ethics of the company. And it was half mine! It’s hard when you’re working with one person because it’s either you or them. Right now I have five partners. So if you disagree on something philosophically it becomes a round table. When you disagree with somebody philosophically and you only have one partner, it’s an argument.
I realized that I was never going to be able to do something that I was really proud of in that particular business. Over the four years we were together, we made a lot of money. So, once again, I decided I don’t want to do it anymore. At the time, I didn’t know what I want to do in general, and I was very disillusioned. I had just turned 30. So, once again, I quit. I took a year off and I freelanced for Planned Parenthood and worked on their new identity. I did a brochure for a law firm and I traveled, and I thought about what I wanted to do. I decided that I wanted to work for the best design firm in the country (at the time), Frankfurt Balkind. Through a friend, I got an interview, and I showed Aubrey Balkind my portfolio. He said he’d hire me, but not as a designer; he didn’t think my work was good enough. And this was all the work I had created in my entire career thus far! But I really wanted to work there, so I took the job he offered me: a job in marketing. About a year later, I got a call from a headhunter and he spoke to me about a job at a branding consultancy called The Schechter Group. I’d never done “formal” brand identity in my life. But it was incredibly compelling to me. When I gave Aubrey my notice, despite my not having been the world’s greatest Marketing Director (and not having the smoothest of relationships with him) he looked me in the eye and told me that I was going to be very good in package design. He was right. For the first time in my life, I found my niche. I have been working in branding ever since and am blissfully happy all of the time.
Joking! I am actually very insecure and thus feel that I have to constantly prove myself every second of every day.
Currently, my day job is at Sterling Brands, where I am Chief Marketing Officer. I have been there for 20 years and helped grow the firm to the size it is now. I am also the Chair of the Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts and the Editor and Creative Director of Print Magazine. I also host the world’s first design podcast, Design Matters with Debbie Millman.
Do you have any techniques for presenting that you believe work particularly well? I take presentations very, very seriously. I prepare every second of every day—as every experience and every observation of the world contributes to how I present and what I present. I read a tremendous amount: newspapers, magazines, blogs, news sites, media sites, basically anything I can get my hands on or head around. That being said, I also do a substantial amount of research before I make a professional presentation: I investigate everything I can about a company and gather and read as much as possible. I believe that presentations are as much about communicating how much you understand a potential client as it is about communicating who you are and what you stand for.
I also believe in relentless preparation. Rudy Giuliani used to say that for every hour he spent in court, he would spend four hours preparing! I don’t necessarily go to that extreme, but I do prepare quite a bit. I like to try and have as a goal that nothing unanticipated will happen (which is virtually impossible, but it’s a goal!) and to ensure that, I find it is helpful to visualize every scenario and rehearse as much as you can. It is also helpful to anticipate the questions you might be asked, as well as the worst-case scenario (what will you do or say if your client hates everything???) in order to get you through anything that might happen. I also find it is beneficial to instill preparedness in others.
I also make sure that I have a sound strategic point of view and philosophy. Who we are as designers and what we believe in is as important as our ideas.
I consider my presentation style to be down to earth and accessible. I am not terribly funny, so I don’t inject too much humor, but I do try to be warm and engaging. Good presentations are really about telling compelling, relevant, believable stories. I try to do this with as much authenticity and honesty as possible.
I don’t get too nervous anymore. But I have been presenting for nearly 30 years. Occasionally I still do, when I speak in front of very large groups or when my technology fails. Once, at a HOW conference, in front of 1500 people, my projector would not sync with my laptop. That made me sweat. But if you are nervous, that doesn’t give you the excuse to not prepare or not present! You must do it anyway. You can project confidence without necessarily feeling it! I recently read that Barbra Streisand’s greatest talent isn’t her singing or acting, but her ability to sing and act despite her massive stage fright. You just have to do it anyway. It is like going on a diet: You know you are going to be hungry, but you still don’t eat as much. When presenting, you prepare yourself to be nervous, but you still have to get up and present. George Patton once said “All men are frightened, the more intelligent you are, the more frightened you are.” So be frightened, but don’t give yourself an out to not do what you know you need to do—and do well!
How do you brainstorm? Are there any techniques you use or find particularly useful? Idea generation is best encouraged with fun, safe, warm, and encouraging environments. Dull focus-group room type facilities actually kill ideas, rather than encourage them, so we want a lot of light, a lot of laughter, and a lot of sharing to come up with new ideas.
Some additional tips that I have found useful when brainstorming are:
Focus on ideas versus deliverables. Brainstorming should be about perceptions, not preferences.
When brainstorming, make allowances for familiarity. People are generally more comfortable with what they know. And human beings, as a species, tend to be frightened of change.
Brainstorming is an art, not a science. Try to investigate emotional connections and design sensibilities. Avoid an overdependence on thinking “it can’t be done” or the “prove it can work” mentality.
More is definitely merrier. Brainstorming is a time to develop scenarios, not solve problems. Come up with as many ideas as possible.
Never say no. A brainstorm is the time for ideas not solutions.
What advice would you give other creative directors or creatives who aspire to make it to creative director and start their own company?
Be fearless when asking people for business.
Find lots of clients. Because it’s impossible to know which of them will be good.
Work harder than anybody else that you know.
Never give up if it is something that you really want.
Don’t lie about what you know and what you’ve done.
Do not be afraid to want a lot.
Things take a long time; practice patience.
Avoid compulsively making things worse.
Finish what you start.
Often people start out by thinking about all the things that they can’t do. Once you take that path, it’s very hard to get off of it. Shoot high and shoot often.
In a Nutshell
My work on this chapter has strengthened my belief that we can always depend on our fellow creatives for help. There is no need for animosity between creatives from different teams, agencies, studios, cities, or countries. Our goal should always be to do the best work possible to solve our client’s marketing challenges. It’s not about doing better than creatives in other agencies or studios. It’s about doing better than we did yesterday. When you need help or advice with a project, don’t be afraid to reach out to your contemporaries. Whether you’re asking for advice or soliciting opinions, more often than not, you’ll find that your fellow creative leaders are willing to lend a quick tip.
The creative professionals who answered my incredibly long list of questions answered them or interpreted them in their own ways. Each provided information on creative leadership, brainstorming, supervision, education, and team management from their perspective. As you can see, all of our journeys have been unique. From coast to coast and border to border, you will not find many creative career trajectories to be exactly the same. What you will find the same is a drive to be better; the drive that is leading or has led them to creative leadership. Now that you have benefitted from their wise words, as you work your way to the “promised land” of creative leadership, please be sure to pay it forward.
On your way, I only ask one thing: When that guy who gave the talk to the San Antonio chapter of AIGA titled “How not to suck as a Creative Director” reaches out to you and asks for your help with a book he is writing, please respond.
For my friends, both new and old, who responded to my call—Maria Claudia Camargo, Kim Arispe, Kevin Lane, Monica Ramirez Nadala, Lisette Sacks, Elizabeth Grace Saunders, Jessica Walsh, and Debbie Millman—thank you for your time and input. I am extremely grateful.
For those who did not respond and are now lamenting the tremendous opportunity that passed them by, all I can say is, “Respond to your e-mail!”
For those who avoided me because they may have seen me sitting in an unmarked car outside of their home with a sketchbook, rope, tape recorder, and camera, “Really?! Did you have to call the cops? I was just going to ask a couple questions!”
Who knows? Maybe I’ll holla at you for the second edition of this book or maybe one of the other books that are in the works.