Career ADvice from Creative Directors, pt.1
by Ariel Clark, February 2nd, 2010
Chris Henson
Creative Director, CEO
MediaFrenzy, Inc.
Credentials: I have a Mass Comm degree from Va Tech, from the eighties. I’ve worked in agencies as copywriter, graphic artist, graphic designer, publications director, art director, and creative director.
How did you get your start in advertising?
Funny story, actually. I was working in retail, as a book and record store manager in my late 20s. I hated myself and everyone else. I hated reminding people to hang on to their receipt. I hated putting price labels on things, only to peel them off a year later so we could return them to the record companies. I hated trying to predict just how bad Julian Lennon’s second CD was going to suck. I hated explaining why we still didn’t have Eric Clapton “Unplugged” back in stock. I hated asking drunk rednecks to put their shirts back on. I hated chasing teenagers with CDs in their underwear down the street.
So, I quit that to become manager of an old movie theater. I hated tearing tickets. I hated scheduling teenagers to work on Friday and Saturday nights when they all had better things to do than I did. I hated cleaning up popcorn and Milk Duds and Coke spills on Christmas morning because every member of the cleaning crew was “too sick” to come in. I hated giving out passes when a movie would break during the climax. I hated explaining to parents why their six-year-old daughter could not see “The Professional.” I hated finding used pregnancy tests [almost always with a plus sign on them] lying on the counter of the women’s room on the Sunday morning after a busy Saturday night.
But, I loved music, books and movies. So, I stuck it out for two years at the theater. I was approaching 30 and, because I had written a few freelance articles for a local nightlife magazine, was offered a weekly column at the Roanoke Times. It paid almost nothing but was great fun to do on the side.
Still there was the popcorn and Milk Duds. So, my wife asked me what I wanted to do with my life, but she said it in such a way that made it sound like I might actually have options. For some reason I said “advertising.” I talked to a couple of the local agency folks that were big back in 1994. No one you’d know now. They gave me the whole “experience” crap. What advertising had I ever done? Where did I study advertising? Blah, blah, blah.
Finally, my wife suggested I try to get an internship at an agency. You know, like when you’re in college. So there I was, 31 years old, working as a intern copywriter at a tiny agency and learning how to use Quark. After six weeks, I was getting paid. And the rest is very weird history.
The lesson here is this: it doesn’t matter how old you are, where you went to school, or any of that stuff. Sometimes to get what you want you’ve got to work for nothing but the experience. Also of critical importance: Always listen to your wife.
What are the best and worst parts about your job?
The best parts:
1. Getting to do something different every day. Sometimes it’s writing. Sometimes it’s design. Sometimes it’s creating music for a video. There’s always something new.
2. Getting to collaborate with creative people.
3. Learning new techniques.
4. Having a great idea and pitching it perfectly.
5. Having a great idea that actually has the desired effect of improving a client’s business, brand awareness, whatever.
The worst parts:
1. Having a client who “took a design class in college.”
2. Having a client say, “I showed your idea to my spouse and they didn’t get it.”
3. Not getting to collaborate with creative people often enough.
4. Having an idea destroyed by a budget constraint.
5. Having someone refer to what I do as “graphics designs.”
What inspires you?
1. My wife and my daughter.
2. My mortgage.
3. Everything I’ve ever seen, heard, read, smelled.
4. Loud music.
5. Comedians.
6. Movies.
7. Seriously everything. Ideas come from anywhere and everywhere. You just have to prepare yourself to receive them. It’s like ideas are aliens from another world. You have to make a crop circle for them to land in. Then leave a trail of Reece’s Pieces for them to follow to your brain. Then, when they slip their timid tentacle inside your door, you have to pounce on them, throw a blanket over them, and keep your parents from finding out about them. Sometimes you have to smack them or cover their “mouths” or “sound holes” with duct tape. And sometimes…sometimes you have to take them out back, look them in their tiny, innocent alien faces, and shoot them for their own good.
Who would you work with on your dream collaboration?
Spike Jones, the 1940s novelty swing musician.
Spike Jonze, the director.
Gregg Toland, the cinematographer.
Dimitri Shostakovich, the Russian composer.
Kay Hanley, vocalist for the band Letters to Cleo.
Cormac McCarthy, the writer.
Name an advertising trend that drives you crazy.
I really hate that DOVE, the brand that is “dedicated to showing every woman and girl how beautiful they really are,” is owned by Unilever, who also owns AXE, the brand that is dedicated to making sure every young man sees all women as vapid, horny toys. Both brands are highly effective thanks to brilliant multi-channel ad campaigns that connect each brand with its unique message seamlessly. And at least one of them is lying.
Best ad campaign you’ve seen recently?
This is going to sound lame, but the recent “Minutes” ads from AT&T, where the mom gets mad at her son for wasting minutes, which are these cool little clock looking things. They are the best cast ads I have ever seen. The mom is amazing. Perfect. Give her a sitcom and I’ll watch it until the “very special episode” where she thinks she might have cancer. And the son also starred as the obnoxious cock-punching kid in the recent film “Adventureland” where he was also quite good.
You’ve just completed school with an advertising degree. What is your next move?
Bathe. Do whatever it takes to build a portfolio. Be prepared to talk about my portfolio. Do not make excuses for my portfolio.
What kinds of experience do you look for from college graduates? In what ways can they give themselves the edge?
For me the most important characteristic a potential employee can show is the ability to have ideas. And not just good ideas for creativity’s sake. I’m talking good ideas for the sake of advertising. Good ideas that show an understanding of branding and the need to move an audience to act based on a clear definition of brand benefits. I need to know that a writer or designer isn’t just going to be creative, but that they are going to put their creativity to work for the purpose of helping a client meet her goals. That’s really the key.
Similarly, what skill sets/experiences are necessary in an entry-level creative?
A good entry-level creative should have developed their own creative process, but be ready to collaborate and express a willingness to learn and learn and learn some more. The most important skill you can have is to be able to grow, wherever you are planted. Your first job is not the end goal. It’s the warm-up to the kick-off. You should probably treat your first real-world creative job like it’s your last year of college. It’s intense, real-world training. Show me that you’re excited about this and the job is yours.
Briefly describe the content and size of the ideal portfolio for a designer? Copywriter?
When you’re building your portfolio, imagine that you are going to lose the use of your hands and mouth the second you set it in front of a potential employer. If they flip through it, will they understand it without you explaining everything?
Typically I say, show me five to ten pieces tops.
Include:
1. Your favorite work that you love to talk about.
2. The work you feel best shows your ability to tackle a specific advertising challenge.
3. Work that shows versatility.
DO NOT INCLUDE:
1. Anything you have to over explain.
2. Anything you have to make excuses for. [Like, "the printer really messed this one up."]
3. Anything you are remotely iffy about.
What kinds of starting salaries can one expect as a creative?
Working in advertising is a stone groove. If you really want the job, you should be willing to do it for free. At least to start out. Also, I have no idea what a starting salary should be.
Who would win in a fight: Stefan Sagmeister or Chuck Norris?
Trick question: People believe Chuck Norris is a badass because Stefan Sagmeister branded him so well. The reality is that Chuck Norris can’t raise his arms higher than his own waist. He is incontinent, he suffers severe coprastasophobia, and is completely hairless.
Well done, Stefan! Well done!
Please number from 1-6 the following, in order of least sexy to sexiest advertising profession (1 = you’d rather clean toilets, 6 = living the dream):
Creative Director – 6
Designer – 5
Photographer – 2
Web Designer – 3
Copywriter – 4
Bowling Alley Supervisor – 1
Account Executive – 0
“On my honor, I pledge that I have neither given nor received help on this assignment.”
— Chris Henson
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Tags: Access, ADvice, career, Chris Henson, Creative, Creative Director, John Gressmayer, Media Frenzy, Neathawk Dubuque & Packett, Tony Pearman
February 2nd, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Oh man, shetland centaur. Well done, sir. Well done.
And yes, that’s all I pulled from this advice column. So what?
July 21st, 2010 at 8:21 am
You must have too much free time
July 24th, 2010 at 8:09 am
There’s a book acknowledged as “Avoid Retirement And Remain Alive”. The concept is the actuality that retirement has no place in modern society. In the event you have the ability to make operate pleasant by balancing it against the other points you would like to perform, then you definitely can easily live like you’ve got all of the time inside of the globe.