The Aquent Talent Blog: Career Advice and Insights for Marketing Professionals

"Interweb the Rainbow" or the Rise of Aleatoric Design

2009-03-04T19:45:21Z

Ms. Pistachio was the first to alert me, via Twitter, natch, that Skittles had gone all Social Media on us. Sure as shootin', the current (March 2, 2009) Skittles.com is a mash-up of social media sites where the name of the colorful and intoxicatingly concentrated jelly-bean-oidal confection appears.

Of course, Skittles, with the aid of Agency.com, are following in the footsteps of Modernista!, who took their own website in this direction last year. Still, the fact that a consumer brand has emulated a trendy design shop has got everybody talking, including the ever articulate (and strikingly handsome) David Armano, who rightly predicts, I believe, that we'll see more of this, not less and goes on to link the Skittle move to the emergence of "sponsored conversations."

But what is this "this" that we're going to be seeing more of? I think it's something we could call "aleatoric" design which takes advantage of the fact that web pages, in the end, exist as a set of instructions to be executed by a browser, not a fixed arrangement of text and image (as in the print world). Since these instructions can be linked to dynamic sites themselves (Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, etc.), "design now becomes the quasi-symphonic arrangement of fluid elements that resist control or even predictability.

Given this tendency, wouldn't it be better for web designers to have a background in performance, choreography, or musical composition than graphic arts? Isn't it time we acknowledged that interactive design is NOT graphic design (or that the latter is an increasingly small and incidental component of the former)?

Is the Recession Making Us Soft?

2009-03-03T17:15:45Z

I've commented on this before, but the Rebranding Bandwagon just refuses to slow its roll. It seems like every day more and more major consumer product brands are slapping on a happy face to combat the mid-depression blues.

Past approaches of "efficient" and "effective" have gone by the wayside, replaced instead with marketing strategies that are "soft," "playful," and "cheery" - the attempt being, of course, to lighten the doom and gloom the American consumer feels every time they run out of toothpaste or have to feed the meter (or the kid).

It's actually getting pretty ridiculous. Pepsi cans will now be smiling, grinning, smirking, or giving stock advice depending on what kind you get. And I've heard the new 2009 Harley Davidson Softail is coming in "Recession Yellow" and sporting a horn that plays "Don't Worry, Be Happy."

I realize that brands, even established ones, need an occasional "refresh" to stand out on ever more crowded supermarket shelves. I also understand that the current economic situation is a living reality that brands feel like they have to respond to. Still the recent upsurge of rebranding efforts is starting to seem, in look and feel, depressingly trendy to me.

Image courtesy of Gaetan Lee.

Read This Before Designing Anything Else. Ever.

2009-03-02T17:36:44Z

I am not a designer. In fact, I think I can safely say the last thing I designed was a snowball-maker out of two serving spoons and a twisty tie (I did not win that battle). However, I do appreciate good design, whether it be architectural, spatial, product or what have you. Take the Aquent headquarters office building, for example. The approach was something akin to "Reconstruction Chic," so aesthetically it's more exposed and choppy than clean and even. But functionally, it's open and expansive, with high ceilings and no doors and plenty of room to work with. I mean, it didn't make this list of inspiring workplaces or anything, but I think it could have.

As borderline OCD about the cleanliness of my workspace, I revel in the large desks, open shelves, and plethora of available cork board. There isn't much on my desk, but what is there matters to me - both functionally and aesthetically. I need something to hold my pens, for example, but it can't just be anything. Instead of a dirty coffee mug, I opted for an Aquent champagne glass.

The reason I bring this up is not because I think any of you particularly care about my desk layout, but rather because I came across this article about the 10 Commandments of good design written by Dieter Rams, legendary designer and Head of design at Braun from 1961 to 1995.

Written about product design, Rams concludes that good design must be 10 things: innovative, useful, aesthetic, understood, unobtrusive, honest, durable, thorough, earth-friendly, and simple. I could not agree more, and can't help but think that these standards apply to all design, not just product. If when designing a website, for example, you can honestly say it satisfies this rule of thumb, I think you've got yourself a bona fide award-winner. Same holds true, in my opinion, of your next marketing campaign, office remodeling, or cocktail party invite. Come to think of it, I think my snowball-maker quickly trailed off after innovative and useful...

But I'm curious to hear from you designers out there. Are there additional "Design Commandments" you think didn't make the list?

Image Courtesy of House of Sims.

Credentials, Connections, and Authority

2009-02-27T14:25:21Z

I was working my latest Ask the Expert column for the AMA and was surprised by the number of questions I got concerning certification specifically ("Can you recommend a marketable web certification?" "How do I become a Professional Certified Marketer?") or credentials more broadly ("Is there a possibility a company won't hire me (even if I have a Masters Degree) just because they do not think the University I went too meets the "top-of-the-line" criteria?").

I understand that people are looking for something to give them an edge in a highly competitive market and that they may have time to devote to education and personal development, but the value of certification per se seems dubious to me, particularly in the interactive/marketing space.

While there are some certifications that I'm told are meaningful - Google Adwords Certification and Project Management Professional Certification are two examples - my basic assumption is that they are at best a useful addition to a record of proven experience as a practitioner in a particular discipline.

My thoughts on this subject were paraphrased by Dave Atkins on Twitter yesterday when he wrote, "Connections are more indicative of authority than credentials." Some pointed out that connections may be more indicative of personality than authority, and I can see that, but the more important point to me was that authority does not come from credentials. Authority reflects a respected position within a community which is generally earned by demonstrated ability and measured by influence.

In other words, if you want to be a more attractive candidate for a marketing or interactive position, focus on establishing authority by earning the respect and recognition of your peers. Your authority and experience make your credentials meaningful, not the other way around.

Image Courtesy of jurvetson.

Geeking out with Facebook Notes

2009-02-26T21:16:11Z

This post contributed by Joe Rinaldi, Aquent Agent in Philadelphia.

From the New York Times to network news, Facebook "Notes" (25 Things, 15 albums, A-Zed iTunes) are a hot topic. A recent favorite, the "Album Cover Generator," has people not just navel gazing, but creating original content, kind of.

Here's how it works: 3 separate links provide 3 randomly generated assets. Wikipedia provides your band with a name, Quotationspage.com provides your album title and Flickr gives you the first step toward your cover art. Then, combine all the components in Photoshop to create your album cover. Lastly, you tag some peeps in your Note and you pass it along...

This begs the question: Who started this meme, Adobe or Flickr? Whoever started it, more and more folks (really talented folks in some cases) are doing it. In my little network alone 3 Aquent contacts, and one contact I wish was an Aquent contact, have taken time out of their busy days to build their album cover - and the results are impressive. But why are they doing it?

Kel Smith, Director of Interactive at Euro RSCG Life Catapult did it "at the end of a very long workday, as a way to recharge the neurons and engage in dialog with old friends. Like most Facebook-related activities, it's a combination of omphaloskepsis and reminiscence."

Chuck White, Director of Design and User Experience at Comcast, says, "It's a cool idea, I knew it would be quick and easy, and I wanted to see what some other people would come back with. As far as taking time out of the day, it was a good way to step away from a batch of stressful projects to re-focus because I knew it would only take ten minutes anyway. I'm actually thinking it would be a cool, quick test to assign when interviewing visual designers to see how they would compose a page and to check out their typography skills, etc."

I know when I filled out my '25 Things' I cranked it out in about 15 minutes while watching Top Chef. When I created my album cover I contentedly sat in front of Photoshop (how many free plugs is that so far?) for an hour after the kids went to bed and put together a cover that pales by comparison to what the designers I tagged put together.

Does it pleasantly recall a time when we had art school deadlines and not budget deadlines? Is it a way to feed our self fascination? Whatever the motivation, it's a really fun way to engage with the people in our field and see some truly talented folks flex their creative muscles. I've seen a tremendous shift in the landscape over the last 18 months as applications like Facebook, Twitter, and Plaxo enable me to interact with colleagues in a more personal way. We talk about parenting, TV, the economy and sports around a massive virtual water cooler. Now it appears we've adjourned the conversation to the studio for a quick crit.

We Wanna Hold Your Hand

2009-02-26T17:09:33Z

I came across an interesting article this morning about the Top 10 Social Sites for Finding a Job written by leading personal branding expert Dan Schawbel, who stresses the importance of actively engaging these sites - from the old guard of LinkedIn and Facebook to rookies like VisualCV and Ecademy - to help you build an online resume and network across various job posting platforms. It's a thorough list with insightful tips on how to best utilize the social web space to land your next gig.

But, like several people who posted comments, I can't help but wonder: Where is love for the staffing agency? Or more pointedly, does the growing prevalence and effectiveness of this job search strategy threaten to render the staffing industry obsolete? I mean, if you can go it alone with the help of the web, what do you need us for?

Obviously, I am biased here, but I truly believe that sites like these make the staffing agency that much more powerful, and here's why: While these sites and countless others like them are a great tool in your job search (principally to help you create and shape your ever-important "cyber self"), they still lack what is perhaps the most important cog in the wheel of job-landing, the human connection. Putting yourself out there on as many social networking sites as possible can increase your chances of finding a job, but it can't make a personal introduction or advocate for you to a potential employer.

That being said, I think that social networking sites and staffing agencies are two great things that go great together. While these sites make it a whole lot easier to create an online presence and connect with recruiters, they also provide recruiters with great tools for representing you to their clients.

Or does this just sound like I'm trying to keep us relevant when social networking sites are making us irrelevant?

Image Courtesy of batega.

Why Culture/Personality Fit May Matter Less to Web Talent

2009-02-25T18:51:33Z

I'm still trying to figure this out. When you ask web professionals and the people who recruit or hire them to evaluate the importance of the various attributes used to distinguish one Web professional candidate from another, you get some strong agreement - both groups are in accord that work experience and a specialized skill set are the most important attributes - but you also get some interesting disagreements.

To whit, personality/cultural fit is only important to 90% of web professionals, while it's important to a full 98% of employers. I've made my views on the fit issue crystal clear, so I won't repeat them here, but I will say that, in the staffing industry, there's an old saw that goes, "Hire for skills, fire for fit." In other words, fit definitely impacts on-the-job success. So why the gap?

There are two things I mentioned in my last post on this subject that may explain why web folk view "fit" as, if not totally unimportant, then, at least, less important.

First of all, web professionals want flexible work schedules and the ability to work from home (87% see it as important when considering a new job opportunity). Could it be that "fit" declines in importance when you realize that you won't actually be working directly with others in a particular environment?

Secondly, as we discovered, 43% of working web professionals plan on looking for a new job within the next 12 months and another 35% say they would consider making a move if the right thing came along. It makes sense that fit is going to matter less to you if you're a short-timer, then if you're settling in for the long haul, right?

So much for my speculation on this topic. How sound do these explanations, er, sound?

Note: I'll probably be mining the research on the state of the web profession we conducted with Monster for a while here. If you'd like to dig into it yourself, please do so and then feel free to share your insights.

Image Courtesy of freeparking.

Is Facebook a Vice Worthy of reLENTing?

2009-02-25T16:40:05Z

As a 2-year-removed college grad, an adherent to no particular religion (other than The Religion of Non-Stop Awesomeness), and a relative newcomer to the Facebook scene, I was surprised to hear the WSJ report that giving up Facebook for Lent was all the campus rage last year and has since spread to include the equally hapless older demographic (i.e., parents).

It's incredible to me that Facebook's has achieved "vice" status and that abstaining from it for little over a month now qualifies as honoring Jesus' 40 days in the wildernes. I mean, dude didn't eat, practiced strict abstinence, and resisted temptation from the Devil himself all in the name of his faith. And what are we doing? Why, 40 days without Facebook, of course!

Wait a minute. None at all? Cold turkey? Just like that? Does that mean I can't update my status hourly to tell all my 360 "friends" that "Alex Weaver is super psyched for the Snuggie Pub Crawl!" or throw a virtual snowball at some kid I went to kindergarten with?

Clearly I am not nearly as hooked as most. But I still find it ironic - nay, downright hilarious - that by abstaining from Facebook for Lent, college kids everywhere are basically freeing up time otherwise spent poking strangers to partake in activities that, piously speaking, they'd probably be better off giving up instead. (I've seen people driven to the bottle for less.)

Whatever the case, I can't find a more convincing proof of the power and persistence of social networking in today's society than the fact that people, both young and old, feel like giving it up actually means something. My question now is...

Are Web Talent Sitting Pretty?

2009-02-24T20:18:08Z

Aquent partnered with Monster to uncover the key to "attracting, keeping and developing Web talent in an uncertain economy" and we presented our findings in an AMA webcast today (I've embedded the slides below for your viewing convenience).

It would seem that, while others in the creative class may be struggling, the web folk are feeling fairly confident. 72% of our respondents said they would rate their current position as moderately to highly secure. 52% feel that they would have a good or excellent chance of finding another web position were they to look (a belief that is semi-bolstered by the fact that 37% of our client respondents said they plan on hiring web talent in 2009). And 51% saw their compensation increase over the last twelve months.

This level of confidence amongst the web-enabled is understandable. From the standpoint of companies looking for web talent, it also makes these folks "available." Indeed, 43% percent of the people we asked said that they will actively seek another position within the next 12 months, while an additional 35% said they would make a move if the right opportunity presented itself. In other words, 78% of working web talent are "out there."

I'm not a math guy, but all signs point to this being a good time to be looking for web talent (and a good time to actually be a talented web professional). If you are in the hiring game, you might want to consider the following to lure the interactive moths to your particular flame: web folk are looking for stable positions, flexible schedules, and access to professional development. If you've got that on offer, then get busy offering!

As mentioned, the slides:

Lessons from the Web Front Lines

View more presentations from Aquent Webmaster. (tags: information experience)

Care For a Coke With Your Inflatable Seat Cushion?

2009-02-24T15:58:33Z

Seems in an effort to increase customer loyalty (and decrease customer paranoia) since their recent Hudson River disaster, US Airways will be bringing back free drinks in their coach cabin starting on March 1! This includes sodas, juices, tea, coffee, and even water (wow!) on all US Airways and US Airways Express flights.

But don't take it from me. Fernand Fernandez (if that is his real name), Director of Marketing Programs, has this to say about the bold new marketing move: "We believe in our pay-for-what-you-choose-to-use -- or 'a la carte' -- business model, but it's still a work in progress. We are committed to remaining competitive and that's the main reason we have decided to bring back free drinks."

I don't even know where to start here. I mean, free drinks? Really? First of all, if this is actually a ploy to regain the competitive edge, then the least they could do is add some booze to the free stuff list (especially if they're going to leave free therapy off of it). And after depositing one New York to Charlotte flight in the icy Hudson River, I think US Airways passengers have had all the free water they can stomach.

If US Airways is truly committed to an "a la carte" business model, then I think they should start guaranteeing far less free Coke and far more pilots like this guy -- 'cause Fernand Fernandez may have a thing or two to learn about post-disaster brand revival, but Sully Sullenberger knows what's up.

Image Courtesy of liltree.

The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Job Hunting

2009-02-23T23:22:16Z

This post was contributed by long-time Aquent veteran, Julie Hiipakka. Here's a picture of Julie with her cat.

Whether or not you're one of those people who's been to a Sound of Music Sing-a-Long-a (if you are one of those people, I'm secretly jealous, because I am not), it might surprise you to learn that the timeless wisdom of the Von Trapp Family saga actually relates to your 2009 job hunt. Go figure!

Lesson Number One: Climb Every Mountain!

Leave no stone unturned! Go the extra mile! Give 110%! You've got to do everything in your power to get your next gig because, frankly, your competition is already doing everything in their power to get that same gig. Here's a few things you may not (yet) be doing:

* Pick up the phone and call (yes, call, not email) people. Ask them to refer you to people who are hiring or people who in your industry. Then call those people. You have to get the word out that you're looking. If your entire personal network (family, friends, Facebook pals, drinking buddies) is not aware you're on the job market, get over yourself and tell them.

* Invite people to breakfast and learn how they got to be successful at what they do. Then, get them to refer you to people who are hiring. You'd be astonished at how these non-interviews eventually lead to job offers.

* Follow up at every stage. Send a "thank you" note, offer to show work samples (that goes for you, too, Ms. Marketing Manager), offer to provide references. And after you've done all that, find out what else you need to do to show that you're better than the other people they're considering. Then show them that!

Lesson Number Two: The Reverend Mother was right.
]]> Remember when she said that, every time a door closes, a window opens? Well, it's true. For example, when things didn't work out for me in one role here at Aquent, I landed unexpectedly in the best position I've had yet.

Or, consider Bradley Richardson, author of Career Comeback and onetime national manager of the Wall Street Journal's official career website. Looking for work after his business failed, he opened his mind and heart to new things and stumbled into a crazy successful career as a recruiter. In other words, don't be afraid to consider your options. Who knows? The job of your dreams might be something you didn't even know was a real job.

Lesson Number Three: You are sixteen going on seventeen.

As Rolf tells Liesl, sometimes you need somebody older and wiser to tell you what to do. In this case, I think you can view anyone with the power to hire you as "wiser" (if not necessarily older). Asking them for advice will be easier than asking for a job, so ask away. How might you improve your resume? What are typical interview questions? Do you have good answers to them? If some of your skills are a little weak, how could you strengthen them? Etc.

Of course, people who work in the staffing industry (at companies like Aquent, for instance - hint, hint) can also give you guidance, and unlike Rolf, we won't blow the whistle on you in your darkest hour. We're not like the Baroness either. She backed down way too easily and was mean. And though we call ourselves "agents," we're not really like Max, who was an agent after all and did help them win the festival. But he was so sneaky.

At our best, I think you could compare us to the nuns who go above and beyond to get the Von Trapps to safety. Except, I guess what the nuns did was sort of illegal, so scratch that.

Oh, heck, it's only a movie, and you know what I'm saying. Or do you?

Does My Branding Make You Uncomfortable?

2009-02-23T19:28:46Z

UPDATE! Seems I'm not the only one who didn't like the rebrand. Check it out here.

As the recession wears on, popular brands nationwide are putting considerable effort - and dollars - into rebranding strategies designed to make us feel better about buying the products we didn't used to think twice about ponying up for. Our taste in Pepsi may not have changed, they fear, but the "unemployment jitters" are quickly becoming fuel aplenty to get us through that all too familiar afternoon lull.

The question is: Do companies, in an effort to make consumers more comfortable with paying for "premium," actually make them uncomfortable by changing what was once familiar?

I think it might. It seems ironic to read, for example, that PepsiCo-owned Tropicana Orange Juice would shell out $35 million for a new ad campaign positioning them as America's "main squeeze."

I liked the old brand identity better; you know, the classic straw sticking out of the orange motif. It was visually appealing and clever and got the message across without a lame tag line or cap in the shape of a halved orange (though that is rather, um...peachy). But more importantly, it jumped off the shelf not because it was new and flashy looking, but because it was familiar. The new carton is nice, but by simplifying the design and deviating from their previous look, it has only made itself blend in more with the competitors. Seems to me in an effort to make purchasing their brand feel more comfortable (and therefore justified) to the penny-clutching public, all Tropicana did was water down their already juicy product and put themselves into a $35 million dollar hole in the process.

I guess in the end it squeezes down to one important question: In today's economy, is it smarter to rebrand a product in the hopes of making consumers more comfortable with its price, or to keep the familiar brand but devise a marketing strategy that convinces consumers that the same old good stuff is still worth the extra ducats?

I tend to favor the latter option, but I'd love to hear why you disagree.

Image Courtesy of poopface_productions (yes, it's really called that).

Is this Downturn "Less Bad" for the Creative Class?

2009-02-23T16:44:24Z

I heard Richard Florida on the radio this morning. You may remember him as the author of The Rise of the Creative Class, which traced "the fundamental theme that runs through a host of seemingly unrelated changes in American society: the growing role of creativity in our economy."

Anyway, he was talking about America's post-crash geography and mentioned that, while recessions have been traditionally bad for the working class, the creative class is still doing alright. When I checked the stats to which he was referring, I found that "alright" really means "less bad."

Turns out, as in the past, this recession is extra hard on the working class. Jobs in production are down 12.9% since last year, and jobs in "construction & extraction" are down 14.2%. By comparison, jobs in arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media, as well as jobs in architecture and engineering, are down a mere 5.4%. So, "down," but not "as down."

Where is growth happening? In the sectors Florida calls "eds and meds," that is, higher education and healthcare. For example, jobs in "healthcare support" have increased by 10.4% year over year.

My question is: Does this mean that marketing, communication, design work related to healthcare is also or will be on the rise? What are you finding?

Image Courtesy of Buster McLeod.

"Network like Hell and never give up!" - Interview with an Ad Man

2009-02-21T19:35:03Z

Talent Spotlight
Jack Goldenberg is a creative copywriter represented by agent Randi Martin in Aquent's New Jersey office who, since cracking into the industry over 30 years ago, has served as the creative muscle behind such influential product launches as the McDonald's Happy Meal, Cabbage Patch Kids, Pop Rocks candy, and most recently, the signature Barack Obama watch line. Today, Jack is a freelance copywriter who recently finished a two-year gig writing advertising for Bristol Myers Squibb.

I asked Jack a few questions about how he got his start in the creative industry, the stories behind some of the work he is most proud of, and some advice for those of you hoping to follow a similar path.

First of all, I had an African American Cabbage Patch Kid growing up I named Fred. I'm about as white as they come and grew up in Maine...very strange. But I guess I could say he was my first best friend...so thanks for reaching the masses on that one.

You knew a black Cabbage Patch Kid named Fred? I think I knew him. Was he different than all the other Cabbage Patch Kids? Wait a minute, maybe I'm thinking of snowflakes...

Now you've worked on some pretty amazing product launches from the Happy Meal to the aforementioned (and awesome) Cabbage Patch Kids to the Obama Watches. As a staunch Happy Meal supporter myself, can you tell me the story of how this product launch came to be?

The launch of McDonald's first Happy Meal was a long, long time ago. How long? It was back when cell phones had a huge cord and we had to walk 20 miles in the snow just to pick up our e-mail. But I digress.

The Happy Meal name came from a company in St. Louis and the idea for it supposedly came from St. Louis adman Dick Brams in 1977 (also known as the Dark Ages).

The problem was that the Happy Meal wasn't that successful, at first, to warrant making it a national product. I was Creative Director at the Frankel Company - a brilliant company that has been promoting McDonald's for over 30 years.

Since the local sales of Happy Meals were not that strong, Ray Kroc, McDonald's founder, wanted to put the Happy Meal in a bag instead of a box because the money McDonald's would save if they sold millions of Happy Meals was astronomical (I'm no math whiz, but we're talking well over $40.00 here).

I argued with Ray Kroc that they had to keep the Happy Meal in a box, not a bag because a Happy Meal was "an in-home reminder of the need to visit McDonald's." A kid would see the Happy Meal boxes he collected in his room every day and tell his parents, "Mom, Dad, We've just gotta go back to McDonald's. I need three more 'Star Trek, Star Wars or Spongebob' Happy Meals to complete my collection!"

In other words, the Happy Meal was designed to be viral, kid to parent, long before YouTube made its way onto computers and cell phones. Of course, we didn't know about the term "viral," to us it was just "word of mouth."

I then tried to convince McDonald's to use movie merchandising on the first national Happy Meal instead of the generic outer space or circus themes they thought would work. When they didn't believe me, I brought in Dick Wolf, then a a movie producer and currently of Law and Order fame, and Rusty Citron, a former talent agent and currently Founder and President of the Actors Hall of Fame, to speak to Frankel account executives and McDonald's promotion people about how a movie merchandising theme would make the Happy Meal collectible.

The deal was sealed when Coke got the rights to the first Star Trek movie and sub-licensed them to McDonald's.

I don't want to get political here, but I do want a new watch, so can you tell me more about the Obama Watches?

Obama Watches is the most recent project I've worked on. In December 2007, I wore a single Obama watch to a friend's party as a one-man viral campaign supporting Barack Obama. The next day, five friends called or e-mailed me (why they didn't Tweet me, I'll never know!) to ask where they could buy "one of those Obama watches. "

Now, we have 13 different Obama watches, sales in 47 states and 8 foreign countries and three of our Obama watches are in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution. I personally gave 5 watches to then-candidate Obama at the request of the Democratic National Committee.

We're going to make a 14th final Obama watch. While it will be a little less serious, it is sure to make dog lovers happy. I don't want to give away what the subject will be, but I will say that you'll be able to buy it at this site - www.firstpuppyoftheunitedstates.com - as soon as it goes live.

]]> I won't bust out my slide rule here, but you've been in the creative industry a long time. What do you see as the major differences between cracking in when you did and tackling the job search today?

It is so much tougher today. There are so many people competing for fewer and fewer jobs. However, growing up with the Internet gives young people an edge that most older admen and women can't match. (Not me, of course. I came up with a simple way to reduce my carbon footprint. I no longer use carbon paper!)

When I started in the business, shortly after fire was invented, I couldn't get anyone to hire me because, well, I had no experience. So I formed my own agency, Burns Keene, Katz, Lord and Jefferson. All of the partners were imaginary, except for Burns, he was my cousin's German Shepherd. The first commercial we did (yes, we!) won a Gold Medal from the New York Art Directors Club. We were the only non-NY agency to win Gold that year.

Man's best friend, indeed! So as someone who has been there, what advice would you give creatives trying to get their start and establish themselves?

It helps if you can convince agencies that you are curious about everything, have a business understanding (not just a personal one) of social network marketing, a rudimentary understanding of consumer behavior, a beginning portfolio that shows off your creativity or writing style, and, of course, an uncle who owns an agency. Barring that, and above all, you've just got to network like hell and never give up.

How did you become involved with Aquent?

Two years ago, after contacting a gazillion recruiting companies, Aquent got me an interview at Bristol-Myers Squibb. I was a little hesitant because pharmaceutical advertising was not my strong suit. But the person I was working with at Aquent, Randi Martin, had a good relationship with Bristol-Myers and the fit turned out to be ideal.

And what did you work on there?

I worked there as a freelancer for two years as a Senior Copywriter working on almost all their brands, both Direct to Physician (DTP) and Director Consumer (DTC), corporate and advocacy advertising and R&D recruitment. It was a great company and a great gig and only ended because they have a two-year limit on freelancing.

You've started your own ad agency, written award-winning ads with the help of a dog, and been the man behind a slew of major product launches. So why did you become involved with Aquent? That is, after all you've done, what was it about working with a staffing agency that appealed to you? [He says, as he slips a ten dollar bill across the table.]

Even in today's market, and maybe especially in today's market, with hoards of people competing "Musical Chair style" for that one seat in the Creative Department, recruiters have a better shot at getting you in the door and on the payroll.

Anything else you'd like to say before I turn the mic off?

Sure get me my next job. I'm smart, fun, brilliant, strategic and creative, but still out of work!

Getting Horizontal... Web-wise

2009-02-20T15:28:26Z

@iamkhayyam turned me on to this inspiredology post featuring intriguing examples of "horizontal" web design (i.e., sites that scroll from right to left instead of up and down). Checking them out made me realize a) that I don't see this enough, b) you can use a lot of different visual metaphors to indicate when a site is loading, and c) some human beings are really, truly, super creative.

The majority of these are portfolio sites. If you don't have time to look at all 25, I recommend that you at least take a gander at these four:

Cesar Jacobi/Mutanz- Pythonesque surreal animation and cool t-shirts (among other work).

BBH London - Very elegant, fluid layout and amazing commercial work.

SectionSeven Inc. - Slick 3D foldout animation.

Ole Häntzschel - Clever use of distortion, illegibility, and rollovers.

If you've still got time, here's two more:

Sonido - Nice "Word Search" Menu Metaphor.

Nile Studio - Russian design studio with a typical horizontal portfolio but very trippy cyrillic type work.

Have you seen any good examples of horizontal design that aren't on inspiredology's list? They've got to be out there...

Image Courtesy of Môsieur J..